sister

Sam Faiers and Billie Shepherd have reunited to star in a new ITV2 series titled Sam and Billie: Sister Act – and the first trailer has been released

A sneak peek at Samantha Faiers and Billie Shepherd’s new ITV2 reality show has been released.

The sisters have teamed up once again for a new venture titled Sam and Billie: Sister Act, four years after their shared series The Mummy Diaries concluded in 2021.

Sam and Billie are embarking on the next phase of their lives as they take on the world together.

Now that the children are a bit older, it’s time for them to concentrate more on themselves and enjoy some sisterly downtime, all while juggling motherhood, their careers and life in the spotlight.

As the girls set off on joint journeys of self-discovery, they delve deeper into their lives, grapple with health concerns and confront some startling truths, but as always, they pull through it together with plenty of love and laughter as they continue to create lifelong memories, reports OK!.

In a tribute to sisterhood and with a bond that’s stronger than ever, Sam and Billie open up like never before.

From emotional heart-to-hearts and healing past wounds to marking milestones and dealing with life’s unexpected twists and turns, the sisters unite to experience the glamorous highs and humbling lows.

With numerous trips abroad, glitzy events and family life back home, this series offers an all-access pass.

The Mummy Diaries began as a one-off special in 2018 when Sam announced she was expecting her first child, Paul, with her partner Paul Knightley.

The programme was later given the green light for a full series, before being rebranded as Sam and Billie: The Mummy Diaries for the third series to highlight Billie’s family’s increased participation.

In 2021, it was recently revealed that Sam was stepping back from reality TV and would no longer feature on the popular ITVBe show with her partner Paul and their children.

The format subsequently shifted, with Billie and her husband Greg Shepherd taking centre stage alongside their children Nelly and Arthur.

Sam & Billie: Sister Act kicks off on August 19 at 9pm on ITV2 and ITVX

Venus and Serena Williams were a pretty decent doubles team over the years.

The sisters from Compton won 14 majors and three Olympic gold medals as a duo.

But it turns out that the older sister was being held back by her younger sibling — at least that’s what Venus Williams joked on Monday after winning her first match with new doubles partner Hailey Baptiste during the first round of the D.C. Open.

“I think, from the first point, I could see that we were going to be a good team,” Williams said during her on-court interview following the American duo’s 6-3, 6-1 victory against Eugenie Bouchard and Clervie Ngounoue. “We just should have started playing earlier, years ago, right? I think Serena was just in the way.”

After the capacity crowd of around 3,000 roared with laughter at the quip, Williams smiled and waved to the camera: “Sorry, Serena.”

Williams, 45, had every right to be giddy after a successful return to the court following a 16-month hiatus, during which she underwent a medical procedure to remove fibroids from her uterus last July.

“It’s just nice to be able to play,” Williams said during her postmatch news conference with Baptiste. “Where I am at this year is so much different than where I was at last year. It’s night and day, being able to be here and prepare for the tournament as opposed to preparing for surgery a year ago.”

She added: “Tennis is a game. It’s our life. It’s literally our obsession. … But at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter if your health is not there. So it definitely put it in perspective for me and maybe made it easier to make the decision to maybe come back out here and maybe play even freer.”

Williams’ comeback is just getting started. The seven-time major winner and one-time Olympic gold medalist is scheduled to face Peyton Stearns of the United States in the first round of the women’s singles tournament at 4:30 p.m. PDT Tuesday.

Later this week, Williams and Baptiste will face the winner of Tuesday’s match between Cristina Bucsa/Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Taylor Townsend/Shuai Zhang in the women’s doubles quarterfinals.

As for Serena Williams, the 23-time major singles champion hasn’t played since “evolving away from tennis” following the 2022 U.S. Open, where she and Venus lost in the first round in doubles and she advanced to the third round in singles before losing to Australian Ajla Tomljanovic in her final match.

“I keep saying to my team: The only thing that would make this better is if she was here,” Venus Williams said of her sister while speaking to reporters Sunday. “Like, we always did everything together, so of course I miss her.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This gorgeous Italian city has been referred to as Venice’s little sister, and it’s the perfect getaway destination with stunning historical buildings, delicious Italian cuisine and more

This breathtaking Italian city, often dubbed as Venice’s little sister, is a treasure trove of historical architecture and an ideal spot for a long weekend getaway. Italy is renowned for its captivating city break destinations, but some can be overrun with tourists. Padua, nestled in the north of the country, offers a fantastic escape without the throngs of visitors.

The city is a haven of Renaissance art, medieval marketplaces, and tranquil gardens, yet it has managed to stay relatively untouched by mass tourism. It’s a highly underrated gem, brimming with arcaded streets and bustling piazza cafe-bars.

READ MORE: Underrated coastal village is just like Venice but has barely any tourists

Art enthusiasts can marvel at the Scrovengi Chapel, adorned with Biblical scenes painted by Renaissance artist Giotto in 1306. The artwork is so invaluable that visitors are only permitted a 15-minute viewing.

Padua also houses Musme, the Museum of the History of Medicine, showcasing interactive displays and artefacts that highlight the city’s contribution to modern science, reports the Express.

From there, guests can stroll over to Palazzo del Bo to witness the world’s first anatomical theatre, constructed in 1595, housed within the University of Padua’s historic headquarters.

Take a leisurely walk through the Arena Gardens adjacent to the canal, where you’ll find the remnants of a Roman amphitheatre nestled among lawns and coffee kiosks.

The university also lays claim to the world’s oldest botanical garden, established in 1545. Back then, circular plots of medicinal plants would have been meticulously cared for.

