Gavin and Stacey star Sheridan Smith brings Ann Ming’s relentless fight for justice to screens in I Fought The Law. The actress explains why the series was particularly daunting.
I Fought The Law looks back on the murder of Julie Hogg and Ann Ming’s subsequent fight for justice(Image: ITV)
Sheridan Smith portrays Ann Ming, charting her extraordinary fight for justice in ITV‘s newest drama I Fought The Law – but the role was nothing short of daunting.
“It’s what Ann came up against,” Sheridan Smith says, “It was one thing after another. It was relentless. I don’t know the strength it took for Ann to keep fighting. I’m absolutely in awe of her.”
Julie Hogg was 22 years old when she vanished from her Billingham home in November 1989, leaving behind her toddler son Kevin. Her mother, Ann, immediately knew something was wrong.
“I was convinced something had happened to my daughter from day one,” Ann says. But police believed otherwise. “They thought she could have gone to London to start a new life,” Ann says, “It really was frustrating.”
Three months later, Ann’s maternal instincts were tragically vindicated. She discovered Julie’s body herself, hidden under the bath at her home.
The investigation soon identified a suspect: William “Billy” Dunlop. He stood trial for Julie’s murder twice, but juries failed to convict on both occasions.
Then, while serving a prison sentence for unrelated violent offences, Dunlop confessed to Julie’s killing. But there was a twist: under the centuries-old double jeopardy rule, he couldn’t be tried again for the same crime.
But for Ann, giving up wasn’t an option. She petitioned politicians for more than a decade, lobbied the media and refused to let Julie’s case fade from memory with unwavering support of her husband Charlie, played by Daniel York Loh in the crime drama.
This relentless fight – both devastatingly personal and profoundly public – is the backbone of I Fought The Law. For Sheridan Smith, stepping into Ann’s shoes was a privilege and an emotional burden.
“I can only imagine and think if it was my child, but it was emotionally taxing,” she says. “It was just nine weeks and by the end of it, I was a shaking mess.”
Sheridan Smith plays Ann Ming in I Fought the Law – her most daunting role yet(Image: ITV)
The actress fully immersed herself in Ann’s world, devouring documentaries about the case and Ann’s book. Sheridan says: “I get mad at myself if I don’t feel the actual pain and trauma. I wanted to make Ann proud and get her story justice.”
Ann was also present as a consultant on the set, while filming took place in North East England. “She was a huge support and very crucial to the production the whole way through,” series director Erik Richter Strand says. “Sheridan is in every scene. She doesn’t get many breaks. We had to make that set safe, practical and comfortable for Sheridan.”
The transformation was physical as well as emotional. Sheridan swapped her trademark brunette for Ann’s blonde locks. But she dreaded one scene above all: the bathroom scene, where Ann finds Julie’s body. “I knew I had that coming, I wanted to get that scene out, it was a bit scary,” she says. “I knew it’d be torturous.”
“It was my first role as a mum,” she says. “It’s your worst fear, isn’t it? No one should have to go through that. I was emotionally attached to the whole thing.”
There was another, more personal note to Sheridan’s role. “When I did Mrs Biggs, I tried to think of my mum who lost her son, my brother,” she says.
“This time, there was a different layer. Just thinking how I would have felt in that moment, if it was my little one. This was much more powerful, that’s probably why it was a bit difficult.”
WASHINGTON — A watchdog investigation into former special counsel Jack Smith over his prosecutions of President Trump is based on an “imaginary and unfounded” premise, Smith’s lawyers wrote in a letter obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday.
The letter marks the first response by Smith and his legal team to news that the Office of Special Counsel, an independent watchdog office, had launched an investigation into whether Smith engaged in improper political activity through his criminal inquiries into Trump.
The attorneys told Jamieson Greer, the acting head of the office, that his investigation into Smith was “wholly without merit.”
“Mr. Smith’s actions as Special Counsel were consistent with the decisions of a prosecutor who has devoted his career to following the facts and the law, without fear or favor and without regard for the political consequences, not because of them,” wrote Smith’s lawyers, Lanny Breuer and Peter Koski.
The Office of Special Counsel, which is totally distinct from the Justice Department special counsel position that Smith held for more than two years starting in November 2022, confirmed the investigation following a request from Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who asked it to examine Smith’s activities for potential violations of the Hatch Act, a federal law that bans certain public officials from engaging in political activity.
Cotton had alleged that Smith sought to interfere in the 2024 presidential election through his prosecutions and sought to effectively fast-track the cases toward resolution, including by asking the Supreme Court to weigh in on a key legal question before a lower court had a chance to review the issue.
But Smith’s lawyers say that argument is contradicted by the facts and note that no court ruling or other authority prohibits prosecutors from investigating allegations of criminal conducts against candidates for office. Politics, they say, played no part in the decision to bring the cases.
“A review of the record and procedural history demonstrates the opposite — Mr. Smith was fiercely committed to making prosecutorial decisions based solely on the evidence, he steadfastly followed applicable Department of Justice guidelines and the Principles of Federal Prosecution, and he did not let the pending election influence his investigative or prosecutorial decision-making,” Smith’s lawyers wrote.
“The predicate for this investigation,” they added, “is imaginary and unfounded.”
Smith, who was appointed special counsel under the Biden administration, brought two cases against Trump, one accusing him of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and the other of hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Both were brought in 2023, well over a year before the 2024 presidential election, and indictments in the two cases cited what Smith and his team described as clear violations of well-established federal law.
Both cases were abandoned by Smith after Trump’s November win, with the prosecutor citing longstanding Justice Department policy prohibiting the indictment of a sitting president.
Baker is also a prolific note-maker, something he puts down to his education.
At the time of his first stress fracture he was targeting a place to study biology at the University of Oxford and now he records analysis on opposition batters in a little book, along with plans and hopes for the future.
“I’ve just found it keeps me involved in the analysis stuff and then really remember it,” Baker says.
“It would be an absolute nightmare if you’re not really sure whether you’re meant to bowl wide or straight and then you pick the wrong one.
“You can’t really justify that to yourself at the end of the game.”
The Hundred means there is already a page in Baker’s notebook titled with the name of an Australian great.
Of the 12 balls Baker bowled to Steve Smith when Welsh Fire hosted Manchester Originals last Monday, three were hit for four and another three resulted in a false shot.
“It has been surreal, writing notes on Steve Smith thinking ‘am I actually going to be opening the bowling at him?'” Baker says.
This is the company Baker now keeps, however and, having rehabbed in Sydney after his most recent back injury, he has spent the past two winters in Australia.
Another will likely come this year with the young quick expected to be part of the Lions squad shadowing the Test team around the Ashes series.
From there anything can happen.
Far more unlikely names have been plucked by England to make a Test debut down under.
“I mean, that would be good fun, wouldn’t it?” Baker says.
