Writing obituaries is a sacred, tricky task. Major news organizations compose advance obits on major figures, a just-in-case endeavor that feels both hugely important and somewhat macabre.
Several years ago, it fell to me to compose an advance death notice for the legendary conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, who was confronting a terminal brain cancer diagnosis by doubling down on his performance schedule and delivering — by all accounts — spectacular performances.
The piece lay blessedly dormant for longer than anyone thought possible as Tilson Thomas persevered in the face of his illness — an inspiration to all who knew and loved him. And then, yesterday morning, it became necessary to publish. There was a rush to update the writing, to fact-check the timeline, to be sure that all salient points were included. Here was the final story of a remarkable human’s life. The sense of responsibility cannot be overstated.
I was surprised to learn that a former colleague at the paper had also written an advance obit on Tilson Thomas, so my editor worked to meld the two together. The other writer included information that I had missed and vice versa, so in many ways it turned out to be a good thing that we had mistakenly doubled up on the weighty task.
One detail that the other writer included that was formerly unknown to me: A Times story from 1985 reported Tilson Thomas walking off the stage at the Hollywood Bowl nearly 15 minutes into the hourlong second movement of Part II of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 8. Tilson Thomas did this, according to the archived news clip, because a noisy police helicopter simply would not go away.
A reader wrote in after the obituary went live to say that he had been there when it happened, and offered up this fresh insight:
“I was at the concert. The helicopter was hovering long, low and loud(!) with a bright searchlight scanning the trees behind the shell. It was an impossible situation which [Tilson Thomas] handled with quiet dignity. And when he returned to the stage he opted to re-start the Second Movement of Mahler VIII from the top! It was a long and memorable night at the Bowl.”
Our obituary described Tilson Thomas as storming off the stage. Not so, said the reader.
“More determination than storm,” he wrote.
And suddenly I could picture it, that moment from more than 40 years ago, with Tilson Thomas displaying the singular determination and love for his craft that would sustain him much later in life when he faced down death with the same quiet grace, the same unwavering resolve. And the music … I can hear it over the chop-chop-chop of the helicopter, until Tilson Thomas is all that remains.
I’m Arts editor Jessica Gelt feeling grateful for stories past. This is your arts and culture news for the week.
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The week ahead: A curated calendar
FRIDAY
Craft Contemporary hosts CLAY LA this weekend.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
CLAY LA Emerging and established ceramic artists gather their wares for Craft Contemporary’s ninth annual fundraiser, a vibrant marketplace with complimentary refreshments, music and hands-on air-dry clay activities. Fun fact: The museum was founded by Edith R. Wyle, grandmother of “The Pitt’s” Noah Wyle. Market Preview Night, 6-9 p.m. Friday, $20 general admission, $15 members; weekend market, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday (free with $9 museum admission) and Sunday (pay-what-you-wish admission); regular museum hours, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday; noon-8 p.m., the first Thursday of the month. Craft Contemporary, 5814 Wilshire Blvd. craftcontemporary.org
Music director James Conlon of at L.A. Opera will conduct his farewell concert Friday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
(Ariana Drehsler/For The Times)
James Conlon Farewell Concert The maestro, who is stepping down after 20 years as LA Opera’s music director, leads the organization’s full orchestra and chorus for an evening of Mozart, Verdi and Wagner as his grand finale. The event is followed by a celebratory gala on the stage of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. 7 p.m. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laopera.org
SATURDAY John Adams & Conrad Tao The LA Phil’s John and Samantha Williams Creative Chair conducts the orchestra in a program that includes Piazzolla’s “Two Tangos,” Stravinsky’s “Song of the Nightingale” and Prokofiev’s “Lieutenant Kijé Suite,” plus pianist Conrad Tao performing Adams’ composition “Century Rolls,” inspired by 1920s self-playing pianos. 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com
Brewery Artwalk & Open Studios This free semi-annual event at the former Pabst Blue Ribbon Brewery north of downtown features more than 100 artists sharing, discussing and (ideally) selling their work in the very spaces that much of it is created. 11 a.m.-6 p.m Saturday and Sunday. Brewery Arts Complex, 2100 N. Main St., L.A. breweryartwalk.com
Jerrika Hinton and Bradley Gibson in “Fremont Ave.” runs April 25-May 23 at South Coast Repertory.
(Marc J. Franklin)
Fremont Ave. The world premiere of Reggie D. White’s multi-generational drama about three Black men in L.A. and the woman who is the glue in their lives. Directed by Lili-Anne Brown. Part of the Pacific Playwrights Festival. Previews, 8 p.m. Saturday; 7 p.m. Sunday and Tuesday-Thursday; opening night, May 1; regular performances, May 2-23. South Coast Repertory, Segerstrom Stage, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. scr.org
The Liminary It’s 2042 in Last Call Theatre’s latest immersive experience and the U.S. is run by a nationalistic, isolationist government. Do you dare join the resistance? With interactive exhibits on immigration, community and hope, plus multiple endings and narratives inspired by the saga of immigrants. 8 p.m Saturday; 8 p.m. May 1-2, May 7-9 and May 14-16. 1919 3rd Ave. L.A. lastcalltheatre.com
Liz Larner, “smile (abiding),” 1996-2005; Rachel Harrison, “The Prepper,” 2024; and Rebecca Morris, “Untitled (#15-25), 2025” from the exhibition “planchette” at Regen Projects.
(Regen Projects)
planchette A group exhibition featuring contemporary abstract sculptures and paintings by influential artists Rachel Harrison, Liz Larner and Rebecca Morris. Opening reception, 6-8 p.m.; exhibit runs through May 23. Regen Projects, 6750 Santa Monica Blvd. L.A. regenprojects.com
SUNDAY Gabriel Kahane & Roomful of Teeth The eclectic singer-songwriter-composer teams up with the multi-Grammy-winning vocal group to perform music from their recently-released collaborative album, “Elevator Songs.” 7 p.m. Sid The Cat Auditorium, 1022 El Centro St., South Pasadena. sidthecat.com
WEDNESDAY
The Australian Chamber Orchestra comes to the Segerstrom Center for the Arts on Wednesday, April 29.
(Nic Walker)
Australian Chamber Orchestra The ensemble from down under performs Purcell’s “Fantasia on One Note,” Handel’s “Concerto Grosso in A Major, Op. 6 No. 11,” a new work by John Luther Adams titled “Horizon,” Vaughan Williams’ “The Lark Ascending” (arranged by Adam Johnson), and Schubert’s ”Death and the Maiden” in the candlelit intimacy of the Samueli Theater. 7 p.m. Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. scfta.org
Jason Delane, left. and Chuma Gault in “Hymn” at the Odyssey Theatre.
(Cooper Bates)
Hymn In this drama by British playwright Lolita Chakrabarti, best known for her stage adaptations of the novels “Life of Pi” and “Hamnet,” two Black men meet at a funeral and discover a life-changing connection. Gregg T. Daniel directs this co-production between the Odyssey Theatre and the Lower Depth Theatre. Previews 8, p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and May 1; 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays (an Wednesday, May 27); 3 p.m. Sundays (except May 31), through June 14. Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd. odysseytheatre.com
THURSDAY
Los Angeles Ballet presents “Giselle” with Kate Inoue at the Ahmanson Theatre, April 30-May 3.
(Alex Lopez)
‘Giselle’ The Los Angeles Ballet’s staging of this classic supernatural romance features the original 1841 choreography by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot (updated by Marius Petipa) and score by composer Adolphe Adam. 7:30 p.m. Thursday-May 2 and 2 p.m. May 3. Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. losangelesballet.org
The 1967 romantic comedy “Barefoot in the Park,” starring Jane Fonda and Robert Redford, opens the TCM Classic Film Festival on Thursday.
(Paramount Pictures)
TCM Classic Film Festival Hollywood Boulevard comes alive with four days of movie magic beginning with the opening night presentation of the 1967 romantic comedy “Barefoot in the Park,” starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda. Other screenings include “Alice In Wonderland” (1951), “A Place In The Sun” (1951), “Gaslight” (1944), “Out Of The Past (1947) , “Modern Times” (1936), “The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951) and “The Magnificent Seven” (1960), with appearances by Fonda, Barbara Hershey, Carol Burnett, John Turturro and many more. Thursday-May 3. TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX, 6925 Hollywood Blvd.; Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel; TCL Chinese 6 Theatres multiplex, 6801 Hollywood Blvd.; El Capitan Theatre, 6838 Hollywood Blvd.; Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd. filmfestival.tcm.com
Arts anywhere
New and recent releases of arts-related media.
French Violinist Renaud Capucon, seen performing during the 2024 Paris Olympics, has a new live album featuring the works of composer Ernest Chausson.
(Kristy Sparow / Getty Images)
Chausson This concert album pairs two pieces by French Romantic composer Ernest Chausson: “Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Quartet, Op. 21.,” performed by violinist Renaud Capuçon, the late pianist Nicholas Angelich and the Ébène Quartet, and “Poème” for violin and orchestra, featuring Capuçon and the Brussels Philharmonic led by conductor Stéphane Denève. The show was recorded live in 2020. Warner Classics/Erato: Digital ($10) and CD ($17).
The City Unseen Emmy-winning producer-director Daniel Sackheim, whose credits include “Law & Order,” “The X-Files” and “The Americans,” is also a serious photographer. His new book of black-and-white images casts Los Angeles as the protagonist in a noir landscape of nocturnal beauty where its darkest secrets lurk in the deepest shadows. Hat & Beard Press: 108 pages, $60.
International Jazz Day The 15th annual event is Thursday in Chicago, but you can celebrate early with PBS’ broadcast of last year’s International Jazz Day All-Star Concert from Abu Dabai. Hosted by Jeremy Irons, the lineup includes Herbie Hancock, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Kurt Elling, Jose James, John McLaughlin, Helene Mercier, Danilo Perez, Arturo Sandoval and more. 10 p.m. Friday. PBS SoCal and streaming at pbssocal.org
— Kevin Crust
Culture news and the SoCal scene
Attendees walk around the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s new David Geffen Galleries in Los Angeles on Sunday, April 19, 2025.
(Ariana Drehsler/For The Times)
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art news did not stop last week as it threw a glitzy opening gala for the new David Geffen Galleries, and — a few days later — welcomed members for previews prior to opening its doors to the general public on May 4. I attended the gala and checked in with a number of wonderful artists, including Mark Bradford, Ed Ruscha and Jeff Koons, about their thoughts on the new building. Then, on Sunday, we sent a team to get member reactions to the new space. Later in the week we published critic Leah Ollman’s review of the inaugural installation. Spoiler alert: Nope, not gonna give you one. You’ll have to read it.
We also ran a lovely profile by contributor Tara Anne Dalbow about Eileen Harris Norton whose jaw-dropping art collection is currently on display at Hauser & Wirth in downtown L.A. “Few people have done more to shape Los Angeles’ art scene than Eileen Harris Norton,” writes Dalbow. “The third-generation Californian, born and raised near Watts Towers in South Los Angeles, bought her first artwork at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, co-founded Art + Practice in Leimert Park, and has spent 50 years collecting artists who were, in many cases, her friends and neighbors.”
Joey Stromberg and Jenny Soo in “For Want of a Horse” at the Echo Theater Company.
(Cooper Bates)
Times theater critic Charles McNulty was — as always — incredibly busy, publishing two reviews and a feature in the past week. First up, his take on “For Want of a Horse” by Olivia Dufault, currently receiving its world premiere in an Echo Theater Company production at Atwater Village Theatre. “The subject is zoophilia, not to be confused with bestiality, though for many of us it will be a distinction without much of a difference,” McNulty writes. Curious? Read on.
McNulty also delivered a thoughtful profile Nicholas Christopher, who he dined with on a recent trip to New York. “A new Broadway star emerges each season, and this year the spotlight has alighted on Nicholas Christopher, who has been dazzling audiences and insiders alike as part of the awe-inspiring triumvirate powering the thrilling new revival of the musical ‘Chess,’” McNulty writes.
Finally, McNulty reviewed “Eat Me,” by Talene Monahon, having its world premiere at South Coast Repertory. A fan of Monahon‘s previous work, McNulty was not as impressed at he would have liked. The play, he writes, “is a relentlessly quirky work that gorges on its own dark whimsy.”
In other news, I got the scoop that new media artist Refik Anadol’s museum of AI arts, Dataland has set its opening date for June 20.
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Elinor Gunn in “Joan” at South Coast Repertory. SCR has announced its 2026-27 season.
(Scott Smeltzer)
South Coast Repertory announced an expanded 2026-27 season, featuring nine productions, including “Hamlet,” starring Raymond Lee; Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s “Into the Woods;” Lauren Yee’s “Mother Russia;” and Oscar Wilde’s classic, “The Importance of Being Earnest.” “The 2026-27 season reflects programming changes established in SCR’s recently adopted strategic plan, which includes more classics, modern masterpieces and the continuation of an annual musical on the Segerstrom Stage,” a news release notes.
Ciara Miller and Maura Higgins will be among the stars competing for the Mirrorball Trophy.
“Summer House’s” Miller and “The Traitors” contestant Higgins — both publicly betrayed by men they trusted on their shows — are the first celebrities joining Season 35 of “Dancing With the Stars.” Disney announced the new season Wednesday during Hulu’s Get Real House event in Los Angeles.
Miller joins the cast less than a month after it was revealed that her “Summer House” castmate and ex-boyfriend, West Wilson, was dating her friend on the show, Amanda Batula. She teased her “DWTS” news with an Instagram video in which she wrote out her “Next Chapter 2026” to-do list, which included “prioritizing” herself, “taking risks” and “Dancing With the Stars.”
Higgins, who lost Season 4 of “The Traitors” in the finale after being blindsided by her friend and co-star Rob Rausch, rose to prominence on “Love Island” in 2019. Higgins shared her excitement in a video on Instagram, saying, “Please pray for me.”
“Get me on that dance floor. I want to win the trophy,” Higgins said. “I’ve manifested this.”
Higgins told reporters at the Get Real House event that Mark Ballas is her dream partner.
The announcement comes after a landmark season of “DWTS,” which saw a record-breaking number of fan votes. In November, The Times spoke with “DWTS” showrunner Conrad Green, who attributed the ratings spike to reviving “communal viewing experiences.”
“It’s been largely a question of keeping our existing audience and then finding a new audience of 18- to 30-year-olds. That’s partly fed by social media. It’s partly fed by a desire to have communal TV viewing experiences,” Green said. “That was something everyone had with ‘American Idol’ and ‘Dancing With the Stars’ 20 years ago, but TV doesn’t lend itself to that so much anymore.”
During the event, Disney also announced a new spinoff series, “Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro.” “DWTS” Season 34 winner Robert Irwin will host the show. According to the synopsis, it “features 12 exceptional up-and-coming dancers who move into one house and compete in a grueling audition process, all vying for a coveted spot as a pro dancer on Season 35 of ‘Dancing with the Stars.’”