A frequently missed gem in Padua is a visit to the Cathedral Baptistery. Competing with the beauty of the Scrovengi Chapel, the Cathedral Baptistery was adorned in the 1370s by Giusto de’ Menabuoi, a disciple of Giotto.

The patron saint of Padua has been resting in an open tomb for visitors in St Anthony’s Basilica since the 13th century, which also boasts bronze statues and a lavishly decorated ceiling.

Just a stone’s throw away is St George’s Oratory. Once serving as a Napoleonic prison, this Gothic-style Roman Catholic chapel showcases a stunningly detailed portrayal of its namesake.

Padua houses numerous UNESCO-listed frescoes, some of which are free to admire at your leisure. If you wish to observe these frescoes, other sites worth visiting include Church of the Eremitani, Palazzo della Ragione and the Oratory of Saint Michael.

Of course, it’s also a major destination for Italian food-lovers, as the city boasts several delicious local dishes, including bigoli in salsa (spaghetti with anchovy and onion sauce), risotto with rovinassi, and the local chicken dish Gallina Padovana.

If you’re a sun worshipper, now’s the ideal time for a city break to Padua as temperatures can soar to 29C in July. If you fancy a cooler getaway, hold off until October when temperatures hover around a more temperate 19C.

Love Island star Dejon Noel-Williams’ sister has taken to social media to share her thoughts on her brother’s romance with Meg Moore and his connection with Billykiss Azeez

Dejon Noel-Williams has received unlikely advice to dump his Love Island partner Meg Moore from his own sister.

In a revealing TikTok post, Saint Noel-Williams has openly expressed her views on Dejon’s journey in the Love Island villa.

Issuing a cheeky ultimatum, she declared that she might “stop watching the show” unless her brother gets together with newcomer bombshell Billykiss Azeez.

Though Dejon’s relationship with Meg was set from the outset, it’s been far from smooth sailing – a fact that Saint references as she hints it might be time for a change.

The bold statement, “It’s time for Dejon to leave Meg respectfully”, featured prominently across Saint’s candid TikTok video, reports the Daily Star.

Saint confessed: “I love my brother and I’ll support whatever decision he wants to make on Love Island but if he fumbles the bag with Billykiss.”

Delivering a stark warning, she added: “If he fumbles the bag with her, I’m going to have to stop watching the show. Im going to have to stop watching it.”

Despite her critical view, Saint reiterated: “I support him in whatever decision he makes, but I’ll be so upset. Everyone pray that he chooses Billykiss and lets go of Meg.”

Not long after, Saint updated her followers in another TikTok, captioned with resignation: ” Welp our prayers were not answered”, as Dejon stayed with Meg during a shocking recoupling, against her hopes.

Yet, in an unexpected twist, Saint shared more news on TikTok, claiming that she’s warming up to Dejon and Meg as a couple, asserting that as long as her brother’s content, so is she.

Amidst this romantic turbulence, tensions rose between Dejon, Meg, and Billykiss on July 3rd’s episode which saw the islanders partaking in a Superman challenge that ended up more competitive than light-hearted.

Yasmin and Gio singled out Dejon as the least committed cast member, with Yas explaining: “I don’t feel like you’ve dedicated yourself fully to the whole experience. I hope you’ve only dedicated to getting to know one person.”

Dejon hit back: “I didn’t know when all of a sudden it’s become a problem wanting one woman.”

Yasmin went on: “There’s other girls in here like Billykiss who picked you to go on a date because she was obviously attracted to you..”

Meg couldn’t help but jump in, declaring: “Well he clearly doesn’t want her,” which prompted Billykiss to retort: “Well he didn’t say that. He didn’t say he didn’t want me.”

An exasperated Meg shot back: “It’s not up to you guys, we will decide ourselves.”

Billy took aim at Dejon, confronting him: “You say you’re open then when she’s not around you don’t act like you’re closed.”

Dejon made his stance clear: “I don’t care about any of your opinions, I know what I want and that’s Meg.”

Billykiss wasn’t finished, stating: “Well close things off, even on the date when I asked if you were open and you wanted to get to know me, you said yes.”

A frustrated Dejon replied: “Please Billykiss, is this like your five minutes of TV or what? I don’t understand why you’re still going on.”

The conflict reached its peak when Billykiss delivered the final blow to Dejon: “You don’t want to hear the truth which is why you’re feeling sour.”

Love Island airs Sunday to Thursday on ITV2 and ITVX at 9pm

Ruth Gibbins has shared her pride at her late brother Liam Payne’s appearance on Netflix’s Building the Band, which was filmed before his tragic death

Liam Payne’s sister Ruth shared her “immeasurable pride” after seeing her late brother in his final TV appearance. The late One Direction star, who tragically passed away at 31 last year after falling from a hotel balcony in Argentina, features as a judge in the forthcoming Netflix series called Building the Band.

His sister Ruth Gibbins said she was “heartbroken” that he won’t have the opportunity to see himself on the show. Ruth shared on her Instagram Stories: “I didn’t know whether to share this, but it felt odd when I’ve raved about Liam’s work and achievements for the past 15 years.

“I’m heartbroken he never got the chance to see how brilliant he is in this show. He knew he had done a good job, we all told him this when we were at filming, but watching it back, wow!”.

Gibbins added: “You’re a star Liam, you always were and always will be. There are a range of emotions I felt watching this, but one of the main ones is immeasurable pride, always. Miss you more every day.”

Building the Band debuts on Netflix on July 9 and presenter AJ McLean has assured that the series is “unlike anything you have ever seen before”.

The Backstreet Boys singer stated last month: “Today’s most talented singers in the world will audition for each other and choose their own bandmates before ever seeing them.