“I’ll refer back to notes on any matters and Steve Smith is one of the red-ball GOATs [greatest of all-time] so I’d definitely be coming back to that analysis if I end up needing it.
“But let’s just worry about the next few games first. Let’s not get too far out of ourselves.
“We’ve got a Hundred to try and win and then South Africa series to try and win and then Ireland series try and win way before we think about any of all of that stuff.”
Sheridan Smith has taken on a new role that claimed was her toughest yet as she played real-life hero Ann Ming who battled to put her daughter’s killer behind bars
Sheridan Smith has taken on a cutting new role(Image: Dave Benett/Getty Images)
Sheridan, 44, has also confessed that she is “sober for real” while discussing her addiction battle. Speaking in a new interview, Sheridan talks about her role, telling the real-life story of Ann Ming, who spent 15 years campaigning for the UK’s 800-year-old ‘double jeopardy’ law to be overturned following the murder of her daughter Julie Hogg.
Sheridan said that she would draw on her own experience to fulfil the role. She told The Guardian, “I’d remember the night my brother died and my mum screaming, so I’d tap into that. Now, as a mum, I imagine what if something happened to your child.”
Sheridan’s brother Julian died of cancer when he was 18, and Sheridan was just eight years old. She said playing Ann “took it out of her” and made her think about the kind of roles she will take in the future.
Sheridan plays Ann Ming in I Fought The Law(Image: ITV)
She explained, “I have to always remember that the real-life characters have actually gone through this, but I think a little bit of each character stays in me.” Sheridan then addressed her sobriety saying: “I was always going back and forth between drinking and sobriety. But this time I feel it’s for real.”
Ann Ming’s daughter Julie was murdered by William ‘Billy’ Dunlop, but jurors failed to find him guilty twice, which meant he couldn’t be tried again legally. But Ann and her husband Charles – who sadly passed away in 2013 – did not give up and kept campaigning until they got the law amended.
Billy is now serving a life sentence after the brutal murder of Julie, who was just 22 when she died and a mother to a three-year-old, Kevin. Julie’s body was found 80 days after Billy murdered her, concealed underneath the bath in the bathroom of her home.
Ann battled to put her daughter’s killer behind bars(Image: Mike Marsland/WireImage)
Police officers and forensics teams had carried out extensive searches of her home but failed to find the body, which was eventually discovered by her family as they investigated a smell. Billy had strangled and sexually mutilated Julie.
Ann said, “My daughter’s killer was wrongfully acquitted, and a number of years later confessed to her murder, for which he could only be prosecuted for perjury due to the 800-year-old Double Jeopardy Law. I wasn’t going to let this stand in my way of getting justice for Julie. I’m overwhelmed that Sheridan Smith will be playing me.
“Having such an iconic and talented actress portray me is truly wonderful.”
Speaking about the role, Sheridan said, “I am so honoured to have been asked to play the role of Ann Ming, a mother so determined to fight for justice for her murdered daughter that she spent 15 years campaigning for the Double Jeopardy Law to be changed.
“She is a truly courageous and remarkable woman to whom we all owe a debt of gratitude.”
On Wednesday, he does not, but he still has a better batting average than the guy behind him.
It’s all a quirk of baseball’s rules, but one that could cost Smith the batting title if he keeps hitting and the Dodgers keep using him the way they do. We’ll explain and exhale in a bit, but first we ought to appreciate the rarity of this situation.
The Dodgers have been in business for 142 years, and never has one of their catchers won a batting title.
Mike Piazza? Good guess.
In 1997, Piazza batted .362, but Tony Gwynn batted .372.
In 1995, Piazza batted .346, but Gwynn batted .368.
In 1996, Piazza batted .336, but Gwynn batted .353.
In major league history, only four catchers have won a batting title. Two of them were Cincinnati Reds: Bubbles Hargrave (1926) and Ernie Lombardi (1938 and 1942). One is a Hall of Famer: Joe Mauer (2006, ‘08 and ‘09). One is a Hall of Famer in waiting: Buster Posey (2012).
Posey, now the president of baseball operations for the San Francisco Giants, said one factor weighing against a catcher in the batting race is the need to not only prepare himself for a game but to prepare a revolving cast of pitchers as well.
“And, especially as you get late in the year, as much as you try to maintain your legs throughout the season, inevitably you get later in the year and your legs do start to get a little bit tired,” Posey said. “That’s the foundation to hitting. So you’re kind of combating that.
“You’re also a foul tip away from getting one off your hands that would impact how you grip the bat. So there is a lot.”
The batting title used to be one of the most prestigious awards in the game. In the analytical revolution, batting average has become something of a lost statistic, sacrificed at the altar of on-base percentage.
Posey does not quite buy all of this. He would not sign a player simply because of a high batting average, he says, but he considers a high batting average a worthy statistic.
“I’m a believer in batting average,” he said. “With that batting average, I think you’re still hoping for some impact there as well, which Will is doing with his ability to drive the ball.
“But part of my belief in batting average is that it just creates pressure on the defense, having traffic on the bases. I know that you can get there other ways, with a walk and whatnot, but it’s part of the puzzle to create pressure. I think the good teams do a nice job of having a lineup sprinkled with some of those guys that are a little bit more bat-to-ball, and then have some of their power hitters mixed in around them.”
Smith made his major league debut in 2019, the next-to-last season for Posey.
“I’ve always been a fan of Will,” Posey said. “Playing against him, I felt like we had some similarities, because he wasn’t looking to be your best friend when you came to the plate. I kind of appreciated that about him. He was always very business.
“You could tell he wanted to do everything he could to beat you. There’s no doubt he’s been a big part of that team’s success.”
Smith is hitting .312, which would be the lowest average to win an NL batting title. In this era in which batting average is devalued and disparaged, the NL has only three .300 hitters: Smith, teammate Freddie Freeman and the Miami Marlins’ Xavier Edwards.
Smith also leads the league in on-base percentage (.414) and ranks fourth in OPS (.930, behind Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Schwarber and Ketel Marte).
Technically, Smith does not lead in those categories. Under Rule 9.22 (“Minimum Standards for Individual Championships”), a player cannot qualify for a title unless he averages 3.1 plate appearances per game.
Smith batted under .200 in each of the three rounds of last year’s postseason, and the Dodgers prioritized getting him extra rest this season. Some days, he meets that average, and he shows up among the league leaders. Then the Dodgers give him a day off, and he does not.
Smith’s performance would indicate the extra rest has worked as intended so far. However, the rest is primarily designed to allow Smith to play more often down the stretch and play more effectively in October.
And “down the stretch” took on a more urgent meaning Tuesday, when the Dodgers fell into a first-place tie with the San Diego Padres in the NL West. A division title is at stake, and with it the possibility of a first-round playoff bye.
The teams play three games this weekend at Dodger Stadium, three more next weekend at Petco Park. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said “there’s a chance” Smith could play all three games on one of those weekends.
