show

The popular TV show first aired earlier this year with Traitors star Jonathan Ross at the helm.

The series was a huge hit with fans as contestants competed to win £100,000.

It’s been confirmed that Channel 4’s popular show Handcuffed: Last Pair Standing will be back for a second series, with presenter Jonathan Ross returning to front the programme.

Described as an ‘outrageous social experiment’, the series follows a group of strangers who have completely opposite beliefs, opinions, lifestyles and habits as they’re handcuffed in pairs.

Being together 24/7, each duo needs to try and outlast the other competitors as they take part in the ‘ultimate test of survival’, which will see them win a huge cash prize if they become the last pair standing.

In series one, which had moments of high emotion, tension and heated arguments, Channel 4 viewers saw practical homemaker Charlie win the show with adult content creator Rob, and take home a collective £100,000.

Channel 4 Commissioning Editor Tim Hancock said: “Part of Channel 4’s job is to reflect every corner of Britain, and not just the loudest or most comfortable parts.

“Handcuffed does that better than almost anything else on our slate, and its return is a vote of confidence in formats built on genuine difference.”

The first series was a huge streaming success, as over 2 million views were recorded from episode one alone, with it doing particularly well with people aged between 16 and 34.

Tom Clarke, Executive Producer, 72 Films, a Fremantle Company added: “The first series of Handcuffed got the nation talking, especially in demographics we’re often told have left TV behind.

“We’re thrilled viewers enjoyed the high-octane thrills and spills of the competition, along with the oodles of heart our pairs delivered as they really got to know each other.”

People have had nothing but praise when speaking about the programme since it aired, with many calling it ‘brilliant’.

One person said: “Ch4 #handcuffed is brilliant, it needs a big launch next year, it’s basically big brother but handcuffed with no escape. Another wrote: “Well, @Channel4 #handcuffed was absolutely brilliant TV. What a journey!”

Someone else commented: “I really hope handcuffed gets more seasons i’ve been absolutely hooked on it #handcuffed .” While a fourth shared:” #handcuffed What a great show, I’m loving this.”

It’s not yet known when the second series of the Channel 4 show will air.

Handcuffed: Last Pair Standing is available to watch on Channel 4.

The Magic Castle is getting in on the theme park game.

The famed Hollywood institution is teaming up with Knott’s Berry Farm for its after-hours Halloween event, Knott’s Scary Farm, now in its 53rd year. The Magic Castle will supply the artists and show direction for a production that is expected to run nightly in the park’s recently refurbished Bird Cage Theatre.

The theme park initially reached out to the Magic Castle last year, says Payden Adams, vice president of entertainment for Knott’s Berry Farm, but the castle was in the middle of a leadership reorganization at the time. With that completed, a partnership could finally begin.

“It is just astounding what they’ve done with the Bird Cage Theatre,” says Jessica Hopkins, granddaughter of castle pioneers Bill and Irene Larsen and the castle’s chief operating officer. “Magic Castle magicians have been performing in there for decades. It just felt right.”

The magic shows will take place at the park’s recently refurbished Bird Cage Theatre.

(Kyusung Gong / For The Times)

Curating Knott’s magic show will be Rudy Coby, a resident magician at the Magic Castle. Coby performed at Knott’s about 35 years ago and credits the park in helping him get his start. He says the new show, “Occultum,” will vary by week with different performers lined up throughout the Halloween season. Knott’s Scary Farm begins Sept. 17.

And yet, says Coby, “Not every magician is for this audience.” So what’s the differentiating factor for a Halloween magic show?

“It’s a little more edgy,” Coby says. “You really have to grab their attention. It’s the TikTok generation.”

Some of the illusions Coby says he will bring to Knott’s Scary Farm would be “too intense for the Magic Castle.”

“The ideas I’ve had, with chainsaws and cutting off my limbs, I couldn’t get away with at the Magic Castle,” he says.

“But you can here,” says Hopkins.

The Magic Castle-headlined show is not the only new addition to Scary Farm in 2026. Here are two other reasons I’m looking forward to the event.

Inked: A new maze with killer vintage cartoons

Concept art for the new Knott’s Scary Farm maze, Inked.

(Knott’s Berry Farm)

One of the two new mazes coming to Knott’s Scary Farm will rely heavily on black-and-white, vintage-style animation. Inked, as it’s called, will be set in the 1930s, and was introduced at a media event with a song-and-dance production that recalled Disney’s classic Silly Symphony “The Skeleton Dance.”

The story centers on Mortimer Morbid, a deadbeat, down-on-his-luck animator whose career changes — not necessarily for the better — when it’s discovered his blood can bring his drawings to life. Of course, cartoons infused with blood don’t have the most altruistic desires.

Inked designer Daniel Miller says the maze took two years to create, largely because Knott’s conceived the animation for the walk-through in-house with a team of four. Most every room in the haunted house is expected to feature original media, as the animated creations will be represented both in their cartoon form and as costumed characters.

And it’ll be gruesome.

“We kind of geared it around the notion that they’re bloodthirsty,” Miller says of the killer ‘toons. “We see all the animators in various stages of disembowelment.”

Sheesh. Animators have it hard enough today already.

Expect the unexpected with ‘Voodoo: Bayou’s Edge’ and Unearthed

Concept art for Unearthed, a new Knott’s Scary Farm maze.

(Knott’s Berry Farm)

Knott’s Scary Farm, unlike its main SoCal competitor, doesn’t rely on known film and television properties. That means the event can generally get a little … weirder. You see that in its mazes, as noted above, as well as in its theatrical productions. Also new this year is a show titled “Voodoo: Bayou’s Edge,” which takes place on an outdoor stage. The production centers on a voodoo queen and the mysterious happenings in a cemetery. Knott’s is pitching it as a music, dance-focused show.

And while voodoo can potentially be a culturally sensitive subject to tackle in a theme park, the show comes from the mind of the respected Rovin Jay, who has long been closely involved in the park’s spectacular “Ghost Town Alive!” Expect “big dance numbers” and something “really sexy,” says Adams.

Another new maze, Unearthed, will be set in the present day but takes its cues from films such as “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “The Mummy” as it deals with a supernatural archaeological dig. Maze designer Jon Asperin says it will have numerous interactive elements, such as effects triggered by guests pulling a lever.

“Having the ability to come up with original stories lets us tap into the nerd in all of us,” says Asperin. “We don’t feel restricted by certain IP or things that may not be appropriate. We get a chance to challenge ourselves with trying out new things that some folks won’t take a risk on.”

This week in SoCal theme parks

The Disneyland attraction Mad Tea Party as it was under construction just months before the park opened. The image is from the documentary “Disneyland Handcrafted.”

(Disney+)

• A must–see Disney history event. Nonprofit creative institution Ryman Arts, in partnership with Santa Ana’s Bowers Museum, will host a talk and cocktail reception centered around a screening of Leslie Iwerks’ documentary “Disneyland Handcrafted” on Sept. 27. It’s a charity event, and a good one, as the panel lineup is top notch. Historian and author Tim O’Day will moderate a talk that includes the film’s producer, Mark Catalena, former Imagineer-turned-historian Tom Morris and current Imagineer Emily “Emo” O’Brien, who oversees creative at Disneyland and is leading the team behind the just-announced makeover of Tomorrowland. Don’t expect any insights on the latter, of course, but do anticipate a lively talk on the evolution of Disneyland. Tickets start at $125 and are on sale now.
• Stay seated on Tiana’s — or else. Disneyland has updated signage around Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, warning guests that they will be removed from the park if they stand up while on the log-flume adventure, reported Times writer Hannah Fry. The changes come less than two months after a 13-year-old boy climbed out of a log flume and fell 50 feet.
• Exciting Disneyland construction news. Big changes are coming to Disneyland, and while many are years away, the positive sign is that the park is wasting no time in getting started. There are now indications of construction in Disneyland’s esplanade between its two parks. This will pave the way for a new parking garage, of which groundbreaking has just begun, as well an entrance experience on the eastern side of the resort. This is the first of many steps, but one that must be completed before Disney begins its wider expansion that could bring attractions such as “Avatar” to the resort.

Ride report

A photo of the Haunted Mansion’s new gingerbread house, as snapped from my ride vehicle.

(Todd Martens / Los Angeles Times)

Merry Christmas! Yes, that’s right, as the Haunted Mansion has been given a Christmas-heavy makeover, as always focused on “Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas.” (And yes, before the debate begins, it’s clearly a Christmas movie.) While I prefer the original Haunted Mansion, there are plenty of fun and clever details in the seasonal makeover that still make it a must-experience attraction. The attic scene, for instance, is full of clever nods to Disney history, including a Rolly Crump-inspired melting candelabra man. Each year I wonder if what I’m seeing is brand new, or was always there, such as what appeared to be a tiny bride figurine.

But one change is guaranteed: Each season Disneyland’s team concocts a new gingerbread house for the ballroom diorama. This year’s edition is a giant, candy-infused music box-like creation, which gradually opens as guests glide past it and a skeleton pops out. The concoction is designed in the shape of the Haunted Mansion itself, so it’s a little mansion-within-a-mansion. And, bonus, the room smells like gingerbread.

The best thing I ate at the parks this week

The delicious pumpkin cookie from Disneyland’s Harbour Galley.

(Todd Martens / Los Angeles Times)

I love a cookie, and Disneyland’s Harbour Galley has the best one on the property this Halloween season with its pumpkin creation. They’re small-ish — three or four bites — but come in packs of 6 ($8.49) or 13 ($14.49). They’re soft, slightly chewy and addictive. I love it when I get a little brown sugar crystal in my mouthful. The pumpkin flavor isn’t overpowering. It’s closer to a ginger snap than it is a slice of pumpkin pie, meaning it has just the right balance of sugar and spice. It‘s also, it should be noted, one of the best values at the resort for a dessert item. I get a pack of 13 and have breakfast for a week.

Tell us your stories. Ask us your questions.

Have a theme park tale to share? Whether it was a good day or less-than-perfect day, I would love to hear about it. Have a question? A tip? A fun photo from the parks to share? Email me at todd.martens@latimes.com. I may feature your note in an upcoming newsletter.

Ride on,

Todd Martens

P.S.

The Walt Disney Co. stated that it will soon reimagine Disneyland’s Tomorrowland at its fan convention D23. The move has been one fans have long clamored for.

(Todd Martens / Los Angeles Times)

The topic consuming most Disneyland fans for the next few years will be the Tomorrowland reimagining. The project is just getting started, and I’ll refrain from offering a wishlist. Let the Imagineers do their work, I say, although I consider all of it, save for the monorail and Space Mountain, on the table. Gut it. Start over. But reader Peter La Barba of Long Beach wrote in with a request that I wouldn’t disapprove of.

“Whatever they do, I hope they restore the two Mary Blair murals that were in Tomorrowland,” La Barba wrote. “I’d like to see optimism restored to Tomorrowland. I was about 3 or 4 when we went to the park in August of 1955 and I wanted to live in that future. Not the incessant war future of ‘Star Wars.’”