“Our judge and mentor Nicole Scherzinger, and guest judges Kelly Rowland and the late Liam Payne, are from some of the biggest bands of all time. This show is all about one word: chemistry. And believe me: in a band, you really need some good chemistry.”

Liam had finished filming for the programme – which features singers aiming to form a band despite being kept in separate booths so they can’t see each other – several months before his tragic passing last October.

A summary for the series explains: “All they [the contestants] have to go on is musical compatibility, connection, chemistry and merit … with incredible performances, compelling drama, and one big goal – to find the next great music band – the stage is set for an unforgettable experience.”

Meanwhile, Liam’s mate DJ Fat Tony recently disclosed that he attempted to “help” the star with his addiction “demons”.

The 59-year-old musician – a recovering addict who has been sober for 18 years – told The Times Magazine: “I tried to help Liam Payne with his demons. He was incredible – a really close friend.

“There were so many amazing times where he got clean and sober. Not everyone makes it. It’s a real shame what happened, falling off the balcony. I’m devastated by it.

“Addiction is a big part of our industry. People see being sober and clean as more problematic than being drunk and high. They’ll help you on that drink and drug journey, but not on the sober journey.”

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ORLANDO, Fla. — Randolph Bracy and LaVon Bracy Davis are taking sibling rivalry to a new level as the brother and sister run against each other in a race for a Florida state Senate seat on Tuesday.

Not only that, one of their opponents for the Democratic nomination in the district representing parts of metro Orlando is Alan Grayson, a combative former Democratic U.S. congressman who drew national attention in 2009 when he said in a House floor speech that the Republican health care plan was to “die quickly.”

The headline-grabbing candidates are running in the special primary election for the seat that had been held by Geraldine Thompson, a trailblazing veteran lawmaker who died earlier this year following complications from knee-replacement surgery. A fourth candidate also is running in the Democratic primary — personal injury attorney Coretta Anthony-Smith.

The winner will face Republican Willie Montague in September for the general election in the Democratic-dominant district. Black voters make up more than half registered Democrats in the district.

Florida Sen. Randolph Bracy, rear, makes a point during a Senate Committee on Reapportionment hearing in a legislative session, Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, in Tallahassee, Fla.

(Phelan M. Ebenhack / Associated Press)

Both siblings have experience in the state legislature. Bracy Davis was a state representative, and Bracy was a former state senator. Adding to the family dynamics was the fact that the siblings’ mother, civil rights activist Lavon Wright Bracy, was the maid of honor at Thompson’s wedding and was one of her oldest friends. She has endorsed her daughter over her son.

The siblings’ family has been active in Orlando’s civic life for decades. Their father, Randolph Bracy Jr., was a local NAACP president, a founder of a Baptist church in Orlando and director of the religion department at Bethune-Cookman University.

It wasn’t the first time the family has been caught up in competing endorsements. When Bracy and Thompson ran against each other for the Democratic primary in a state senate race last year, Bracy Davis endorsed Thompson over her brother. Campaign fliers sent out recently by a Republican political operative start with “Bracy Yourself!”

Bracy, 48, who one time played professional basketball in Turkey, told the Orlando Sentinel that it was “disappointing and hurtful” for his sister to run after he had announced his bid. But Bracy Davis, 45, an attorney by training, said she was running for the people in state senate District 15, not against any of the other candidates. She said that she intended to continue Thompson’s legacy of pushing for voters’ rights and increasing pay for public schoolteachers. Thompson’s family has endorsed Bracy Davis.

Grayson was elected to Congress in 2008 and voted out in 2010. Voters sent him back to Congress in 2012, but he gave up his seat for an unsuccessful 2016 Senate run.

Amy Bloom’s exquisite “I’ll Be Right Here” is a slim volume spanning close to a century. While it’s tempting to label the novel a family epic, that description would fail to capture how Bloom reconstitutes “family” on the page, or how her chapters ricochet forward and backward from decade to decade or year to year, shifting perspective not only from character to character, but from first- to third-person point of view.

These transitions, while initially dizzying, coalesce into a rhythm that feels fresh and exciting. Together they suggest that memory conflates the past, present and future, until at the end, our lives can be viewed as a richly textured tapestry of experience and recollection, threaded together by the people we’ve loved.

The novel opens with a tableau: Siblings Alma and Anne tend to their longtime friend, who’s dying. They tenderly hold Gazala’s hands in a room that “smells like roses and orange peel.” Honey — once Anne’s sister-in-law and now her wife — massages Gazala’s thin feet with neroli oil. “Anne pulls up the shade. The day is beautiful. Gazala turns her face away from the light, and Alma pulls the shade back down.” Samir “presses his hand over his mouth so that he will not cry out at the sight of his dying sister.” Later in the novel, these five will come to be dubbed “the Greats” by their grandchildren.

The scene is a foreshadow, and signals that the novel will compress time, dwelling on certain details or events, while allotting mere lines to other pivotal moments, or allowing them to occur offstage, in passing. At first this is disorienting, but Bloom’s bold plot choices challenge and enrich.

In 1930 Paris, a young Gazala and her adopted older brother, Samir, await the return of their father from his job at a local patisserie, when they hope to sample “cinnamon montecaos, seeping oil into the twist of paper,” or perhaps a makroud he’s baked himself. In their cold, tiny apartment, Samir lays Gazala “on top of his legs to warm us both, and then, as the light fails, our father comes home.”

