A Palestinian mother from Gaza says she recognised her missing son, Mohammed Sharab, when he was shown shackled, blindfolded and listed as ‘for sale’ in a post shared by Israeli soldiers.
Published On 26 Feb 202626 Feb 2026
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When the pandemic hit, and reality settled in that life would be isolated and mostly inside, Grammy winner Anderson .Paak found himself on the outside looking in, in a way he didn’t anticipate. “I was the odd man out. My son was 8, and BTS took over the whole house,” .Paak explained in an interview with The Times at his WeHo lounge, Andy’s. “It was a K-pop storm. Before that, me and my son were bonding off of my music.”
.Paak’s son, Soul Rasheed, and his now ex-wife originally from Korea, Jaylyn Chang, had become obsessed with K-pop alongside much of America, which reminded .Paak of the intensity of Beatlemania. Black American music influenced the birth of a new style, which formed and expanded across oceans, then returned to the U.S. and exploded. This effect in the .Paak household was palpable, causing Soul and Chang to deeply bond in a new way. .Paak himself, as a soul, R&B and hip-hop aficionado, was tapped into the source, but not the reinterpreted subject. So he had to find a way in.
Soul, at the time, like many 8-year-olds, had also become obsessed with becoming a YouTuber. Besides .Paak’s music, the father-and-son duo had also previously connected over humor, so .Paak started there. They began with funny skits and eventually fused them with BTS dances. Soon, there were even videos featuring them comedically educating each other about their individual music tastes. “I loved it,” .Paak recalled, getting lost in the memory. “I was getting to know him more, and he was getting to know me. My mom would always say, ‘It’s one thing for your kids to love you, but it’s another to share things you’re interested in.’ It wasn’t like I was being Anderson .Paak, I was just Dad.”
“I was getting to know him more, and he was getting to know me,” .Paak said of bonding with his son, Soul.
(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)
Through this exploration and the realization of a potential continued familial bond, a story idea emerged, then a treatment for a K-pop-centered film that .Paak would direct and he and Soul would both star in. .Paak then began directing a slew of music videos as the pandemic began to fade, building a portfolio and gaining experience in the medium. But he could start to sense Soul’s interest fading as time passed. After a few failed pitch attempts, .Paak urgently enlisted the help of one of his oldest friends and fellow entertainer, Jonnie “Dumbfoundead” Park, who brought .Paak and the idea to Stampede Ventures.
“The pitch was from an idea that Anderson had, and [to introduce it], we showed them this TikTok that he had with his son,” Park recalled over Zoom. “Anderson was like, ‘Do you know anything about BET, son?’ And [Soul] was like, ‘No, but I know BTS.’ Then they were just going back and forth, arguing about BET and BTS. That was literally the deck, [us saying] we would take that energy and put it into a two-hour film. They loved it. As soon as we walked out of the office, Anderson looked over like, ‘Are we greenlit?!’ They just understood it, the whole intergenerational, intercultural element of Black and Korean.” Stampede combined forces on the project with Live Nation Studios and .Paak’s debut feature “K-Pops!” was off to the races.
It’s important to note that .Paak is himself Black and Korean. His mother was adopted from Korea by a SoCal Black American military family and .Paak’s father was also a Black military officer. Thus, while his mother was born in Korea, he was raised almost entirely within a Black cultural space. .Paak didn’t experience much direct exposure to Korean culture until his 20s, when he met Chang at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood. As an immigrant directly from Korea, Chang showed him the fortitude of structure amid her community. He was also taken by their inherent family value system. “In Korean households, you stay in the house until you get older so you can take care of your parents, and your parents can help take care of the kids,” .Paak explained. “There’s an infrastructure that’s worked out. Also, Korean food is important, as is learning the language. I was drawn to that. My son didn’t eat anything outside of Korean food for so long, and he’s just now getting into tacos.”
.Paak then further explored his Korean side through a burgeoning friendship with Park, which happened a bit later, after Chang had already given birth to Soul. Park introduced .Paak to K-town-based Korean culture through their shared music scene. “The people that came from K-town had a lot of Latino and Black influences as well,” .Paak remembered. “There was a little more of a melting pot, and it was more urban. But in a similarly communal way [to Koreans from Korea], they were all hanging out in K-town with other Korean friends. They’d drink soju, and go to after-hours where you had to have somebody Korean with you.”