“DWTS” pro and three-time Mirrorball champion Ballas will host the show alongside his mother, former ballroom dancer Shirley Ballas. The series will premiere July 13 on ABC.
MasterChef was back with the first quarter-final of series 22 on Thursday night
MasterChef was back with the first quarter-final of series 22 on Thursday night (Image: BBC)
MasterChef fans were left scratching their heads over Thursday night’s quarter-final challenge.
Series 22 sees celebrated chef Anna Haugh and restaurant critic Grace Dent take over from Gregg Wallace and John Torode as judges. The pair will test 48 of the country’s best amateur cooks with an array of spectacular challenges.
On Thursday’s first quarter-final of series 22, the first challenge saw the amateur home cooks tasked with creating pancakes, making the most of the fresh produce on offer.
However, it was the second challenge that left viewers baffled. During the episode, legendary food critic Jay Rayner joined the show as a special guest as he set a task for the cooks.
Jay, 59, said: “The challenge I’ve set you sounds very simple. I’ve asked you to make a salad. But we do not want a limp bowl of lettuce, we want structure, texture, we want a killer dressing… something that will rock us back on our feet.” The chefs were then given 90 minutes to create their salads.
However, viewers were left baffled over the salad challenge taking to Twitter, now X, to share their thoughts. One person said: “#masterchef A salad …, a salad, are you for real” to which another account put: “Salad? Or a mix of things #MasterChef.”
Elsewhere, another fan referenced The Simpsons as they joked: “#Masterchef You don’t win friends with salad, you don’t win friends with salad…”
Another baffled viewer simply commented: “A salad?! #MasterChef” while a different fan quipped: “No good story ever started with ‘I was having a salad and then'”.
Following the challenge, Jhané and Sabina left Anna, Grace and Jay blown away with their incredible salads. Jhané opted for a Thai-inspired salad with grilled pork, pork skin, sugar snap peas, lettuce, mint, fennel and thai basil. Jhané served it with deep fried rice paper and a lime sesame dressing, which was praised for being a ‘clever’ presentation.
Guest Jay was left delighted as he gushed: “This is exactly what I was hoping for when I set the salad challenge!”
Meanwhile, Sabina also impressed with her ‘harmony salad’, which was spiced black pea falafel, gem lettuce, carrot, pomegranate, salted chicken skin, beetroot quail eggs, puffed rice and curry leaves. It was served with a confit garlic and mustard oil dressing. Jay praised the salad for being “amazing”.
After all the contestants had shown off their creations, Jay admitted: “It was a tough challenge asking them to make a salad, some of them embraced it brilliantly!”
At the end of the show, it was revealed that Jhané and Sabina had sailed through to the next round, they were joined by fellow contestant Jim.
MasterChef season 22 is available to stream on BBC iPlayer
WHAT’S the story in Balamory, wouldn’t you like to know?
The much-loved BBC children’s TV series Balamory has returned to our screens after more than 20 years – and you can visit the real like town in the UK.
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Much-loved TV series Balamory has returned to TV after more than 20 yearsCredit: BBCBalamory was filmed in Tobermory on the Isle of MullCredit: AlamyThe Scottish town is known for its row of colourful housesCredit: Alamy
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The multicoloured houses from the town actually exist in Tobermory on the Isle of Mull.
While the row of colourful houses are privately owned, many reports mention how the locals are happy for visitors to take pictures of their kids in front of the houses.
For example, in the BBC TV series, Suzie Sweets lives in the pink house and Edie McCredie lives in the yellow house.
But there’s so much more to do in Tobermory, if you are visiting.
Around the harbour you can explore a number of shops including a locally-made soap shop and The Isle of Mull museum which is free to enter and explores the history of the island.
Near to the harbour you can also head to the Tobermory Distillery for a tour, costing £19.50 per person.
It lasts around an hour and during that time you’ll learn about the whisky that has been made on site since 1798 as well as trying two whiskies.
Children can attend too, but need to be over 12 years old and accompanied by an adult.
Perhaps a more family-friendly option though is to head to the chocolate shop Tobermory Chocolate, which has been run by the same family since 1991.
Inside, visitors can peruse milk, white and dark chocolates that are all handmade on site.
There’s also a cafe and children’s chocolate workshops that you can take part in.
According to the chocolate shop , you can often see otters, porpoises and dolphins in the harbour too.
From the harbour, walk along the pier, where about 270metres from the end, there is a Spanish Armada ship that sank after an explosion in 1588 and now sits under about 10 metres of mud.
When on the island you can head to the distillery and chocolate shopCredit: Alamy
The ship is even rumoured to still have a loaf of golden treasure on it…
Make sure to also pick up a locally-made ice cream from the shop on the pier too.
If you want to spot more of the local wildlife, then you can hop on a boat trip with Sea Life Mull, where you could see minke whales, basking sharks, dolphins and seals.
The tour costs £80 per person and lasts up to four hours, during which time you’ll see Mull, Ardnamurch and the Isle of Coll.
Though, if you prefer to stay on dry land then head off on an Otter Watching walk with Magic Mull, which is a three mile walk, where you’ll learn about the island’s otter population.
The activity costs £90 per person but it does include lunch, as well as afternoon tea at the end of the walk.
There are a number of places to stay in and around the town as well such as Carnaburg Guest House or The Tobermory Hotel, which both sit at the edge of the harbour.
There’s even a Spanish Armada ship sunk in the harbourCredit: Alamy
Or you could opt to stay at Tobermory Campsite, which costs just £14 per night to pitch a tent at or you could opt for a Shepherds Hut, costing from £50 per night.
Outside of the town, there are several places worth exploring across the island.
For example, Aros Park is ideal for families as it has play trail, waterfalls and a nine-hole Disc Golf course that is free to use.
To get your dose of pretty beaches there are plenty to choose from including Calgary Beach, which boasts white sand.
One recent visitor said: “Reminiscent of a tropical paradise with its sweeping white shell sands and clear, turquoise water, the beach offers a vast expanse for dogs to run, play, and explore.
“The bay is wonderfully isolated, backed by beautiful sand dunes and coastal grassland, which means plenty of variety for walks.”
You can also head off on tours to see whales and dolphinsCredit: Alamy
Our favourite UK hotels
Park Holidays UK Sand le Mere, Yorkshire
This holiday park in Yorkshire is a thriving family resort, just steps from Tunstall Beach. Entertainment is what this resort does best, with costume character performances, Link-up Bingo and cabaret shows. Accommodation ranges from fully-equipped Gold Caravans to Platinum Lodges with sun decks and luxury bedding.
This beachfront resort in St Ives, Cornwall is a true beach bum’s paradise – whether you want to laze out on the sand, or take to the waves for some surfing. Activities include disc golf, a Nerf challenge and an outdoor cinema, as well as indoor activities for the colder months like karaoke, bingo and DJ sets.
This holiday park has loads of unique activities on offer, including TikTok dance classes, alpaca feeding, a pump track for BMX riding, and taking a ride on the resort’s very own miniature railway. Throw in bug hotel and den building, pond dipping, survival skills workshops and a lake for paddleboard and pedalo hire, and you’ve got yourself an action-packed park.
Parkdean Resorts Camber Sands, Sussex This beachfront resort is a classic family favourite. If you’re not up to swimming in the sea, there’s four fantastic pools here, as well as water flumes, underwater jets, inflatable jet skis and kayak races. Plus if you’ve got any little fans of Paw Patrol or Milkshake!, you’ll be glad to know there’s Milkshake! Mornings and Paw Patrol Mighty Missions to keep your tots entertained.
Plucked from a previous life as a working actor, Richard Gadd experienced a disorienting whirlwind less than two years ago. “Baby Reindeer,” his painfully personal 2024 Netflix show, based on the sexual assault he survived, instantly opened the floodgates of fame for him.
“The show came out on Thursday, and by Sunday, I could barely walk anywhere without being recognized, without being stopped,” Gadd says while visiting The Times’ offices earlier this month. “That’s an adjustment because I always thought if anything like that ever happened, it would be a bit more of a gradual process. But it was overnight, so I didn’t have time to adjust.”
Now the winner of three Emmy Awards and a slew of other accolades for that series, which he starred in, wrote and served as showrunner, Gadd, 36, has already helmed a new emotionally ferocious show.
Probing the tropes of rigid masculinity, “Half Man,” premiering Thursday on HBO, chronicles the destructive bond between two men over several decades. Niall and Ruben — whose respective mothers are romantic partners — call themselves brothers but they couldn’t be more dissimilar.
Bullied at school, meek Niall (played by Mitchell Robertson in his youth and Jamie Bell in adulthood) lost his father as a young boy. He dreams of being a writer. Meanwhile, the insolent and hyper-confident Ruben (Stuart Campbell as a teen and Gadd as a grown-up) has been in trouble with the law from a tender age. Facing any conflict, he resorts to brutal violence. When Ruben takes Niall under his wing, the two become inseparable. But as the years and resentments pile on, their cancerous brotherhood threatens to obliterate them both.
“Half Man” follows the destructive bond between Ruben (Richard Gadd), left, and Niall (Jamie Bell) over several decades.
(Anne Binckebanck / HBO)
“Richard’s writing is really unique and really singular,” Bell says on a video call from England, where he’s currently shooting the “Peaky Blinders” sequel series and is sporting a shorter haircut. “He identifies that real gray area of humanity really well and he puts a voice to the most uncomfortable places that we go into or things that we think when we’re alone in the dark, when we think no one’s watching.”
Gadd wrote the first episode of what would become “Half Man” back in 2019, while he still was performing the live version of “Baby Reindeer,” which he turned into the series. At the time, he recalls, society at large was seriously engaging in conversations around toxic masculinity and sexual violence as the #MeToo movement gained strength.
“It wasn’t necessarily that I set out going, ‘Oh, I want to make a show about that,’” Gadd says. “It was more that something must have just drifted into my head thinking, ‘You take two men repressed in their current life, repressed in the modern world. And then you go all the way back to their childhood. You contextualize learned behavior; you contextualize trauma and things they learned that make them these repressed adults. And you bring a bit of context to, I suppose, difficult male behavior in the present.’”
As “Baby Reindeer” launched his career as a creator, Gadd put “Half Man” on ice for four years but couldn’t stop thinking about returning to it. “Even as I was coming to the end of ‘Baby Reindeer,’ I thought, ‘I’m really looking forward to getting back to that project,” he recalls. “The second ‘Baby Reindeer’ finished, I thought, ‘This is what I’m going to do now.’”
Sitting across from the mild-mannered Gadd, the magnitude of his transformation on screen for “Half Man” becomes even more impressive. Gadd comes off as thoughtful and emphatic, while Ruben, his physically imposing character, commands trepidation.
“The second ‘Baby Reindeer’ finished, I thought, ‘This is what I’m going to do now,’” Gadd says about working on “Half Man.”
(Ian Spanier / For The Times)
Watching Gadd as the rage-fueled Ruben, one might be surprised to learn he originally had no intention of acting in “Half Man.” After wearing multiple hats on “Baby Reindeer,” Gadd thought this time around he could get a purely external bird’s-eye view of a project as showrunner and writer of “Half Man.” But eventually people around him suggested he should be in front of the camera once again.
“My initial response was always, ‘That’s just so far away from anything I’ve done before. It’s so far away from me. Are people going to buy it?’” he recalls. “And behind every single fear-based thought was a worry of what people might think, which in my opinion, isn’t a good enough reason to not do something.”
Convinced audiences would struggle to see the guy from “Baby Reindeer” as this “hard man,” a U.K. term for tough and intimidating men, he had to physically morph. To inhabit a new body, Gadd underwent a strict exercise regimen, and most importantly, a new diet.
“I had a chef make these meals in England, fun enough, and send them up to Scotland where I was filming,” he recalls. “I’d eat them at specific times. You go through periods of fasting and through dehydration whenever you had your top off. There was a real science to it.”
And yet, though he at first worried he wouldn’t look big enough, Gadd refused to portray Ruben with a chiseled physique conceived for mere aesthetics.
“I didn’t want him to have a six pack, I wanted him to feel like a real person,” Gadd says. “Sometimes when you see someone on TV and they’re ripped, I almost don’t think that’s real strength. Someone like Ruben, they wear their life in their body, they’re heavy set. It’s not ripped. It’s bulky. It’s natural to him.”
Before he agreed to play the character, Gadd auditioned numerous actors for the part, but with all of them he felt they were too focused on his appearance as an imposing figure and not his inner turmoil. “Ruben is extremely sad as a person. He’s terribly broken and traumatized,” he says.
For the series, Gadd bulked up to become more physically imposing: “Someone like Ruben, they wear their life in their body, they’re heavy set. It’s not ripped. It’s bulky. It’s natural to him.”Richard Gadd in “Half Man.”(Anne Binckebanck / HBO)
When asked if he sees himself as Ruben, Gadd contemplates the question, debating whether it’s his “jetlagged brain” or ambivalence about finding some of Ruben within him.
“Do I see myself in Ruben?” After a pause, he concedes: “All of his behavior is a reaction to a deep traumatic happening in his life. I can relate to finding it extremely difficult to get past big traumatic events and coming to terms with them and coming to terms with yourself even as a result of them.”
With less hesitation, Bell, 40, acknowledges that he finds a certain kinship with his character. As a teenager, Bell flocked to people with a defiant edge. “I grew up without a father in an all-female household and I felt very naked as a child in terms of needing to be protected by someone who was dominant and aggressive,” he says. “I totally understand why Niall seeks solace in someone like him. No one will touch Ruben. There is a safety in that.”
Gadd says he doesn’t think about celebrities when searching for the actors. “I’m quite fame-averse when it comes to casting because I think sometimes it can get in the way,” he explains. “You can have a show, which starts up with all the best intentions, turn into a sort of acting vehicle for someone, or the discussion becomes about the actor doing this role.”
That said, when the casting director on “Half Man” asked him about his “dream cast,” Gadd expressed Bell was the only one who would genuinely excite him. But could that happen? “In my head, I was still in pre-‘Baby Reindeer’ time where I thought, ‘Well, somebody like him is not going to be interested.’ And then I thought, ‘Well, he might be,’” Gadd says.
For his part, Bell found the “nihilism” in Niall, a man desperately running from his true self and living in Ruben’s shadow, an enticing and complex character to play. “[Niall] conceals himself in many different ways, and has a lot of self-loathing, but at the same time has all these ambitions and actually is incredibly egotistical and thinks that his way is the correct way, and that other people don’t understand that he is terminally unique,” Bell explains with a chuckle.
Bell, who plays Niall, says his character “conceals himself in many different ways, and has a lot of self-loathing, but at the same time has all these ambitions and actually is incredibly egotistical …”
(Anne Binckebanck / HBO)
Aside from a tight schedule to produce “Half Man,” the challenge for Bell was adjusting to the dramatic intensity that Gadd was after. “I wasn’t particularly prepared for that, therefore sometimes my reading of certain scenes I’d get wrong. We’d start scenes and Richard was like, ‘You are pitching it at like a six, and this is very much an 11,’” Bell recalls laughing. I was like, ‘Oh, OK.’ That took some modulating.”