As of Wednesday, Smith projects to make 500 plate appearances this season. The magic number to qualify for the batting title: 502.
The team comes first, and with the Dodgers that means preparedness for October. If Smith keeps hitting, might he have to sacrifice a chance at the batting title for the good of the team? I asked Roberts, and I was pleasantly surprised at the answer.
“He’s going to qualify. No matter what, I’ll make sure of that,” Roberts said. “I’m going to make sure he gets enough at-bats.”
Northern Superchargers’ Matthew Potts bowls Steve Smith for 29 runs as Welsh Fire fall to 62-1 with 35 balls remaining in the Men’s Hundred at Headingley.
Without evidence, Trump and his allies accuse former US special prosecutor of illegal political activity.
Officials in the United States have launched an investigation into Jack Smith, the former special prosecutor who led two cases against Donald Trump, US media outlets are reporting.
The Associated Press, NBC News and other US news outlets confirmed on Saturday that the Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal agency, has opened an investigation into Smith on allegations of illegal political activity.
Without offering any evidence of wrongdoing, Trump and his Republican allies, including Senator Tom Cotton, have accused Smith of violating the Hatch Act, a federal law that bans certain public officials from engaging in political activity.
In a social media post this week, Cotton accused Smith of being a “partisan Democrat who weaponized the law” against Trump in the lead-up to the 2024 US presidential election that he ultimately won.
“I’ve asked the Office of Special Counsel to investigate his actions that likely violated the law to influence the election,” Cotton wrote on X on Wednesday.
Smith was named as special counsel to investigate Trump by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland in November 2022.
He led two federal cases into the Republican leader’s alleged mishandling of classified government documents and his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election that he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump had denied any wrongdoing, claiming US prosecutors were politically motivated.
Smith ultimately dropped the cases — neither one had gone to trial — after Trump was re-elected in November 2024, which would have shielded him from prosecution under a longstanding Justice Department practice.
US prosecutors said in a report at that time that if Trump had not won the 2024 race, he would have been convicted for “criminal efforts to retain power” following the 2020 election.
The White House had no immediate comment on the Office of Special Counsel’s investigation into Smith, AP said on Saturday.
BRIDGEWATER, N.J. — Federal officials have opened an investigation into Jack Smith, the former special counsel who indicted then-candidate Donald Trump on felony charges before his election to a second term.
The current Office of Special Counsel, traditionally an independent federal agency, on Saturday confirmed the investigation after reporting by other news organizations. Smith was named special counsel by then-Atty. Gen. Merrick Garland to investigate Trump in November 2022 for his actions related to trying to overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden and his hoarding of classified documents at his home in Florida.
Trump and his Republican allies, including Sen. Tom Cotton, have — without offering evidence of wrongdoing — accused Smith of violating the Hatch Act, a federal law that bans certain public officials from engaging in political activity.
Smith prosecuted two federal cases against Trump and indicted him on multiple felony charges in both. He dropped both cases after Trump won the election in November, as a sitting president is shielded from prosecution according to long-standing Justice Department practice. Smith then subsequently resigned as special counsel.
Cotton (R-Ark.) on Wednesday asked the Office of Special Counsel to investigate Smith, alleging that his conduct was designed to help then-President Biden and then-Vice Presiedent Kamala Harris, who became the Democratic nominee in last year’s race against Trump.
Trump is the only felon to ever occupy the White House, having been convicted in May 2024 on 34 criminal counts for fraud related to a hush-money payment to a porn star before the 2016 election, which he also won.
The White House had no immediate comment on the investigation.
The New York Post was first to report on the investigation into Smith.
1 of 4 | Officials with the Office of Special Counsel are launching an investigation into Jack Smith, who oversaw criminal probes into President Donald Trump related to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
Aug. 2 (UPI) — Officials with the Office of Special Counsel are launching an investigation into Jack Smith, who oversaw criminal probes into President Donald Trump related to the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
The investigation into Smith is related to alleged violations of the Hatch Act, NBC News reported, citing sources within the agency.
Investigators have not yet disclosed any specific evidence against Smith, who headed two criminal investigations, one into Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 insurrection and a second into his handling of classified documents following his first term in the White House.
“I appreciate the Office of Special Counsel taking this seriously and launching an investigation into Jack Smith’s conduct. No one is above the law.
“Jack Smith’s actions were clearly driven to hurt President Trump’s election, and Smith should be held fully accountable,” said Senate Intelligence Committee chair Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., told the New York Post in a statement.
The U.S. Office of Special Counsel is an independent federal investigative and prosecutorial agency, which also operates as a secure channel for federal whistleblowers.
The Hatch Act was passed in 1939 and “limits certain political activities of federal employees,” while ensuring “that federal programs are administered in a nonpartisan fashion.”
Smith’s role as special prosecutor is not related to the Office of Special Counsel.
Smith in January resigned from the Justice Department, days before Trump took office for his second term as president.
It was quality over quantity for the Dodgers on Monday night. A bunch of empty at-bats, salvaged by a few emphatic drives that left the ballpark.
In six innings against struggling Minnesota Twins starter David Festa, the Dodgers’ slumping offense managed only four hits — doing little to quell the offensive concerns that have mounted during a puzzling month of poor all-around production.
Three of the knocks, however, went over the fence, with a two-run blast from Shohei Ohtani in the first inning and a pair of solo homers from Will Smith in the fourth and sixth lifting the team to a 5-2 win at Dodger Stadium.
A course correction, this was not for the Dodgers’ supposed powerhouse offense.
Entering the night, the team had the third-lowest team batting average in the majors this month. As even president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman acknowledged during pregame batting practice, “we’ve had more than half of our lineup really scuffle” for the last six weeks running.
“The offense scuffling the way it has,” Friedman added, “was something that I didn’t expect over this kind of protracted period of time.”
On Monday, though, the Dodgers did rectify at least one issue plaguing their recent offensive struggles. After hitting only 19 total home runs in their first 15 games in July, they went deep four times against the Twins (48-52), with Andy Pages adding an insurance shot in the seventh inning against reliever Cole Sands. It marked only the fifth time this season they hit at least four homers in a single contest.
Ohtani provided the night’s first big swing, immediately erasing the leadoff blast he gave up to Byron Buxton in the top of the first while making his sixth pitching start of the season.
In his second game occupying the second spot in the batting order, the two-way star wasn’t forced to rush between the mound and the plate (something manager Dave Roberts hoped would be a side benefit of replacing him with Mookie Betts as the team’s leadoff hitter). He was able to go through his normal routine of on-deck swings while watching Betts draw a five-pitch walk.
Then, for the first time in his six games as a pitcher this season, Ohtani not only got a hit, but clobbered a hanging changeup in a 2-and-1 count, launching his 35th home run of the season 441 feet to straightaway center.
From there, the Dodgers (59-42) kept playing long ball.