While .Paak had some opportunities in adulthood to grasp a bit of his Korean heritage, in “K-Pops!,” through his main character BJ, he also got to actualize what his mother may have missed. In the film, BJ, a failed karaoke bar R&B musician, gets a lucky chance to go to Korea and be the drummer for a popular K-pop competition series. There, he bumps into his estranged ex-girlfriend’s son, Tae Young (played by Soul), who is competing on the show. He then finds out that the kid is his. While a messy transition ensues, BJ and Tae Young eventually get to galavant around Korea and work together to try to win the competition. Through this exploration, BJ finds out he can thrive in Korea while still holding onto his Blackness. .Paak’s mother’s dive back into her roots had a different result. “My mom went abroad and spent a year in Korea, but when she went there, she just didn’t like it,” .Paak explained. “In the movie, initially, BJ doesn’t really have any connection to his Korean side and doesn’t really care to know, but then he finds a bridge.” That bridge is music.
Actor Yvette Nicole Brown, who in “K-Pops!” plays BJ’s mother, proclaimed over Zoom that, “Everything about the film and the music in it is Blasian, every culture is celebrated and massaged and made into something beautiful.” .Paak made a concerted, intentional effort to explore both the Black and Korean sides of K-pop in two scenes.
The first is an early breakdown initiated by Soul’s character, Tae Young, who explains the structured roles of a K-pop group, which may be fun for superfans and educational for laypeople to the genre. The next is a winding presentation by BJ to Tae Young about the influence of Motown groups like the Jackson 5 and boy bands like New Edition on the momentum of K-pop’s rise. It’s particularly poignant because it is all shot at a record store on the streets of Korea, where .Paak explained he actually found the records he was referencing. “There’s nothing wrong with people doing their interpretation of Black music, as long as you pay homage and as long as you respect it and take care of it,” .Paak declared. “Because [if you do], then they’ll take care of you, but the moment you don’t, you’ll see what happens … I wanted to explain that history because that’s how I saw it.”
Real-life father and son, Anderson .Paak, left, and Soul Rasheed, co-star in “K-Pops!”
(Jake Giles Netter)
”K-Pops!” has as much of who .Paak and Soul are as father and son as he could fit in. There are appearances by legacy Black artists like Earth, Wind & Fire, as well as K-pop stars like Vernon from Seventeen. There are original songs co-written and co-produced by .Paak and musician Dem Jointz, that feature K-pop fused with soul and funk, one of which Tae Young performs as his finale competition number (soundtrack arriving soon). The film was shot in both L.A. and Korea and provided ample time for bonding (especially during scenes filled with off-the-cuff humor) that .Paak envisioned from the beginning. Yet still, at the time they were about to shoot, .Paak almost couldn’t get Soul on board because he had turned 11 and wasn’t as into K-pop or acting comedically anymore; he insisted he was instead “into Slipknot.”
The duo did find their footing, though, and executed a winding story that centers on their connection. As a burgeoning teenager in 2024, Soul went with his father to the world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, along with a plethora of Korean relatives from his mom’s side. .Paak anxiously awaited their full reaction to the culmination of his quest for a deeper bond.
“Everybody really enjoyed it,” .Paak remembered, relieved. “[Soul] was like, ‘I’m proud of you, Dad.’ I asked him, ‘You think you would ever do part two?’ He was like, ‘Nah, I don’t think acting is my passion, but I’ll never forget those moments … You know what? On second thought, it depends on the script.’ But I think he’s really proud of it. I think it’s something like, when he gets older, he’ll see how special it is as well. But yeah, he didn’t say it’s cringe.”
“K-Pops!” has its L.A. premiere on Tuesday and debuts in select theaters Friday.
RAPPER Wiz Khalifa filmed himself punching his son in the stomach 13 times in a sick birthday tradition that he shared on Instagram.