Hear, hear. The murals of animator/fine artist Blair were a wonder, full of children of the world in celebration mode. Flying contraptions! Communication devices! Satellites! Planets! I don’t have an image safe to use, so head over to Disney history site Yesterland for a look. The two murals lasted until the ’80s and ’90s, and replacing them was a mistake that’s only looked more shortsighted over time. As Blair’s work continues to grow in stature, who needs another “Star Wars” painting?

Jack Tucker descends from the rafters inside L.A.’s Montalbán Theatre like a kamikaze crash landing into his big moment. He’s flanked by fountain fireworks while a buff guitarist with a blond mullet and glittery spandex shorts wails on guitar to the tune of Lenny Kravitz’s cover of “American Woman.” With the garish gusto of a WWE wrestler, Tucker’s entrance as the ringleader of the show “Stamptown” electrifies the stage.

But the show truly starts when it falls apart with technical mishaps. Everything breaks, guns go off, an illusionist loses his clothes and jumps fully nude into the crowd — all within the first five minutes.

It’s a chaotic comedy world created by classically trained performers, including clowns, who’ve studied the art of physical humor and shredded the rule book. For more than 10 years the Stamptown troupe led by Tucker, the alter ego of comedian Zach Zucker, has created an insane asylum on stage — from Elysian Theater in Echo Park to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. The show’s comedy thrives on failure, interruption and never actually getting to the “script.” This week the madness leaps from the stage to the screen as Stamptown premieres its first Netflix special Tuesday.

“This is a lot of people’s first time being exposed to this,” Zucker said, cracking a mischievous smile while sitting in a red velvet chair inside the empty Elysian Theater where his crew has performed “Stamptown” for years. “I have seen a man light his penis on fire 45 times in my show. I forget that when it comes to comedy, most people are used to seeing a person with one microphone stand still and talk.”

Filmed over the course of three performances during Netflix Is a Joke Fest in May, the spliced together “Stamptown” special directed by Rachel Lee Goldenberg and edited by show co-creator Dylan Woodley captures the chaos of clowning mixed with a cerebral roast of traditional comedy and plenty of playful danger. The result isn’t a piece of art but rather “a pile of art,” Zucker said.

“Our strength is being a ‘you gotta see it to believe it’ type of performance, but if I really had to boil it down, it’s a modern day vaudevillian variety show that features any and all alternative performances … our ethos is, ‘against all odds, this show works,’ ” Zucker said.

Zach Zucker tosses props in the air inside the Elysian Theater.

(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)

On a recent afternoon, the lanky, mustachioed Zucker, wearing a T-shirt, ballcap and small hoop earrings, bears little resemblance to his comic alter ego who sports a tattered suit with gag props stuffed in every pocket. In real life, the New York native is a former baseball and basketball star athlete who went down an extremely different path to become “a bisexual traveling clown.” After enrolling in what he assumed would be an easy acting class during his senior year of high school, Zucker became obsessed with improv and comedy. His teacher advised him to check out the renowned improv troupe Second City. So he flew to Chicago to see the show “Spoiler Alert: Everybody Dies” featuring Tim Robinson, Sam Richardson, Timothy Edward Mason and more. “It changed my life,” he said.

After taking up comedy classes and street performances on the East Coast, Zucker quickly transitioned to working in theater and eventually moved to L.A. at 18 to pursue comedy, interning at Upright Citizens Brigade. He scrubbed toilets in exchange for free improv classes. It was at UCB where he first crossed paths with celebrated clown teacher Philippe Gaulier, whose former students include Sacha Baron Cohen, Rachel Weisz and Geoffrey Rush. The wily, frizzy-haired Frenchman with red-framed spectacles taught Zucker everything he knows about clowning.

“Our strength is being a ‘you gotta see it to believe it’ type of performance, but if I really had to boil it down, it’s a modern day vaudevillian variety show that features any and all alternative performances … our ethos is, ‘against all odds, this show works,’” Zach Zucker said.

(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)

“Philippe is by far my greatest influence,” Zucker said. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about him or that I’m not actively implementing all the lessons he taught me as a man and as an artist.”

One of those lessons became the ethos of “Stamptown”: “If you’re having fun, maybe we like you. If you’re not having fun, for sure we hate you.”

Inspired by his wisdom, Zucker moved to France for two years to study with Gaulier. It was there that he met his future “Stamptown” collaborator Jonny Woolley, a Canadian performer who became the show’s sound tech, adding to the menagerie of aural mayhem through sound effects that punctuate the show’s every move.

“There’s a lot of different ways of approaching clowning, but ultimately, for us, it’s more of a philosophical approach to making art than it is like a rigorous set of rules or styles. It’s just being a lovable idiot,” Woolley said.

The name “Stamptown” is a tribute to the place where they learned their artform: the town of Estampes (which loosely translates to “Stamp”) in France where they studied with Gaulier, who died this year before the special was filmed.

Though he‘s known for his offbeat humor, Zucker’s brain is firing on a perpetual metronome. He’s snapping his fingers incessantly during our interview while describing the comedic timing of each show, which grooves like a jazz band on stage.

”Sometimes there’s a few different rhythms that I’m balancing at once. I can really zone in on what is the most fruitful at the moment while still keeping these other balls in the air,” he said. “Thankfully we’re not always pushing a message. Sometimes it is just about entertaining the crowd at all costs.”

Before “Stamptown,” Zucker was performing with Norwegian friend and fellow clown Viggo Venn as “Zach & Viggo,” a side act in the original variety show Zucker started with his friends in 2017 in Melbourne called “Midnight Madness” that eventually turned into “Stamptown.”

Working with Venn, Woolley and Woodley, Zucker devised the show to include a rotating cast of clowns, and comedic performers from around the world, including L.A. Staples in the local clown community include the slapstick of clown kingpin Chad Damiani playing a janitor, comedic actor Natalie Palamides as a comedy nepo fetus birthed by Riki Lindhome of “Garfunkel and Oates” and the riotously robotic gyrations of Courtney Pauroso as fembot temptress Vanessa 5000.

“‘Stamptown’ is extraordinary; it’s finely calculated nonsense,” said actor Neil Patrick Harris, a longtime friend and supporter of Zucker who appears on the Netflix special, in a statement to The Times. “Each performance is unique — stand-ups colliding with circus artists, and improvisers swapping talents and fluids, even the stagehands’ utter chaos and running gags, a ridiculous fever dream … it’s absurdly genius.”

The international performers who have become part of the “Stamptown” universe run the gamut from jugglers to steel drum players to acrobats to pianists. Trans comedian Jordan Gray is extremely unafraid to bare it all, including her soul, when behind the piano. The physicality of the performances goes beyond regional references and punchlines that might get some laughs in one country but not in others. Venn says it’s clear that at their core people tend to share the same sense of humor.

“It was fascinating to us to see that in Australia and France and England and the U.S., they really laugh at the same things if it’s like a deeply human kind of failure,” Venn said. “That’s the beauty of this show.”

Zach Zucker sits inside the Elysian Theater in Los Angeles.

(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)

A tangled web of masterfully timed sound effects has unintentionally become the heartbeat of “Stamptown” . With Woolley now living full time in London, the duties for the U.S. shows were recently passed down to fellow performer Jeremy Elder, who did the sounds for the Netflix special tapings. He says the show is at its best when they throw out the game plan for the night, even while filming for Netflix.

“I think it’s as soon as we went off script, the audience could feel that. In the final product, we planned so much, but once you’re in the room with people it’s a very clown-like sentiment to just roll with what the audience is feeling,” Elder said.

While traditional stand-up is Netflix’s bread and butter for comedy programming, this form of comedy is mostly a target for mockery in “Stamptown” to show how limiting it is compared with the physical comedy of clowning. The one caveat, Zucker says — a clown is by far the most embarrassing brand of comedian you can be.

“It’s not cool, you don’t do this to be cool,” he said, laughing. “The whole point is that with all the love and fantasy and pleasure of your life, you have to step in a bucket of s— over and over and over and enjoy it. ‘Isn’t it awesome how I humiliate myself for you?’ And you embrace it.”

SAMANTHA Fox has been forced to cancel her upcoming show on ‘medical advice’ after suffering from ‘ongoing pain.’

She became one of the country’s most famous women almost overnight after her debut on The Sun in February 1983.

Her Page 3 career also became the launch pad to a world of lavish celebrity parties and later for her global success as a pop star, with 30million record sales.

Samantha, 60, continues to perform and was set to appear at Hard Rock Live in Florida at the end of August alongside a string of other stars.

However, she has cancelled her appearance and took to Instagram to share a statement with fans.

She captioned the image: “Sorry, I’m truly so upset about doing this, I think in 40 years this is only the 3rd time I’ve had to cancel a show.

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“Getting the right treatment now but the worst is the pain, love you Foxys. I’ll be fighting fit soon love Sammy.”

In the statement, Samantha explained that she had been struggling with ongoing back and hip pain for some time and following medical advice, it wasn’t possible for her to make a long-haul journey.

She explained: “I absolutely hate letting my fans down, as well as everyone who worked so hard and was looking forward to the show.”

Samantha also revealed she was heartbroken to withdraw from the event as she was so excited to be back performing in America.

She added: “This isn’t goodbye America, I am determined to get myself properly fit and well.

“I very much hope to return to the USA for a live show again very soon.”

Fans flocked to comment and one wrote: “I hope you get better soon and sending you so much love and positive energy!

“Us fans in the US will be here with open arms when you return someday, until then, I hope you stay healthy and get well.”

Another said: “Sending lots of love and well wishes!”

“Your health is the most important! I wish a speedy recovery for you,” wrote another fan.

A fourth added: “I am so sorry that you have to cancel but your health is the most important! Get well soon.”

BBC Breakfast viewers were left distracted from the headlines by a major new format change.

BBC Breakfast viewers noticed a major change moments into the programme.

BBC Breakfast returned on Monday, August 24, with Ben Thompson joining Sally Nugent as he stepped in for Jon Kay.

Headlines of the day focused on the Middlesbrough crash on Saturday that left seven people, including two police officers, dead, as well as the return of the Premier League, with a tribute to Kevin Keegan during Newcastle’s match against Liverpool.

However, viewers were left distracted by a BBC Breakfast format change, with the graphics on screen given a major revamp.

Instead of the red timebox and headlines running at the bottom of the screen, the studio background graphics are in blue, while the taglines at the bottom of the screen are now also in a red to blue gradient, and highlighting what is coming up in the show.

“Can’t the producers decide on ONE colour for graphics?” one person fumed. Another said: “These captions are annoying, get rid, if I want captions I will turn the subtitles on.”

“Why have they tried to make the graphics look like a mobile phone? They look ridiculous,” a third seethed. Another replied: “That’s what I thought. And I don’t like it.”

Someone else said: “I can’t concentrate on two things at once so I’m either trying to read that extremely small text or watching the news report.”

“Someone been at the crayons.. what’s with the colour scheme?” yet another said, as someone else wrote: “So weird.”