The Benamars are Algerians, “descended from superior Muslims and Christians both, and a rabbi,” their father, M., tells them. He delights in tall tales of a Barbary lion that has escaped Northern Africa and now roams the streets of Paris. Years elapse in the course of a few pages, and it’s 1942 in Nazi-occupied France. One night before bed, M. Benamar shreds the silk lining from a pair of worn gabardine pants to craft a belt for his daughter. Then,“he lies down on the big mattress he shares with Samir and turns his face to the wall.” He never awakens.

Now orphans — we don’t know exactly how old they are — the pair must conceal that they are on their own. Samir lines up a job where their father worked, while the owner’s wife finds Gazala a position as companion to a renowned writer, offering her “up to Mme. Colette like a canape.” Colette (yes, that one!) suffers from arthritis, and is mostly bedridden. She hides her Jewish husband upstairs, while entertaining guests below. Gazala observes that her benefactor’s “eyes are slanted under the folds of her brows, kohl-rimmed cat’s eyes in a dead-white face, powder in every fold and crack.”

Soon, the sister and brother’s paths diverge, and Gazala makes her way to New York City.

It’s 1947. Through Colette, Gazala has found work at a shop on Second Avenue, and sleeps in the storeroom above. Enter Anne and Alma Cohen, teenage sisters who take an instant liking to Gazala and her French accent; in short order, they’ve embraced her as a third sibling. Months later, there is a knock on the bakery door, and it’s Samir, returned from abroad, in search of Gazala. For the rest of their lives, the nonblood-related siblings will conceal that they are lovers.

Going forward, the plot zigs and zags, dipping in and out of each character’s life. It’s 2010 in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., where Samir and Gazala have lived together in a rambling old house for decades, maintaining appearances by keeping separate bedrooms. They are old, and Samir “brushes her silver hair away from his lips.” She tells him she doesn’t mind that he smells of the shallots in their garden.

It’s 1968, and Anne, by now a wife, mother and lawyer, has fallen in love with her husband Richard’s sister, Honey. We glimpse their first sexual encounter after years of simmering emotions. Alma — who receives minimal attention from her author — marries a bighearted chicken farmer named Izzy, and later grieves the early loss of her husband, and the absence of children.

As they grow older, the circle consisting of Gazala, Samir, Anne, Alma and Honey will grow to include Lily, Anne’s daughter, and eventually Lily’s daughter, Harry. Gazala and Samir take in Bea, whose parents were killed in a car accident; she becomes the daughter they never had. This bespoke family will support each of its members through all that is to come.

It’s 2015 in Poughkeepsie, and Gazala’s gauzy figures float through her fading consciousness. Beneath the tree outside her window — ”huge and flaming gold” — sits her father, reading the paper. “Madame pours mint tea into the red glasses.” The other Greats are gathered round. One last memory, the most cherished of all: It’s 1984 and Gazala and Samir are in their 50s. He proposes a vacation in Oaxaca. “Let’s go as we are,” he whispers. At their hotel, “they sit beneath the arches, admiring the yellow sun, the blue sky, the green leaves on the trees, all as bright as a children’s drawing.” There, they freely express their love for each other.

As Bloom has demonstrated throughout her stellar literary career, which began in 1993 with the publication of her acclaimed story collection, “Come to Me,” she can train her eye on any person, place or object and render it sublime. Her prose is so finely wrought it shimmers. Again and again she has returned to love as her primary subject, each time finding new depth and dimension, requiring us to put aside our expectations and go where the pages take us. As readers, we’re in the most adept of hands.

Haber is a writer, editor and publishing strategist. She was director of Oprah’s Book Club and books editor for O, the Oprah Magazine.

The railroad tunnel in which John Doe #135 was found had spooky graffiti and a dark mystique, the kind of place kids dared each other to walk through at night. People called it the Manson Tunnel — the cult leader and his disciples had lived nearby at the Spahn Movie Ranch — and someone had spray-painted HOLY TERROR over the entrance.

By June 1990, occult-inspired mayhem had become a common theme in the Los Angeles mediasphere. The serial killer known as the Night Stalker, a professed Satanist, had been sentenced to death a year before, and the McMartin Preschool molestation case, with its wild claims of ritual abuse of children, was still slogging through the courts.

So when venturesome local teenagers discovered a young man’s body in the pitch-black tunnel above Chatsworth Park, the LAPD considered the possibility of occult motives. The victim was soon identified as Ronald Baker, a 21-year-old UCLA student majoring in astrophysics. He had been killed on June 21, a day considered holy by occultists, at a site where they were known to congregate.

Ronald Baker in an undated photo.

(Courtesy of Patty Elliott)

Baker was skinny and physically unimposing, with a mop of curly blond hair. He had been to the tunnel before, and was known to meditate in the area. He had 18 stab wounds, and his throat had been slashed. On his necklace: a pentagram pendant. In the bedroom of his Van Nuys apartment: witchcraft books, a pentagram-decorated candle and a flier for Mystic’s Circle, a group devoted to “shamanism” and “magick.”

Headline writers leaned into the angle. “Student killed on solstice may have been sacrificed,” read the Daily News. “Slain man frequently visited site of occultists,” declared The Times.

Baker, detectives learned, had been a sweet-tempered practitioner of Wicca, a form of nature worship that shunned violence. He was shy, introverted and “adamantly against Satanism,” a friend said. But as one detective speculated to reporters, “We don’t know if at some point he graduated from the light to the dark side of that.”

Investigators examine the scene where Ronald Baker’s body was found.

(Los Angeles Police Department )

People said he had no enemies. He loved “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” singalongs, and worked a candle-making booth at Renaissance faires. He had written his sister a birthday card in Elizabethan English.