In the shocking clip shared to his stories, the 38-year-old lands a series of blows on his son Sebastian who grimaces and tries to grab the wall behind him to brace for the impact.
His father repeatedly tells him to raise his arms above his head for each punch – one for every year of his life.
“We still doin’ birthday licks in this house!” he wrote in a caption with the video.
“Took it like a g tho.”
Just before the second blow, Sebastian can be seen lowering his arms and grabbing the wall behind him before his dad tells him “hands up,” looks directly at the camera and punches him in the stomach before laughing.
Meanwhile, his son puts his hands on his stomach and grimaces.
“You’ve got to take it like a G, you’re 13 years old,” Khalifa tells him.
“That’s only four, tighten your stomach,” he later told his son who groaned and fell away from the wall on the fourth punch.
He gave his struggling son bizarre and twisted advice, telling him, “every time you get hit, breathe out,” as he continued to hit him.
Wiz, whose real name is Cameron Jibril Thomaz, shares Sebastian with his ex-wife and model Amber Rose.
The pair celebrated their son’s 13th birthday on Saturday night with a basketball-themed bash packed with friends and family.
“He’s officially a teenager. We are so proud of you and we love you,” his dad said during a speech shared by Amber on her Instagram stories.
More to follow…
CONAN O’Brien has broken his silence after his friend Rob Reiner was at his party just hours before being killed.
Reiner, 78, and Michele allegedly had their throats slit while they were in bed and their son Nick was charged with murder.
Reiner and Michele had attended O’Brien’s holiday party the night before the killings on December 24, last year.
The couple arrived at that party with Nick because they were reportedly afraid to leave him alone.
Conan O’Brien told The New Yorker: “I knew Rob and Michele, and then increasingly got closer and closer to them, and I was seeing them a lot.
“My wife and I were seeing them a lot, and they were so — they were just such lovely people.
“And to have that experience of saying goodnight to somebody and having them leave and then find out the next day that they’re gone. … I think I was in shock for quite a while afterward. I mean, there’s no other word for it. It’s just very — it’s so awful. It’s just so awful.”
O’Brien admitted it is still “hard for me to comprehend” the tragedy.
Reiner’s son Nick faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole if he’s convicted.
The death penalty has not been ruled out.
This comes after Reiner told friends he was terrified of his own son and feared he could hurt him just hours before the Hollywood legend and his wife were found dead.
Nick, 32, had been living in the guesthouse of his parents’ $13.5 million Brentwood estate.
He had struggled with drug addiction since his teens, undergone at least 18 stints in rehab and experienced periods of homelessness.
Sources say Nick behaved erratically at the holiday party and unsettled guests.
According to MailOnline, Reiner told friends: “I’m petrified of him”.
“I can’t believe I’m going to say this but I’m afraid of my own son. I think my own son can hurt me.”
At one point, Reiner introduced Nick to Bill Hader.
Nick then interrupted Hader mid-conversation, according to accounts.
Hader reportedly told him he was “in the middle of a private conversation.”
Nick reacted angrily, stood still, stared at Hader and stormed off.
It was moments later that Reiner approached friends and voiced his fear.
Hours after the gathering, prosecutors allege Nick returned home and killed both his parents in the early hours of Sunday, December 14.
On the Sunday afternoon, a masseuse contacted the Reiners’ 27-year-old daughter Romy after being unable to gain entry to the home.
Romy rushed to the house and found her father’s body before fleeing in distress.
She later learned her mother had also been killed.
Billy Crystal was seen outside the home with his wife Janice, wiping away tears as police arrived.
Crystal later joined Albert Brooks, Larry David, Martin Short and Barry Levinson in a statement praising Reiner as “a great comic actor” and “a master storyteller.”
Police said both victims were found in the master bedroom and no other suspects were located.
Nick was arrested around 9pm on Sunday near the Expo/Vermont Metro station.
Earlier that morning, he had checked into a Santa Monica hotel.
About an hour before his arrest, he was seen acting nervously while buying a Gatorade at a gas station.
Nick has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and is being held without bail.
FAMED actor, director and producer Rob Reiner, 78, died on December 14 alongside his wife Michele Singer, 68, in an apparent homicide.