Another viewer said they “hated” the change, as one person added: “Might just as well watch ITV now they’ve put this s**t on the screen and dumb down completely.”

Someone else called it “really rubbish”, as another fumed: “Ffs – get rid of these annoying captions! They are very distracting & totally unnecessary!”

One added: “#bbcbreakfast have obviously misjudged the demographic of their early morning viewers with this new format.”

This comes after the BBC Breakfast team celebrated National Television Award nominations, during an edition of the show last week.

As two nominations include heartfelt documentaries from the BBC Breakfast team, Jon shared how “honoured” they were.

Meanwhile, BBC Breakfast’s rivals Good Morning Britain have been nominated in the Daytime category alongside James Martin’s Saturday Morning, Loose Women, Scam Interceptors and This Morning.

BBC Breakfast airs daily from 6am on BBC One and iPlayer.

It was a television show tailor-made for Los Angeles: a highly anticipated Netflix crime drama about a team of ex-special forces operators who outsource their skills to criminals in the city.

The production was backed by a prominent indie studio and had a critically acclaimed lead actor attached. And with a budget of more than $100 million and a crew of 350, the series seemed like a shoo-in for California’s film tax and TV credit.

But last month, shortly before filming was set to begin, producers were stunned to learn the film didn’t make the cut based on a formula the state uses to rank projects by the number of jobs they produce and their spending levels. After two applications for a tax credit had been rejected, they opted to shoot the series in New Jersey, where it was much easier to qualify for film incentives.

“We were shocked,” said a producer on the project who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter. “This is the birthplace of entertainment. It shouldn’t be so hard to shoot here.”

Despite improvements to the state’s tax incentive program, Los Angeles and California continue to struggle to keep movies, television series and even game shows from fleeing elsewhere. Production levels have failed to bounce back since the pandemic and the labor strikes by writers and actors, and they remain at historic lows.

Film activity in the L.A. region plummeted in the second quarter of this year, with shoot days for feature films and TV productions falling 20% and 30%, respectively, compared with already anemic levels from a year ago, according to FilmLA.

The fallout has been devastating for local film crews and businesses. L.A.’s signature industry has shed some 57,000 jobs in the past four years, while more than 80 film and television production services businesses have closed since 2022. The production crisis has even become a political flashpoint alongside affordability, crime and homelessness in the race for mayor and governor.

The story of how L.A. steadily lost much of its homegrown industry to other locales is a tale of hubris, escalating costs, political inaction and fierce competition from states and countries hungry for a piece of the Hollywood pie. California eventually adopted a very limited film tax credit plan in 2009, but even then production had already gone elsewhere.

Filmmaker Jonathan Nolan, on the set of “Fallout,” has been at the forefront of efforts to keep Hollywood at the center of the entertainment industry.

(Lorenzo Sisti / Prime Video)

This account is based on interviews with more than a dozen producers, studio executives, lawmakers and film industry veterans.

Despite warning signs that runaway production was causing an exodus of talent and jobs, many took for granted that L.A. would remain the epicenter of film and television.

Film activity in Los Angeles has plummeted to historic lows, with devastating consequences for crews and vendors. This series examines how L.A. lost its dominant perch as a film and TV destination and what can be done to bring Hollywood back home.

“I’ve been around long enough … to realize that things kind of die slowly and then they die quickly,” said Jonathan Nolan, a writer, director and producer, whose credits include the HBO series “Westworld” and “Fallout” on Amazon.

Nolan, who championed efforts to get the state to expand its tax incentives, lamented that L.A. once “stood in for everywhere. Now L.A. doesn’t even stand in for itself.”

‘The X-Files’ and the birth of Hollywood North

Like the fall of Rome and the decline of Detroit, Hollywood’s spiral did not happen in a single day, but rather unfolded over decades.

Before World War II, Los Angeles’ production hegemony was uncontested. An abundance of sunny weather and a range of landscapes, along with highly skilled artisans, from set designers to scenic painters, re-created the entire world on Hollywood soundstages and backlots.

That began to change during the late 1940s and early 1950s when studios broke with tradition and filmed abroad, attracted by Europe’s cheap labor and the desire among directors for more realism in movies.

William Wyler’s 1953 classic “Roman Holiday,” starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck, was one of the first, shot entirely overseas on the streets of the Italian capital and at Cinecittà studios.

Still, as productions went on location, often for creative reasons, Hollywood remained the center of entertainment gravity.

“Roman Holiday,” starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck, was one of the first big American studio films to be shot entirely overseas.

(Paramount Pictures)

In 1993, when there were four broadcast networks, cable TV relied on set-top boxes and streamers were, well, party decorations, a relatively unknown television writer named Chris Carter began pre-production on a new supernatural drama series that he had created.

For the pilot’s opening scenes, he needed a forest, one that was dark and moody. There, a terrified teenage girl would be filmed fleeing before she was consumed by a blinding flash of light and then found dead, bearing unexplained marks on her body.

“It became clear that not only were there not great forests in the ‘zone,’” said Carter, referring to the 30-mile-zone (TMZ) around L.A. that producers try to shoot within to avoid mandatory union surcharges. “But there were better forests in Vancouver.”

As it happened, during the 14-day shoot, Carter, who was working with a tight budget, discovered that Vancouver supplied numerous benefits.

The grim weather naturally provided a spooky atmospheric backdrop while the city “beautifully doubled for almost any place in the U.S. without having to pretend too much,” he said.

Carter’s pilot became “The X-Files,” the wildly popular and groundbreaking 1990s TV series that ran for nine seasons (plus two revival seasons), redefined the science fiction genre and spawned two feature films.

The success of “The X-Files” propelled Vancouver’s reputation as “Hollywood North.”

(Associated Press)

“As David Duchovny said, ‘two weeks became five years,’” quipped Carter.

While other productions such as “Wiseguy” had filmed in British Columbia years earlier, “The X-Files” unintentionally cemented Vancouver’s reputation as “Hollywood North,” fueled by Canada’s favorable exchange rates, skilled crews, lower labor costs and, eventually, tax credits.

The show’s colossal success helped create the model still in play 33 years later for outsourcing movie and television production to regions where tax incentives are higher and production costs are lower.

“It was simply a choice I made for the location, not for the financial benefit,” said Carter. “It wasn’t part of my calculus, but it ended up being a fact of life.”

Throughout the 1990s a steady stream of TV shows and movies shot in Canada. The 1994 adaptation of “Little Women” starring Winona Ryder was largely filmed in Vancouver, with a stand-in for Orchard House, Louisa May Alcott’s home in Concord, Mass., built in a local forest.

But, at the time, few saw what was happening as an existential crisis in the making.

For one thing, L.A. was in the midst of a production boom, prompting the development of the $77-million Manhattan Beach Studios, a 22-acre production facility in 1996. (The studio is now fielding offers by its bank lenders after its owner, the real estate investment firm Hackman Capital Partners, defaulted on over $2 billion in mortgages on several studio facilities it had acquired in recent years.)

Losing the ‘golden goose’

Canada’s booming film business inspired other U.S. states to get in on the action. Louisiana became the first to pass a film tax incentive, enhancing it in 2002; New Mexico and Georgia followed with their own programs.

Helping to fuel the film tax credit frenzy was none other than the Motion Picture Assn. The Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group for the major film studios and streamers for years aggressively lobbied lawmakers and even governors in other states to adopt their own film programs.

Eventually, nearly 40 states and some 80 countries and territories were offering film incentives in the form of transferable tax credits, grants or rebates.

“Everybody thought, ‘We are Hollywood. Why do we have to do anything?,’” said Lori Balton, a top location manager, whose list of credits spans nearly 40 years and includes such films as “Heat” and “Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood.”

“They always thought that they had the golden goose. And it was going to keep laying eggs and instead, it packed up its bags and moved.”

Earlier this year, while speaking at Burbank City Hall chambers, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) dropped some sobering data: 45% of all U.S. films and scripted television shows were shot abroad in 2025, up from 33% in 2022.

Like most filmmakers, Miles Millar would prefer to work in Los Angeles, where he lives, but he hasn’t done so for 25 years, since he was a co-producer and writer on the CBS action series “Martial Law.”

“It is not financially viable to shoot the kinds of shows we do here,” said Millar, whose work includes “Smallville” and “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.”

It was too expensive to film in Los Angeles, so the Netflix hit “Wednesday” shot its first season in Romania before relocating the show to Ireland.

(Netflix)

When Millar and his “Wednesday” co-creator and co-showrunner Alfred Gough began pre-production on the first season of the Netflix hit series about five years ago, L.A. as a location wasn’t even discussed.

They settled on Romania. Tim Burton, “Wednesday’s” executive producer and primary director, “loved the idea,” said Millar, noting that the director was predisposed to its gloomy and gothic wonders, having once visited Dracula’s castle in a Transylvanian mountain village with rocker Alice Cooper.

“We built the whole town of Jericho and six standing sets at a huge scale. There was no way you could even begin to construct the level and scale of sets that we did, in L.A.,” he said. “We’re talking about the difference of tens of millions of dollars.”

Still, the former Eastern Bloc country had its challenges. The crew didn’t speak English and its promised tax rebates never materialized.

When “Wednesday” was picked up for a second season (it is now filming its third), the show moved to Ireland, where it received more than $23 million in tax credits last year, according to the country’s Tax and Customs office.

“The last thing I want to do is shoot thousands of miles away from my family for nine months, year after year,” Millar said. But it has come down to “where do we get the most bang for the buck?”

Outsourcing scores and VFX

Other critical components of filmmaking, including visual effects and musical scoring, have also been outsourced over several years.

L.A. was once home to 18 film scoring stages that could accommodate full symphony orchestras. Today only three remain, driven away partly by high labor costs and cheaper overseas competition.

Similarly, many visual effects studios have moved elsewhere. Vancouver alone has dozens of visual effects studios, including Sony Pictures Imageworks and a major branch of Industrial Light & Magic.

“We’ve allowed that piece of the market to leave,” said Marielle Abaunza, president of the California Post Alliance, an advocacy group backing a state bill offering post-production firms their own tax breaks, similar to what New York offers.

“For 16 years, places like New York have slowly been building up their talent, their facilities, their relationships with filmmakers and their relationships with studios,” Abaunza said.

Even as other states and foreign governments invested in their own film industries and began luring away productions from California, lawmakers in Sacramento were initially skeptical of giving tax breaks to producers. Some critics saw them as little more than a handout that diverted resources from more pressing needs such as healthcare and education.

“If you’re on the outside looking in, there is this false sense that everyone who works in Hollywood has to be rich whether you’re crew or not,” said Amy Baer, a producer and former Sony executive who now runs Artists Equity, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s production company.

As production losses mounted in L.A., a coalition of labor and industry groups lobbied then governor and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger to take action.

Schwarzenegger, a longtime champion of tax credits, was able to get a program passed as part of an economic stimulus provision of the state’s 2009 budget. It was dubbed “The Ugly Betty” bill, named after the ABC show that had relocated from L.A. to New York.