In Gadd’s mind, Bell remains an “underrated” artist. A proud Scotsman, Gadd recalls loving Bell in the 2007 romantic dramedy “Hallam Foe,” where the British actor played Scottish. For “Half Man,” Gadd thought Bell could convey the pain that haunts Niall, even as his actions paint him less like Ruben’s victim and more like a vengeful participant in the chaos.
“There’s always something I find so vulnerable about Jamie and I knew that I was going to take Niall in some really big journeys where he was going to almost test the audience’s love for him,” Gadd says. That Niall finds Ruben so alluring is natural to Gadd, who believes the notion of a valiant male figure has been bred into everyone via fables and fairy tales.
Gadd adds that whether or not we like to admit it, we’re drawn to alpha male characters. “Because from an early age, we’ve been told they are always at the top of the social hierarchy. And as a result, we’ve always, as a society, answered to those kinds of people as some sort of leaders.”
And though he says he’s unfamiliar with the “manosphere,” the misogynistic and chauvinistic online community, Gadd doesn’t believe Ruben would fall for the gurus in those circles who claim to have the answers for young guys to become “real men.”
“Ruben carved his own masculinity. To give him credit, if that’s even something you can give him, those spaces wouldn’t hold any weight for him. He’s his own man,” Gad says. “He would never follow anyone on social media. He’s the person to be followed.”
Based on the tone of Gadd’s output thus far, it may come as a surprise that as a young person he dreamed of creating a show along the lines of the U.K.’s “The Office,” which he considers a “perfect piece of art.” The stories he is telling now better reflect his “neuroses” and the experiences he’s endured.
“My life just took a very dramatic turn, and my sensibilities weren’t workplace sitcoms anymore. When I grew up and I was doing comedy I thought, ‘I’ll write a sitcom one day and every character will be sort of funny in it,’” he says. “But my life just took a turn to the point where I needed my writing and my art darkened because what I went through was very dark.”
Humor is not entirely absent from “Half Man,” some of the characters’ reactions to their distressing realities earn a chuckle. Still, Gadd’s funny bone might also find an outlet in other people’s narratives. He was recently announced as part of the cast in Apple TV’s upcoming high-concept series “Husbands,” for which he already shot his scenes. Adapted from a bestselling novel of the same name, it stars Juno Temple as a woman who gets to experience life with a different partner every time she changes the light bulb in her attic.
“I’m very picky with stuff I take on. Because I love writing my own work so much, anything that takes me out on someone else’s show has to be very special. And this was very special,” Gadd says.
“Everything I do doesn’t have to be dark,” he adds with a soft smile.
“Storage Wars” star Darrell Sheets was found dead by police on Wednesday in Lake Havasu City, Ariz. He was 67.
According to Variety, which obtained a report from the Lake Havasu City Police Department, Sheets died from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The statement said that on Wednesday around 2 a.m., officers were dispatched to Sheets’ home on Chandler Drive after reports of a deceased individual.
“Upon arrival, officers located a male subject who suffered from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. The male was pronounced deceased on scene and the Lake Havasu City Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Unit was notified and responded to the scene to assume the investigation,” the statement read.
“The body was ultimately turned over to the Mohave County Medical Examiner’s office for further investigation,” the release continued.
Police said that they identified the man as Sheets and that his family had been notified. “This incident remains under active investigation, and additional information will be released as it becomes available.”
Sheets appeared across 15 seasons of the popular A&E reality show “Storage Wars” from 2010 to 2023. His son, Brandon Sheets, was also a cast member, and the father-son duo was often considered the heart of the show. Darrell would use his not-so-stealthy approach when bidding on storage lockers that he was willing to bet contained what he would describe as “wow factor” treasures.
“I’m a buyer by trade. I love buying storage sheds. It’s my addiction,” he said on the series. “I’m basically known for taking the good stuff and just getting the heck out of here.”
According to Sheets’ cast bio, the antiques enthusiast loved to brag about “four Picassos and the world’s most lucrative comic book collection” that he scored through storage auctions. He told The Times in 2015 that he once invested in a locker and discovered pieces of original artwork by Frank Gutierrez that he said appraised for about $300,000, making for the biggest take in the TV show’s then-five-year history.
Rene Nezhoda, another “Storage Wars” cast member who was often considered Sheets’ rival due to their onscreen antics, posted on Instagram after news of Sheets’ death broke and called out cyberbullies.
“Unfortunately, Darrell Sheets took his own life,” Nezhoda said. “I know a lot of you guys think we hated each other because we competed a lot on the show, and you know, we had our moments. We had our run-ins, but that’s because we were both competitors, right?
“Deep down, me and Darrell were friends. We talked every now and then. He is a very hard worker that cared more than anyone I’ve probably ever met about their family, about his son, about [his granddaughter] Zoie.”
Nezhoda said that Sheets had someone “really, really tormenting” him on social media.
The “Storage Wars” alum then addressed cyberbullies for their treatment of public figures, saying, “Just because you watch us on television doesn’t mean you know us. You never know what demons somebody faces.”
The sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale focuses on the young teens of Gilead
The Testaments teased in trailer from Disney+
The Testaments couldn’t have come at a more depressingly relevant time given the state of the world.
From the reversal of the historic Roe vs Wade ruling in America, to the erosion of women’s bodily autonomy across the world, to Incel culture via Andrew Tate and the Manosphere, to the continuing unfolding horrors emerging from the Epstein Files, being a woman in 2026 has never been a more frightening prospect.
That’s why I believe Disney+ and Hulu drama The Testaments should be compulsory viewing in all schools and serves as a warning that if we don’t try to change things now, all hope could be lost forever.
The series is adapted from Canadian author Margaret Atwood’s Booker Prize-winning 2019 novel The Testaments, which itself was a sequel to her seminal 1985 classic The Handmaid’s Tale.
The follow-up novel came about thanks to the success of Hulu’s adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale starring Mad Men’s Elisabeth Moss in the title role. The original series first hit screens in 2017 – not long after Brexit and newly elected President Trump’s first term in office – and instantly captured the zeitgeist thanks to its dystopian, Black Mirror take on the world.
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Atwood has previously said how The Handmaid’s Tale was originally based on things that had already happened across history and were still happening, however, since she published her novel over 40 years ago, it appears those times have become a disturbing and tangible new reality for us.
The Testaments TV show follows a group of teenage girls from the upper echelons of Gilead society preparing to become Wives to Commanders, many of whom are much older than them. Their destined husbands are determined by the Aunts in a series of arranged marriages to ensure there isn’t any accidental incest, given the use of Handmaids and babies getting handed over to Gilead’s finest families.
The girls known as ‘Plums’ – thanks to the Cadbury shade of purple they wear – are forbidden from reading or writing at the risk of losing a finger; their sex education is non-existent; they witness Gilead’s harsh brand of Old Testament justice; and they are constantly warned not to tempt men, who apparently can’t control their urges.
Amid the Plums is Pearl Girl Daisy (played by Lucy Halliday), a Canadian teen from Toronto posing as a Gilead convert after she’s sent into Gilead by the resistance movement Mayday. Street-wise and sex-savvy, Daisy serves as the audience’s perspective in the show as she challenges the Plums in the face of the regime’s fallacies.
While the drama isn’t as dark as its predecessor, The Testaments delves into issues of consent and sexual abuse in a more age-appropriate way. The Testaments shows why we all need to be educated about sex and making informed choices about our bodies.
The Testaments is also one of the few shows to feature periods and menstruation so prominently. Gilead celebrates menstruation as a sign of fertility to the point that the Plums ring a bell heralding the news and then embark on a catwalk of sorts while their fellow pupils cheer them on. Not since reading Judy Blume have I seen so much discussed about periods, if only there were more positive depictions of period in media.
Sadly, it’s a double-edged sword for the girls as it means it’s now time for them to find a husband as they essentially become child brides. Again, this complexity is intriguing and one that feeds into grooming teens – the way the Commanders eye up Agnes MacKenzie (Chase Infiniti) as a potential bride-to-be when she greets her father during a meeting is chilling.
But amid all the bleak dystopian misogyny, hope springs: Daisy is trying to stoke a fire from within Gilead and give the Plums agency. It’s this message that’s so important: you may be a teenage girl but you still have the power to shape the world and make your voice heard.
I’ve always believed that TV has the power to change things for the better in this world. If you can see it, then you can be it. Whether it’s onscreen representation from the likes of Netflix’s Heartstopper depicting blossoming queer love, to soaps brilliantly covering a myriad of topics from domestic violence and stillbirth, to Adolescence, which led to discussions in Parliament about male radicalisation. Meanwhile, a whole generation of women pursued STEM careers thanks to Gillian Anderson’s iconic performance as medical doctor and scientist, FBI agent Dana Scully in The X-Files.
If The Handmaid’s Tale was sounding the alarm for my generation, then The Testaments is the wake-up call for this generation. The future of the world is in your hands, and you have the chance to change it right now.
The Testaments airs weekly on Hulu and Disney+ on Wednesdays
Inside the ornate Bovard Auditorium, Larry David kept a full audience in stitches as he discussed the creation and legacy of his improv hit, “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” which concluded in 2024 after 12 seasons.
In a conversation with Lorraine Ali — who wrote “No Lessons Learned: The Making of Curb Your Enthusiasm,” which retraces the show’s long run with cast interviews, episode guides and behind-the-scenes material — David reflected on the separation between himself and the abrasive on-screen persona he adopted for more than two decades.
“I wish I was that Larry David,” he said.
David spoke about the outrageous audition process for “Curb,” wherein actors tried to navigate a brief written scenario without any dialogue to guide them as David lambasted them in character. Out of this process came iconic one-liners and beloved characters, such as Leon, played by J.B. Smoove.
“People bring out certain things, and when I would act with them, some of them would make me seem funny,” David said. “I go, ‘Oh, that’s good — let’s give him a part.’”
David cited “Palestinian Chicken” as one of his favorite episodes of the show. In the episode, David is caught between a delicious new Palestinian chicken restaurant, a Palestinian girlfriend and an outraged inner circle of Jewish friends.
He also spoke briefly about his upcoming episodic HBO series, “Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Happiness,” a historical spoof that will retrace United States history for the country’s 250th founding anniversary. The series will premiere on Aug. 7.
“A lot of wigs, costumes, beards — fake beards,” David said. “Nothing worse than fake beards.”
The controversial ending of “Seinfeld,” which David co-wrote with comedian Jerry Seinfeld, was polarizing among fans when it was released, David said. After a recent rewatch, however, David said he thought it was “pretty good,” to a round of applause from the audience.
Near the end of the panel, an audience member asked a question some definitely had on their mind: Will “Seinfeld” ever get a reunion?
The hit Channel 5 series sees two families from opposite ends of the wealth divide swap homes, budgets, and lives for a week.
They both experience a dramatic shift in perspective as they step into each other’s worlds but one family appeared to break a rule as they left the property halfway through the swap.
During Sunday’s (April 19) episode, millionaire hotel owners Gez and Rosy Chetal swapped their luxury life with the Bloor family.
In Norfolk, John and wife Ann, live with their three children in a three-bedroom rented terrace house. After basic household bills they have just £79 a week to spend on everything else from food and travel to fun.
Mum Ann works as a cook in a mental health care home, meanwhile husband John works long hours as a bus driver, but they both have a passion for cooking.
Despite both grafting hard, the couple struggle to make ends meet and have previously gone bankrupt for £36k, but they dream of running a music café of their own one day.
Experiencing how the wealthiest 1% live, they exchanged homes for a week with hotel owners Gez and Rosy Chetal, who lived in their luxurious £1.7m 11-bedroom bespoke hotel with their 19-year-old daughter Saanchi.
Given his demanding lifestyle as an entrepreneur, the couple wanted to use the swap as a way for them to spend some quality time together and have a break from their business.
They swapped their hotel— complete with a wine cellar, a large dining room and private chef for a week-long stay in the Bloor family’s house.
While Gez and Rosy were forced to manage on a weekly budget of £79, John, wife Ann and their children got a taste of luxury living with £1,800 to spend.
However, not long into the swap it was clear that the Bloor family struggled to adjust to their new environment living in a hotel as Ann admitted: “My kids are not comfortable.”
After a restless night, Ann was visibly moved as she told husband John: “The children are really uncomfortable. They can’t be in their pyjamas because it’s a hotel, they can’t just go and get a drink, they can’t just go and get a sandwich.” John jumped in and added: “It’s not a home is it?”
Turning to John, Ann explained: “It’s nothing about the hotel. If it was just me and you.. I’d absolutely love it but actually to me we can’t really stay in the hotel.”
The couple then made a big decision and decided to abandon the hotel and use the remaining budget to book a luxury Airbnb, that cost a whopping £1,200.
When the two families finally reunited at the end of their swap, Ann went on to say: “We loved the hotel, unfortunately the children didn’t. They felt very separated from us.” Gez added: “It’s just a big house really, with 11 rooms.”
Rich House, Poor House airs Sunday night from 9pm on Channel 5
For three seasons, Jimmy, a therapist grieving the loss of his wife, has used unconventional methods —think taking someone with aggression issues to a boxing ring — to get through to his patients. In the last moments of “And That’s Our Time,” Jimmy’s mentor and fellow therapist Paul (Harrison Ford) turns that approach on its namesake, flying across the country to give Jimmy a much needed push to move forward with his life. “Jimmy needed permission and encouragement from someone to say, ‘All right, it’s time,’” Segel says. “This is the end of this story and it’s time to start a new one.”
In the scene, Paul finally tells Jimmy he’s like a son to him. “I found ourselves writing a conversation that if we were lucky enough to have a conversation like that with our own fathers, we’d be grateful,” executive producer Bill Lawrence says. “A lot of my shows have an element of mentorship in them. To see Jimmy’s mentor come through for him in the way that I would always hope he would meant a lot to me.”
Lawrence had always envisioned the three-season arc for Jimmy ending this way. But when they found out the comedy would be returning for a fourth season, he and his fellow executive producers were faced with a dilemma: End the season the way they would have the series or push their original ending out for one more season. After much discussion, they decided to stick the landing.
“It still felt right,” Lawrence says. “This particular story with these characters has been told and you should feel, in a good way, like it’s gonna be OK for Jimmy. Jason is so good at it, watching him play the agony of trying to get through it all and come out on the other side was my favorite kind of journey on the whole show.”
Segel spoke to The Envelope about filming this pivotal scene and bringing the third season to a close.
What did filming this final scene mean to you? To play this part of Jimmy’s journey coming to an end?