Here is a look at the prodigious list of achievements the Hollywood powerhouse earned before his tragic and sudden death.
Director’s Beginnings
Hollywood Career
Personal Life
Pikachu? More like Pi-ka-ching.
A rare Pokémon card owned by wrestler and social media personality Logan Paul sold for $16.5 million on Monday, setting a new record for the auction price of a trading card. Paul had acquired the Pikachu Illustrator card in a trade worth $5.275 million in 2021 — the most expensive Pokémon trading card sold at a private sale at the time.
The retail price for a standard pack of Pokémon cards is usually around $5 for 10 cards — though, much like hunting for shiny Pokémon, successfully purchasing a new pack may require some luck, strategy and patience as the cards have exploded in value in recent years. Paul, who began unboxing Pokémon cards on video during the COVID-19 pandemic, is often credited with helping propel the boom.
Described as an “unimaginable Holy Grail piece,” the card Paul sold features beloved Pokémon mascot Pikachu holding a pen and feather sweeper. The art on the card is by Atsuko Nishida — the graphic artist who designed a number of popular Pokémon, including Pikachu. It is believed only around 40 were ever printed, and they were given out as prizes for an illustration contest in the late 1990s.
The Pikachu Illustrator Pokémon trading card once owned by Logan Paul.
(Goldin)
Paul’s card was graded 10 by Professional Sports Authenticators, or PSA, a third-party service that authenticates and grades trading cards and other collectibles. According to Goldin, the auction house that organized the trading card auction, Paul’s is the only Pikachu Illustrator card to achieve that “virtually perfect” PSA grading.
On top of its rarity and quality, this Pikachu Illustrator card had been placed in a bejeweled case on a diamond necklace and was worn by Paul at WWE WrestleMania 38 in 2022. The card was also featured in Season 3 of Netflix’s “King of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch.”
The winning bid for the rare card was placed by venture capitalist AJ Scaramucci, the son of former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci.
According to People, AJ Scaramucci is on a quest of “collecting the uncollectable.” He reportedly also hopes to eventually buy “a T-Rex dinosaur fossil” and the Declaration of Independence on his “planetary treasure hunt.”
From “The Godfather,” “Apocalypse Now” and “Network” to “Widows,” these films capture the flinty grace of the Oscar winner, a combustible screen presence.
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The body of Lil Jon’s son Nathan Smith, who performed as DJ Young Slade and went missing Tuesday night, was recovered Friday from a pond near his home in Milton, Ga., according to local police. The rapper’s son was 27.
“I am extremely heartbroken for the tragic loss of our son, Nathan Smith. His mother [Nicole Smith] and I are devastated,” Lil Jon and his ex-wife wrote Friday on social media.
“Nathan was the kindest human being you would ever meet. He was immensely caring, thoughtful, polite, passionate, and warmhearted — he loved his family and the friends in his life to the fullest.”
They said their son was “amazingly talented” as a music producer, artist and engineer. Nathan Smith was a graduate of New York University, his parents said.
Nathan Smith, a.k.a. DJ Young Slade, performs with his father, Lil Jon, at the Hollywood Palladium in March 2014.
(Kevin Winter / Getty Images )
“We loved Nathan with all of our hearts and are incredibly proud of him. He was loved and appreciated, and in our last times together we’re comforted in knowing that we expressed that very sentiment to him,” the parents concluded before thanking the many local authorities and rescuers who helped search for their son.
The Milton Police Department said Tuesday on social media that Nathan Smith hadn’t been seen since he “ran out of his house” at 6 a.m. that day.
“Subject left on foot and does not possess a phone. He may be disoriented and in need of assistance,” the statement said. “Family and friends are concerned for his safety.”
On Friday, Milton police said in a statement that teams had expanded the search to include the pond in a nearby park after failing to find Smith elsewhere. Divers with the Cherokee County Fire Department recovered a body from the water shortly before noon local time Friday, the statement said.
“The individual is believed to be Nathan Smith, pending official confirmation by the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office,” police wrote, adding there was no indication of foul play. However, the official cause and manner of death were still to be determined.