Had he gone into the hills to meditate and stumbled across practitioners of more malignant magic? He was known as a light drinker, but toxicology results showed he was heavily drunk when he died.

In this series, Christopher Goffard revisits old crimes in Los Angeles and beyond, from the famous to the forgotten, the consequential to the obscure, diving into archives and the memories of those who were there.

Had someone he trusted lured him to the tunnel? How was his death connected to the raspy-voiced man who placed calls to Baker’s father around that time, demanding a $100,000 ransom in exchange for his son’s life?

U.S. Army photo of Nathan Blalock.

(U.S. Army)

Baker’s housemates, Duncan Martinez and Nathan Blalock, both military veterans in their early 20s, had been the last known people to see him alive, and served as each other’s alibis. They said they had dropped him off at a Van Nuys bus stop, and that he had planned to join his Mystic’s Circle friends for the solstice.

There had been no sign of animosity between the roommates, and Baker considered Martinez, an ex-Marine, one of his best friends. They had met working at Sears, years earlier.

Martinez helped to carry Baker’s casket and spoke movingly at his memorial service at Woodland Hills United Methodist Church. His friend was “never real physically strong, like a lot of the guys I know,” Martinez said, but was the “friendliest, sweetest guy.”

His voice filled with emotion. “He would talk to anybody and be there for anybody at the drop of a dime,” Martinez continued. “And I just hope that it’s something I can get over, because I love him. It’s just hard to think of a time without Ron.”

But something about the roommates’ story strained logic. When Baker’s father had alerted them to the ransom calls, the roommates said they had looked for him at Chatsworth Park, knowing it was one of Baker’s favorite haunts. Why would they assume a kidnapper had taken him there?

Duncan Martinez in an LAPD interview room.

(Los Angeles Police Department)

There was another troubling detail: Martinez had cashed a $109 check he said Baker had given him, but a handwriting expert determined that Baker’s signature was forged.

Martinez agreed to a polygraph test, described his friend’s murder as “a pretty unsensible crime” and insisted he had nothing to do with it. “I’ve never known anybody to carry a grudge or even dislike Ron for more than a minute, you know,” Martinez said.

The test showed deception, and he fled the state. He was gone for nearly 18 months.

He turned up in Utah, where he was arrested on a warrant for lying on a passport application. He had been hoping to reinvent himself as “Jonathan Wayne Miller,” an identity he had stolen from a toddler who died after accidentally drinking Drano in 1974, said LAPD Det. Rick Jackson, now retired. Jackson said Martinez sliced the child’s death certificate out of a Massachusetts state archive, hoping to disguise his fraud.

In February 1992, after being assured his statement could not be used against him, Martinez finally talked. He said it had been Blalock’s idea. They had been watching an old episode of “Dragnet” about a botched kidnapping. Martinez was an ex-Marine, and Blalock was ex-Army. With their military know-how, they believed they could do a better job.

They lured Baker to the park with a case of beer and the promise of meeting girls, and Blalock stabbed him with a Marine Corps Ka-Bar knife Martinez had lent him. Baker begged Martinez for help, and Martinez responded by telling his knife-wielding friend to finish the job.

“I told him to make sure that it was over, because I didn’t want Ron to suffer,” Martinez said. “I believe Nathan slit his throat a couple of times.” He admitted to disguising his voice while making ransom calls to Baker’s father.

But he never provided a location to deliver the ransom money. The scheme seemed as harebrained as it was cruel, and Martinez offered little to lend clarity. He sounded as clueless as anyone else, or pretended to be. “You know, it doesn’t completely click with me either,” he said.

“They ruined their lives, and all of the families’ lives, with the stupidest crime,” Patty Baker Elliott, the victim’s elder sister, told The Times in a recent interview.

Ronald and Patty Baker at her college graduation in the 1980s.

(Courtesy of Baker family)

In the end, the occult trappings were a red herring, apparently intended to throw police off the scent of the real culprits and the real motive.

The killers “set this thing up for the summer solstice, because they knew he wanted to be out, hopefully celebrating the solstice,” Jackson said in a recent interview. “What are the chances, of all the days, this is the one they choose to do it on?”

Jackson, one of the two chief detectives on the case, recounts the investigation in his book “Black Tunnel White Magic: A Murder, a Detective’s Obsession, and ‘90s Los Angeles at the Brink,” which he wrote with author and journalist Matthew McGough.

Blalock was charged with murder. To the frustration of detectives, who believed him equally guilty, Martinez remained free. His statements, given under a grant of immunity, could not be used against him.

Det. Rick Jackson in the LAPD’s Robbery Homicide Division squad room.

(Los Angeles Police Department )

“I almost blame Duncan more, because he was in the position, as Ron’s best friend, to stop this whole thing and say, ‘Wait a minute, Nathan, what the hell are we talking about here?’” Jackson said. “He didn’t, and he let it go through, and what happened, happened.”

Martinez might have escaped justice, but he blundered. Arrested for burglarizing a Utah sporting goods store, he claimed a man had coerced him into stealing a mountain bike by threatening to expose his role in the California murder.

As a Salt Lake City detective recorded him, Martinez put himself at the scene of his roommate’s death while downplaying his guilt — an admission made with no promise of immunity, and therefore enough to charge him.

“That’s the first time we could legally put him in the tunnel,” Jackson said.

Jurors found both men guilty of first-degree murder, and they were sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

In June 2020, Baker’s sister was startled to come across a news site reporting that Gov. Gavin Newsom had intervened to commute Martinez’s sentence, making him eligible for parole. No one had told her. The governor’s office said at the time that Martinez had “committed himself to self-improvement” during his quarter-century in prison.