I’m always really interested in, “What is the dirty underneath? If we go one level deeper, what is the thing that the person is not saying?” This arc with Jimmy over the three seasons had been building up to Jimmy finally saying the actual thing, which is some version of, “Who’s gonna want me now?”
Paul answers that question by telling Jimmy that his scars are “evidence of a life well–lived.”
I had a therapist I was talking to about having to show up somewhere with people I knew from 25 years ago. I remember having a little bit of apprehension because I’ve had a twisty-turny life. I thought, “God, there’s so much to catch up on and I’m showing up covered in scars.” And this therapist said to me, just matter of fact, “What a shame it would be to show up anywhere at 45 years old not covered in scars.” And I went straight to Bill and [executive producer] Neil [Goldman], this is a year ago, and I said, “This is what Harrison says to Jimmy at the end of this arc.” And we worked it in.
What was the actual day of filming the scene like for you?
It was a difficult day. It was loud that day. There was a little bit of discombobulation on the street. There was construction and they couldn’t hold the cars right. It wasn’t the ideal environment for a scene like this where you would love to hear a pin drop. People were coming into the restaurant asking, “Are you guys open?” It almost felt like we were making a student film. And Harrison and I took a minute and we walked away from the set and we started running the scene, walking up and down the busy street to kind of acclimate ourselves. And I’m walking up and down the street with this man who I idolize and we are at that moment like equals and teammates. We have to go build this scene together. It is a real honor to have that dynamic with him.
Do you think it was important to have such a pivotal scene outdoors?
They’re a good reminder that the show takes place in the real world and that you’re like a representative of reality almost. I think that there’s something vulnerable about all that taking place outside. … There’s other patrons there. It’s surrounded by people, surrounded by life, and Paul is showing up and telling Jimmy, “It’s time to step into it. Look, it’s all around you.”
This season we met Jimmy’s father (played by Jeff Daniels), who never really connected with his son and, in a heartbreaking moment, chooses a fishing trip with his buddies over staying for Alice’s (Lukita Maxwell) high school graduation.
One of the things this show does really well is handle these situations honestly. Whether it’s Parkinson’s or loss or a complicated relationship with a family member. It’s not gonna magically change. None of it. And so the show is very much true to, “How do we get through it with each other?” That’s really the theme of the show. These issues are gonna be there. What are we gonna do with the realities of life? I think the reason they brought Jeff Daniels in is to highlight why Jimmy so desperately wants Paul’s affection. Where is this coming from? Bill is a genius in terms of setting something up in a previous episode so that there’s a payoff in the finale. I think that we understand suddenly how desperate Jimmy is to have somebody say, “You’re my son and I love you.” And he finally gets that at the end from Paul.
The other major event that happens in the finale is that Alice leaves for college.
To me, [Jimmy’s relationship with Alice] has been the heart of the show and the most important storyline. The show started out with Alice parenting a troubled child in her father. And that dynamic slowly, slowly, slowly shifted to being the right direction. Until finally he is able to see her off to college and she feels safe to leave him behind. He is the parent and she is the child and everything is the right size again. I think watching Lukita as an actor and a human being grow up over these past four years, it’s been really the joy of my career. When I met her, she called me Mr. Segel. I realized she grew up with my “Muppet” movie. I have the real honor of being more of a mentor than a contemporary to Lukita. To get to the point where I am being surprised and challenged and blown away and moved to tears in scenes with Lukita is like the coolest thing in the world.
Cobie Smulders and Jason Segel in “Shrinking.”
(Apple TV)
We see Jimmy sit down at the restaurant with his potential love interest Sofi (Cobie Smulders), but we don’t hear their conversation.
It originally ended with a hard cut to black. Then then they did this beautiful cinematic pullback. I think the most important line is, “Hello.”
As the scene ends, Paul tells Jimmy that he can either “stay stuck” or “go make new scars.” Paul advises Jimmy to “choose wisely” and then winks at Jimmy. It’s a subtle nod to the famous “choose wisely” scene from “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.”
Harrison is not so secretly one of the funnier people I know. He always knows exactly what he’s doing and we’ve had a few of those throughout the season, some little nods to Harrison’s body of work. It was a perfect way to end that scene. Paul slash Harrison is always just a little smarter than you. One of the great qualities that they have is they’re just a little bit ahead of you, which a great mentor should be, right?
Have you thought about how it will be to play Jimmy in the show’s fourth season now that this particular story arc has come to an end?
I think an equally interesting and complicated and fun area is someone deciding they’re ready to be happy. Because God knows it’s one thing in your house alone in front of the mirror [to say], “Now I’m gonna be happy.” And then you go out and in practice, it’s its own set of complications, right? And so, I’m actually really excited about that idea of someone saying, “OK, I’m ready to take it for a spin.” And then seeing that’s its own thing.
You know him by his imitators, the ones he hand-picked for the show he made. Arguably the greatest comedy impresario of the modern age, Lorne Michaels, the lip-pursing, imperiously droll Canadian who created “Saturday Night Live,” has curiously enough never seemed like documentary material — there’s always been a strange satisfaction in him remaining an aloof, besuited guru, getting older but seeming beyond mystery. A well-timed impression always felt like enough. We’re laughing about someone we don’t know and there’s an odd purity in that.
Oscar-winner Morgan Neville’s “Lorne” — made with the begrudging OK of its subject as part of the 50th season hoopla — is, therefore, a curious instance of not being all that successful at unraveling the man, yet remaining perfectly enjoyable as a conduit for bite-size chunks of insight from not-so-famous associates and ultra-famous friends. It’s a well-meaning impression of a soul-searching documentary (and only an impression), but impressions can still be plenty entertaining.
Neville hedges his bet by filling us in on Michaels’ spotlight apprehension, making his reticence a through line. Interviewees joke about how inscrutable he is, guess at aspects of his biography, and early on we hear Michaels’ belief that explaining humor is pointless.
But would we have wanted a Jedi of few words to suddenly dissect his many brilliant casting choices or rehash the impetus to conceive the show, when it’s been written about repeatedly and even turned into a feature? Thankfully “Lorne” grasps this and instead decides the best narrative is one of Michaels as a force of stability amid constant change: shielding “SNL” from irrelevance and invasive network overlords, turning his unknowability into a kind of totem-like, hard-earned confidence, taking mentorship of talent seriously and accepting his mockability as the release valve that reinforces his wise stewardship.
Better to have dozens of funny, perceptive interviewees (Tina Fey, Conan O’Brien, John Mulaney, Adam Sandler, Lily Tomlin) piece it together, than to expect much from the guy who doesn’t care to self-analyze anyway. Likewise, don’t expect anything noteworthy from a pal like Paul Simon, who would rather be facile about his friendship with Michaels than informative.
Being there for his weekly routine captures something of Michaels’ entrenched schedule, as well as the scary-fast prep swirling around him. Seeing everyone crammed into his office for a howdy-host confab looks like the coolest family get-together. Same with the table read for dozens of mostly-to-be-axed sketches — like a dinner at which everyone’s trying to get Grandpa to laugh. The night-of-broadcast scenes draw you into the tension of finalizing and problem-solving and Michaels’ engagement with all manner of details is captivating.
Neville is smart enough as a documentarian to leave out platitudes, but also to let access to Michaels’ Maine retreat be a vibe rather than some knockout reveal. The result is an ode of sorts to elusive bossdom, where the cryptic may remain cryptic, decoded just enough to let us appreciate the achievement.
You’ll probably go straight from “Lorne” to rewatching notorious moments like the controversial Season 3 “stunt baby” sketch — and this is no doubt Michaels’ preferred outcome. Because, all those impersonations of chilly indifference aside, he will be known by what he got on the air: a legacy of generation-defining comedy that’s more impressive than any dutiful biodoc could ever be.
‘Lorne’
Rated: R, for language and a sexual reference
Running time: 1 hour, 41 minutes
Playing: Opens Friday, April 17, in limited release
ITV’s The 1% Club host Lee Mack was left mortified after his joke confused a contestant during a Coronation Street question
ITV’s The 1% Club host Lee Mack kicked off the programme with a string of gags, but it soon caused confusion(Image: ITV)
ITV’s The 1% Club host Lee Mack kicked off the programme with a string of gags, but it soon caused confusion.
While the comedian is no stranger to cracking jokes, one quip proved poorly timed and left a player utterly baffled. The show’s format presents questions to contestants beginning with simpler ones, gradually ramping up in difficulty with each round.
Within the opening minutes, one of the more straightforward questions displayed on screen was a “spot the difference” featuring the Coronation Street set.
Two images were placed side by side, with one reading Rovers Return Pub while the other read Ravers Return Pub. As the 30-second countdown began, he reminded contestants they needed to identify the difference between the two pictures, before quipping: “One’s on the left and one’s on the right.”
Regrettably, one contestant took the remark at face value, convinced he might be dropping a hint and that it was a “trick question”, so she wrote that down.
Lee was utterly gobsmacked when he called out to her in the audience to find out what had gone wrong, only to discover his throwaway joke was the culprit.
The host confessed to feeling rather guilty as he noted: “In the history of the show, no one has taken the joke as the actual clue.” The contestant laughed it off good-naturedly, before Lee asked her, as he does with every player, what she would have spent her winnings on, to which she revealed it would be her house plants.
An embarrassed Lee then told her: “I’m glad you haven’t won. What a waste of money!” before laughing it off and pressing on with the remainder of the programme.
At the close of the show, contestants are given the choice to either pocket £10,000 or take a gamble on the 1% question, which would award them the full prize fund, standing at £94,000, reports the Express.
The 10% question eliminated eight of the nine contestants, leaving just one participant, Tessa, aged only 19, to be offered the opportunity to tackle her 1% question. In a surprising turn of events, she revealed to Lee that she was a hobby opera singer and even treated her fellow contestants to a brief glimpse of her vocal talents.
She ultimately opted to take the safe route and pocket £10,000 rather than risk it all for the £94,000. Had she chosen to proceed, her question would have been: “Using only two letters to fill in the blanks, what is the world below?” With P—E–I-N spelled out. Fortunately for her, she didn’t know the answer and walked away with the £10,000.
Los Angeles — Lisa Rinna said she would return to the “Real Housewives” franchise, but to get her husband Harry Hamlin on board, it would have to involve some big numbers.
“You guys are gonna laugh and think I’m ridiculous, but I was like, ‘I might do it for $5 million,’” Rinna explained. “He’s like, ‘No, 10. $10 million, you can go back.’”
The “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” alum wasn’t afraid to throw shade on a sunny Saturday morning during her panel at The Times’ Festival of Books.
The “You Better Believe I’m Gonna Talk About It” author sat down with Times senior television writer Yvonne Villarreal to talk about Rinna’s journey from soap star to her rise on the “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” and her recent “The Traitors” fame.
As a “Real Housewife,” Rinna was known for her snappy comebacks and for sharing her candid emotions. Her memoir explores Rinna’s experience during Season 12, which was filmed shortly after the death of her mother, Lois Rinna. Rinna explained that her grief manifested into feelings of “rage.”
“Rage was the first emotion that came. I didn’t expect that. You know, you think you’re going to be in shock, and then you think you’re going to be really sad? Well, I went immediately into rage, and that’s not really very cute,” Rinna said. “But I think my being in grief triggered the housewives, and it triggered the audience.”
After Rinna’s time on “RHOBH,” she joined the cast of Season 4 of “The Traitors.” The show — loosely based on the game Mafia — selects celebrities to be faithfuls and traitors, and the faithful must attempt to discover the traitors. Wearing outfits like her viral cheetah-print ensemble, Rinna skyrocketed to fan-favorite status during her tenure as a traitor.
“So when I decided to do ‘Traitors,’ I was like, ‘Self, listen. You’re gonna go in there and just be you. No Housewives s—, no, none of that reactionary stuff, no, you’re gonna just be you,’” Rinna said.
She also joked that being a traitor was the “highlight” of her year: “I could kill people, I could lie, I could deceive, I could backstab. Heaven.”
Rinna compared the objectives of “RHOBH” to “The Traitors” and the different strategies she had to employ on the franchises.
“‘Housewives’ is not a game. ‘Traitors’ is a game,” Rinna explained. “‘Housewives,’ you just tried to literally protect yourself from the drama and the toxicity. And it’s even though it’s a television show, it’s real. I mean, no one is writing a script for you. You’re dealing with interpersonal relationships and conflict.”
Britain’s Got Talent viewers were left fuming after KSI used his golden buzzer on a strange act
Britain’s Got Talent viewers were left unimpressed (Image: ITV)
Britain’s Got Talent viewers were left disappointed as they threatened to ‘turn off’.
During Saturday’s (April 18) episode of the ITV talent programme, YouTuber KSI used his golden buzzer to send one act through to the live shows, but his choice has sparked criticism from viewers, who described it as the “worst golden buzzer”.
Audiences tuned in for the final auditions in the 19th series of the popular talent competition as hopefuls from across the nation demonstrated their abilities in an attempt to wow judges Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon and KSI.
It’s hardly surprising that they pulled out all the stops in their efforts to impress the panel and secure the £250,000 cash prize along with a coveted slot at the Royal Variety Performance. And as expected, they’re all hoping to earn the golden buzzer – which propels them directly through to the live shows.
However, one performer sparked considerable controversy. Mr Cherry – a Guinness World Record holder and former contestant on America’s Got Talent in 2021 – appeared on stage and left everyone stunned with his peculiar performance, reports Wales Online.
The comedian ‘strongman’, 44, began his bizarre routine by opening a stubborn jar of pickles, which neither judge KSI nor Simon Cowell managed to accomplish.
He proceeded to crush cans by sitting on them. But matters then escalated, leaving everyone astounded after he stripped down and opened wine bottles with his buttocks.
Despite squirming throughout the entire performance, audiences were stunned when KSI opted to slam his golden buzzer. KSI dashed onto the stage, only to slip and slide across the floor on the falling confetti, taking Mr Cherry down with him.
Making his way back to his seat, KSI declared: “Ladies and Gentlemen, I don’t know about you but that was the greatest thing I have ever seen.”
However, viewers at home appeared far from convinced, branding his choice the ‘worst’ golden buzzer in the show’s history.
Taking to social media, one furious fan wrote: “I’m sorry this show is finished #bgt.” Another commented: “A Golden Buzzer? How bloody ridiculous #KSI #BGT #BritainsGotTalent.”
A third posted: “WTF?! Why the hell did KSI give that act the golden buzzer, when he spent the entirety of it squirming uncomfortably? It’s beyond a joke.”
Yet another chimed in with: “Worst Golden Buzzer #BGT.” While one more questioned: “KSI HOW IS THAT GOLDEN BUZZER WORTHY???”
Britain’s Got Talent airs Saturday nights from 7pm on ITV and ITVX.
Bombs are in and art is out as the Trump administration’s proposed 2027 budget requests $1.5 trillion in defense spending (up 44% from last year), while again attempting to snuff out the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
The budget proposal released earlier this month calls for just enough money to permanently wind down the operations of each agency: $29 million for the NEA (down from $207 million); $38 million for the NEH (down from $207 million); and $6 million for the IMLS (down from $291.8 million).