“We extend our deepest condolences to the Smith family during this difficult time. The department respectfully asks the community and members of the media to honor the family’s request for privacy as they grieve and navigate this tragedy,” the statement concluded.
Lil Jon and Nicole Smith expressed gratitude in their post confirming their son’s death. The two married in 2004 after welcoming Nathan in 1998 but split up amicably in 2022.
“Thank you for all of the prayers and support in trying to locate him over the last several days,” they wrote Friday.
VICTORIA Beckham’s £104 foundation has sold out in the two weeks since son Brooklyn disowned her — as fans throw their support behind the ex-Spice Girl.
It is now the most successful product in her beauty range — and means she stands to make her greatest turnover this year.
The Foundation Drops have sold out in several shades, with the waiting list the longest since she launched her range in 2019.
Currently one of her satin kajal eyeliners sells every 30 seconds.
But the foundation is on track to sell every 20 seconds once stocks are replenished.
January, traditionally the quietest month in the online beauty world, has been Victoria’s busiest to date as fans launched a viral campaign to promote her products.
Read more on Victoria Beckham
It comes after they got her 2001 hit, Not Such An Innocent Girl, to number one in the charts last month following Brooklyn’s Instagram tirade.
After months of feuding, Brooklyn 26, said he has no desire to reconcile with Victoria, 51, and dad David, 50.
A source said: “Personally it may well have been one of the worst months of Victoria’s life but professionally, these past four weeks have been astonishing.
“Not only did fans get her to number one, TikTok then went into overdrive reviewing her foundation. It got rave reviews, with make-up artists and beauty enthusiasts waxing lyrical.
“Having already sold well in the build-up to Christmas, in the wake of Brooklyn’s bombshell statement, it has had a second surge online.
“As a result, there are now enormous waiting lists and it has become her biggest ever selling hero product.”
Victoria’s most recent Companies House reports showed a 26 per cent revenue increase year on year, with turnover of almost £113million.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, has been killed in Libya, Al Jazeera Arabic reports.
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The 53-year-old, who was once widely seen as the second most powerful person in Libya, was killed on Tuesday according to Libyan media.
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Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s son has pleaded not guilty to four rape charges as his trial opens in Oslo. Marius Borg Hoiby faces 38 counts, including assault and domestic violence, in a case that has shaken Norway’s royal family.
Published On 3 Feb 20263 Feb 2026
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Marius Borg Hoiby and Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit attend a party in Oslo, Norway, in 2022. Hoiby pleaded not guilty to four counts of rape in his trial that began Tuesday. He faces 38 charges. File Photo by Lise Aserud/EPA
Feb. 3 (UPI) — Marius Borg Høiby, son of the crown princess of Norway, pleaded not guilty to four counts of rape in his trial that began Tuesday in an Oslo courtroom.
Høiby, 29, is facing 38 charges, including abuse in close relationships and filming women’s genitals without their knowledge. He pleaded guilty to some charges, including sexually offensive behavior, violation of a restraining order and some driving-related charges. He pleaded partially guilty to serious bodily harm, reckless behavior and violation of a restraining order.
“The defendant is the son of the crown princess. He is part of the royal family. He should still be treated equally like any other person charged with the same offenses. He should not be treated more severely or more leniently because of those with whom he is related,” lead prosecutor Sturla Henriksbø told the court.
“There is no requirement for a prosecution request from the victims,” he added. “It is society’s responsibility to prosecute serious crimes, regardless of whether the victim themselves wants it. In several of these cases, it is not the victim who has come to the police and said ‘I have been subjected to something criminal.'”
He was arrested again Sunday for alleged assault, making threats with a knife and violating a restraining order. Oslo police are keeping him in custody until March 2.
Høiby is not an official member of the royal family. His mother, Crown Princess Mette-Marit, married Crown Prince Haakon when Høiby was a young child.
Mette-Marit is facing her own troubles at the moment. Her name shows up more than 1,000 times in the latest dump of Epstein files, showing her close friendship with the late sex offender.
She is also suffering from pulmonary fibrosis and needs a lung transplant.