Festa, a second-year right-hander who entered the night with a 5.25 earned-run average, retired the next nine batters he faced before Smith came up to lead off the fourth.
Festa got ahead 1-and-2 in the count, before throwing a changeup that Smith fought off and missing wide with a slider. Festa’s next pitch was a fastball left over middle. Smith, the one Dodgers hitter who has been swinging a hot bat of late, didn’t miss it, going the other way to make the score 3-1.
Festa was still in the game when Smith came back up in the sixth. Once again, the pitcher made a mistake, hanging a slider over the heart of the plate. Once again, Smith was all over it, sending a souvenir into the left-field pavilion for his 14th home run, and first multi-homer game since last July.
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1.Shohei Ohtani rounds first after hitting a two-run homer Monday against the Twins.2.Dodgers catcher Will Smith, right, celebrates with Freddie Freeman after hitting a solo home run in the fourth inning.3.Dodgers center fielder James Outman ends the game with a jumping catch at the wall in straightaway center field.(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)
With the two blasts, Smith raised his National League-leading batting average to .327. Since the start of July, he is 15 for 40 with a 1.163 OPS.
By the time Pages added to the lead in the seventh, whacking his 18th of the season deep to left, the game was already in hand.
Despite giving up plenty of hard contact and lacking the pinpoint command he’d flashed in his previous starts, Ohtani kept the Twins off the board over the rest of his three-inning outing, collecting three strikeouts over a season-high 46 pitches to finish the night with a 1.50 ERA.
After that, converted starter Dustin May followed with a productive bulk outing from the bullpen, scattering five hits over 4 ⅔ scoreless innings.
Dodgers closer Tanner Scott walks off the field with trainer Greg Barajas, left, after sustaining an injury during the ninth inning Monday.
(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)
The Dodgers did not get out of Monday unscathed. In the top of the ninth, closer Tanner Scott left the game alongside a trainer after walking one batter, hitting another and then spiking a slider that left him grimacing.
As he left the field, he appeared to be flexing his left throwing arm — a potentially troubling sign for a Dodgers team that was already in need of bullpen reinforcements ahead of next week’s trade deadline.
Roberts said Scott felt a “sting” in his forearm and is “emotionally not well.” He will undergo an MRI exam Tuesday.
But on Monday, at least, the team survived, with James Outman denying Carlos Correa a potential tying three-run homer off Scott’s replacement, Kirby Yates, with a leaping catch at the center-field wall for the night’s final out.
Arsenal did not want to sit still after winning the Women’s Champions League and vowed to strengthen their squad.
This is an eye-catching recruit that does just that with Smith widely considered one of the WSL’s most exciting youngsters, with a high ceiling of potential.
She brings pace and directness to Arsenal’s attacking line-up and has already proven herself in the WSL with a successful season at Liverpool.
There has been longstanding interest in Smith from Arsenal, who were beaten to her signature by Liverpool in 2024, and they have always been ready to spend should they need to.
The Reds have made a profit of almost £800,000 after breaking their club record last summer to sign Smith, and they will see this as good business despite losing one of the world’s brightest young talents.
Liverpool managing director Andy O’Boyle rejected several bids until £1m was presented. The £1m payment will be made in instalments to allow Liverpool to invest gradually.
The club hope to use this money to strengthen the squad in several areas this season.
There is also a sell-on clause, so Liverpool will benefit from any future sale.
Smith had several suitors but it is believed she was impressed by Arsenal’s recruitment presentation.
Having left home as a teenager to play professional football in Portugal, then leap up to the WSL, all by the age of 20, Arsenal think she has proven her character and ability to be part of an elite squad.
Josh Kim and Sam Hong had successful careers in tech — but in 2022, they decided to start making burgers, bought a few portable griddles and did their first pop-up at Thank You Coffee in Chinatown. About a year and a half later, the pair earned a vendor spot at Smorgasburg, where they served 450 burgers on their first day of service inspired by their Korean American childhoods — think pork belly sandwiches with sesame mayo and kimchi jam, and a smashburger patty topped with a tempura-fried enoki mushroom, yuzu mayonnaise and pickled red onions.
“I say it’s like exploring cultural confusion,” Kim said of Softies’ menu. “Sam and I are both Korean American, so we grew up at home eating Korean dishes. But whenever we’re out, we wanted to eat burgers and pizza and whatnot. So it’s kind of trying to figure out what that looks like.”
Kim and Hong soft opened their bricks-and-mortar location of Softies Burger in the USC Village on July 6, where they formerly worked at Cafe Dulce. Owner James Choi put in a good word for them to the landlord who, after going to Smorgasburg to try their food, offered them a spot at the campus-adjacent shopping center.
The newly-opened burger joint has a few new items on the menu, including a classic New York-style chopped cheese sandwich, a chicken Caesar salad with spicy panko breadcrumbs and shrimp paste and a selection of sodas, along with drip coffee and cold brew. Desserts pull from childhood nostalgia, including a diner-inspired lime pie with yuzu and a miso-caramel banoffee pie.
Leading up to the opening, Kim and Hong started a GoFundMe that raised over $18,000 for restaurant equipment, furniture and other inventory. Neither of the pair are chefs, though Kim sees his time working in tech for OpenTable and DoorDash as “data gathering” for what he didn’t realize at the time would become his own restaurant.
The three burgers on the menu hail from Kim and Hong’s Smorgasburg days: the Cali, their take on a classic In-N-Out burger, doctored up with roasted garlic and caramelized onions (a nod to Korean barbecue toppings); the Japanese Peruvian-inspired Aji burger, a smashburger patty topped with pickled jalapenos and a cilantro, garlic and lime mayonnaise; and a rotating third option, which is currently the Crispy Shroom burger.
“We are very specific about the fact that we’re not chefs,” Kim said. “The kind of restaurant we want to build, it’s not too stuffy … We just want this space, especially for the USC students, to feel like their restaurant.”
Kim and Hong designed the 2,600-square-foot space to look like an old-school diner with modern Korean and Japanese influences, pairing retro barstools with spherical chandeliers, sleek white tables and wooden booths and chairs.
Softies Burger is currently open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
“The Bear” deli from Chicago at Uncle Paulie’s Deli
The hit FX series “The Bear” has given the iconic Chicago beef sandwich renewed time under the national spotlight. On the heels of the show’s fourth season, the dish, which features tender slices of roast beef dripping with au jus on a crusty roll, is back at the forefront of diners’ minds — and Angelenos are about to get a taste.
The Beverly Grove location of Uncle Paulie’s Deli will host Mr. Beef — the Chicago deli that inspired the Berzatto family’s restaurant on the award-winning drama-comedy — for a pop-up on July 19 and 20.
“Last year was such a success we had to run it back,” Uncle Paulie’s wrote in an Instagram post of its former collaboration with Mr. Beef.