Though hailed as a significant step, the new film sweeteners had some key limitations. The pool of money was small — capped at $100 million annually over five years. And it couldn’t be applied to offset the cost of actors’ salaries, a key driver of budgets.

In reality, the program was too small and restrictive to compete with a growing crop of rivals that had larger tax breaks and fewer restrictions.

Chief among them was the United Kingdom, which soon began to attract a number of big-budget movies thanks to a hugely popular 25% cash rebate on production expenses, including money spent on actors’ salaries and other above-the-line costs.

In a paradigm-shifting move, Warner Bros. purchased Leavesden Studios outside of London in 2010, investing more than $160 million into the facility. Much of the blockbusters “Wonder Woman” and “Barbie” were filmed there.

Although the California program was tripled to $330 million annually starting in 2014, it did little to halt the continued exodus of film work. Marvel Studios began moving its production operations to Georgia, enticed by the state’s uncapped tax credits that could be used for actors’ salaries. Both “Black Panther” and “Avengers: Infinity War” were filmed largely at Trilith Studios in Fayetteville, Ga. Another historic town east of Atlanta attracted so many movies and TV shows it became known as “Hollywood of the South.” (Last year, Marvel shifted most of its operations to the U.K. in search of even bigger cost savings.)

Marvel Studios, which filmed blockbusters such as “Black Panther” in Georgia, has since shifted operations to the U.K.

(Film Frame / Marvel Studios)

While numerous studio facilities lay empty here, streamers and studios have built major production hubs outside of L.A. Though it still shoots dozens of productions in L.A., Netflix has spent billions to operate production hubs abroad while constructing massive facilities in places like New Jersey and New Mexico.

“Everyone kept saying, if we have more tax credits, then at least we’ll be able to bring production back,” said Monica Levinson, a veteran producer who has worked on FX’s “Love Story” and the movie “Zoolander.” “Well, that didn’t happen. And the crews got better and better out of the country.”

Rising costs

As the rest of the world courted Hollywood, L.A. did little to help itself.

Despite recent improvements to streamline and reduce costs, the city’s film approval system remains a maze of multi-layered permitting, fees and complex logistics, location managers say. The Greater L.A. area has more than 100 jurisdictions, many of which have their own rules, regulations and permitting fees for filming.

Filming in L.A. also has become more expensive compared with other film hubs due in part to higher labor costs and mandatory staffing requirements, such as paid on-set fire safety monitors, and traffic and parking controls.

What’s more, unlike New York, the city doesn’t have its own film commissioner who could advocate for the industry.

An L.A. commissioner would be “somebody that is beating the drum 365 days a year that is not aligned with a special interest other than creating more production in California, which makes our state and our people prosperous,” said Scott Budnick, a producer on the wildly successful “The Hangover” franchise who lobbied for the state’s enhanced film tax credits.

For a time, the loss of market share was masked by a surge in local TV shoots as studios spent heavily to supply content to their new streaming platforms.

But the pandemic and back-to-back strikes by actors and writers roiled the industry. Studios laid off thousands, cut back on films slates and slashed TV spending and it never rebounded. Film incentives became even more critical for those deciding where to shoot.

By the time Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a plan in October 2024 to more than double funding for the film and TV tax credit program, to $750 million annually (closer to New York’s annual allocation of $800 million, although it retained annual caps and doesn’t count actors’ salaries), the industry outlook was bleak.

“I think there was a tipping point between COVID and the strikes that shone a very bright light on the fact that the majority of production had fled the state,” said Baer, the producer.

There are a few bright spots, however.

The critically acclaimed HBO hit medical drama “The Pitt” is filmed almost entirely on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, and has injected tens of millions into the local economy while sustaining nearly 1,000 jobs. Two other Emmy-award winning series, Apple TV’s “The Studio” and HBO’s “Hacks,” which just ended, also shot locally.

At Jonathan Nolan‘s urging, Amazon agreed to relocate his post-apocalyptic series “Fallout” to Los Angeles in 2024 after filming its first season in New York, Utah and Namibia. The show received $67 million in California tax credits for its second and third seasons.

Walton Goggins plays the dual role of Cooper Howard and The Ghoul in Amazon’s post-apocalyptic series “Fallout.”

(Courtesy of Prime Video)

“We want to keep shooting here,” Nolan said. “I don’t want to pack my kids off to the back end of beyond just for the privilege of being able to continue doing what I’m doing.”

To build support for the expanded credits, Nolan last year allowed state lawmakers to visit the sets of “Fallout,” including at the Melody Ranch in Santa Clarita.

“I think they were struck by just how big an endeavor this is,” said Nolan, whose brother Christopher is director of “The Odyssey,” (The epic film was shot across Greece, Sicily and several other countries.) “These are hundreds or thousands of jobs on one production alone, hundreds of millions of dollars being put in the local economy.”

Nolan and others in the industry admit the California program is imperfect.

Mayor Karen Bass, who backed the tax credit program in 2009 when she was speaker of the California Assembly, has touted the success of the expanded incentives, saying they’ve created “thousands of good-paying union jobs … right here in Los Angeles, bringing direct investment to our community.”

Since the expanded program went into effect last July, 179 projects have generated $7.2 billion in direct production spending, bringing nearly 38,000 cast and crew jobs to the state, according to the California Film Commission.

“We remain committed to supporting the entertainment industry here and feel optimistic and energized by the response from the community to the program’s modernization and enhancements,” Colleen Bell, the commission’s executive director, said in a statement.

Bass, who is up for reelection, said she would redouble efforts to remove tax credit caps and further reduce film permitting fees “because this industry is core to the history, culture and economic power of Los Angeles.”

The question, however, is whether L.A. is still core to the film industry.

Earlier this year, writer and director Ryan Coogler, who won an Oscar for his “Sinners” screenplay, began filming the pilot for a reboot of “The X-Files.”

During the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, Coogler called the drama “one of the most beautiful American television shows ever made” and assured fans that while he planned to put his own stamp on the seminal series, his version would pay homage to the original.

“We intend on having both monsters of the week and also the overarching conspiracy,” he said.

And like the original series, it was shot in Vancouver.

Actress Shelley Fabares, known for her television roles as Francine Webster on the 1975 sitcom “One Day at a Time,” Mary Stone on “The Donna Reed Show,” and her Billboard Hot 100 song “Johnny Angel,” died Sunday in Los Angeles surrounded by her loved ones. She was 82.

In a statement to The Times, a family friend shared the news of the star’s death.

“To her family and friends, Shelley was a source of love, strength, laughter, and comfort… whose warmth, generosity, humor, and grace made an enduring difference in the lives of everyone who knew her,” the statement read. “She had a remarkable ability to make people feel welcomed, valued, and cared for.”

The family did not disclose the cause of death.

Fabares was born in Santa Monica in 1944. She began her acting career at the age of 3 and became a household name playing teenager Mary Stone on “The Donna Reed Show” from 1958 to 1963. Fabares frequently praised her on-screen mother Donna Reed, calling her a “second mother.”

Fabares went on to star alongside Elvis Presley in three films: “Girl Happy,” “Spinout” and “Clambake.”

By the 1970s, Fabares transitioned back to television, starring in the 1971 TV drama “Brian’s Song” and appearing in “The Little People” and “The Practice.” She ended the decade on Norman Lear’s “One Day at a Time,” starring as Francine Webster opposite Bonnie Franklin.

Fabares later starred as Christine Armstrong on the ABC sitcom “Coach,” earning two Primetime Emmy nominations during the show’s nine-season run.

After her 1980 divorce from music producer Lou Adler, Fabares remarried “MASH” actor Mike Farrell in 1984. The pair eventually sold their Sherman Oaks honeymoon home they bought in 1985. They moved to Studio City to better accommodate Fabares’ mother, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

Fabares spent her final years taking care of her mother and advocating for more funding for research into the crippling disease.

She is survived by her husband and daughter, Erin.

In this week’s episode of The Envelope podcast, the Welsh actor joins The Envelope for a conversation about his Emmy-nominated roles in “Widow’s Bay” and “The Beast in Me.”

Kelvin Washington: Hello, and welcome to this week’s episode of The Envelope. Kelvin Washington, Yvonne Villarreal and Mark Olsen here. We’ve been talking about it now for the last couple of weeks, but we’re less than a month away from the Emmys. Mariska Hargitay is gonna be the host. I’m looking forward to that because who’s living a better life than her? She’s nominated, of course. She’s hosting. And her Knicks won the NBA championship — she’s at this point an honorary Knick. I mean, it’s like she’s on the team.

Yvonne Villarreal: And she went to the Taylor Swift wedding.

Washington: That’s a good point.

Villarreal: Don’t forget that. And starring on Broadway.

Washington: So she is living her best life, yeah.

Villarreal: She’s living a better life than I am.

Washington: So I’m going to answer the question first. I’m gonna ask you, what are you looking forward to [at the Emmys]? Maybe some things you’re excited for. For me, it’s just seeing this culmination of all these things for her and just having a big moment there. I think she’s gonna own that space and I think everybody’s gonna enjoy it as well. What are you looking forward to?

Villarreal: I’m really, really excited to see my beloved Philip and Elizabeth Jennings as nominees — Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell. Not to be parasocial, but I just love that they’re both nominated. I just want a magical night for them both.

Mark Olsen: I don’t want to be a bring-down bummer here, but, you know, I find that the Emmys in particular, even more than the Oscars, kind of play favorites, and the same winners can happen again and again. It’s not as bad as it may once have been, but I’m always rooting for new blood, first-time nominees, people that it’s exciting to see them kind of get this platform. So nothing against your beloved, but I would be excited to see an underdog or somebody kind of an outsider. Say, for example, the rest of the cast of “Widow’s Bay,” which as you’ve said before, really came out of nowhere, [and] it’s become a bit of a favorite this season. And there’s some other performers there, Dale Dickey, Stephen Root, Kate O’Flynn, and I think any of them winning would be really exciting.

Villarreal: I won’t argue with that.

Washington: I was waiting on an argument.

Villarreal: We fight off camera.

Washington: And by the way, Mark, I mean, can good be good? Or great be great? If I’m great 10 years in a row, can I just be great 10 years in a row and win? You’re putting limitations on my victories.

Olsen: Yeah, but at some point, your shelf is full.

Washington: That’s true. Don’t worry about what’s going on in my mantle, all right?

That being said, we got Matthew Rhys, who you had a chance to speak to. Double nominee here, “Widow’s Bay” and “The Beast in Me.” Tell me a little bit more about your conversation.

Olsen: Just a rare double nominee, lead actor in a comedy series with “Widow’s Bay,” and then lead actor in a limited or anthology series or movie with “The Beast in Me.” And I think what’s exciting here is that these are just two very different performances. He’s this manipulative, maybe psychopathic real estate developer in “The Beast in Me,” and then this kind of harried, put-upon single dad and mayor of a small, cursed New England island in “Widow’s Bay,” and I think both of these roles show new sides of Matthew to audiences. But then when you take them together, it just feels like something else entirely.