Jan. 31 (UPI) — Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials must release Adrian Arias and his 5-year-old son, Liam, from detention, a federal district court judge ruled on Saturday.
U.S. District Court of Western Texas Judge Fred Biery Jr. on Saturday granted a writ of habeas corpus petition naming the father and son.
Biery likened his strongly worded ruling to placing a “judicial finger in the constitutional dike.”
The petitioners “seek nothing more than some modicum of due process and the rule of law,” Biery wrote.
“The case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently, even if it requires traumatizing children,” he said.
“This court and others regularly send undocumented people to prison and orders them deported but do so by proper legal procedures,” Biery added.
He accused the federal officers of violating the Fourth Amendment via an unlawful search-and-seizure and said only judicial warrants enable them to arrest or detain people when there is no probable cause to do so.
“Civics lesson to the government: Administrative warrants issued by the executive branch to itself do not pass probable cause muster,” he said.
“That is called the fox guarding the henhouse,” Biery said. “The Constitution requires an independent judicial officer.”
He ordered the federal government to release both from custody no later than Tuesday.
Former President Bill Clinton appointed Biery to the federal bench in 1993.
Federal officers arrested Adrian Arias and detained Liam while enforcing an administrative warrant for the father on Jan. 20 in the Greater Minneapolis area.
The two were transferred to a detention center in Texas, while awaiting deportation.
Liam’s mother, Erika Ramos, told media that she watched from a window as ICE officers detained her son and partner.
She said they led her son to the door and knocked while her son asked her to open the door, but she wouldn’t because she feared she would be arrested.
“When I didn’t open the door, they took Liam to the ICE van,” Ramos said, adding that she thought the officers were using her son as “bait.”
Ramos said she is pregnant and has another child, whom she feared leaving alone if she had opened the door and was arrested.
Homeland Security officials on Jan. 22 said the ICE officers wanted Ramos to open the door so that they could leave her son with her.
“Our officers made multiple attempts to get the mother inside the house to take custody of her child. Officers even assured her that they would NOT take her into custody.
“She refused to accept custody of the child. The father told officers he wanted the child to remain with him.”
They said the officers’ primary concern was the child’s safety and welfare and that the father is from Ecuador and subject to deportation.
Demond Wilson, who was best known for playing Lamont Sanford, the son of Redd Foxx’s character on the 1970s TV show “Sanford and Son,” died in his sleep at his home in the Coachella Valley on Jan. 30. He was 79.
Wilson’s publicist, Mark Goldman, confirmed that he died from complications related to cancer.
“Demond was surrounded by love throughout his final days,” Goldman said in a statement. “A devoted father, actor, author, and minister, Demond lived a life rooted in faith, service, and compassion. Through his work on screen, his writing, and his ministry, he sought to uplift others and leave a meaningful impact on the communities he served.”
Demond Wilson attends the 2016 Chiller Theater Expo at the Parsippany Hilton in New Jersey on April 22, 2016.
(Bobby Bank / WireImage)
Grady Demond Wilson was born in Valdosta, Ga., on Oct. 13, 1946, and grew up in New York City. His mother, Laura, was a dietitian, and his father, Grady Wilson, was a tailor. Wilson learned tap dance and ballet and appeared on Broadway at just 4 years old. After serving in the Army from 1966 to 1968 in Vietnam, where he was wounded, he made his TV debut in 1971, playing a burglar alongside Cleavon Little in Norman Lear’s sitcom “All in the Family.” That role led to his casting in “Sanford and Son” in 1972, which was notable at the time for having a nearly all-Black cast.
Redd Foxx, left, broods next to Demond Wilson about one of the 3,000 pieces used on the “pleasantly junky” set of “Sanford and Son.”
(NBC)
Although “Sanford and Son” was his most famous role, Wilson also appeared in “Baby, I’m Back,” “The New Odd Couple” and “Girlfriends.” His last TV appearance was in “Eleanor’s Bench” in 2023.
Despite his success, Wilson left acting, sold his Bel-Air mansion and Rolls-Royce and became an interdenominational preacher in 1983.