Mr. Beef’s signature Italian beef sandwich, topped with giardiniera and dipped in au jus, will be offered at Uncle Paulie’s on Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Chicken tenders with salad in anchovy vinaigrette at Joshua Skenes’ Happies Handmade.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Happies Hand Made
A new destination for fried chicken has arrived in the Arts District. Chef Joshua Skenes, who formerly led the two Michelin-starred Saison in San Francisco and now-closed, one Michelin-starred Angler in the Beverly Center, opened Happies Hand Made on June 6. Skenes throws his fried chicken on the grill before serving it a la carte, in sandwiches or on top of a crispy waffle alongside tallow fries.
The concept is centered around high-quality comfort food, with limited drops and an evolving menu. Happies Hand Made also offers soft serve, with flavors such as wild strawberry, passion fruit and butterscotch, alongside cold brew, tea drinks and house-made sodas, including the Yuzu-Up and Kumquat Cream Top.
Happies Hand Made is open on Wednesday through Sunday from 12 to 8 p.m.
Brisket sliders from Smokey Chance BBQ at Citizen Public Market.
(Athena Riley)
Smokey Chance BBQ and Jikoni at Citizen Public Market
After wowing customers with its 14-hour-smoked brisket at Culver City’s Citizen Public Market for the last nine months, Smokey Chance BBQ will begin a permanent residence at the food hall beginning July 17.
“Before, we literally took over a corner, which was a seating area at the market,” said chef Derrell Smith. “Now we’ll have the opportunity to actually have a full, built-out kitchen [where] we can expand our menu and be able to experiment how we wanted to before.”
Smith, pitmaster Jeff Chen and Darren Wong, who Smith described as the “brain” of Smokey Chance, will serve sliders and other new dishes next week, alongside mainstays that include a brisket Cuban sandwich, brisket cheesesteak, and cornbread made with beef tallow and topped with Calabrian chile honey butter.
“Our barbecue sauce is made with gochujang and jerk — Jeff and Darren are both Taiwanese and Chinese, and my grandma taught me to cook, and she was from North Carolina,” Smith said. “[We’re] taking all of these regional ingredients and turning them into something that’s just fun and whimsical.”
Jikoni, a summer pop-up from “AfriCali” cookbook author Kiano Moju, has been extended at Citizen Public Market for the rest of the summer. Moju puts a California twist on the Kenyan and Nigerian food she grew up eating in Oakland, offering a rotating menu with dishes like Swahili biriyani and saucy coconut butter beans with chapati, along with mishkaki, skewers popular in Tanzania and Kenya.
“When I was on the book tour, people kept asking, ‘Where can I try food like this?’ … I thought it could be fun to do a pop-up where we bring the book to life with some of the recipes,” Moju said.
After a successful pop-up at Melody wine bar this spring, Moju said that Smith told her about a temporary spot opening up at Citizen Public. Her initial two-week residency was extended to a month and just last week, the food hall announced that the Jikoni pop-up would remain through August.
“It’s really fun, but it’s also still incredibly crazy because I thought I’d just be writing recipes and telling people how to cook, and here I am running a restaurant,” Moju said.
Smokey Chance BBQ is open Friday and Saturday from 12 to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 12 to 7 p.m, and will begin Thursday service on July 17. Jikoni is open on Wednesday through Saturday from 12 to 9 p.m. and Sunday from 12 to 8 p.m.
ATLANTA — The hierarchy of stars was obvious even in the table arrangements.
At an All-Star Game media day event on Monday at the Roxy Coca-Cola Theater in Atlanta, the Dodgers’ five All-Star representatives were in the same area of the large venue.
In the first row, basking under large spotlights near an elevated stage, Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Clayton Kershaw were positioned front and center, expected to attract so many reporters that retractable ropes lined the perimeter of their podiums.
And even then, where Yamamoto’s media contingent stretched several rows deep, Smith’s rarely swelled beyond a few people.
He was a third-time All-Star, National League starter and batting title contender — once again relegated to the background of the sport’s public consciousness.
“He’s up there as far as being overlooked,” Dodgers manager and NL All-Star skipper Dave Roberts said of his ever-present but easily forgotten backstop. “You know what you’re going to get, but you probably don’t appreciate it as much as you should.”
Appreciated, Smith has not been this year. Not fully, at the very least.
Entering the All-Star break, the 30-year-old slugger is a distant leader in the NL batting race, sporting a .323 mark that outpaces the next closest qualified hitter (his recently slumping teammate, Freeman) by a whopping 26 points.
Smith also has 12 home runs, 46 RBIs, and a .965 OPS (which trails only his two-way teammate, Ohtani) in addition to a 15% walk rate (fifth-best in the league).
According to Fangraphs’ all-encompassing wRC+ metric, only Yankees superstar Aaron Judge and Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh have been more productive hitters this season.
And he’s done it all while shepherding a banged-up Dodgers pitching staff, helping keep the team atop the NL West despite it having used 35 different arms through the first half of the year.
“For him to go out there, catching these guys, having your team in first place, and then you’re hitting .325, I don’t think people are paying attention to that,” Freeman said Monday, peering through a forest of reporters to catch a glimpse of Smith over his shoulder. “People are gonna tune into the All-Star Game, they’ll throw his numbers up on the TV, and they’re gonna be like, ‘Whoa, that’s a really good season.’”
But for as well as Smith has played, the seven-year veteran remains somewhat obscured from the public spotlight.
He is, as Roberts jokingly puts it, the most “vanilla” of the team’s collection of spotlight talent. He doesn’t have jaw-dropping highlights like Ohtani. He doesn’t have a signature World Series moment such as Freeman. He isn’t excelling at a new position such as Mookie Betts. And even when he is swarmed by reporters around the ballpark, it’s usually to field questions about catching the Dodgers’ star Japanese trio of Ohtani, Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki.
“Honestly, I don’t really care,” he said Monday. “That stuff has never been important to me. Being ‘the guy’ or not, any of that. I show up, play baseball every day, try to help the team win, try to be a good teammate, try to lead the pitchers, and ultimately try to win a World Series every year. That’s what’s important to me.”
This year, Smith was voted an All-Star starter for the first time by fans. But, he isn’t even the most talked about catcher at this week’s festivities in Atlanta, overshadowed again by Raleigh and his 38 first-half home runs — making the slugger affectionately known as “Big Dumper,” who also won the Home Run Derby on Monday night, the best current catcher in baseball in the eyes of many around the sport.
“Will’s just always kind of really under the radar, for whatever reason,” Kershaw said. “He’s been unbelievable for us, at a position that’s really important and very demanding.”
For Smith, the true joy of this year has simply been his health.
Two years ago, he slumped mightily in the second half of 2023 (finishing the year with a .797 OPS) while battling a broken rib he had suffered that April. This spring, Roberts revealed that Smith’s underwhelming performance in 2024 (when he posted more career lows with a .248 average and .760 OPS) was hampered by an ankle injury that again plagued his second-half performance.