Washington: All right, well let’s take a look. It’s M&M — Matthew and Mark — here now.

Matthew Rhys.

(Ebru Yildiz / For The Times)

Mark Olsen: For the Los Angeles Times and The Envelope, I’m Mark Olsen. I’m here today with Matthew Rhys, who is nominated for an Emmy for lead actor in a comedy series for “Widow’s Bay” [and] lead actor in a limited or anthology series [or movie] for “The Beast in Me,” and another nomination as executive producer on “Widow’s Bay.”

Matthew Rhys: I forgot about the executive producer part. It’s an exciting time.

Olsen: And now being nominated for these two performances, which are very different performances —

Rhys: [whispers] They’re not really.

Olsen: Now tell me about that. You don’t think they are?

Rhys: Look, I think I was about to speak for a number of actors and I shouldn’t. I can only speak for myself. Sometimes there’s seemingly or feels like there’s very little difference in them. I’m not, I don’t pretend to be an enormously transformative actor, hunting for the “chameleon” praise.

Olsen: But do you consider yourself versatile? It’s so interesting to me to hear you say you don’t see these roles as that different.

Rhys: I wouldn’t say I’m versatile in that chameleon-like way or transformative way, I just try to work from a place… We’re already into it.

Olsen: That’s what we’re here for.

Rhys: I know. It always makes me nauseous. I do try to live in a place that feels real to me and that what we talk about, working from your center. So when I move away from that, things start to feel insincere, so I tend not to.

Olsen: With “Widow’s Bay,” a lot of the coverage around it has been talking about how it’s been a real surprise hit. And I’m just wondering, what is it that you think that audiences are responding to?

Rhys: You know, timing is everything. I do think there was a place that was ready for “Widow’s Bay,” whereby nothing of the sort had been around for a while. You hadn’t had “Twin Peaks,” although we were kind of slightly “The Office,” “Twin Peaks,” sprinkling of “Northern Exposure” maybe, but nothing I think of that sort had been for a while. So I think people were just ready for something different, and then we’re certainly different.

Olsen: Betty Gilpin, your co-star on the show, she is also a nominee, in a recent interview said that she feels like it’s as if audiences are rejecting this idea of a really sort of safe, algorithm-approved show. And do you feel the same?

Rhys: Absolutely, and it’s wildly refreshing to know that people are going, “No, we want something different. And we are intelligent enough to deal with it. So give it to us.” And that I found very, very inspiring, very encouraging — that television and film should be pushing itself continually for that original material and not relying on remakes.

Olsen: When did you realize that the show was connecting in the way that it is? I’ve seen in some other interviews you say that even when you were shooting it, you weren’t totally sure, didn’t totally think that it would connect with people.

Rhys: No, none of us — a lot of us were like, “Are we getting the tone right? Is this right? Is this going to work?” It was a swing. It was an absolute swing. A kind of beautiful one, nonetheless. But we were all concerned — not concerned, maybe just intrigued — as to how it would be received. And it was a little bit more word of mouth. Friends were saying, “Oh, I’ve seen your show.” And then throughout my career, it’s probably the job I’ve been stopped most for. And I’m not saying that happens often. But at least twice I’ve been stopped for it. So that’s been refreshing.

Olsen: And people are really talking a lot about this mix of tones. It’s a horror-comedy that’s both very much funny and scary. What was the challenge of getting that mix right?

Rhys: Making both real, ultimately. I know that sounds very obvious and stupid, but it’s true. And also Katie Dippold spoke to this, the creator and writer, where she said she kind of thought one can almost relieve the other. When there’s incredible tension from horror, when the laugh comes in, it’s almost a big laugh because it’s the relief of being allowed to laugh. So she says sometimes that can pay off in a way. It’s much harder the other way around, but it also works the other way around where you catch an audience off guard because they’re laughing and then you hit them with horror. So I think both bizarrely can help each other.

Olsen: I’m thinking about something like the episode that’s mostly on a boat, that gets very sort of slapstick-y at moments, but then there’s still something very terrifying about what’s happening there.

Rhys: Yes, we’ve hit the nail on the head. That kind of tone I found very hard. There are these borderline farcical moments of wrestling with a man who’s 400 years old and it becoming kind of very comedic physically and yet it has to remain that there’s this element of danger or threat that’s very real and palpable. And so those are the moments you try and ground in a way so that the extreme elements can also live in a real place.

Olsen: Because you mentioned a man who’s 400 years old, the mythology of the show gets more complicated as it goes along, right up until the very last episode. Were there moments where you had to sort of step aside and ask people to explain it to you?

Rhys: No, because I think the chronology is laid out beautifully throughout the series and you’re kind of led in a way where it unfolds very organically. So I was very relieved that to be the case that there’s no kind of, “Wait, where are we? What’s, who’s this?” So that I thought was kind of beautifully executed. And because of that, because of the detail in the backstory, then the story I think pays off far greater.

Olsen: The final episode really lands it so well as far as being both funny and scary and also the way that it sets up a next season, which happily is happening. The finale promises even more murder and mayhem for Season 2. I know the writers room is already hard at work. Do you have any insights on what at least you would like to see happen?

Rhys: No, I’m desperately intrigued as to what she has in mind because I wouldn’t have the first clue as to where to start Season 2. I’m very assured that the warped mind of Katie Dippold will helm us into a giddy storm.

Olsen: One thing I have to ask about “Widow’s Bay” is simply, in preparing to play this small-town mayor who’s very concerned about tourist season, did you refer at all to maybe the most famous other small-town mayor played by Murray Hamilton in “Jaws”?

Rhys: Well, I would like to say yes because “Jaws” is an enormous favorite of mine, but he’s a very different mayor, if you look at his mayor. He’s very assured. He gets a little frustrated with Brody, but he’s not that kind of cortisol-burning, wild-eyed panic that Tom Loftis is. He is far more assured of what he should be doing for the municipality than Tom is. I even said at one point, I said, “Can we get away with the jacket, you know, the anchor jacket?” And they were like, no, because that would be too obvious.

Olsen: I like that you had the impulse.

Rhys: A lot of my performances have some reference to “Jaws,” regardless of the piece, because I’m usually Quint. So I was very upset in the boat scene you referenced when obviously myself, Stephen Root and Hamish Linklater sat around and said, OK, Stephen Root, you are obviously Quint, what does that make Hamish and myself? Who’s [Richard] Dreyfuss and who’s Roy Scheider in this? And Hamish went, “Well, I’m Dreyfuss.” I was like, “I am not Brody.” They’re like, “You’re wearing the life jacket. Of course you’re Brody!” This is the kind of thing actors talk about.

Olsen: But you weren’t happy with that?

Rhys: I’ve always wanted to be Quint. I love Brody, but my heart lies with Quint

Olsen: Now, I came to realize that “Brothers and Sisters,” it goes back 20 years now that you were on that show. And I’m just so curious, working steadily in TV for 20 years now, how has the job of being an actor on TV changed in that time?

Rhys: I don’t think it’s changed, per se. From a personal point of view, it’s been incredible to play the wide variety that I’ve been allowed to. I think the scope of television has changed wildly in 20 years and the length and breadth of the variety there is kind of remarkable at times. And sometimes you wonder if it’s sustainable. If anything, it’s offered more opportunities, I think, for actors, but the kind of core fundamentals I think are still the same.

Olsen: Do you yourself watch a lot of TV?

Rhys: Yes, yes. I never watch myself, but yes. I tend to lean towards more documentaries than anything else. Fiction, I’m always like, “Oh, that’s the day job.”

Olsen: Because I know you’ve talked a lot about your interest in boats, and is there a lot of boats-and-restoration content out there?

Rhys: What, fiction or documentary-wise?

Olsen: I wonder what your algorithm is like.

Rhys: I don’t do much with Instagram but my algorithm is generally older men showing you how to kind of spile a garboard plank next to a keel, things like that.

Olsen: And are there a lot of documentaries about boats and restoration?

Rhys: There’s a lot on YouTube, none of which really hold your attention. What I think is like, where is the kind of “Chef’s Table” of boat restoration? That’s what I’m waiting for.

Olsen: I think you maybe have to be the one to make that show.

Rhys: I might have to, but I worry about the breadth of audience we’d have there. Or how to make boat restoration interesting to the masses. Therein lies the challenge.

Olsen: Well, they say niche markets sometimes …

Rhys: You can capture a zeitgeist moment.

Olsen: With your work on television, you have a really strong track record between “Brothers and Sisters,” “The Americans,” “Perry Mason,” now with “Widow’s Bay,” and also with “The Beast in Me.” For you, what goes into choosing a role?

Rhys: This is the real luxury of having a degree of choice. It’s not always choice, but more often than not, a project comes along that I’ll read and there’ll be a number of things. I’ll be like, “Ooh, I’ve never done it.” Like “Widow’s Bay,” I read it and I went, “The scripts are fantastic and I have never done anything like this in my life.” “Beast in Me,” the same, the writing’s so strong, but also that role is something I’d never done before. And the same, obviously, for “The Americans” and “Brothers and Sisters.” So if there’s an opportunity to try something very new, to me, it’s the ultimate luxury. And so that’s been a real driving force. And strong stories, the want of knowing how it ends, just simple storytelling.

Olsen: Do you find that your instincts have changed over the years? Are you looking for the same things that you feel like you were when you were starting in television 20 years ago?

Rhys: No, not necessarily. I always wanted, if I was fortunate enough, to do something that would challenge me, that would push me, that I hadn’t done, that’d scare me, that’d make me nervous every day on set, which a lot of these projects have done. I thought that would be all that I’d want.

Olsen: Because your character in “The Beast in Me,” again, I have to come back to this idea that you think these two roles are kind of similar, because your character on “The Beast in Me” seems so self-assured, like he has a confidence that Loftis does not have.

Rhys: Yes, that is very true and it was the observation of the wealthy that kind of led me there and especially uber-wealth, where there’s a real assurance of not having to try almost because there’s no need and this innate feeling that you will absolutely get your own way and people will bend to your will purely because of wealth.

Olsen: And now playing that role, getting a little taste of that, like, is that a nice place?

Rhys: What, self-assured?

Olsen: Is that a good position to be in, that people do what you want.

Rhys: Oh, I’m sure it’s great. I’ve never tasted it. It’s something I aspire to by the hour. And being riddled with all the cliched insecurities that every other actor, when you’re playing it, you go, “God, this feels great. To not even have to try with people must be so wonderful.” I’ve no desire to kind of glean the kind of affirmation from the person I’m talking to. Almost quite the opposite.

Olsen: “Widow’s Bay” has such a big ensemble, and then in “The Beast in Me,” really most of your scenes are just you and Claire Danes in this series of escalating conversations. Did you like that distinction? For “The Beast in Me,” did you like the pared-back intimacy of those scenes that the two of you have?

Rhys: Absolutely. I think that was the big draw of the piece, these two people who are kind of, they’re like two magnets in a way, they’re so drawn, they are so repulsed, they’re kind of images of each other’s shadow self, they see so much of each other while [being] polarizingly different. That to me was part of the great draw of that piece, with these two people and how they connected or seemingly didn’t.