Congress has the final say about whether or not these cuts actually get made, and Sept. 30 is the deadline to pass next year’s budget. (Failure to do so could result in yet another government shutdown.) It’s worth remembering that Trump tried to defund these organizations last year and was thwarted by Congress. But the administration did successfully choke off funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which ceased operations in January.
It’s hard to know how this renewed threat to agencies that collectively support thousands of arts programs and initiatives across all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., will play out, especially because the only constant in this administration is its mercurial temperament. Plus, Congress doesn’t have a great track record of keeping Trump in check (see Venezuela, Iran, the White House East Wing, the Kennedy Center, etc.). The ongoing war in Iran, which pundits warn could last until the midterms, may also impact how Congress decides to vote.
In times of conflict and chaos, we need the arts — a sentiment so obvious it normally goes without saying. But this moment somehow feels different. There were many alarming moves that Trump wanted to make during his first term that the so-called adults in the room allegedly kept him from achieving. Those adults are gone and he is now surrounded with enablers. This means the unthinkable is now possible — as we have seen time and again over the past 15 months.
In a country without the NEA, NEH and IMLS, hundreds of small local arts groups would likely cease to exist entirely — and with them, the community, education and enlightenment that underpin our increasingly fragile, fractured society. We can close our eyes until it happens, or we can start urgently ringing the alarm bells. I vote for the latter. Here’s a link to get you started.
I’m Arts editor Jessica Gelt banging a gong. This is your arts and culture news for the week.
Dispatch: mots take on AI at Flux Festival
A participant experiences “The Pledge,” part of artist duo mots’ acclaimed “AI & Me” series, on view April 25 at Blum Gallery, Culver City, as part of Flux Festival.
(mots / Daniela Nedovescu and Octavian Mot)
Artist duo mots is staging one of its exploratory AI-centered exhibits — “The Pledge” — at the upcoming Flux Festival at Bloom Gallery in Culver City (April 24 and 25). Last year, mots received quite a bit of attention for its U.S. premiere of “AI & Me,” part of Tribeca Festival’s Immersive Program. That piece, according to mots website, “dives into the weird dynamics between humans and artificial intelligence,” by placing people in a confessional style booth while AI tells them exactly what it thinks of them.
“The Pledge” takes that concept further by inviting participants to stand on a stage while AI-generates a statement about them— one that is solely based on appearance. The person then must decide whether to read the AI feedback aloud into a microphone or leave. If you decide to share, you become part of the permanent video installation.
In this moment of deep AI anxiety, the mots’ work is tapping into more than just a playful back and forth between man and machine.
“On one hand, we’re thrilled to see people lining up to interact with the pieces we build; on the other, we’re trying to gather the courage to destroy them and stop this madness before it’s too late,” the mots write on their website.
— Jessica Gelt
Dispatch: Monster Party
The adult-centric interactive melodrama “Monster Party,” at Rita House through April 25.
(Clint Keller)
“Monster Party” starts with a moment of ecstasy. Then the adult-centric interactive play gets demented — a bit demonic, even. We meet characters shrouded in mystery. Guests at a cocktail party, there’s a writer working on a book about supernatural creatures, a vacuum salesman with a closely guarded secret, a repressed religious fanatic and more. None of them can remember how or why they ended up at this soiree, hosted by the confidently cryptic Baroness, a character who clearly delights in creating sin and madness. We’ll soon find out this isn’t an event for the lucky.
But that’s not just what makes “Monster Party” special. Remounted after a short theatrical run in 2024, the work from immersive creator Matt Dorado intermixes the personal and political. Lurid, humorous and sexy, “Monster Party” is also a scathing critique of how political systems can drive one mad.
Set during the Lavender Scare, the anti-communist purge of LGBTQ+ people from the U.S. government in the 1950s, “Monster Party” opens with camp and then descends into very real horrors of life in the United States. You’ll drink, play parlor games and gradually uncover one dark skeleton after another.
The intimate production is limited to 50 guests per showing, and cocktails are included in the $159.45 ticket. Come ready to socialize.
8 p.m. Thursdays and Friday; 3 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, through April 26. Rita House, 5971 W. 3rd Street monsterpartyshow.com
— Todd Martens
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The week ahead: A curated calendar
FRIDAY Chaya Czernowin Monday Evening Concerts presents the U.S. premiere of the Harvard-based Israeli composer’s “Poetica,” which she describes as “a journey of one into themselves,” performed by percussionist Steven Schick and the percussion ensemble Red Fish Blue Fish. 8 p.m. Zipper Hall at the Colburn School, 200 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. mondayeveningconcerts.org
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot O.C. theater companies the Wayward Artist and Larking House team up for Stephen Adly Guirgis’ bold, darkly comedic courtroom drama set in Purgatory. Directed by Lizzy McCabe. 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and April 23-35. Irvine United Congregational Church, 4915 Alton Pkwy., Irvine. thewaywardartist.org
Harry Fonseca “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Coyote,” an exhibition of more than 30 paintings, prints and works on paper, follows the path of the late Native artist’s alter-ego, the Trickster Coyote, an exploration of his own identity and a means of challenging existing narratives. Also being exhibited is “Sedej Tuulémisé (Blood Relations),” featuring paintings by emerging artist Deerstine Suehead. Noon-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, through July 3. PDC Design Galleries, 750 N San Vicente, West Hollywood. pacificdesigncenter.com
Ryan Bancroft will conduct the L.A. Phil this weekend at Walt Disney Concert Hall.
(Carlin Stiehl/For The Times)
Shostakovich & Sibelius Ryan Bancroft conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic with cellist Alisa Weilerstein playing one of her specialties, Shostakovich’s “Second Cello Concerto.” 8 p.m. Friday; 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com
Liu Xiaodong For the work presented in the exhibition “Host,” the figurative painter trained his eye on a Detroit tattoo artist with a penchant for medieval battle recreations. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturday, through June 13. Lisson, 1037 N. Sycamore Ave., L.A. lissongallery.com
SATURDAY Back to Oz MUSE/IQUE salutes a truly American fairy tale through music with pieces from “The Wonderful Wizard,” “The Wiz,” and “Wicked,” performed by Carmen Cusack, LaVance Colley, Nathan Granner, DC6 Singers Collective and the MUSE/IQUE Orchestra. 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; 7:30 p.m. Thursday and April 24; 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. April 25; and 2:30 p.m. April 26. Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. muse-ique.com
Colored People’s Time: A History Play From Civil War to civil rights, Leslie Lee’s drama, directed by Ben Guillory, examines the lives of Black Americans through a century of struggle. 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturdays; 3 p.m. Sundays, through May 17. Los Angeles Theatre Center, Theatre Four, 514 S. Spring St., downtown L.A. therobeytheatrecompany.org
The Expanding Field: MOCA’s Collection from the 1940s to 1970s Works by Mark Rothko, Luchita Hurtado, Piet Mondrian, On Kawara, Robert Rauschenberg, Betye Saar, Anne Truitt and others illustrate the breadth of the museum’s holdings. Saturday through Sept. 20. Museum of Contemporary Art, 250 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. moca.org
Falstaff Craig Colclough stars in LA Opera’s production of the energetic Verdi comedy about two wives turning the tables on an unwanted suitor in merry olde England. 7:30 p.m. Saturday; 2 p.m. April 26; 7:30 p.m. April 30, May 2 and 6; 2 p.m. May 10. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laopera.org
Steven Culp and Joey Stromberg in “For Want of a Horse” at the Echo Theater Company.
(Cooper Bates)
For Want of a Horse Olivia Dufault’s comedy about an unusual love triangle involving a horse opens Echo Theater Company’s 2026 season. Directed by Elana Luo. Opening night, 8 p.m. Saturday; 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 4 p.m. Sundays; 8 p.m. Mondays, through May 25. Echo Theater Company, Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave. echotheatercompany.com
Hear Now Music Festival A chamber concert doubleheader (separate admissions): The matinee features Lyris Quartet, Brightwork Ensemble and HEX performing Hugh Levick’s “No Pasaran” for brass quintet; Ania Vu’s “Small Tenderness” for vocal ensemble and string quartet; Liviu Marinescu’s “String Quartet No. 1”; Bryan Chiu’s “Anthology” for piano and horn; and Tom Flaherty’s, “Recess” for string quartet. Lyris Quartet and Brightwork Ensemble return for the evening show with mezzo-soprano Peabody Southwell, and the music of Peter Knell, “Canciones de Agua” for mezzo-soprano and violin; Sean Heim, “there is no such thing as time” for mixed ensemble; Vera Ivanova’s “The Firebird’s Feather,” for flute solo; and Jordan Nelson’s “Join” for string quartet. Chamber Concert 1, 3 p.m. (2 p.m. preview); Chamber Concert 2, 8 p.m. (7 p.m. preview). First Lutheran Church of Venice, 815 Venice Blvd. hearnowmusicfestival.com
Claudia Keep In the exhibition “Water, Water, Everywhere,” the painter finds fascinating details in the life-giving liquid and all its forms, including rivers, ocean waves, clouds and afternoon coffee. Opening reception, 4-6 p.m. Saturday; the exhibition runs through May 30. Parker Gallery, 6700 Melrose Ave., L.A. parkergallery.com
Kinship & Community: Selections from the Texas African American Photography Archive The exhibition, a collaboration between Art + Practice and the California African American Museum, shares the work of Black photographers who documented life in the urban neighborhoods and rural villages of eastern Texas from 1944 to 1984. Saturday evening, exhibition curator and NYU professor Nicole R. Fleetwood and Getty Research Institute curator LeRonn P. Brooks will discuss the exhibition and the volatile time of great change that it captures. The exhibition opening is 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and runs through Sept. 5. Art + Practice exhibitions space, 3401 W. 43rd Pl. L.A. Conversation, 6-7:30 p.m. Saturday. Art + Practice programs space, 4334 Degnan Blvd., L.A. artandpractice.org
Majestic Tango Directed and produced by Miriam Larici and Leonardo Barrionuevo, this program features 13 dancers and six musicians using music, movement and storytelling to convey the passionate energy of Buenos Aires. 8 p.m. Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Dr. thebarclay.org
Richard Mayhew, “West Bay,” 2004 Oil on canvas 36” x 48’.
Richard Mayhew “Understory” surveys the artist’s work created between 1960 and 2023, when he saw his expressive landscapes as “an artistic reclamation of the land stolen from his Black, Shinnecock, and Cherokee-Lumbee ancestors.” Opening reception, 6-8 p.m. Saturday; exhibition runs through May 30. Karma, 7351 Santa Monica Blvd., L.A. karmakarma.org
Natural HERstory Drag performance meets real science in this 30-minute STEAM musical, developed by Drag Arts Lab and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and designed to engage elementary-aged learners. 11 a.m. Annenberg Community Beachhouse, 415 Pacific Coast Hwy., Santa Monica. eventbrite.com
Parsons Dance David Parsons’ New York City-based troupe marks its 40th anniversary with a program set to the music of Milton Nascimento; Giancarlo De Trizio; Champion, Four Set & Skrillex (featuring Naisha); Miles Davis; Sheila Chandra; and Yusuf/Cat Stevens 7:30 p.m. Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. BroadStage, Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center, 1310 11th St. broadstage.org
The Storyteller of East LA The Latino Theater Co. has the world premiere of Evelina Fernández’s magical realist drama about a 90-year-old woman with dementia and the challenges faced by her family and caregivers. Directed by Jose Luis Valenzuela. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays, through May 17. Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 S Spring St., downtown L.A. latinotheaterco.org
Verdi in España The Verdi Chorus performs sequences from the composer’s operas “Don Carlo,” “Il Trovatore,” “La Traviata” and “Ernani,” alongside Bizet’s “Carmen” and selections from Spanish composers Catán, Granados, Giménez, Torroba and De Falla. 7:30 p.m. Saturday; 4 p.m. Sunday. First Presbyterian Church, 1220 2nd St., Santa Monica. verdichorus.org
SUNDAY Mozart’s Requiem Grant Gershon conducts the Los Angeles Master Chorale in Mozart’s final masterpiece, plus the West Coast premiere of Fanny Mendelssohn’s “Oratorio on Scenes from the Bible.” 7 p.m. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. lamasterchorale.org
TUESDAY Yuja Wang and Mahler Chamber Orchestra The celebrated pianist continues her long-standing collaboration with MCO for a program featuring works by Segei Prokofiev and Alexander Tzfasman. 8 p.m. Tuesday. McCallum Theatre, 73000 Fred Waring Dr., Palm Desert; 8 p.m. Wednesday. Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa; 7 p.m. Thursday. Granada Theatre, 1214 State St, Santa Barbara; 8 p.m. April 25. The Saroya, 18111 Nordhoff Street, Northridge. mahlerchamber.com
WEDNESDAY Khorus Harmonia Katey Sagal and Kurt Sutter are producing ten performances of this choral concert to benefit the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights and The Wounded Warrior Project. 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays; 4 p.m. Sundays, through May 2. Hudson Backstage Theatre, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd. onstage411.com
This Ends Badly The theater collective Frank’s presents an evening of short plays by Frank Demma, Marlane Meyer, John Pellech, John Pollono, Benjamin Weissman and Sharon Yablon. 8 p.m. Wednesdays, through May 13. Echo Theater Company, Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave. echotheatercompany.ludus.com
Arts anywhere
New and recent releases of arts-related media.
The British Museum in London.
(Kin Cheung / Associated Press)
British Museum As excitement builds for the opening of the new Geffen Galleries at LACMA on Sunday (for priority members; May 4 for the general public), one’s appetite may be whetted to visit other museums. Why not start in London with the British Museum? The sprightly 273-year-old institution boasts a collection of eight million works and draws more than six million visitors each year. But there’s no need for a plane ticket or a Tardis to see it. Google Arts & Culture offers virtual tours that allow you to wander the halls and grounds for free (and it won’t rain!). artsandculture.google.com
Philip Glass
Two opportunities to see the work of one of the finest American composers will soon be available with the click of a button or a tap of a screen. First up is “The Complete Philip Glass Piano Etudes featuring 10 Pianists” (which was performed at Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2024) streaming live from the 3,500-seat Hill Auditorium on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. 4:30 p.m. Saturday and on demand through April 28. youtube.com
Six days later, the Paris Opera offers its current, sold-out production of “Satyagraha,” Glass’ revelatory, triptych portrait of Gandhi. Directed by choreographers Bobbi Jean Smith and Or Schraiber, with a cast including Anthony Roth Costanzo and Davóne Tines — all four members of AMOC*, American Modern Opera Company — the show will be presented live on the Paris Opera Play streaming platform (for $14) at 10:30 a.m. April 24. POP’s live broadcasts are typically available on demand for 30 days following transmission. play.operadeparis.fr
— Kevin Crust
Culture news and the SoCal scene
Pooya Mohseni, from left, Ava Lalezarzadeh, Tala Ashe and Marjan Neshat in “English” by Sanaz Toossi at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.