“The last couple years, I had some, not major things, but some tough injuries,” Smith said. “But that’s my decision to play through them.”
Now, however, he is back at full physical capacity, allowing him to work counts (he has almost as many walks, 45, as strikeouts, 55), punish fastballs (a pitch he struggled against the last two years) and maintain the most consistent production of any hitter in the Dodgers’ juggernaut lineup.
“I just feel like I have a really good understanding of my swing right now,” Smith said. “It’s a long season, it comes and goes. But for whatever reason this year, I’ve been able to keep it more than I haven’t. So that’s been fun. Credit to the hitting coaches as well for keeping me in that spot. I just have a really good understanding of what I’m doing up there.”
In his typically modest fashion, Smith sidestepped a question about his chances of winning the batting title, something no catcher has done since Buster Posey in 2012.
“I’ve never been one to chase awards or anything,” he said. “I think when you do that, it probably doesn’t go your way, you put too much pressure [on yourself]. So just trying to have one good at-bat at a time, help the team win that day.”
At his current pace, he could be a recipient for MVP votes for the first time in his career as well, although the Dodgers’ careful management of his playing time has left him ranked ninth in the NL in wins above replacement to this point, according to Fangraphs.
“What he’s doing is Buster Posey-ish, Joe Mauer-ish,” Freeman said, citing the only other backstop this century with a batting title (Mauer won three with Minnesota in the late 2000s). “When you’re leading the league in hitting and you’re catching, it’s really hard to do. You’re calling games. It’s almost like they’re more worried about putting up a zero than they are about hitting.”
In time, Freeman believes, Smith’s Q-rating will continue to rise, especially if he keeps replicating the kind of numbers he has posted this season.
“I think it just takes maybe a couple times [being here at the All-Star Game],” Freeman said. “We all know in L.A. how special he is. Obviously, the front office extended him 10 years. So, hopefully now that he’s starting in the All-Star Game, he’s gonna get that national recognition.”
But even if he doesn’t, he hardly seems to be bothered by his second-tier (and, on Monday, second-row) status.
“I just think he’s resolved to not having to be at the forefront,” Roberts said. “He doesn’t ever self-promote. He doesn’t need notoriety or attention. He just wants to win. Some players thrive on getting attention. He’s certainly not one of those guys.”
NEW YORK — Martin Cruz Smith, the best-selling mystery novelist who engaged readers for decades with “Gorky Park” and other thrillers featuring Moscow investigator Arkady Renko, has died at age 82.
Smith died Friday at a senior living community in San Rafael, “surrounded by those he loved,” according to his publisher, Simon & Schuster. Smith revealed a decade ago that he had Parkinson’s disease, and he gave the same condition to his protagonist. His 11th Renko book, “Hotel Ukraine,” was published July 8 and billed as his last.
“My longevity is linked to Arkady’s,” he told Strand Magazine in 2023. “As long as he remains intelligent, humorous, and romantic, so shall I.”
Smith was often praised for his storytelling and for his insights into modern Russia; he would speak of being interrogated at length by customs officials during his many trips there. The Associated Press called “Hotel Ukraine” a “gem” that “upholds Smith’s reputation as a great craftsman of modern detective fiction with his sharply drawn, complex characters and a compelling plot.”
Smith’s honors included being named a “grand master” by the Mystery Writers of America, winning the Hammett Prize for “Havana Bay” and a Gold Dagger award for “Gorky Park.”
Born Martin William Smith in Reading, Pa. , he studied creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania and started out as a journalist, including a brief stint at the AP and at the Philadelphia Daily News. Success as an author arrived slowly. He had been a published novelist for more than a decade before he broke through in the early 1980s with “Gorky Park.” His novel came out when the Soviet Union and the Cold War were still very much alive and centered on Renko’s investigation into the murders of three people whose bodies were found in the Moscow park that Smith used for the book’s title.
“Gorky Park,” cited by the New York Times as a reminder of “just how satisfying a smoothly turned thriller can be,” topped the Times’ fiction bestseller list and was later made into a movie starring William Hurt.
“Russia is a character in my Renko stories, always,” Smith told Publishers Weekly in 2013. “‘Gorky Park’ may have been one of the first books to take a backdrop and make it into a character. It took me forever to write because of my need to get things right. You’ve got to knock down the issue of ‘Does this guy know what he’s talking about or not?’”
Smith’s other books include science fiction (“The Indians Won”), the Westerns “North to Dakota” and “Ride for Revenge,” and the “Roman Grey” mystery series. Besides “Martin Cruz Smith” — Cruz was his maternal grandmother’s name — he also wrote under the pen names “Nick Carter” and “Simon Quinn.”
Smith’s Renko books were inspired in part by his own travels and he would trace the region’s history over the past 40 years, whether it be the Soviet Union’s collapse (“Red Square”), the rise of Russian oligarchs (“The Siberian Dilemma”) or, in the novel “Wolves Eats Dogs,” the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
By the time he began working on his last novel, Russia had invaded Ukraine. The AP noted in its review of “Hotel Ukraine” that Smith had devised a backstory “pulled straight from recent headlines,” referencing such world leaders as Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin of Russia and former President Joe Biden of the U.S.
Smith is survived by his brother, Jack Smith; his wife, Emily Smith; three children and five grandchildren.
The former “King of the Beach” kept his crown tucked away Saturday night.
Clad in denim jeans and a plain white shirt, Sinjin Smith hovered on the sidelines of the sand.
When Hagen Smith — the son and spitting image of Sinjin — sailed a serve too far, Sinjin craned his neck back and clenched his jaws.
“On the court, he tells me to serve short, and I never listen,” Hagen said.
Perhaps the match of the tournament as Logan Webber and Hagen Smith of the LA Launch escape a nail-biting three-setter, in which two sets went into extra points, to maintain their perfect record and put down the Palm Beach Passion featuring legend Phil Dalhausser.@latimessportspic.twitter.com/F9AmPH0AAK
And when Hagen — a UCLA alum like his father — uncorked a spike that thudded into the sand untouched, Sinjin’s arm sliced the air as a grin stretched across his face and his applause echoed.
“I wasn’t disguising anything,” Sinjin said.
Anonymity didn’t stand a chance as Sinjin watched Hagen and Logan Webber locked in a razor-edged three-setter against the Palm Beach Passion that twice spilled past regulation.
But as Sinjin rode every rally, Hagen and Webber eked out a narrow victory, going 13-15, 18-16 and 18-16. The L.A. men’s duo remains undefeated through five weeks of AVP play, helping offset the L.A. Launch female duo’s first loss of the year earlier Saturday. Their combined records will determine whether they win the AVP League regular season crown.