Olsen: I don’t think you’ve worked with Claire Danes before?

Rhys: Prior to that, no.

Olsen: Because just in a practical sense, what is it like for two actors when you have so many of your scenes together? Like you sort of have to feel out not only how the characters are, but also how you as performers, as work colleagues, get through the day. What is that process like?

Rhys: I mean, look, with Claire, having known and watched her body of work, [I knew] she’s like a powerhouse and kind of brings that to set. And from day one of rehearsals, I kind of sat up and went, “Oh God, right, come on, let’s focus here,” because she has that laser that is on a switch. And when it’s switched, it’s on. And woe betide you if you haven’t prepared as well as she has. So that was very quick. The ascent of going, “Right, yes, A-game at all times, please.” Which is fantastic. It’s everything you want in a scene partner. It’s someone who kind of scares you and kind of raises your game and demands, you know, a kind of a better tennis game, although I’ve never played tennis. I’m sure it’s great.

Olsen: Do you feel like you’re that kind of actor too?

Rhys: No. I’m the one making fart jokes and then kind of going, “Will you concentrate?” I don’t think I have that kind of prowess, that kind of switch [that] is so alarmingly kind of night and day. I creak into it.

Olsen: Because there’s an intensity to your performance here. I mean, it goes big at times, there’s the “Psycho Killer” dance —

Rhys: The Achilles’ heel. I begged them to remove that scene because anywhere I see the scene direction “He dances” or “[Character] dances,” I can taste the vomit in my own mouth.

Olsen: And now did you choreograph that ahead of time?

Rhys: Nope, I just went for it. In fact a very charming woman came up to me on the street and she goes, “I love ‘The Beast in Me’ and I loved how camp your dancing was.” And I went, “Oh, it wasn’t meant to be necessarily camp.” Well, clearly it was to her. And also playing drunk, drunk and dancing, I was like, “Oh, some vicious planets are aligning.”

Olsen: And do you have a trick to drunk acting?

Rhys: Yes, I get drunk. It’s a very simple trick that most actors overlook. You just drink and then you’re drunk. The only time I venture into Method acting.

Olsen: But then about how many takes do you have in you?

Rhys: Two. No, no, I didn’t get drunk. I got tipsy. No, no it’s very different. It’s hard, it’s hard. That’s always a hard one because also we shot that over the entire day. So it started at like 8 a.m.And to be perfectly honest, sometimes you’ll do a take and it’s like, the drunk acting is too apparent. Let’s bring it back. Claire Danes nailed drunk acting from take one. And I was like, god— it! I mean, she’s done it again.

Olsen: And then also the chicken scene, how many chickens did you have to eat?

Rhys: I come into my own. Eating on screen is not and never has been a problem for me. I will take down any amount of food and I will not ask for a spit bucket. They were like, “Oh, we have a spit bucket.” I think, “No, I’m not spitting up perfectly good chicken” — and it was really good chicken. I think I went through about three chickens. What I loved about that scene, and this is what I love about all good writing, is when a brief element, usually it’s wordless, can say so much about a character or what the character is trying to do to the person in the room through a very simple action. So I loved that from what it did in that moment. He’s doing it overtly to try and intimidate her. It’s something which says so much about him and the way he does it, I thought it was an incredibly beautiful and shrewd piece of writing.

Olsen: Over the course of the series, how did you modulate how crazy to seem?

Rhys: Because it’s kind of present from the get-go. And that was a heavy reliance on the directors. We had some incredible directors on that. Antonio Campos, who kind of began and ended us, we had a little bit of a dial, and he was like, “Bring it back a bit” or “I think it needs a little more.” He was very good at truly kind of conducting in that moment. And we had the luxury of being able to do a few takes where he’s like, “Bring it up a bit” or, “OK, that’s good, let’s take it down a bit.”

Olsen: Were you happy with how that ended up?

Rhys: I don’t watch it. I haven’t watched myself in about 10 years. I get stuck on the wrong things. I become too concerned about the way I use my hands or how strange my walk is or the weird kind of idiosyncrasy of my mouth. So then when I’m doing it next, I’m like, “I am not going to do anything with my hands and I’m going to change my walk.” And then the director is like, “What is wrong with your walk and why are you sitting on your hands?” So I tend not to watch myself.

Olsen: You said 10 years ago. Did something really make you be like, “I’m not doing that anymore?”

Rhys: In fairness, it was more than 10 years ago. It was “Brothers and Sisters.” I started watching that and I was like, “Oh my God. Why has no one said anything? Look at my posture.” And then you become obsessed with sitting with better posture. And then everyone’s like, “Why are you sitting weirdly?” I was never clever enough to take from it a kind of positive critical foundation. I was taking the wrong things, usually physically attributed, that would get in my head when I was acting. And then that’s all I could think about while I was doing it, and I was on a road to ruin.

Olsen: So often you’re doing an American accent or a voice that is not your own and I know for myself I feel like I wouldn’t be able to think about anything but that, that’s all I would be able think about while I was performing.

Rhys: The accent is strange because I think in one way such an enormous part of my head is always working on the next sound to come out of my mouth. I think it stops you in a way from kind of acting, if that makes sense. It takes the self-conscious element out of you because you’re so busy working on something else. My acting teacher from drama school would always say, “Give yourself something to do to stop yourself acting.” It’s like you’re spending so much time thinking about the way you sound, it can relax you in a different way because you’re not thinking about acting.

Olsen: And then is it also a big challenge for you to try to make different American accents? How hard is it for you to do those different American sounds?

Rhys: It depends on the accent. I mean, sometimes the more extreme sounds are easier to hook into, like, you know, the Southern states or Boston or New York. Then you get, you know, California’s kind of softer, so it’s harder. It doesn’t have that extreme hook to find. And then there are just simply words in the American dialect that can take me down, like “murderer” or “world,” sometimes “girl” is tricky. But “murderer.” Which is unfortunate, because I played lawyers, spies who kill people. I’ve had to say it a lot. So I always go, “Can I say ‘killer’?” I just sound like I run out of battery.

Olsen: Do you find that living in America, has it helped you?

Rhys: Oh, without question, because going into a job, a couple of weeks before, I’ll be doing it — not at home, because it drives the kids crazy. They’re like, “He sounds so fake.” And then they’re like “Oh, here he is, he’s doing that again.” I’m like, “I’m not Dick Van Dyke, so I don’t know who you’re impersonating.” So yeah, you can go into the bodega and pretend to be American.

Olsen: On the day that Emmy nominations were announced, you did an interview with my colleague, Yvonne Villarreal, and you told her that you were meeting your partner, Keri Russell, also an Emmy nominee, at a mystery location. Would you mind completing that story? Where did you go?

Rhys: We went to the U.N. No, we didn’t, but I wish I could say that. We went to the Armory in New York with, oh God, I can’t remember the name of the exhibition. It was an incredible exhibition where three enormous tanks of water were filled with water and ceramic bowls and a current was introduced and then these ceramic bowls would clank into each other to make different noises in this incredible space. It was wondrous. Now, if the artist, for some unknown reason, watches this and goes, “I can’t believe he didn’t remember my name or the name of the exhibition,” I apologize profusely. But it was incredible.

Olsen: That sounds like a great way to spend the day.

Rhys: Yeah, it was. It was fantastic. And then we had a great dinner and celebrated and said, you know, “This is the high point, it’s downhill from here on out.”

Olsen: Well, the two of you were recently referred to as television’s first couple.

Rhys: I said that.

Olsen: And I’m wondering, I can only imagine you don’t walk around thinking of yourself —

Rhys: Oh, no, I do. I have a badge and a T-shirt, but no one believes me.

Olsen: But what does that make you think of when you hear yourselves referred to in that way?

Rhys: It kind of makes me laugh. You go, “Oh, God.” And also — and I hate to sound like I’m some bitter old fool, but I am — we’ve done it a long time. We’re of a certain age. You kind of know tomorrow there’s another first couple. So you go, “We’re today’s first couple, and it’s great. And we’ll take it and we’ll enjoy it.”

Olsen: Do you find, especially in the way that your personal and professional lives are intertwined, is it good that you have each other to keep yourselves in check?

Rhys: Yes, it also helps that you have a partner that fully understands what you do, because it’s a mad circus life and sometimes, you know, it’s hard, I think, for partners who don’t quite understand how crazy it is. So it is great in that respect that you fully understand what the other one is doing.

Olsen: And is that also part of where your interest in boats comes from? Is it something that’s totally separate?

Rhys: So she could kick me out of the house is why she bought me the boat.

Olsen: There’s something just totally separate from your work life.

Rhys: Absolutely, absolutely. And it’s something so other. … Opinions can vary so wildly, you know, critics can contradict each other in certain criticisms. The kind of more simple aspect, especially when I was restoring the boat, was that it felt a lot purer and simpler. That you can, at the end of the day, you look back at this piece of wood you’d be working on and go, “There we are, I did that.” And there’s no one saying, “Well, you could have done it this way.” You know what I mean? I always enjoyed the satisfaction it gave me in that sense.

Olsen: Wait, how many boats do you have?

Rhys: I only have one. She’s for sale, if anyone’s interested.

Olsen: Do you want to now find another boat to do this all over again?

Rhys: I don’t, because my wrists have given up. It was much harder than I thought it was going to be. It was an incredible journey, and it was kind of inspired by Hemingway, in a way, it was the same class of boat that he had. So I had all these giddy, kind of rose-tinted romantic notions of what I was doing until I was knee-deep in fiberglass, going, “Why did I think this was a good idea?”

I’d like to pen an ode to the once-L.A.-based artist Mel Kadel on the occasion of the release of her first coloring book for women and girls, published by Secret Headquarters in Atwater Village. Titled “Dream Drops,” the detailed hand drawings allow blossoming artists to participate in Kadel’s elaborate, imaginative world of fragile, brave, timid, hopeful, brash, adventurous women — characters she’s drawn for decades now.

I first met Kadel more than 25 years ago when I moved to L.A. from Boston with my then-up-and-coming indie rock band called the Movies. The band moved into a two-bedroom triplex in Silver Lake that cost $845 per month and immediately fell in with a ragtag group of iconoclastic and wildly talented artists including Kadel, photographer Alex Prager, painter America Martin, artist Mercedes Helnwein and bands and musicians such as the Silversun Pickups, Jimmy Tamborello, the Jealous Sound, Earlimart, Radar Bros. and Irving.

Kadel and her then-partner Travis Millard — another prolific and accomplished artist — lived in a cabin near the wild mountainy edges of Echo Park, and friends would gather there to draw, drink and make music. Kadel always had her head bent over her work, page after page of detailed line drawings that later appeared on friends’ bedroom and living room walls and sometimes on fliers for shows at Spaceland or the Silverlake Lounge.

It was Kadel who encouraged many of us to try our hand at creating art, and she once staged a group show at an Echo Park record shop called Sea Level that was owned by a friend of ours. I painted a self-portrait on a piece of wood for the show that still hangs on my wall today.