The news was no less a shock to Jackson, who thought the language of the commutation minimized Martinez’s role in concocting the kidnapping plan that led to the murder. He said he regarded Martinez as a “pathological liar,” and one of the most manipulative people he’d met in his long career.

Martinez had not only failed to help Baker, but had urged Blalock to “finish him off” and then posed as a consoling friend to the grieving family. The victim’s sister remembers how skillfully Martinez counterfeited compassion.

“He hugged everybody and talked to everybody at the service,” she said. “He cried. He got choked up and cried during his eulogy.”

A prosecutor intended to argue against Martinez’s release at the parole hearing, but then-newly elected L.A. Dist. Atty. George Gascon instituted a policy forbidding his office from sending advocates. The victim’s sister spoke of her loss. Jackson spoke of Martinez’s gift for deception.

“It was like spitting into the wind,” Jackson said.

The parole board sided with Martinez, and he left prison in April 2021. Blalock remains behind bars.

Rick Jackson and Matthew McGough, authors of “Black Tunnel White Magic.”

(JJ Geiger)

For 35 years now, the retired detective has been reflecting on the case, and the senselessness at its core. Jackson came to think of it as a “folie à deux” murder, a term that means “madness of two” and refers to criminal duos whose members probably would not have done it solo. He regarded it as “my blue-collar Leopold and Loeb case,” comparing it to the wealthy Chicago teenagers who murdered a boy in 1924 with the motive of committing the perfect crime.

An old cop show about a kidnapping had provoked the two young vets to start bouncing ideas off each other, until a plan took shape to try it themselves. They weighed possible targets. The student they shared an apartment with, the Wiccan pacifist without enemies, somehow seemed a convenient one.

“You have to understand their personalities, especially together,” Jackson said. “It’s kind of like, ‘I’m gonna one-up you, and make it even better.’ One of them would say, ‘Yeah, we could do this instead.’ And, ‘Yeah, that sounds cool, but I think we should do this, too.’”

Growing up, Melanie Scrofano had a hard time relating to other kids — especially other girls. And though she felt like she was able to fit in with the boys for a while, it was a phase that also eventually ended.

“It was just a lonely existence,” the actor says during a recent Zoom call, “which I think was a gift. Because as I got older, I [realized] your female peers are your superpower, and I really started trying to cultivate those relationships.”

Nowadays, Scrofano is best known for work on TV that center such bonds between women. She says experiencing just how special the relationship between sisters can be during her time on “Wynonna Earp” — a supernatural western about fiercely loving your family — made it something she’s drawn to in projects.

“I think I crave those relationships because there’s a safety in them that I never found when I was younger,” says Scrofano, who emphasizes that it helps that she’s been “spoiled” by her castmates. “Yes, I’ve gravitated to those stories, but partly, it’s fate and luck that these people who make it so easy to fall in love with them fall into my lap.”

Her latest series, “Revival,” which premiered last week on Syfy (the first episode will hit Peacock on Thursday), is also anchored by the relationship between two sisters. Created by Aaron B. Koontz and Luke Boyce, the supernatural mystery revolves around a small Wisconsin town where one day, people who have recently died suddenly come back to life. The show is based on the comic book series by Tim Seeley and Mike Norton.

Melanie Scrofano’s Dana Cypress with her father, Wayne (David James Elliott), in “Revival.”

(Naomi Peters / Lavivier Productions / Syfy)

Scrofano stars as Dana Cypress, a single mother and local police officer who is simply trying to provide for her kid. Audiences first meet Dana as she is packing up her house to chase a new opportunity away from her hometown.

“It’s a small town, [and] once people have decided who you are, that’s who you are,” says Scrofano, who also serves as an executive producer on the series. “[But] Dana knows she can be more. … So she wants to get out of there and fulfill the promise she knows that she has in herself.”

Unfortunately, the sudden resurrection of the town’s recently deceased derails Dana’s plans. The series follows Dana as she investigates the situation around the no-longer-dead, dubbed “revivers” in the show’s parlance, as well as other (possibly related) crimes. She’s also navigating a strained relationship with her father and a budding romance while trying to reconnect with her estranged younger sister.

What struck Scrofano about the character is that she is not defined by her job or any one specific role.

“She [feels] like a real human being,” Scrofano says of Dana. “She’s simply a woman trying to exist and achieve her dreams in a way that is feeling impossible, and there’s nothing more human than that.”

The revivers, Scrofano explains, are also human — real people who appear to have returned just as they were before they died, rather than as undead zombie-like monsters — at least for the most part. But much of the world no longer sees them that way, and views differ on how the revivers should be treated.

“The rules [that apply to them] have changed, even though they have not,” Scrofano says. “So as a metaphor for how we treat people who are different than us, I was really compelled by that. How do you fight for what’s right when you don’t fully understand what’s going on, but in your heart, you know we need to stand by these people?”

Dana’s sister Em (Romy Weltman), right, confronting Arlene Stankiewiscz (Nicky Guadagni) in “Revival.”

(Naomi Peters / Lavivier Productions / Syfy)

Although the show is set in 2006 — as evidenced by everybody’s flip phones — the themes it touches have become timely. While the revivers are more a general metaphor for those who are deemed “other,” the show arrives at a moment when immigrants and their status in the U.S. have been challenged by the federal government ostensibly for public safety reasons, leading to people being targeted for what they look like. (Scrofano was interviewed before the recent immigration raids and unrest in Los Angeles.)

Also topical is how the ideological rift between Dana and her father, town sherriff Wayne Cypress (David James Elliott), is a source of tension. They hold differing views regarding their duty as well as attitudes towards revivers.