L.A. Launch’s Hagen Smith spikes the ball as Logan Webber watches during their win over Palm Beach Passion’s Phil Dalhausser and Trevor Crabb at the Intuit Dome on Saturday.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Two dozen years removed from his final outing on the sand, Sinjin carved his career on the chaos of close calls. But Friday, with his son trading kills in a battle that felt like it refused to end, Sinjin was dodging heart attacks.
As the crowd learned in, Sinjin leaned back.
“It’s nerve wracking to watch him — you couldn’t get a better match for the fans, but I hated it,” Sinjin said. “I want to win in two and go home.”
While Sinjin might’ve winced through every extra-point rally, Hagen soaked it all in — steady under pressure.. He may be “trying his best to live up to” his father, but to hear Sinjin tell it, Hagen had already surpassed the myth.
Sinjin Smith competes in the AVP Santa Barbara Open on 18 Aug. 18, 2001, in Santa Barbara.
(Icon Sportswire / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
“He’s an unbelievable resource to me. I’ll ask him at like, midnight, ‘Hey, can you come out in the morning and coach me?’ He’s there,” Hagen said of Sinjin. “I’ve modeled my game after him, through and through. If I can be as anything like him as a player, I’m honored.”
Sinjin marveled at Hagen with the awe of a fan.
“He’s his own person. He’s playing for himself, trust me,” Sinjin said. “He may be wanting to prove something to me, I don’t know, but he’s done so much more than I ever expected. He’s so fun to watch — the fact that he’s my son, that’s just icing on the cake.”
Sinjin, the UCLA and International Volleyball Hall of Famer, tapped his temple twice when asked where he and his son aligned on the sand. The resemblance, he said, lives in the mind — because Hagen’s style has taken on its own shape, forged far from his father’s shadow.
“He jumps and he’s powerful and he moves in the sand,” Sinjin said. “I did everything pretty well, which was my strength, but he really excels in — for one, attacking the ball, he hits the ball harder and more explosively when he attacks than I ever was.”
For as long as Hagen could remember, Pauley Pavilion was the lighthouse in the distance — the promised land of his childhood dreams. And when he finally walked into the arena, his eyes fixed to a familiar face.
There was Sinjin, featured on the walls around the Bruins’ home.
“Getting to see that, it’s like, ‘Ah, this is home to me. I’ve got dad helping me out, I’ve got dad watching over me. Luckily I got to wear his number that was retired and that felt awesome,” said Hagen, who wore his father’s No. 22 jersey in college.
Sinjin played under Al Scates — the architect of UCLA’s volleyball dynasty and the winningest coach in NCAA men’s volleyball history. Under Scates and his 19 national titles, winning was the annual expectation.
And under Scates’ tutelage, Sinjin bookended his career with national glory, and flooded his cabinets with individual accolades — two All-American recognitions, a Most Outstanding Player distinction at the 1979 national championship and a stalwart of the historic undefeated 1979 squad.
L.A. Launch’s Hagen Smith, left, and Logan Webber, right, celebrate with L.A. Launch teammate Terese Cannon after Smith and Webber beat Palm Beach Passion’s Phil Dalhausser and Trevor Crabb during AVP League play at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood Saturday.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
“[Scates] was the best coach of all time in the United States,” Sinjin said. “Al had a knack for picking players that had more than just a physical game. They had a mental game as well. … There’s so many of them that Al trained and went on to be the best of the very best in either beach or indoors.”
Decades later, Hagen was coached by Scates’ protege John Speraw.
After rattling off the names of former teammates and sand-side partners, Sinjin paused, seemingly struck by a pattern he couldn’t ignore: “God,” he said, “there’s a lot of UCLA legends going around.”
Two of those share the same last name.
“[Sinjin] tried to get me into tennis,” Hagen said, “and I was like, ‘Dad, I just want to play volleyball. I just want to be like you.’”
Other AVP results
In other AVP action Saturday, Palm Beach Passion’s Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson handed L.A. Launch’s Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft their first loss, winning 12-15, 15-6, 15-10.
San Diego Smash’s Devon Newberry and Geena Urango defeated Miami Mayhem’s Kelly Cheng and Molly Shaw 15-10, 15-11.
And San Diego Smash’s Chase Budinger and Miles Evans beat Miami Mayhem’s Chaim Schalk and James Shaw 11-15, 15-11, 15-13.
Arsenal have had a world-record bid in excess of £1m accepted by Women’s Super League rivals Liverpool for forward Olivia Smith.
The current world record is the £900,000 Chelsea paid to sign United States defender Naomi Girma from San Diego Wave in January.
The deal for 20-year-old Canada international Smith is subject to a medical and personal terms being agreed.
Smith joined Liverpool from Portuguese side Sporting last summer and scored seven times in 20 WSL appearances in her debut season.
As reported by The Guardian, external, Smith joined Liverpool for a club-record fee believed to be just over £200,000 in July 2024 from the Portuguese club and still has multiple years left on her contract.
Arsenal have also added Chloe Kelly to their ranks on a free transfer from Manchester City, alongside former Liverpool left-back Taylor Hinds.
Smith has played 18 times for Canada, scoring four goals.
Liverpool, who finished seventh in the WSL last season, view the sale of Smith as a major opportunity to strengthen their squad by reinvesting the transfer fee.
They are currently without a manager since sacking Matt Beard in February, with former Manchester City boss Gareth Taylor the leading candidate to take over.
What would a baseball team in Los Angeles want from a retired artist and designer in New York?
Janet Bennett wasn’t sure.
Generations of Angelenos are familiar with her signature project. You probably have walked right past it. Those colorful tile mosaics that decorate the long corridors toward baggage claim in five terminals at Los Angeles International Airport? She designed them.
You might have memorized the trivia: When you passed the red tiles, you were halfway down the corridor. “Red means halfway” was shorthand for locals in the know, just like “E Ticket” or “the #19 sandwich.”
“It just says L.A. in so many ways,” said Janet Marie Smith, the Dodgers’ executive vice president of planning and development.
For the clubhouse walkway, Dodgers executive vice president of planning and development Janet Marie Smith and architect Brenda Levin opted for multiple shades of blue tiles.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
The Dodgers wanted to get in touch with Bennett because they were about to install a similar tile wall at Dodger Stadium. Smith could not find Bennett, but she reached out to someone who had liked an article about Bennett that had been posted on LinkedIn. Same last name, same spelling. Smith crossed her fingers.
Turned out to be a relative of Bennett. The Dodgers sent some sketches of their project and asked Bennett for her thoughts.
“I was a little disappointed I didn’t work the project,” Bennett said over the telephone, chuckling, “but I don’t think I could have done it at this stage.”
“Once we got tile in our head, how could you not think of the LAX walls?” said Janet Marie Smith, the Dodgers’ executive vice president of planning and development.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Bennett is 96, happily living one block from Central Park. The LAX project was completed in 1961 — the year before Dodger Stadium opened.