Kadel created the album cover for the Silversun Pickups’ debut EP, “Pikul,” which was released on Dangerbird Records in 2005, and later, after the band and the label soared to new heights, she covered Dangerbird headquarters near Sunset Junction in Silver Lake with a building-sized mural featuring her otherworldly woman clad in blue stripes with forever flowing flowered hair.

In many ways it is Kadel whom I credit with opening a young me up to the magical world of art and the ideas that flow from it — Kadel and those early L.A. friends, many of whom I no longer see regularly, but whose accomplishments I relish in when they come to my attention. Which is just what I did when I saw that Kadel had released her coloring book — a project that she has worked on (no doubt in the same intentional, intense way that she always has) for the past year.

I’m arts editor Jessica Gelt, glad for what was and looking forward to what will be. This is your arts and culture news for the week.

The week ahead: A curated calendar

FRIDAY

Eleanora Owen in “Being Piaf.”

(Doug Engalla )

Being Piaf
Written and performed by Eleanora Owen, this solo theatrical piece explores the life and songs of French singer and lyricist Edith Piaf. Directed by Tim Byron Owen.
8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 4 p.m. Sundays; through Aug. 30. Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd. odysseytheatre.com

Green Corridors
The West Coast premiere of Natalka Vorozhbyt’s darkly humorous drama about the plight of four Ukrainian women — refugees from the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022. Translated by John Freedman with Natalia Bratus. Directed by Frédérique Michel and produced by Charles A. Duncombe.
8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 4 p.m. Sundays; through Sept. 27. City Garage Theater, Bergamot Station Arts Center, 2525 Michigan Ave T1, Santa Monica. citygarage.org

Tercera Raíz
The contributions of the African diaspora to Mexican culture are celebrated with dance and mariachi music. Produced in partnership with Grandeza Mexicana Folk Ballet Company.
8 p.m. The Ford, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East. theford.com

SATURDAY

New–Music Game Night!
Brightwork Ensemble and People Inside Electronics present an evening of game-inspired works by Cristina Lord, Isaac Schankler, Siobhán Dougall and Richard An, and audience participation.
8 p.m. Sierra Madre Playhouse, 87 W. Sierra Madre Blvd. sierramadreplayhouse.org

SUNDAY

Eileen Cowin: Between Panic and Paradise
The Los Angeles–based photographer and artist’s 50-year career has produced visual narratives that incorporate cinema, literature, poetry and painting, erasing the boundaries between fiction and nonfiction.
Through Jan 3, 2027. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd. lacma.org

Jamar Gilbert and Amber Liekhus in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” at a Noise Within.

(Daniel Reichert)

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
A Noise Within opens its season with the seventh of the 10 plays in August Wilson’s Century Cycle to be produced by the company. Amber Liekhus stars as an iconic blues singer during a tempestuous recording session in 1927 Chicago. Directed by Gregg T. Daniel.
Previews, 2 p.m. Sunday; 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Aug. 28; Aug. 29-Sept. 20. A Noise Within, 3352 E. Foothill Blvd., Pasadena. https://www.anoisewithin.org/play/ma-raineys-black-bottom/

TUESDAY

Beethoven’s Fifth with Anna Handler

Da-da-da-DUM. The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s incoming conductor-in-residence leads the orchestra in one of classical music’s most iconic pieces, along with the composer’s rarely heard Triple Concerto and the U.S. premiere of Grace-Evangeline Mason’s “Ablaze the Moon.”
8 p.m. Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N Highland Ave. hollywoodbowl.com

Jeff Goldblum and the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra will play Blue Note LA on Tuesday and Wednesday.

(Blue Note LA)

Jeff Goldblum & the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra
As they’ve been doing for three decades, the actor-musician and his band perform contemporary arrangements of classic jazz and American Songbook standards.
7 and 9:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday. Blue Note Los Angeles, 6372 Sunset Blvd. bluenotejazz.com

Looking West: How the Myth of the Western Frontier Got Its Start
Muse/ique takes a deep dive into the legends and reality of the American West through classic Hollywood film scores, folk songs and contemporary compositions that reclaim the era’s diversity. Led by artistic and music director Rachael Worby with Damon Daunno, Raye Zaragoza, Glynn Turman and Muse/ique Orchestra.
7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday. The Huntington, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino; 3 pm. (premium RSVPs only) and 7:30 p.m. Aug. 30. Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd. muse-ique.com

WEDNESDAY

California African American Museum
The museum augments two of its ongoing shows with special events. On Wednesday, Justen LeRoy of Art + Practice offers a curatorial walkthrough of “The Sound of Gordon Parks,” an immersive exhibition highlighting the sonic dimension of the photographer, composer, author, poet and filmmaker’s work. Thursday night, poets Pam Ward, Luis Rodriguez and Lynne Thompson share original work inspired by “A New Song: Langston Hughes in the West.”
Gordon Parks, 2 p.m. Wednesday; Langston Hughes, 7 p.m. Thursday. CAAM, 600 State Drive, Exposition Park. caamuseum.org

“Conscience” by playwright Joe DiPietro will have its L.A. premiere at International City Theatre in Long Beach.

(Justin Patterson)

Conscience
The Los Angeles premiere of Tony Award-winning playwright Joe DiPietro’s drama about pioneering politician Margaret Chase Smith, who famously challenged Joseph McCarthy’s tactics and was the first woman to serve in both houses of the U.S. Congress. Directed by Caryn Desai.
Previews, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday; 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays; through Sept. 13. International City Theatre the Beverly O’Neill Theater, 330 E. Seaside Way, Long Beach. ictlongbeach.org

THURSDAY

Rachmaninoff & Adams
Gemma New conducts John Adams’ “Short Ride in a Fast Machine,” ahead of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto (with Jeneba Kanneh-Mason in her L.A. Phil debut) and Symphonic Dances.
8 p.m. Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N Highland Ave. hollywoodbowl.com

— Kevin Crust

Retrospective

L.A. Times arts coverage from the past …

Eisa Davis, playwright and actor, who appeared in Melissa Jane Gibson’s play “This” at the Kirk Douglas Theater in Culver City in 2011.

(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

A double life as actor, playwright

Aug. 14, 2011

“I’m in a play called ‘This.’ ”

“OK, what is it called?”

“No, no, it’s called ‘This.’ ”

“Yes? What? It’s called what?”

With a lighthearted laugh, Eisa Davis says she often encounters this response when revealing that she is in a new production of “This,” which recently opened at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. The perplexity may be fitting for the universe playwright Melissa James Gibson has created: a world of confusion in which close friends enter a vulnerable time of unforeseen circumstances testing their expectations — a time also known as middle age.

Davis’ work as an actor and a playwright has contributed to a textured career. She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in drama in 2007 for her play “Bulrusher,” about a biracial orphan infant found in a basket and raised by a quiet schoolteacher. She went on to write and star in the autobiographical “Angela’s Mixtape,” which was among the New Yorker’s best plays of 2009. Other plays she has written include “Ramp,” as well as “The History of Light,” which is returning to the stage this fall in New Jersey. READ MORE

– Jasmine Elist

Culture news and the SoCal scene

Conservators examine “Portrait of Mai” by Joshua Reynolds at the Getty museum.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

A 250-year-old portrait by painter Joshua Reynolds recently arrived at the Getty and is being examined by conservators before going on view in its West Coast debut later next month. “The Portrait of Mai” was acquired by the Getty for $61 million in a rare joint purchase with the National Portrait Gallery in London and depicts a young, regal-looking Tahitian man who arrived in London with Capt. James Cook in 1774.

If you’ve seen the recent national tour of Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre, you may have wondered how on earth the actor playing the living chandelier Lumiere sings and dances for more than two hours while wearing lighted candles on both of his hands. The answer has arrived via this fun story written by Times contributor Jenelle Riley, who headed backstage during a recent performance to trail Danny Gardner as he donned the 7-pound props and went about the business of performing in the rigorous show.

The group show “To Share a Stomach” recently opened at the Brick in East Hollywood. Times contributor Sharon Mizota wrote a review that included her take on the unique and difficult-to-execute concept. The show was made manifest when 25 Iranian artists, working under challenging wartime conditions, sent instructions to artists counterparts in L.A. for how to create artworks using various levels of collaboration. Mizota found the results understandably uneven, but deeply touching and impactful.

The Kennedy Center’s National Symphony Orchestra performs at the Hollywood Bowl under musical director Gianandrea Noseda on Aug. 18.

(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)

The newly homeless National Symphony Orchestra, whose fate has become uncertain as a court battle wages over whether or not the Kennedy Center will close down for two years, performed at the Hollywood Bowl earlier this week. Times classical music critic Mark Swed was there to watch, along with many effusive supporters of music director Gianandrea Noseda’s now wandering orchestra. Swed found the program lacking in imagination, but noted, “with its smooth strings, creamy brass, pungent winds and friendly percussion, Noseda’s NSO came across as a gracious orchestra meant to please, and, consequently, a seemingly marvelous anomaly in an otherwise divisive present-day D.C.”

Speaking of the Kennedy Center, last week proved a pivotal one for its fate. The Kennedy Center Board of Trustees voted late in the week to move forward with President Trump’s plan to close the building for renovations for two years. According to multiple news reports, the board also voted to inscribe Trump’s name on the building using the language “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump.”

Brett Littman has been named the new director and chief executive of the the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.

(Don Stahl)

The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego announced earlier this week that it has appointed Brett Littman as its new director and chief executive. Littman is replacing Kathryn Kanjo, who left to become the new director of the UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art. Littman has previously served in a variety of leadership roles in the arts in New York City, including as director of the Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum; executive director of the Drawing Center; and deputy director of MoMA PS1. He was also co-director of Dieu Donné Papermill and associate director of UrbanGlass. He will start at MCASD in early October as the fifth director and chief executive in the museum’s history.

The Perenchio Foundation has awarded a $2,040,000 grant to the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, representing the largest grant in the Grammy-winning organization’s history. The 2026 General Operating Support grant, which aids many aspects of the organization’s programming and community offerings, will be distributed over three years, and arrives at LACC celebrates its 40th anniversary.

— Jessica Gelt

And last but not least

Here are 16 burger and drink deals for when you need an “adult happy meal,” from The Times food section. Who doesn’t?

Strictly Come Dancing is set to go through another huge shake up before it even begins, as 15 new celebs head to the dancefloor to compete for the Glitterball trophy

Strictly Come Dancing is about to undergo a huge shake-up as it returns to previously ditched format. The show, which has already faced several changes this year, is set to scrap the introductory video tapes it that it had been using to reveal the whom had been coupled with whom.

In recent years, the launch show had seen the Strictly celebs head to locations across the country to meet the pro dancer they would be partnered with for the rest of the competition. But the show has now decided to return to its pre-Covid format in which the partnerships would be announced live in the studio, with the dancers and celebs finding out at the same time as the audience.