(Joan Marcus)
With the U.S. at war with Iran, “This is an important moment to experience ‘English,’ Sanaz Toossi’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, set in an English-language classroom outside of Tehran in 2008,” writes Times theater critic Charles McNulty. “The play, now having its L.A. premiere at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, reminds us of the lives — the hopes, the dreams, the sorrows — on the other side of the headlines.”
It’s been an anxious journey for Bob Baker Marionette Theater since 2019 when it was forced out of its downtown home of 55 years. After a lengthy search, the nonprofit signed a 10-year lease for a former cinema-turned-Korean Church in Highland Park. With that, however, came the accompanying stress of being renters in L.A. But good news has arrived: the beloved theater “has entered into an agreement to purchase its [current] home at the corner of York Boulevard and North Avenue 50,” reports Times features columnist Todd Martens.
The Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center is a major expansion of the California Science Center.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
California Science Center has completed construction on its new $450-million Samuel Oschin Air & Space Center, which houses the Endeavor shuttle. Staff writer Malia Mendez headed onsite to get the scoop on the, “sleek 20-story, 200,000-square-foot new building rising over Exposition Park,” nearly doubling the museum’s exhibition space.
Architecture writer Sam Lubell put together a fascinating Q&A with Peter Zumthor in which the Geffen Galleries’ architect addresses a number of ongoing criticisms about his creation, including its loss of square-footage.
In case you missed it: Pop singer Pink has will host the 79th Tony Awards. “The award ceremony returns to New York City’s Radio City Music Hall on June 7, with nominations announced May 5,” writes Times reporting fellow Iris Kwok.
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It’s been a decade since the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts began awarding Infinite Expansion Grants to local contemporary arts organizations. The money has always mattered, but means even more during a time of great uncertainly about federal support for the arts (as I wrote in my newsletter intro). This year’s round of grantees was just announced, with nine L.A. contemporary arts groups sharing $400,000 in support. These groups, a news release says, “exemplify risk-taking, critical inquiry, and community engagement,” and include Art in the Park Community Cultural Programs; Color Compton; Cal State University, Northridge Foundation on behalf of CSUN Art Galleries; Barnsdall Art Park Foundation on behalf of Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (LAMAG); Los Angeles Performance Practice; Monday Evening Concerts; Clockshop; Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA); and the Vincent Price Art Museum Foundation.
Big change is coming to the Soraya and California State University, Northridge. Artistic and Executive Director Thor Steingraber, is leaving his position after 12 years to become president and chief executive at Vivo Performing Arts in Boston. The Soraya has also announced Steingraber‘s replacement: Chad Hilligus. Hilligus arrives at CSUN from the Gallo Center for the Arts in Modesto where he served as chief executive and curated more than 100 multidisciplinary live performances.
And another leadership shakeup has come to the Los Angeles Master Chorale, which announced that its current president and chief executive, Scott Altman, will step down on June 5 to become executive director of Miami City Ballet. Master Chorale board member William Tully will serve as interim president while the group launches a national search for a replacement.
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell, and the Dodgers keep rolling. When will the first bad stretch of games begin?
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Last week, I asked you to show some support for Dodgers broadcaster Charley Steiner, who battled cancer and has been heard infrequently on broadcasts since 2024.
And boy did you respond. We received over 1,000 emails from people who wanted to pass along best wishes. Obviously, we can’t run all 1,000 emails, but here are a selected few.
John Peterson of Pleasant Hill: I had the great fortune of meeting Charley Steiner in Las Vegas in the early ‘90s. At the time, I was an assistant athletic director at UNLV, and our men’s basketball team had played in three Final Fours (1987, 1990, 1991), so tickets to home games were super scarce in those days. Charley was in town to call a boxing match for ESPN, so he and Rich Rose, former president of Caesars World Sports, were desperate enough to sit in my staff seats (at least they weren’t in the balcony!). I was in total awe of those two giants of the sports entertainment landscape. We even took a photo together. I was already a huge Charley Steiner fan, but after meeting him in person, I became a fanboy for life, so when he became a Dodger announcer, I was over the moon. I will always remember how gracious he was — like any other fan who wanted to see for himself what all the fuss was about the Runnin’ Rebels. Have cherished the memory ever since.
Tara Elkinton: My husband and I are huge Dodger fans and it’s been said I Bleed Blue. We always enjoyed listening to Charley and Rick. Charley’s commentary was always honest, interesting, personal and made you feel like you were at the game. We love and miss him.
Steven Booth: Charley, thank you for bringing peace, love and happiness into our lives. Hearing you call games is like having a coffee or beer with your friend at the ballpark. We love you and are praying for you.
Darin Axel-Adams of Pendleton, Ind.: I was a teenager when he started at ESPN and always enjoyed watching him on SportsCenter. I was a budding high school radio broadcaster and Charley was one of the ESPN anchors I attempted (not very successfully!) to mimic. I also thought he had some of the funniest “This is SportsCenter” promos … it was pretty obvious that he didn’t take himself or his profession too seriously. Living in the Midwest, I haven’t been able to enjoy much of Charley’s time with the Dodgers, but when I do, I am reminded again of what a truly gifted broadcaster he is!
Kim Haack: My father was a Dodger fan for more than 50 years. He is the reason I’m a Dodger fan today. He died three weeks before the Dodgers won the World Series in 2020. We often listened to the radio in the car and enjoyed listening to Charley and Mo. The radio call from Charley at Game 6 of the 2020 World Series when the Dodgers won was absolutely amazing. Of course, I was sobbing when they won, thinking of my father. It was a balm to hear Charley’s familiar voice and I think he spoke for all of us when he said, “In a year like no other, when joy has been so hard to come by, tonight tears of joy, let ‘em flow …” Charley’s call of that game is something I will never forget for the rest of my life. Whenever I see that clip and hear Charley’s voice, I tear up remembering how much I appreciated his familiar voice when facing a bittersweet time in my life.
Kirk Stitt: Charley, I’m a 76-year-old Dodger fan since 1958. I know you value your privacy, I get that. You need to know that thousands of Dodgers fans everywhere are thinking of you and wishing you the best and hoping to hear you.
Donald Golightly of Russell, Ky.: Being an old Brooklyn Dodger fan myself, I can relate to Charley. While I don’t feel the connection to the new Dodgers, in recent years I really enjoyed listening to Charley and Rick on the internet. So here’s wishing Charley the best now and always! Keep your head up and keep smiling!
Philip Nelson: The absolute best ESPN SportsCenter commercial is the Y2K commercial. Near the end Steiner is wearing his tie around his head like a bandana. War paint as if he is in The Lord of the Flies and says, “Follow me. Follow me to freedom!” (Note: You can watch that commercial here.)
Jim Carlisle: I have “followed you to freedom” for years and have greatly appreciated your integrity, personality, accuracy and humor on the air. It was so great to hear you on the air on opening day with Rick Monday. It was like having a reunion with an old friend. I’m hoping you’ll be able to return to the booth whenever you feel up to it. You have many fans who are hoping the same thing.
Stephen Knight: I’ve enjoyed your calls since, like, forever. As a cancer survivor myself with what I like to call unremission, the choice of how you deal with it is a personal one and is yours, and your family’s. And I just want to thank you for putting me inside the park for all of those Dodger games. You made me feel so alive, so connected with each call of every strike, ball, hit or miss.
Jimie Murray of Redondo Beach: One of my favorite memories was a totally random call about 10 years ago. A Dodgers runner slid into second base head first and got up after time was called to shake his belt and pants. Charley said, (Runner) is getting the dirt out of all the places dirt shouldn’t be.” It just made me laugh and now any time a player slides head first, I repeat it for my wife.
Tom Schulz: I’ve always been a Dodger fan, initially (and continuing so) because of Jackie Robinson. But I really became a fan in 2020 while living in Arkansas (now thankfully in California), and Charley and Rick helped me preserve my sanity during COVID. In the midst of that bizarre and unsettling year, Charley and Rick were voices of normalcy. Since then, I have caught at least part of every Dodgers radio broadcast. Charley and Rick became my friends.
Eliza Rubenstein: I’m a third-generation Cardinals fan living in SoCal, and it takes a LOT to get me to say nice things about the Dodgers. But I spent years listening to Dodger games on the radio in large part because I found Charley Steiner to be so completely and consistently delightful. His intelligence, his dry wit, his charming habit of saying “he’s been struck out” rather than “he struck out” … his rhythm and diction and humor have always spoken directly to my baseball-obsessed heart, and considering that I grew up with Jack Buck in my ear and high standards in my soul, that’s saying a lot.
Nancy Shattuck: Thank you for voicing joy and Dodger blue to this grateful fan.
Lydia Valenzuela: You’ve been missed. It was so nice to hear you on opening day. I’m sure I speak for all the fans when I say we can’t wait until you’re back again on the radio. I love to hear the banter between you and Rick. You both always bring a smile to my face. That warm soothing voice of yours is missed. Hope to hear from you again soon.
Howard Hancock: Thank you for being such a terrific part of my sports enjoyment for so many years. I greatly hope to hear you call many more innings in the future.
Scott Snyder: You have been the most underrated voice in my 55 years of loving baseball. Best of wishes to you.
Linda Seidman: We fans miss you and your calling the games so very much! Nobody calls a game like you, especially the home runs. The games just aren’t as good or as fun or as exciting without your calls, so please get back in the booth whenever you can!
Larry Oppenheim: What I love most about Charley Steiner is the sheer joy he brings to announcing the Dodgers. And his joy is contagious. A friend and I would text back and forth while listening to Dodgers games. I would say ‘did you hear what Charley just said’ and I would write it down in my text. Thankfully, I found these messages. Delving into my old text messages has brought back so many joyful memories. Charley, I miss you terribly.
Samuel Contreras of Chino Hills: Charley, we haven’t forgotten you at all. Dodger fans miss you and look forward to your return to the broadcast booth on a regular basis. My family’s life has been affected by multiple myeloma as my wife was diagnosed in October 2024. Thankfully, she’s doing well and I wish the same for you. Please know that Dodger broadcasts are not the same without you.
Keith Putirka: Charley Steiner is one of my all-time favorite baseball announcers and when I heard he was headed to L.A. to cover the Dodgers, I was thrilled. I grew up listening to Vin Scully and was clearly very spoiled. Until I moved to New York in the early 1990s, I had no idea how much of a gap there was between Vin and everyone else. But I still loved listening to baseball games, especially on ESPN, and I first heard Charley on the radio when he called the 1997 World Series on ESPN radio. He was terrific. He made the games come to life, conveying the environment, the stories and the excitement, in his own inimitable style. After that, I would always tune in to any ESPN-broadcast game so that I could hear Charley Steiner call the games. I’m 63 and I’ve been listening to and watching baseball for a very long time. Growing up in L.A. I heard a lot of great announcers, but my list for the top three announcers in baseball is an easy choice; it is in order, Vin Scully, Charley Steiner and Jon Miller. Thank you, Mr. Steiner, for making a great sport even greater to listen to.
Hoyt Adams: I used to work at the Genius Bar at the Apple Store in Santa Monica, and one day I helped Charley. He was so easygoing, funny and genuinely delighted to talk baseball with a stranger who was helping him with his computer.
When I told him the hard drive on his laptop was failing, he said in that wonderful radio voice, “So that’s your story and you’re sticking to it.” But he immediately lit up when we started talking baseball again. For one reason or another, I brought up how much I loved players like Jamey Carroll, who was getting a lot of time at shortstop that season. When I was driving home from work that night, I turned on the game, and Jamey Carroll just so happened to be having a killer night. Charley talked about him and even mentioned several beats from our conversation — it absolutely made my season.
Patrick Hennes of Corona: I have “worshipped” Vin Scully since I was one of millions of young fans that had my transistor radio under my pillow listening to my Dodgers, beginning in the early 1960s. No one could ever be better. But for this one night, I think Charley surpassed the GOAT. It’s always a good time to go back to this incredible game, when the Dodgers hit four straight home runs in the bottom of the ninth to tie San Diego. And to appreciate Charley Steiner as a fantastic announcer. (Note: You can watch and listen here.)
George Martin of Virginia: Listening to Charley Steiner call a game is like a warm blanket on a cold and rainy day. Whatever your troubles, hearing him brings security, relief and joy.
Jason Hashmi: The line, “we’ll find out together” is the classic Steiner phrase for me. Will Freeman’s ankle heal in time for the World Series and will he be a liability on the bases if he does return? “We’ll find out together.” I’ve adopted the phrase myself, and often for things unrelated to baseball. I always give a wink to Steiner in my mind when I do. I wish him health and peace.
Kathy Pratt: In 2014 my husband and I drove up from Tucson to see a spring training game. As we were walking into Camelback Ranch Stadium we looked up and there was Charley Steiner. My husband asked if he could take a picture of him and his wife. Charlie’s reply was, “I always love to have my picture taken with a beautiful woman!” Charley’s kindness was so appreciated and it made our day.
Candi Hersch: I miss hearing you on the radio. You are much younger than my father, but listening to the game with you is like hanging out with my dear departed dad. It’s comforting and you always have great insight.
Doug Weber of Carlsbad: For every note you receive, please know that there are thousands more who wish you all the best. Thank you for everything and we’ll look forward to hearing from you soon.
Bill Walsh of Oceanside: I miss Charley’s voice on the radio. While working I always had the Dodger radio broadcasts playing behind my desk. Charley and Rick became my daily companions. I miss you greatly Charley.
Andrew Mounts of Clovis: You’re part of this wonderful thing we call the Dodger family. Your enthusiasm and love for this crazy game and the Dodgers is greatly appreciated and very sorely missed. Never forget your voice paints a picture of this game that we love so much. You and Mo put us in the ballpark when we couldn’t be there. Thank you so very much. Get well Dodger friend and may God bless you and your family.
Geoff King of Bakersfield: The Dodgers have been blessed with the best radio and TV broadcast personalities ever, with Vin Scully at the top of the list. But Charley was a great addition to the Dodger broadcast crew years ago. His demeanor, stories and mannerisms calling the game were like Scully. We went several years without TV because of the Direct TV dispute so we would listen to the games on the radio. Charley was a lifesaver of Dodger baseball for us.
Rich Mortimer: My family and I have enjoyed your Dodger coverage for many years. I am 73 and have been a Dodger fan my whole life and Charley’s reporting has made our viewing and listening so much more enjoyable. Thank you Charley. Please know that there are thousands of Dodger fans, Charley Steiner fans, who are praying for your recovery.