“So many families right now I find are quite divided because of what’s going on in the world,” Scrofano says. “I love the story of a fight to find common ground between them. … They’re forced to find it … and that gives me hope that it could inspire people who might be in those divisions to try to find their way back to each other in a way that feels respected and fulfilling for both sides.”

The series touches on relevant themes through its supernatural allegory, but “Revival” tells more than one story. As Scrofano describes, “it’s got horror, it’s got comedy, it’s got family, it’s got paranormal [and] it’s got true crime.”

Dana’s relationship with her younger sister Em (Romy Weltman) checks off a few of those boxes.

Em was born with osteogenesis imperfecta, also known as brittle bone disease, so her family has treated her delicately her entire life.

“Growing up, we were all very protective of her,” Scrofano says of her character’s family. “Much in the way that Dana is defined and can’t escape the definition of who she is, Em has the same burden. There’s a distance there that happened because Dana couldn’t get close … because all of her life [her] dad would have said, ‘Don’t touch. Be careful.’ ”

The sisters grew distant some time prior to the beginning of the show, but the mysterious events happening in their town bring them back into each other’s orbit. They try to reconnect, discussing how much the sisters can and will touch because of Em’s condition.

“We’re rediscovering our relationship in this new way,” says Scrofano. “Because of what she’s gone through, it frees her from certain things and frees us to be able to bond in a way that we couldn’t previously.”

Scrofano calls Weltman, who portrays Em, “a blessing.”

“Romy is one of the most thoughtful, considerate, compassionate people I’ve ever met, and she’s wise beyond her years,” she says.

Scrofano acknowledges that there are some similarities between “Revival” and the show she is best known for: “Wynonna Earp,” on which she played the eponymous, initially reluctant demon hunter. The Syfy series premiered in 2016 and gained a devoted following over its four-season run. A special, “Wynonna Earp: Vengeance,” was released on Tubi last year.

Dana (Melanie Scrofano) and a reviver in “Revival.”

(Mathieu Savidant / Lavivier Productions / Syfy)

Both are supernatural shows featuring a group of reanimated dead folks and a central relationship between sisters. Scrofano admits that she felt some pressure to make sure Dana and Wynonna were separate enough that the former did not feel like a derivative of the latter, since “ ‘Wynonna’ is such a special thing.”

She even jokes about avoiding the word “curse” when discussing “Revival” just to maintain the distance between the two shows, but she also makes it clear that the similarities only go so far.

“I’m not going to try to convince people there isn’t … an obvious parallel, but that’s kind of where it ends,” Scrofano says. She does share one less obvious connection between the two shows, explaining it was “Wynonna Earp” writer-producer Noelle Carbonewho initially reached out to her about the “Revival” role.

That Scrofano is a bit protective of “Wynonna Earp” is understandable. The cast and crew have spoken often about the show’s fiercely loyal and compassionate fanbase over the years. The show also helped kick off Scrofano’s writing and directing career.

“‘Wynonna’ opened so many doors creatively,” Scrofano says. “Because it’s opened so many doors, I don’t feel the pressure of [having] to escape some mold that Wynonna has created or that I’ve created for myself through her.”

In a conversation that detours through jokes about the composition of turduckens, nostalgia about the state of jeans worn during the aughts and comparing the background decor visible in each of our Zoom windows, Scrofano is most engaged when discussing storytelling.

She shares how as a child growing up with anxiety, thinking about “Married… With Children” episodes was the one way she was able to settle her mind. Identifying with “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” led her to start martial arts. She also has deep love for “Spaceballs, “ Weird Science” and “Labyrinth.”

And what Scrofano loves about her job and shows like “Revival” is that they give people an opportunity to “search for answers through these stories” and characters to foster empathy and understanding toward others.

“By doing what we do, we hopefully can empower people to at least tolerate each other a little bit better,” Scrofano says.

Billy Joel’s life is awash in revelations these days — some bad, some worse.

Last month, the “Only the Good Die Young” singer-songwriter canceled all his upcoming concerts, revealing he was struggling with a brain disorder that causes a potentially reversible kind of dementia. Then last week, he divulged that he attempted suicide twice in his 20s after falling in love with his bandmate’s wife and causing the downfall of the band itself.

“I felt very, very guilty about it. They had a child. I felt like a homewrecker,” Joel says (via People) in the first half of the two-part documentary “Billy Joel: And So It Goes,” which premiered last Wednesday and hits HBO Max in July. “I was just in love with a woman and I got punched in the nose, which I deserved.”

Joel said both he and his friend and Attila bandmate, Jon Small, were upset by what happened while Joel was living with Small and Small’s then-wife, Elizabeth Weber. So upset that Attila — a Led Zeppelin-inspired metal band, according to the New York Times — broke up and Joel started boozing, which sent him into a tailspin.

“I had no place to live,” Joel says in the documentary. “I was sleeping in laundromats, and I was depressed, I think to the point of almost being psychotic. So I figured, ‘That’s it. I don’t want to live anymore.’”

He tried twice to end his life in the early 1970s, according to the documentary. First, he took the entire lot of sleeping pills that his sister, then a medical assistant, had given him to help him sleep. That put him in the hospital.

“He was in a coma for days and days and days,” Judy Molinari says in the program. She thought she had killed her brother.

Joel says in the doc that he woke up in the hospital still suicidal, hoping to do it “right” the next time. His sister said he wound up drinking “lemon Pledge” furniture polish. That time, an unlikely person took him to the hospital: Small, his then-estranged best friend.

“Eventually,” Small says in the documentary, “I forgave him.”