What the Dodgers really were offering was the recognition denied to Bennett six decades ago.
“I realized they just wanted my blessing,” Bennett said. “They wanted the connection. And that was very satisfying.”
And, yes, she had some thoughts for the Dodgers. She wrote them a letter by hand, the old-fashioned way. The letter got lost in the old-fashioned mail, but Bennett’s daughter had thought to take a picture of the letter, and she sent it to the Dodgers via email.
Bennett’s advice for the colors of the tiles?
“Don’t limit it,” she wrote, “to the Dodger blue.”
On game days, Dodgers players take an elevator to the lowest level of Dodger Stadium. As they exit, they look to their right to see the Dodgers’ World Series championship trophies and most valuable player awards, to their left to see the Gold Glove awards.
When they turn toward the clubhouse, they see Cy Young and Silver Slugger and manager of the year awards on the right, rookie of the year awards and then the Dodgers’ retired numbers on the left.
“It’s meant to be uplifting and motivating, and a reminder to everyone — our players included, who take that path — of what a storied franchise this is,” Smith said.
The fans in the fanciest seats, the ones you see on television right behind home plate, can take that path too — but only until they reach the double doors, the ones with “DODGERS CLUBHOUSE” painted above them.
Pass through those doors, and you used to see a gray wall decorated with signage pulled from storage — signs from events held at Dodger Stadium long ago, and others commemorating milestone seasons. As part of the clubhouse renovations last winter, Smith and her team imagined how to freshen up that walkway.
“We wanted to try to get it out of its funk of just being a concrete wall,” she said. “And, once we got tile in our head, how could you not think of the LAX walls?”
Tile mosaic wall designs line departure halls in various LAX terminals.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
The Dodgers’ clubhouse features a tile wall “in the hydrotherapy area,” Smith said. The tiles there are all Dodger blue.
For the clubhouse walkway, Smith and architect Brenda Levin opted for multiple shades of blue tiles, interspersed with white tiles — a decision reinforced when they received Bennett’s suggestion to go beyond Dodger blue. The wall includes more than 714,000 individual tiles, Smith said.
“I think they did an excellent job,” Bennett said. “They got the rhythm of vertical stripes, which has a very athletic look.”
To Smith, a fierce advocate of sports venues reflecting their host cities, the tile wall reflects home.
“In many ways, that is a symbol: not just of L.A., but of ‘Welcome to L.A.’ ” she said. “That felt right to us.
“It’s not screaming at you. But, if you know, you know. We’ve always wanted that area to feel like a ‘Welcome to L.A.’ to our players.”
If you know, you know, but the players may not know. Dave Roberts, the Dodgers’ manager, said he did not know the story behind the wall until Smith explained it to him.
“It’s a great little touch,” Roberts said.
Smith said players and team executives have asked about the wall. Many of them did not know about the LAX walls, but she understood why.
“They don’t fly commercial,” she said.
If you merit an obituary in the newspaper, the first sentence generally includes your claim to fame. In 2007, The Times published an obituary with this first sentence: “Charles D. Kratka, an interior designer and graphic artist whose Modernist projects included the mosaic walls in tunnels at Los Angeles International Airport, has died.”
Said Bennett: “I just about freaked out.”
After Bennett had finished the LAX mosaics, she left town. By the time the airport unveiled them, she said, she was in Latin America. Until she saw that Times obituary, it had not occurred to her that anyone else might have gotten the credit for the LAX project.
In the obituary, the airport historian credited Kratka with the design, and so did the director of volunteers at the airport museum. In 2017, so did an official LAX document: “Completed in 1961, Charles Kratka’s mosaic murals have become iconic symbols of Los Angeles International Airport.”
At the start of the Jet Age, when airplane travel was a glamorous affair and even passengers in the cheaper seats enjoyed in-flight meals served with silverware, Bennett said the murals were designed to evoke the wonder of a cross-country trip: blue for the ocean at each end of the corridor, and in between green for the forests, and yellows, oranges and browns for farmland, prairies and deserts.
Tile mosaic wall designs line departure halls in various LAX terminals.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Bennett freely admits that Kratka was involved in the project. The city hired Pereira and Luckman as architects for the LAX expansion, and Kratka was the firm’s head of interior design.
“He was my boss,” Bennett said.
Bennett said the mosaic design was hers, although she said she did not recall whether she had chosen to use glass for the tiles.
“Everything from that point on was mine,” she said.
Bennett and her family have pushed for LAX to recognize her as the designer. Airport officials acknowledge Bennett’s participation in the project but, amid a search for records from six decades ago and without Kratka to provide his version of events, they believe a conclusive determination would be difficult. And, back in the day, credit was more commonly attributed to a firm rather than to an individual designer.
When I asked for a statement saying whom LAX currently credits with the design, an airport spokeswoman said, “LAX has no official comment.”
At LAX, there is no sign crediting anyone — not Bennett, not Kratka, not Pereira and Luckman, not anyone else — for the murals. However, the Dodgers have given Bennett her due at Dodger Stadium, on a sign directly across from their tile wall.
“This mosaic wall draws inspiration from architect Janet Bennett’s iconic mosaic murals at Los Angeles International Airport,” the text begins, “that transformed a transit space into a work of art.”
Jamie Smith offers admirable final-day resistance but India’s superb bowlers complete a thumping 336-run victory over England in the second Test at Edgbaston to level the series at 1-1.
Australia have dropped Marnus Labuschagne for their opening Test against the West Indies with Steve Smith also missing through injury.
In their places, teenage opener Sam Konstas and Josh Inglis come in for the series opener in Barbados, which starts on 25 June.
Labuschagne opened the batting for Australia in their World Test Championship final defeat by South Africa last week but finished with scores of 17 and 22 to continue his lean spell.
The 30-year-old has not made a Test hundred since the fourth Ashes Test of 2023.
“Marnus at his best can be a really important member of this team. He understands his output hasn’t been at the level we, or he, expects,” said selection chair George Bailey.
“We will continue working with him on the areas of his game we feel he needs to rediscover. We continue to value his skill and expect him to work through the challenge positively.”
Smith, meanwhile, dislocated his right little finger on day three of the final at Lord’s.
Though he has avoided surgery and travelled to the Caribbean, he must wear a splint for up to eight weeks but could return for the second Test in Grenada in July.
“Steve needs more time for the wound to heal so we’ll give him another week’s rest and assess his functionality after that,” Bailey said.
“We have made the decision to give Josh and Sam the opportunity to replace Steve and Marnus. We are excited to see them get the chance to further their fledgling Test careers.
“In his only opportunity in Test cricket to date, Josh was outstanding in Sri Lanka, showing great intent and ability to put pressure on the opposition.”
South Africa’s Marco Jansen juggles the ball before successfully completing the catch at slip to dismiss Australia’s Steve Smith for 66 runs on day one of the ICC Test Championship final at Lord’s.