The change was not surprising given his background. “I was raised a Catholic, was an altar boy, and at 14 I seriously considered becoming a priest,” Wilson told The Times in 1986. When he was 12, his appendix ruptured and he nearly died, leading him to promise to serve God as an adult. “I was always aware that God was the guiding force in my life,” he said.
Disillusioned with Hollywood, Wilson moved his wife and children to what he jokingly called a “respectable, Republican, upper-middle-class” neighborhood in Mission Viejo. He wanted his five children at the time to have “normal childhoods.” “We’ve left the rat race and false people behind,” he said.
Wilson was also an author. He published “The New Age Millennium: An Exposé of Symbols, Slogans and Hidden Agendas” in 1998, and his autobiography, “Second Banana: The Bittersweet Memoirs of the Sanford & Son Years,” in 2009. He also wrote 11 children’s books.
Wilson is survived by his wife, Cicely; his six children, Nicole, Melissa, Christopher, Demond Jr., Tabitha and Sarah; and his two grandchildren, Madison and Isabella.
CLEVELAND — He hears it in nearly every arena the Lakers enter.
“We want Bronny. We want Bronny.”
But on Monday night in Cleveland’s Rocket Arena, where the familiar chant reached arena-filling decibels, it felt different. It felt like home.
Bronny James provided some of the few Lakers highlights in the team’s worst loss of the year — a 129-99 drubbing by the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday — to turn an emotional homecoming for his father into a happy return for the 21-year-old. James scored eight points with two rebounds, an assist and a steal. He knocked down two three pointers and slammed a one-handed transition dunk to elicit a roar from the crowd that welcomed back a son they watched grow up.
Laker Bronny James #9 of the Los Angeles Lakers shakes hands with the Cavliers’ Larry Nance Jr. Wednesday.
(Jason Miller / Getty Images)
“I was just excited to go out there and play,” James said. “I’m always ready to go out and play, whether that’s when the entire arena is saying ‘We want Bronny‘ or no one is. I was just really, really grateful that they put me in at that time and I was able to go out and get a few buckets.”
With the Lakers trailing by 20 by the third quarter, the chants for James started early. “We want Bronny” chants occur at nearly every Lakers game, almost turning the young guard’s playing time into a sideshow instead of much-needed opportunities for a developing player trying to find his footing in the NBA.
James hadn’t played in a game since Jan. 18 and hadn’t scored since Jan. 12. But he got on the scoreboard in thrilling fashion Wednesday night, tipping away a crosscourt pass and taking the ball in transition for a dunk that left even his dad nodding approval from the bench.
“He handles all of it so well,” said guard Gabe Vincent, who called Bronny “a light” in the Lakers’ otherwise forgettable blowout. “It’s incredible. His maturity through it all is incredible. … It’s great to see him have a moment like that.”
The former USC guard who also scored his first NBA points in Cleveland as a rookie last year has bounced between the Lakers and the team’s G League affiliate this year as he hopes to make strides as a shooter and on-ball defender while “building up his tolerance for being in elite shape,” coach JJ Redick said. James has had some promising moments, especially when the Lakers were short-handed earlier this season, showing quicker decision making and increased confidence shooting the ball.
Monday was just the second time in his career that he made two threes in a game.
“He’s as level headed and just as normal of a 21-year-old as I’ve ever been around,” Redick said.
When the Lakers got to the arena Monday, James was welcomed home by a childhood photo of him on a screen outside the visiting locker room. It showed him on stage in 2016 during the Cavaliers’ championship celebration wearing a championship hat and white T-shirt, holding up one finger.
LeBron James glanced at the championship banner from that team before the game Monday, fueling the intense emotions of what could be his last game in his hometown against the team that launched his NBA dreams in 2003.
The Cavaliers, wearing navy blue throwback uniforms, showed a tribute video for LeBron James during the first quarter, highlighting James’ takeover of Game 5 of the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals in which he scored 25 consecutive points. Bronny was 3 years old at the time. Almost two decades later, he remembered all the afternoons he spent at the Cavaliers arena after school.