The news was revealed on Radio Northampton when Graeme Hall, one of this year’s contestants, said: “This year, they’re doing it slightly differently. We don’t find out until the launch show. You have no say in it, the pros have no say in it.”

The launch show is set to air on 19 September. It is pre-recorded, so those watching at home will be finding out slightly later than the contestants, and it will air the week before the live shows begin.

This year’s contestants were announced over several weeks, starting in June. Over the summer, the names were slowly released to the public. The crop of celebs taking part this year are: Lacey Turner, Dani Dyer, Delta Goodrem, Chris Appleton, Cach Mercer, Jaime Winstone, Will Best, Sean Wright-Phillips, Bethany Antonia, Graeme Hall, Lawrence Robb, John Nellis, Tabby Stoecker, Dame Sarah Storey and Melanie Walters.

Fans have previously expressed disappointment in the line-up, with some saying they were unimpressed with the calibre of celebrity taking part. Most critics took complaint with Kim Kardashian’s hairdresser Chris Appleton taking part, and dog trainer Graeme Hall, as they felt they were not famous enough.

Following Graeme’s announcement on 5 August, many asked who he was and one said the BBC were “scraping the bottom of the barrel”.

Another slammed the line-up as “boring”, saying: “Genuinely who even are half the people doing strictly this year, apart from like three people this is the most boring lineup ever”

A third said: “This has got to be one of weakest line ups”. Similar was said at the time of Chris Appleton’s announcement a fan joked: “Looking forward to Katie Price ’s cleaner joining the line up”.

Many pros from previous years are returning, but the show has also welcomed several new pro dancers, as Strictly said goodbye to Gorka Marquez, Karen Hauer, Michelle Tsiakkas, Luba Mushtuk and Nadiya Bychkova earlier this year. Former pro Johannes Radebe also won’t compete this year, as he is one of the new hosts.

In the middle of last year’s season, long time hosts Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly announced they were quitting the show. As such, new hosts had to be found for this year, and the BBC decided to appoint three people to the role – Johannes, comedian Josh Widdicombe and presenter Emma Willis.

The change didn’t stop there, as former pro dancer turned It Takes Two host Janette Manrara and her co-presenter Fleur East have left the spin off show. They were replaced by Ellie Taylor, who has taken part in Strictly as a contestant.

Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.

A lawsuit filed in federal court on Friday accuses writer and director Taylor Sheridan of stealing the idea for his powerhouse success “Yellowstone” from Lauren J. Salkin, a Virginia-based journalist and screenwriter.

Requests for comment from representatives for Sheridan, Paramount and NBCUniversal, all among those named as defendants in the lawsuit, were not immediately returned on Saturday.

The lawsuit says that Salkin spent more than 10 years developing a series to be called “Sovereign Nation,” which is described as “a dramatic television series centered on tribal governance, casino-driven economic power, and a modern war over land and development” with the overall project copyrighted beginning in 2010 and a specific pilot script copyrighted in 2016.

Having submitted the project to Sheridan’s management company, Elevate Entertainment, in February 2017, according to the filing, Salkin later received an email message that included the statement, “Taylor thanks you very much for your interest. Unfortunately, he’s unavailable for TV projects.”

Soon after, Paramount greenlit Sheridan’s “Yellowstone” project, with the first episode airing on June 20, 2018.

The lawsuit goes on to catalog a list of similarities between “Sovereign Nation” and “Yellowstone,” stating, “What then appeared in ‘Yellowstone’ was not merely another Western about land or family. It included specific expressive choices already embodied in Salkin’s materials.”

Kevin Costner in “Yellowstone.”

(Paramount)

Actors Gil Birmingham and Danny Huston were mentioned in Salkin’s original pitch deck as potential casting ideas for her show. Both would later appear on “Yellowstone.” The lawsuit goes on to say that the subsequent “Yellowstone” spinoffs “1883,” “1923,” “Marshalls” and “Dutton Ranch” are therefore also based on Salkin’s work.

The lawsuit states, “Copyright law does not protect the abstract idea of a Western, a land dispute, an Indian casino, or a powerful family — and that is not Plaintiff’s claim. The infringement alleged here lies in the copying of Salkin’s particular expressive choices and their coordinated selection and arrangement.”

The lawsuit asks for a jury trial, an injunction against ongoing and future copyright infringement and unspecified damages.

“Yellowstone” ran for five seasons from 2018-2024. Sheridan, who is also behind shows such as “Tulsa King,” “Landman” and “Mayor of Kingston,” is set to move his production company from Paramount to NBCUniversal in 2029. Sheridan was also nominated for an Academy Award in 2017 for best original screenplay for the neo-western “Hell or High Water.”

Aug. 22 (UPI) — The casting of Meghan Markle to play a role in the Netflix series The Gentlemen has been withdrawn amid intense backlash in Britain, it was reported Saturday.

The Duchess of Sussex had been in talks to return to acting when she and Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, return to Britain after living in California for the past six years.

She had been hoping to join the third season of the Guy Ritchie show The Gentlemen on Netflix.

But the casting was reportedly withdrawn.

“The backlash in the UK was so intense, it became untenable to go forward,” wrote Tina Brown, the former editor in chief of Vanity Fair and the New Yorker, in her Substack.

Markle, who starred in seven seasons of the legal drama Suits, stepped back from acting in 2018 after marrying Prince Harry.

It was reported this week that the couple is planning on returning to Britain within days.

They plan on living in a private residence outside London with Prince Archie, 7, and Princes Lilibet, 5, and have reportedly enrolled the children in a British school for the fall term.

The Sussexes, who stepped away from royal duties in 2020, will return as private citizens and are not expected to resume their previous roles.

There’s no shortage of twisty, intriguing Netflix miniseries to tune into for your next binge session but one show – and its “bonkers” ending – will stay with fans long after they’ve finished watching

A “mind-bending”, “unpredictable” and “memorable” television miniseries has been lauded by fans – and it’s perfect for those who loved the psychological tension of Netflix’s hit show The Beast In Me, which was fronted by Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys.

Those craving intriguing television shows for their next binge-watching session have no shortage of options on Netflix, with The Stranger, His & Hers, Bodies and more all resonating with audiences and keeping people guessing until the final episode – but it’s a 2021 miniseries that still has telly fans talking. Many people turn to social media on the quest for recommendations, with some content creators amassing devoted followings thanks to their passion and insight into a vast array of shows.

This is the case with Luke Ecclestone, who posts content online as Eccy Reviews. He’s become a go-to source for many people looking for their next binge-watch.

The TV and film lover has amassed hundreds of thousands of followers on social media where he shares his opinions and insights on a range of films and television programmes.

In a recent video posted to TikTok, he discussed three miniseries with a supernatural element and plenty of mystery – as the main discussion was all about Behind Her Eyes.

He began: “Here are three Netflix series that will leave you completely hooked and questioning everything.

“All of these shows are unsettling, unpredictable, and full of moments you will never see coming – and the last one on this list is on a whole another level.”

The first show he recommended was the 2022 supernatural thriller The 7 Lives Of Lea and the second was the 2021 gothic, supernatural horror miniseries Midnight Mass.

But it was the third entry on his list that Luke branded one of “the most memorable” shows of all time.

So, what’s the show in question? Luke said: “The last one on this list is absolutely mind bending – everyone I know who’s seen it absolutely loves it – and the show I’m talking about is called Behind Her Eyes.”

What is Netflix’s ’mind-bending’ 2021 miniseries about?

Behind Her Eyes first premiered on Netflix in early 2021. Based on Sarah Pinborough’s 2017 novel of the same name, it follows single mother Louise as she begins an affair with her new boss, David.

When she strikes up an unlikely friendship with David’s wife Adele, things become more and more bizarre, leaving Louise entirely unsure of who she can trust.

David and Adele’s marriage is complicated, yet Louise finds herself drawn to both of them. When Adele starts helping Louise control her night terrors, a supernatural element is involved that leads to devastating consequences for all.

Luke said: “Where this show went I never predicted in a million years.

“And it is one of the most memorable shows I have ever watched and if you haven’t seen it, you are massively missing out.”

How did viewers and critics respond to Behind Her Eyes?

In the comments section, fellow TikTok users were keen to share their thoughts. One person said: “Looking for something you watch tonight… Behind Her Eyes it is!”

Another said: “Behind Her Eyes was absolutely amazing, did not expect the ending. Amazing – [you] defo need to watch. 10/10.”

A third agreed: “Behind Her Eyes is fantastic it blew my head off.”

While someone else was intrigued by all three shows and added: “Mate these sound well good.”

On popular review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, critics had strong reactions to the show – though its “bonkers” twist ending didn’t land with some.

Reviewer Silvina Lamazares said: “A well-structured, complex, attractive story.”

Anne Brodie commented: “Whiplash twists and turns make this a worthy watch as this uncomfortable trio enters new territory.”

But Gayle Sequeira added: “The show’s insistence on progressing towards that bonkers twist, however, results in it sacrificing storytelling in favour of shock.”

Love Is Blind UK is back on Netflix with eight fresh episodes for fans to binge watch

Love Is Blind UK star Jack Bradshaw has spoken out about disappearing from the show without warning his fiancée.

The hit Netflix experiment is back for its third season with a fresh batch of singles hoping to find love in the famous pods. As always, the contestants go on a string dates without ever laying eyes on each other.

Once they are ready to commit to one person, they leave the pods and get engaged. From there comes a series of relationship milestones including moving in together and meeting each other’s families.

Chef Jack, 30, proposed to Faye Domaille after sparking a strong connection in the pods. But the couple hit an unexpected hurdle when Jack “vanished” from their shared apartment the morning after Faye’s 29th birthday party.

Faye soon realised that Jack’s phone location had been turned off, leaving her concerned about his whereabouts. “He’s literally vanished,” Faye said.

Jack has now explained his actions, admitting he went on a walk because he was “panicking” about formally meeting Faye’s parents later that day.

He told Tudum: “I started panicking and stressing about meeting Faye’s parents properly and being back on camera again. It felt like the walls were closing in on me. I needed to get out, disconnect, and just have some time by myself. “

The Cornwall-based star was also overwhelmed by living in the heart of Canary Wharf and needed a moment to breathe, so he turned his phone off and headed out.

“In Canary Wharf, I’m in this glass box, 43 stories up in the air,” he said.

“Can’t relax there. Go out to get fresh air and there are skyscrapers everywhere. There are cars, police cars, people. I’m walking along just stressing myself out.”

Although it felt like the right move at the time, Jack claims he felt “overwhelming guilt” when he finally turned his phone on and saw a several messages from his partner.

He said: “Faye is worried sick, and I get this overwhelming feeling of guilt about how I let her down. I wasn’t used to having somebody there who cares that much about me.”

Jack confessed: “Just seeing how one selfish decision in your mind can affect somebody…. And that’s the only way I can describe it. It was selfish. I was looking after number one.”

The first eight episodes of Love Is Blind season three are now streaming on Netflix, with the final three instalments set to air next Wednesday, August 26.

Love Is Blind: UK Season 3 is streaming on Netflix