John Sotos of Leesburg, Va.: I have always been a Charley Steiner fan, from his days at ESPN to his time broadcasting Dodgers games. That ESPN commercial — no, not “follow me to freedom!” — but the one in which he has to hide under his desk while an angry Evander Holyfield, having been told that Charley disparaged his boxing, prowls the ESPN spaces shouting “Charley Steiner! Come out and get your whoopin’!” Still one of my favorites. (Note: You can watch that ad here.)
Ohtani out of the batting lineup
Much concern was raised when Shohei Ohtani wasn’t in the hitting lineup Wednesday when he was the starting pitcher against the Mets. Nothing to worry about. Ohtani was hit in the right shoulder by a pitch Monday, and the Dodgers were just being cautious. As Maddie Lee reported:
“If it weren’t for the hit by pitch [Monday], he would’ve been DHing and pitching tonight,” Dave Roberts said before Wednesday’s game.
“Just feeling what gives him the best chance to stay loose during the outing, feel good,” Roberts said. “There’s still some soreness in there. When he’s hitting, there’s a component that he’s in the cage getting ready to hit, and if we can take that off his plate and just focus on one thing tonight, we felt — training staff, pitching coaches, myself — we just felt it was the best thing for him. So, once I told him, he completely understood.”
Charley Steiner on the 30th anniversary of his famous Carl Lewis call. Watch and listen here.
Until next time….
Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Louis Tomlinson’s sisters have unfollowed Zayn Malik online after he punched Louis in the face during a vicious rowCredit: InstagramThe clash came as the former friends filmed a three-part road trip for NetflixCredit: Getty
Now, his sisters Phoebe and Lottie have unfollowed Zayn online – but still follow the other One Direction boys Harry Styles and Niall Horan.
In an interview with Livelaughlukepod hosted by@lukehamnett, Phoebe and her twin sister Daisy didn’t hold back on who their favourite One Direction member was.
They twins revealed: “Niall was always the loveliest. And even when we were little, he was just very nice and caring and always cute with us.
“Liam’s not with us anymore, but he was always that for me. Yeah, so calm. He was so sweet.
A source said: “Louis was stunned and in shock. Zayn was wearing rings so it cut his head. It happened outside in front of so many people.”
Sources told The Sun their astonishing on-set row was triggered by Zayn’s remark about Louis’ mum Johannah Deakin, who died of leukaemia in 2016.
A source revealed: “The lads were filming on location. Zayn started acting up and was mouthing off.
“It spiralled into a row then Zayn made a remark about Louis’ mum Johannah.
“Louis was stunned and in shock. As he went to move, Zayn then attacked him.
“Zayn punched him straight in the face.
“Because he was wearing rings it cut Louis’ head.
“He was pulled away and Louis was taken for medical treatment. He was left with a concussion. This happened outside in front of so many people. It was shocking.”
One Direction sold more than 70million records worldwide at the height of their fame.
Zayn Malik punched Louis in the face during a vicious rowCredit: Getty – ContributorPhoebe revealed her favourite One Direction member was NiallCredit: InstagramLouis and Zayn were spotted filming a “spontaneous adventure” road trip documentary for Netflix at a dive bar in TennesseeCredit: InstagramOne Direction sold more than 70million records worldwide at the height of their fameCredit: PANeither Louis nor Zayn have ever spoken about the documentary or why it endedCredit: Getty
Christopher Meloni has a message for Elliot Stabler fans: “Thank you … for sticking with him and welcoming him back.”
The “Law & Order: Organized Crime” star took to Instagram on Thursday to convey his appreciation for his character’s long run in the franchise after it was revealed that the NBC show had been canceled after five seasons.
“I just saw that they announced … ‘Organized Crime’ won’t be coming back,” Meloni said in his video post. “So I wanted to take this moment to say thank you to the fans who not only helped give the character of Elliot Stabler life and longevity, but for sticking with him and welcoming him back.”
Meloni’s run as the seasoned detective began in “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” which debuted in 1999. Stabler investigated New York’s “especially heinous” sex-based crimes with partner Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and other detectives in his unit for the show’s first 12 seasons. (The character was written off the show in advance of the Season 13 premiere because Meloni and NBC could not come to an agreement on a new contract.)
Stabler returned to “SVU” in 2021 for a crossover event that helped launch “Organized Crime,” a “Law & Order” spinoff focused on NYPD officers who track down “vicious and violent members of the underworld.” While the character has occasionally appeared in “SVU” episodes since his return, the end of “Organized Crime” likely means Meloni is done playing Stabler full time, at least for now. “Law & Order: SVU,” meanwhile, has been renewed for a 28th season.
“I had a great time playing him,” Meloni said in his Instagram message. “It was a great ride. Thank you. You helped give me a career that I never dreamed of. Nearly 17 odd years.”
There’s a couple somewhere in Los Angeles who unknowingly inspired the second season of “Beef.”
Lee Sung Jin, the creator of Netflix’s anthology drama that swirls in the consequences of class struggles, resentment and the absurdity of life’s curveballs, once again found himself inspired by a tense interaction playing out before him. A road rage incident at a stoplight in Hollywood a few years ago, triggered by Lee’s delayed response to a green light, became the catalyst for the first season. An early idea to write about a men’s doubles partnership gone awry lost its luster after “Challengers,” Luca Guadagnino’s drama about a love triangle between tennis pros, came out. But a heated argument coming from a house in Lee’s neighborhood became the next spark that lit a narrative fuse.
“I told the story to people — it caused a little stir in the neighborhood,” he says. “And what I found fascinating was the different reactions. When I told younger folks, I’d get, ‘Did you call the police? Should you go check on them again?’ Very concerned, having an ideological view on relationships. When I told the story to older friends and couples, they were just kind of like, ‘Who among us hasn’t?’ I thought the idea of juxtaposing these couples at different stages felt like ripe ground.”
The overheard in L.A. moment inspired the eight-episode season,
Carey Mulligan and Oscar Isaac square off with Charles Melton and Cailee Spaeny in Season 2 of “Beef.”
(Netflix)
The twist-filled, darkly comic thriller kicks off when a young couple, Ashley and Austin (Cailee Spaeny and Charles Melton), who work at a Montecito country club, witness the explosive altercation between their boss Josh (Oscar Isaac) and his wife, Lindsay (Carey Mulligan), an interior designer, the night before the club’s new Korean billionaire owner, Chairwoman Park (Youn Yuh-jung), takes over. She has her own mess to tend to involving her husband (Song Kang-ho), a doctor whose health is affecting his work on patients. The calamities each couple faces spin out into a web of favors and coercion in this tale of broken systems and characters going to great lengths to get what they want.
“The idea of cycles felt interesting,” he says. “A lot of shows and movies cover marriage through the lens of one couple, you don’t really see that multigenerational juxtaposition.”
Speaking from his office on the Raleigh Studios lot in Hollywood, Lee discussed the season’s Montecito setting, the financial anxiety that drives the story and the four-legged breakout star of the show. These are edited excerpts from the conversation, which includes many spoilers.
Why did you want to set this season in Montecito?
Just writing what I know. My goddaughters — their parents are my best friends. They live in Montecito. The dad is my oldest friend in LA. He has a membership to Montecito Club, which is where we shot the exterior of our show. I was house-sitting for him during the writing of all this. He let me use his membership. I remember when he told me about the membership, I was like, “You pay how much? That’s insane, dude.” But then you start using the membership. This idea of hedonic adaptation — how humans so quickly adapt to this new comfort, this new stimulus — it felt like an interesting thing. I was observing how all the members seemed to be mostly boomers and Silent Gen; then all the workers were Gen Z and millennial. I thought: What a perfect metaphor for society right now. No matter how hard the Gen Z and millennials work, they’re never going to get to be members of this club because, as Austin says, “everyone grabbed the bag before they could.” That’s what made me want to set it at a Montecito country club.
Oscar Isaac as Josh Martin and Carey Mulligan as Lindsay Crane-Martin. Cailee Spaeny as Ashley Miller and Charles Melton as Austin Davis. The second season of “Beef,” follows the two California couples from different socioeconomic backgrounds — though both are struggling — as they spiral into a high-stakes feud.(Netflix)
That feeling of survival and resentment and entitlement really looms over this season. There’s speeches about love, but also capitalism. The anxiety about finances is so prevalent right now.
We certainly didn’t set out to make a season about capitalism. But if you’re constantly trying to chase truth as writers, I don’t know how you say anything in the modern era, in 2026, and not have capitalism be a huge variable because it permeates every aspect of life. It’s like going to get gas. Gas is almost $7 right now. You have to fill your tank and there goes $140? That’s crazy. And relationships face so much stress — everyone is being hit by all these curveballs and trying to keep your head above water — how can you enjoy each other?
It became very obvious to us that if you’re going to write a season about marriage and love to these two couples, financial implications have to be a big factor. There’s a lot of talk about the disappearance of the American dream right now. Birth rates are declining. No one’s owning homes anymore. But then you also see headlines about everyone’s scamming. CVS has everything locked down. You’re like, “Yeah, no wonder.” Everything’s connected. We wanted to really show how that survival instinct, the desperation, is starting to come for everyone. I don’t think it’s going to get easier, especially with AI moving on the horizon, and with leaders who refuse to put checks and balances in place.
Part of Ashley’s story is using the video of the fight between Josh and Lindsay as blackmail to get health insurance so she can afford treatment for her endometriosis. And that moment where she’s waiting in the ER for hours and it’s not until she collapses that they realize she needs emergency surgery — her big concern is whether she has to pay the deductible.
I wrote that episode in a literal day because it was based on an experience I had in an ER with my daughter’s mother. She had this illness fall upon her. We spent 12 hours at the ER and, the whole time, I had my Notes app out and was just writing down everything I saw. Almost everything in that scene is stuff that happened in real life. Our healthcare system is absolutely insane. It’s, again, unhinged capitalism and … felt like it really unlocked so much of the season.
There’s a moment where Josh has to sell some of his prized possessions to pay a gambling debt. Have you been there, needing to sell things to cover your financial obligations?
I’ve been there multiple times. I obviously struggled to find my way for a long time, even after becoming a writer. If you’re in a writing partnership, in a staff job on a show — first of all, this is what the guild has been fighting, trying to get these longer-term employment windows because these jobs sometimes are only … maybe eight to 12 weeks. You’re splitting a staff salary in two [if you’re in a partnership], and you probably haven’t qualified for health insurance by the end of that run. Sure, you’re a working writer, but I remember [by the time I landed at] “Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” my first real writing job, I had amassed so much debt, half of which were from parking tickets. I just didn’t have the money to pay these tickets, and so I just let them run rampant. So, yeah, I’ve been there. There’s this one guitar that I loved; it was the first guitar I bought with my own money after college — it was a Fender Telecaster. I think I bought it for $1,200. I ended up selling it for $300. I’ve sold collectibles. I’ve sold anything that had gold in it. I’ve scrapped to just find anything because you’re desperate.
Song Kang-ho as Dr. Kim, Youn Yuh-jung as Chairwoman Park in “Beef.” Recalling the opportunity to direct the pair, Lee says: “It just makes me feel like a little kid again. It stops feeling like work and starts feeling like play.”
(Netflix)
You directed this season. Is there a moment that stands out with this cast?
A peak of my career that I think about daily is the moment in Korea where we were shooting at Amorepacific. It’s one of the most beautiful buildings in Seoul. I’m shooting the scene between the great Youn Yuh-jung and the great Song Kang-ho — two of not only my favorite Korean actors, but favorite actors period. They have never been in a scene together in any Korean film ever. They’ve been in a movie together, but never acted together. And here we are making Korean history by having them shoot that breakfast scene and, while I’m in the middle of shooting that scene, director Bong Joon Ho surprises us on set. He comes over laughing, pulls up to me, looks at my monitor, gives me stage fright, then elbows me and says, “You sure you want to frame it like that?” He was teasing. Then we started shooting the scene, it’s all in Korean, and I look back at video village and Bong’s just doubled over in laughter. He is just cracking up. Younger me, and present me, is looking around like: Here I am in Korea, in this building I’ve always wanted to shoot in, two of the greatest living actors and the greatest living director — what is happening? What a crazy sentence to say. It just makes me feel like a little kid again. It stops feeling like work and starts feeling like play.
How did you want race and identity to figure into this season, particularly through Austin?
Charles was the first piece of the whole thing. After Season 1, I got to go to Korea multiple times. I shot a music video for one of the members of BTS. I was experiencing Austin’s journey of being courted by this level of Korea that I’d never been exposed to before and feeling warm and allured by it — I’m having dinners with K-pop idols, like what is happening? So, I knew I wanted to have that element of elite Korea involved. The writers and I discussed a lot whether it should be a Korean American that’s being pulled. We had covered a lot of Korean American ground in Season 1, [but] one of the things we didn’t get to cover is the half-Korean experience. Several of the writers on staff are either half-Asian or half-Korean. We don’t want to repeat things, but let’s do explore a half-Korean character who is about to have a child suddenly get this pull toward Korea.
Carey Mulligan as Lindsay acting alongside Jones, the dog who plays Burberry, in “Beef.” “Jones is the best dog actor I’ve ever worked with,” Lee says. “A24 is making Burberry merch. There’s going to be a Burberry shirt.”
(Netflix)
There are some pretty gross, petty and violent acts of revenge. One is Ashley swirling her period blood in Josh and Lindsay’s pitcher of orange juice. The other takes place during a flight — Lindsay wiping gunk from the toilet seat and transferring it to the rim of the cup Ashley drinks from. Please explain how you arrived at these acts. Were there any left on the cutting room floor?
Episode 4 was pouring out of me. And I remember I got to the point where Ashley snooping through the house [where Lindsay and Josh live]. Initially, I had her scratching up the trophy. She opened Josh’s pomade and blew a snot booger into it. I was thinking of juvenile things. But I had the thought of her going to the kitchen and having the thing that happened to her being the expression of her revenge. I remember I was so nervous to show the [writers’] room. The way I wrote it, I had her crouching over the pitcher and Anna Moench, as the main female writer on the show, was like, “Sonny, I don’t think you know this works.” So, we revised it. That’s how the OJ one happened. With Episode 7 [and the toilet seat], we wanted to have a bodily episode on a plane, and there’s just such limited ways to get revenge on a plane. But given the OJ drink — there’s so many mirrors between the two couples, we thought it’d be fun to mirror that with a drink from Lindsay to Ashley. The only place to do that on a plane is bathroom. We shot it on stage with a fake toilet and Carey was almost vomiting. She came to me after that scene, and she goes, “Sonny, in all my years in this business, that is the most vile, disgusting thing I’ve ever had to do.”
The final moments of the finale jumps eight years. Did you always know you wanted a time jump? And did you always know Ashley and Austin were going to repeat the cycle?