“It’s literally my entire life,” Bronny said of the city of Cleveland. “So just really appreciative of all the people that show some love. I just remember being a kid and being here pretty much every day after school. It’s a bunch of nostalgia coming back and being here.”
The James family was prepared for the occasion. LeBron scanned the arena before the game to find his mother in a suite. She once watched him begin his career in this very arena, now she was watching both her son and her grandson play in the same game. After saying it out loud, the elder James struggled to process 5 idea.
“I don’t even know how to even, like, wrap that all in one in my brain,” LeBron James said. “It’s so weird and so cool and so surreal. My mom gets to watch her son and her grandson play in the NBA at the same time.”
Gloria James waited in the hallway outside the Lakers locker room to take photos with her son and then her grandson. Bronny was the last Laker out of the arena, stopping to take dozens of photos with family members dressed in purple and gold Lakers jerseys. His grandmother told him to “act right.” He promised to oblige.
Marc Anthony and Nadia Ferreira have plans to grow their family, announcing on Wednesday that a little one is on the way.
The couple revealed in a joint Instagram post that their son “Marquito is going to be a big brother.” They posted a photo of their hands, along with their son’s hand, cradling Ferreira‘s baby bump. The pair also wrote in their caption in Spanish that their anniversary is a gift and God is great.
Grammy-winning “Vivir mi Vida” singer Anthony, 57, married model and former Miss Universe Paraguay and 2021 Miss Universe runner-up Ferreira, 26,in January 2023 in a star-studded ceremony in Miami. David Beckham served as best man and Salma Hayek, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Luis Fonsi were on the guest list.
The child will be Anthony’s eighth. The musician (real name Marco Antonio Muñiz) shares two adult children with ex-girlfriend Debbie Rosado, and two grown children from his marriage to former Miss Universe Dayanara Torres. He also shares twin teenagers with ex-wife Jennifer Lopez.
As Ferreira revealed news of her pregnancy, Anthony teased an upcoming collaboration with singer Nathy Peluso. The pair of Grammy winners posted a clip of themselves singing and dancing in a studio and urged followers to pre-save their latest song “Como En El Idilio.”
Anthony teased additional music on Tuesday. He posted a black-and-white video of himself and musicians performing in a studio. The clip ended simply with white text reading: “Feb 06.”
What seems to be Anthony’s newest music foray will drop a week before he launches his residency at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas. His Vegas My Way circuit of 10 live performances begins Feb. 13. Additional dates and information can be found on the residency’s website.
The family of David Adam Williams, better known as YouTube personality Adam the Woo, has shared his cause of death. The travel vlogger’s father revealed in a Monday Facebook post that his son died of natural causes.
“Our beloved Son … your beloved friend … died, in essence, of a heart attack in his sleep from health issues he probably never knew he had,” wrote Jim Williams, who said he had received his son’s medical examiner’s report earlier that day. “Now, we can all stop guessing. Be grateful the Lord allowed him to die at home and not in a foreign country. Be grateful he was found by friends (as hard as that was) and not some nameless stranger.”
Jim Williams shared that Adam Williams’ official cause of death was atherosclerotic and hypertensive cardiovascular disease, with obesity as a contributory factor. According to the American Heart Assn., atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease is caused by plaque buildup on arterial walls. Hypertensive heart disease is related to high blood pressure.
Williams, known for his theme park and urban exploration videos, was found dead in his Celebration, Fla., home on Dec. 22. He was 51.
A self-described “‘80s pop culture nerd with a desire to travel and video what I see,” he had posted more than 4,000 videos about his adventures at Disney and Universal Studios theme parks, pop culture conventions, movie filming locations, abandoned cities and more since 2009 across two YouTube channels. Combined, his channels had more than 1 million subscribers.
“If you never met Adam, I want you to know, that how you saw him on video, that was our son,” Jim Williams said in a Jan. 11 YouTube video about his son. “That was how Adam lived his life. He was always courteous, he was always kind, he was always patient with people. He was always gentle, even when he had to correct people. … He would stop and talk to everybody.”
Williams, who had addressed his Facebook message to Adam’s friends and fans, concluded his post with gratitude: “Thank you for loving Adam.”