As for those impulses to harm himself, they wound up paying off for Joel after he checked out of a facility he had checked himself into after the second suicide attempt.

“I got out of the observation ward and I thought to myself, you can utilize all those emotions to channel that stuff into music.”

Joel reconnected with Weber about a year after that, wrote about her in the 1973 song “Piano Man,” and married her from then until 1982. Marriages to Christie Brinkley, Katie Lee and current wife Alexis Roderick would follow.

The first part of the documentary covers Joel’s childhood and runs through his 1982 motorcycle accident, according to the New York Times. He doesn’t meet his “Uptown Girl,” Brinkley, until Part 2.

CALLUM SIMPSON called on inspiration from his late sister Lily Rae to come from behind and stop Ivan Zucco to win the European title.

Simpson suffered the devastating news that his 19-year-old sister had tragically died last year in a quad bike accident on holiday in Greece.

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But the Barnsley boxing hero – who headlined at the Oakwell Football Ground – continues to fight in Lily Rae’s honour.

And she would have watched on with pride as her big brother came back to stop Zucco in round ten after three knockdowns.

Simpson, crowned the European super-middleweight champion, said: “Not once did I give up, those last few rounds I’ll be honest I started thinking about my little sister Lily.

“I’ll be honest, I just thought I had to push for her and for everybody.

“This time last year, Lily was sat up here cheering me on and she was there with me tonight when it got tough, when it got hard.

“From round eight, I thought, ‘I’ve got to dig deep, I’ve got to keep pushing, I’ve gotta do it for her. She was with me tonight.”

Simpson filled Barnsley’s 23,000-seater – but he got off to a horror start after being floored by only the second punch Zucco threw.

Simpson made it to his feet with little trouble but opted to try and make Zucco pay – and buzzed the travelling Italian himself before the bell sounded.

The opener was a frenzy of wild shots with both men hurt and the following two rounds was much of the same.

And again Simpson was down in round three after a huge left hand as the chaos continued.

The former British and Commonwealth super-middleweight had to pick himself up and dust himself off to turn the fight around.

And that is exactly what he did with constant pressure in the second half of the fight turning the tide.

By round ten, Simpson was on the front foot and trapped Zucco in the corner – letting off a devastating triple uppercut.

It dropped Zucco – who got to his feet – but again he was pinned in the corner and floored with two of the same shots.

The underdog European once again made it to his feet but Simpson, smelling blood, jumped on Zucco and forced him to the floor with a barrage of shots.

This time there was no coming back for Zucco – as Simpson turned the fight on its head with a comeback victory for the ages.

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EXCLUSIVE: Love Island 2025 star Alima Gagigo has opened up about the extraordinary moment she delivered her baby sister at home – and she’s determined to make a difference in the villa

Love Island stunner Alima Gagigo is already making headlines – and not just for her villa debut. In a story that’s as jaw-dropping as it is heartwarming, the 23-year-old Londoner has revealed she once delivered her baby sister at home using a shoelace to tie the umbilical cord.

The incident happened in January 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold. Speaking exclusively to The Mirror, ahead of the brand new series kicking off on Monday June 9, Alima shared the extraordinary moment that proved she’s not just reality TV-ready – she’s resilient under pressure, too.

“Yeah! It was back in January 2020. My sister’s a COVID baby,” she said. “It was just me and my mum at home, and the labour was 15 minutes. I had to tie the umbilical cord with a shoelace while on the phone with paramedics. It was scary but amazing looking back.”

Alima is a wealth management client services executive living in Glasgow. Now, the educated beauty is swapping emergency home births for bikinis and bombshell drama in the sun-soaked Love Island villa, and she’s determined to make a difference while doing it. Representation, she says, is front and centre.

“100%. When I watched the show last year, seeing girls like Whitney made a difference,” Alima told us. “If I can be that person this year, it could give confidence to others who might want to go on the show in the future. Representation really matters.”

Alima, who describes her hair plans as “glueless wigs – closures instead of frontals,” is stepping into the ITV2 spotlight following in the footsteps of fan favourite love island star Whitney Adebayo, who starred on the 10th series joining as a bombshell. And it turns out Whitney’s already showing love for her fellow Islander.

“I actually didn’t know that – this is the first time I’m hearing it!” she said when told of Whitney’s online support. “I follow her and absolutely loved her journey. As another dark-skinned woman, I could really relate. Maybe she supports me because she knows what I might be going through.”

The support from her circle has also been overwhelming, with her family cheering her on from the sidelines.

“Everyone’s buzzing! Friends and family are super excited. My mum was especially excited – taking pictures and everything when she dropped me at the airport!”

And while Love Island’s latest season is already making headlines – ITV bosses recently confirmed they won’t shy away from showing sex on screen if it happens – Alima admits she is “going to stay true to myself.”

“On the outside, I don’t really do that kind of thing, so I don’t think I’ll be getting up to much in the villa either.”

That down-to-earth energy is exactly what fans are already loving. Alima, who says she’s “not really anxious” about how she’ll be perceived as a Black woman on the show, is focused on being authentic.

“Seeing girls like Whitney and Mimii [Ngulube] last year who were themselves and came across amazing gave me confidence,” she added. “I want to be fully myself, regardless of stereotypes.”

She’s not afraid to laugh either – especially when it comes to her biggest dating ick.

“Honestly, if someone rapped or sang to me and it was bad – I wouldn’t know what to say. If it’s good, then fair enough, but if not…awkward!”

As the 2025 series kicks off with a fresh group of hopefuls and more drama promised than ever before, Alima is clearly more than ready to hit the villa.

Catch Love Island every night at 9pm from Monday 9 June on ITV2 and ITVX

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