The Ashley and Austin side, I knew the inverse graph for both characters would be very satisfying — to me, at least. I didn’t know whether that happened in a time jump or not. That’s something we discovered later. There was great debate in the room. I had a couple writers plead with me, “Why aren’t you ending with the kiss? It’s so sweet. It’s so good. I feel so good at the kiss. Can we just end it at the kiss?” I took it very seriously, but then it felt very similar to Season 1’s ending. Taking two people who start apart and they finally discover that connection but too late. I didn’t want to leave with the same feeling. How we can make it different is the “what happens next?” Life comes at you fast. He’s [Josh] still in prison. She’s [Lindsay] got to move on. Once I started heading down that thought experiment, I’m like, “Whoa, you could do a whole coda showing the literal theme of the show, the cycles, that’s where we can show Ashley and Austin becoming Josh and Lindsay.” That’s where we show, even though they found a connection, it’s lost between Josh and Lindsay — even if they’re still hanging on to the past a little bit. You show Troy and Ava still together [laughs] — they have it all figured out. Then you show the billionaire who, even with all the money in the world, is crying at the graveside of her first love, filled with regret.
We didn’t see where Eunice (Seoyeon Jang)ends up.
I wanted to leave it open. I’m very curious what people think. She really put her neck out there. Austin burned her bad. I don’t know where Eunice is at but it’s probably not good.
Charles Melton as Austin Davis in “Beef.”
(Netflix)
We can’t talk about “Beef” without discussing the needle drops. When you have Austin listening to Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?” it was over for me.
The needle drops are usually pre-picked even before we shoot. The source music that’s playing diegetically, usually we discover in the edit. Before, as scripted, it had him scrolling Instagram and it was [the song playing on] his Instagram feed — you know how those Reels have music overlayed on a POV? It just wasn’t that funny to me in the edit. He’s so down and out and I wanted to find different source music in there. One day, I told my editor, “Can you rip ‘What Was I Made For?’ And can you just temporarily do it where, as she opens the door, he’s like, pressing the volume up, being like ‘sh— … sh— …’ [intending to make the volume go down]?” Our AE [assistant editor] did the ADR temporarily of the “sh—, sh—,” filmed it on my phone and I texted it to Finneas [O’Connell, the show’s composer, who is Eilish’s brother and collaborator] being like, “Hey, is it cool if we do this?” And he was dying laughing. [O’Connell also makes a cameo in the season.]
Ahead of Season 1, you gifted the writers “The Sopranos Sessions” and also assembled a Letterboxd list of films that served as reference points. What guidance did you provide for Season 2?
I sent another Letterboxd playlist. For inspo, we got “Handmaiden,” “Phantom Thread,” “Force Majeure,” “Eyes Wide Shut,” “The Informant.” For some reason, I have “Margaret” on there, the [Kenneth] Lonergan film. I also had “Michael Clayton,” “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” “Burn After Reading,” and lastly, it’s a deep cut, there’s this movie called “Like Crazy,” starring Felicity Jones and Anton Yelchin.
Also, can we take a moment for Burberry’s acting?
Oh my god, Jones! Jones is the best dog actor I’ve ever worked with. He would hit his mark. He would listen. He would look at people when he’s supposed to be looking. It was his first time acting. Crushed it. A24 is making Burberry merch. There’s going to be a Burberry shirt.
JACK Fincham was spotted leaving casting for a new reality TV show just days after opening up about his rebab and homelessness.
The former Love Island star, 34, flashed a big smile as he emerged from a studio in Soho wearing a retro tracksuit.
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Jack Fincham was spotted leaving casting for a new reality TV showCredit: w8mediaThe Love Island star opened up about being homeless and his stint in rehabCredit: w8mediaJack relapsed into drinking and drugs and had just £20 to his nameCredit: w8media
Jack looked pleased with himself after he met with producers for a big project for a Channel 5 show.
He sported a retro look in an 1980s Sergio Tacchini tracksuit which caught the attention of a few passer by who stopped to take selfies with Jack.
Jack added a pair of aviator sunglasses to his look and black trainers.
He looked in a high spirits after spending the afternoon with bosses for a secret new telly appearance, which is yet to be announced.
Jack opened up on life post rehab as he took to Instagram.
He admitted that he’s currently homeless and is not sure where to go moving forward as there’s nothing “much left” for him in England.
He said: “In case anyone is wondering where I am, I’m staying a hotel with the dog. I’m just gonna reset and work out what to do and where I wanna live.
“Got my beautiful dog Elvis, without him I probably wouldn’t even be here to be honest.”
Jack has owned his black Cane Corso dog, named Elvis, since at least September 2022, when the dog was involved in a biting incident.
Despite legal trouble regarding the dog being “dangerously out of control” in 2022 and June 2024, Jack has expressed his attachment to the pet.
He then spent two months receiving £32k of treatment at Rainford Hall, MerseysideCredit: Louis WoodJack credited his pet dog Elvis for helping him get through his darkest timesCredit: Louis Wood
The second incident that occurred in June 2024 led to a suspended sentence for Jack in 2025.
Meanwhile, Jack’s relationship with his family hasn’t been the same since he returned home.
Jack added: “One thing they told me in rehab and it’s true, you’re not gonna walk out of rehab to a red carpet rolled out for you because it’s stuff you should have been doing anyway.”
He also thanked the staff from his rehab, saying “that level of kindness I wasn’t used to for a while, I found it quite alien.”
Jack remains optimistic and hopes to get back into TV, saying: “I’m gonna do my acting and get back into TV work, I’m gonna do all the things I said I was gonna do.”
Jack previously did a stint in rehab back in 2021, but relapsed before Christmas last year.
He spoke of the spiral back in January, he explained: “Since then I have done drugs, I have done laughing gas.
“I have been so drunk that I’ve kissed a woman over Christmas and don’t even remember doing it. I’m embarrassed, mortified. I feel like an idiot.
“I am a 33-year-old man. I should be settled down, married. Instead I need help.”
Jack first shot to fame on Love Island, where he won over the nation with his charm and went on to win the series.
Back when late-night TV sets were still the primary route for a comedian to reach a mainstream audience, Ari Shaffir found a different way to make his mark. It started with creating a show where comics could tell completely uncensored, unhinged real-life stories. What started as a live show grew into “This Is Not Happening” on Comedy Central, and later, into “Ari Shaffir’s Renamed Storytelling Show,” building a loyal fan base along the way, with clips still making the rounds 15 years later.
Supporting shows leads to new opportunities, and while Shaffir’s latest chapter may close the book on his storytelling run, his final offering is certainly a strong one. Aptly titled “The End,” and taped live at the Box NYC, this seven-part series will be released and available for purchase through YMH Studios on Thursday , and it’s jam-packed with comedians that quite literally might kill you. Especially one.
The lineup is too stacked to leave anyone out, so buckle up for wild, unforgettable stories from Shaffir, Tom Segura, Ali Siddiq, Nate Bargatze, Tony Hinchcliffe, Ms. Pat, Shane Gillis, Sam Tallent, Steph Tolev, Jim Breuer, Robert Kelly, Chris Distefano, Big Jay Oakerson, Jordan Jensen, Joe List, Steve Simeone, Mark Normand, Duncan Trussell, Roy Wood Jr., Jessa Reed, Sarah Tollemache, Dan Soder and Colum Tyrrell.
Dan Soder, left, and Shane Gillis appear in Chapter 6.
(Troy Conrad)
Everyone’s stories are so next–level, and I almost choke-laughed and died during Ms. Pat’s. It also looks incredible, tell me everything about the room.
Ari Shaffir: The room is called the Box, and it’s this burlesque place. Or maybe you call it modern burlesque because it’s not just those feathers. I really don’t know, but I feel like burlesque has evolved and that’s what this place is. It’s kinda crazy, and it’s definitely a night out. Dave Chappelle used to have these “comedian balls,” which were so cool because he would just invite comics. Like, all of the comics. He’d invite everyone out and pretty much without saying it was like, talk to each other and trade ideas about the industry. It was just so cool in there, and we scouted a bunch of places, but the look of this place, it was just right.
It makes so much sense that the room is called the Box now, visually.
What you saw wasn’t even color-corrected, so I appreciate it. I went to test the sound because we put the stage in a different place. It moves around and we just thought it looked better with all the red, but I wanted to hear what the sound was like when they were not on the stage too. They were like, oh the emcee will have a cordless as they move around, and I watched it, and it was great. But man, I was so f— up on molly that I was grinding my teeth so hard that I cracked a molar, so yeah, that place rules!
Ali Siddiq appears in Chapter 7.
(Troy Conrad)
Well, the room took my breath away, kinda like the lord took your solid tooth away. It’ll make sense to fans of your podcast You Be Trippin’ that ‘The End’ is produced by YMH Studios, but how did this series even end up happening?
Tom [Segura] and I have a relationship, we were openers for Rogan together, and we were kinda broke together, so we just talk about things. He’s so funny and prolific and I like talking things out with him. I talked to him about doing my special “Jew” too, but they were busy with the show, and you know back then, people weren’t jumping on getting into YouTube specials. So I had a chance to think about doing this show over the pandemic and finally was like, alright, let’s start working on this, and they said, “Come talk to us about it because we can help you now.” They have a great infrastructure there, and a streaming service too, so it’s like they already have everything built in, and Tom was like, “Dude, this show meant a lot to me, and we should make it again.” It’s not going to be a huge moneymaker for Tom, you know, it’s like pro bono work for lawyers, so it’s really cool of them. Another cool thing about this is the way the staff kicked in too. They’re all super talented, and kind of wasting their time on podcasts because they’re more talented than that, but it’s cool to work with a family and I liked the way they really took ownership of the work they did.
They’re a well-oiled machine of fun over there! With so many wild stories in the mix, is there anyone you are especially excited for people to see?
I’m excited to show some people new people. Even with the live shows, it’s always like, let me show you two headliners you know, a mid-level guy you’ll know and let me show you two people that you just don’t know. That’s what stand-up is in New York, L.A. and even Austin. There are some killers no one has ever heard of, and they’re destroyers. So I’m excited to show people Colum Tyrrell because he rules, he’s so funny, and his story is great. Tony Hinchcliffe’s story was really good, he’s just a monster storyteller in every sense of the word now. I just rewatched all of these a few times in a row for sound, and Roy Wood Jr. is so smooth it makes me feel like I’m needy and insecure on the stage. He’s just so calm and so good you’re like, “Damn, I’ve never been this smooth.” Sam Tallent is going to be one people talk about, Jim Breuer is so great, Steph Tolev crushed it with something fun and interesting and wow, this is really tough. Every time I’m doing a promo for this show it’s like, but what about this person, and this one?
It was also nice to see past killers on, definitely love to see the classics doing something new.
Yeah, having Big Jay [Oakerson] back was a key because he’s on the Mount Rushmore of this show, and we have three of those on “The End.” Jay, Ms. Pat and Ali Siddiq. We couldn’t get Sean Patton out because he was shooting something, and Bert [Kreischer] had a movie or something with his daughter moving or maybe it was a graduation…
Ms. Pat, from left, Ari Shaffir, Dan Soder, Duncan Trussell, Shane Gillis and Colum Tyrrell.
(Troy Conrad)
What a funny world, though, if Bert Kreischer paid to have a graduation moved so he could do your show.
Yes! Just pay the school to move the graduation for a week! Don’t you make like $50 million a year? It’s so funny how it used to be crazy to think of someone making $100 million and now there are like 10 comics who make at least half of that. And without doing press! It is really cool, though, I haven’t paid for lunch in so long. And Ali Siddiq has become so huge, he’s like the success story of this storytelling show in its entirety. Everyone got helped a little bit, but Ali kind of broke off of these stories and to see him so successful and still so smooth, it’s really cool. You can’t be “niche” doing arenas, and there’s this independent boom that’s not going to wait for anybody. So it’s another big win for us, it’s our turn in the whole story of this.
So then is this really “The End” or could it be a new start?
There is a very, very small percentage of a chance that it comes back. The plan is that this is it, and that’s why we called it that. I’m just glad you liked the show. I’m glad you liked the look and the intimacy, and that you picked up on all of that. It feels so long ago that you forget, but that’s so awesome to hear because it was a lot of fun. I think comedy fans that knew about the show before will want to see more of it because it’s just this funny televised storytelling, and they missed it. And everything turns over every five years anyway, so new people can now be like, actual stories being told like this in front of an audience? What is this cool new thing?
Netflix fans have been raving about a lesser-known comedy crime show starring, as they beg for a second series of the ‘cosy’ White House murder mystery to be made
Alice Sjoberg Social News Reporter
14:41, 16 Apr 2026
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With an enormous number of TV programmes and films accessible on streaming platforms, it can be overwhelming to settle on what to watch. As a result, many people frequently turn to recommendations from friends, family, or even strangers online to determine their next viewing choice. This was precisely the situation for one Reddit user, who headed to the Netflix forum seeking a suggestion for their next watch, but stipulated it had to be a bingeable programme with only one series.
“Best Series on Netflix (Only One Season) Like a Must Watch Binging Series,” they wrote in the headline of the post.
They continued: “Please drop the best one season series down below. I mean like I’d want to watch it all in one sitting because of how good it is. Like suspenseful, action, cliff-hangers. Maybe a really sad part where I get very attached to the characters! Anything!!”
Fellow Netflix enthusiasts promptly descended on the comments section to share their top picks across a variety of genres. However, one programme stood out from the crowd, as fans lauded its characters and overall storyline.
Sky is giving away a free Netflix subscription with its new Sky Stream TV bundles, including the £15 Essential TV plan.
This lets members watch live and on-demand TV content without a satellite dish or aerial and includes hit shows like Stranger Things and The Last of Us.
“Really liked the comedy The Residence,” one person shared. To this, someone else added: “So pi**ed they aren’t doing more. It was gold!
“Such a fun show,” another person said, while another wrote: “I freaking LOVED this one. So much. Great rec.”
The Residence is an American mystery comedy drama TV series exclusive to Netflix. The debut and only series launched in 2025, and centres on an eccentric detective named Cordelia Cupp as she attempts to solve a murder that took place in the White House during a state dinner for the Australian Prime Minister.
As the investigation unfolds, interpersonal tensions amongst the residence’s staff come to light, with both personnel and dinner guests emerging as potential suspects.
The programme has earned an impressive 84% score on Rotten Tomatoes, alongside a rating of 7.7 out of 10 on IMDb. Viewers frequently rave about the endearing central character and the captivating storyline.
“A fantastic “cosy”-style mystery: light, wickedly clever, and keeps you guessing to the very hand,” one viewer wrote in their IMDb review.
They went on to say: “Uzo Aduba as Cordelia Cup is a great lead. The supporting cast has additional strong characters as well, though some of these portrayals are less even. As much as I enjoyed the first season and wish for more, I find it hard to imagine how a second season could live-up to the first: further developing the Cup character (so that she is not just a repetition of the Cup we already know) will be hard.”
Another viewer remarked: “For those who find this series too long consider this, the plot, the mystery and all the plot twists are not nearly as important as the comedy and the wonderful performances in this fun story. It was smart without being pedantic, funny without being crude or silly, and engaging without pandering.”
