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The sons of Snoop Dogg, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Jon Bon Jovi and John Mellencamp all gave big-time football the old college try. None made a big impact on the field.

Maybe Bo Bryan, son of country music superstar and “American Idol” host Luke Bryan, will be the first to do so. A three-star quarterback from a mid-sized private high school in Tennessee, Bryan announced on Sunday that he has committed to Georgia, telling Rivals “it was literally a dream come true.”

Although landing a roster spot at a major college is a noteworthy achievement under any circumstances, Bryan faces steep odds. Georgia, a perennial top-10 program and national championship contender, typically recruits passers of Matthew Stafford-level pedigree. Stafford, the current Rams quarterback and slam-dunk Hall of Famer, was the first pick in the NFL draft out of Georgia in 2008.

Bryan, currently sidelined with a broken collarbone, is ranked No. 141 nationally at his position in the 247/Sports Composite. His scholarship offers were from small-school FCS programs such as Tennessee Martin, Austin Peay and North Alabama.

It’s not surprising that the Bulldogs carved out a roster spot for Bryan. His family has been Georgia fans for decades and his coach at the Franklin, Tenn., Battle Ground Academy is a longtime friend of Georgia offensive coordinator Mike Bobo. As a child, Bryan attended camps run by Georgia head coach Kirby Smart.

“I remember being at games and my parents holding me,” Bryan told On3. “I’ve always been a Georgia fan.”

Bobo called with the offer, and Bryan gave the answer he had already rehearsed.

“I told myself, are we going to shoot for the stars at a place like Georgia, or are we going to stay in the FCS or potentially a smaller FBS school?” he said. “Eventually, I told myself, just shoot for the stars.”

Bryan is hardly the first child of a rich and famous music superstar to take a stab at high-level college football, with the mid-2010s experiencing a rush of attempts.

Cordell Broadus, son of rapper and cultural icon Snoop Dogg, was a four-star receiver at Las Vegas Bishop Gorman High, and his 2015 recruitment by UCLA was considered a coup. However, he quit before the season started, gave it another shot the following spring and quit again before the 2016 season began.

“He’s going to pursue other passions in his life and we encourage that,” UCLA coach Jim Mora said.

Broadus’ attempt came on the heels of a four-year stint at UCLA by Justin Dior Combs, the son of music mogul Diddy. The 5-foot-7, 170-pound defensive back saw limited times on special teams and was credited with four career tackles. Combs graduated from UCLA with a degree in sociology.

Meanwhile, Jesse Bongiovi, son of rock musician Jon Bon Jovi, spent the 2013-2016 seasons as a walk-on defensive back at Notre Dame. He appeared in one game in each of his four seasons and was credited with one tackle.

Still another son of a popular musician to suit up for major college football was Hud Mellencamp, a two-time Golden Gloves boxing champion in Indiana who walked on as a wide receiver at Duke. He appeared in two games in 2014 and one in 2015, making zero receptions, and graduated with a degree in history.

Bryan will be competing against a Georgia quarterback commit with more traditional bloodlines: Colton Nussmeier, whose brother Garrett is a backup quarterback with the Kansas City Chiefs after a standout career at LSU. Their father, Doug, is offensive coordinator of the New Orleans Saints.

Whether Bo Bryan eventually fulfills his lifelong dream of succeeding on the Georgia gridiron, he is likely to make a mark in business if his predecessors are a fair indication.

Hud Mellencamp is president and co-founder of Mellencamp Whiskey Company. Bongiove is co-founder of the Hampton Water Wine Co. Combs is an actor who starred in Power Book II: Ghost and was co-host of the popular interview series, “Respectfully Justin.” Broadus is the creative director of Snoop Dogg’s ice cream company Dr. Bombay.

Michigan’s Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, Abdul El-Sayed, is many things to many people.

He represents change, part of a new generation of outspoken leaders who aren’t afraid to challenge the status quo.

He represents possibility: As the son of Egyptian immigrants, his trajectory is the American dream realized.

And he represents a threat to those who fear that his Muslim faith means he can’t possibly love America. El-Sayed is a handy bogeyman for Republican politicians who seek to scare their constituents into voting for them instead of the foreboding Arab name on the ballot.

But for people like me — American Muslims, or anyone with roots in the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia or other Muslim-majority regions — El-Sayed embodies the exhausting experience of having to explain yourself over, and over, and over …

We know what’s truly going on when someone discovers our lineage, then apropos of nothing asks, “How do you feel about the Oct. 7 Hamas attack?” In previous eras it was, “What are your thoughts about 9/11? The Iranian hostage crisis? The PLO?”

Regardless of the decade, the underlying question was the same: How American are you, really?

For generations, the insinuation has been that your loyalty lies somewhere else and that you have a predisposed soft spot for groups such as ISIS or Al Qaeda. Beneath that Taylor Swift-loving exterior, there must be a Bin Laden fighting to get out.

It was disappointing but hardly surprising when El-Sayed was asked at a recent town hall in Caro, Mich., if he would “disavow the Muslim Brotherhood.”

The questioner, who identified himself only as Tommy, was referring to a century-old Islamist movement with branches that have been designated as terrorist organizations by various countries and U.S. administrations.

It’s worth noting that El-Sayed was born and raised in Detroit, not Egypt or Jordan. He attended the University of Michigan medical school, not a radical madrassa, and received a Rhodes Scholarship to Oriel College, Oxford, where he completed a doctor of philosophy in public health (not bomb making).

El-Sayed answered the question without hesitation. “Sure, yeah, absolutely,” he said, then swiftly turned the tables and began interrogating the motives of his interrogator.

“You’re asking the question because implicitly, you assume that I’ll have dual loyalties, right?” El-Sayed said. “You assume that I wouldn’t disavow, or that I’ll have some higher order allegiance than to the Constitution, correct? Tommy, is that what you imply?”

The candidate spent four to five minutes laying bare the political motives behind what was clearly designed to be a “gotcha” moment.

His opponent in next month’s election, former Rep. Mike Rogers, has claimed without evidence that the Muslim Brotherhood funds El-Sayed’s campaign and that his family members have terrorist links. The attacks are on brand with a wider Republican strategy around sinking El-Sayed. Fearing a blue tsunami might flip the crucial swing state, Rogers and his allies have leaned heavily into Islamophobic attacks against the progressive Democrat.

It’s a campaign tactic endorsed at the highest levels. President Trump has referred to El-Sayed as a “radical jihadist” and claimed he is associated with the Muslim Brotherhood, mispronounced his name, infused it with nonsensical babble and called him “Muhammad Al-Fayad.” Trump has defended his racism by stating: “I’m the president. I can call him whatever the hell I want.”

El-Sayed preferred to talk about another president while addressing Tommy’s question at the town hall. He recalled that John F. Kennedy faced similar scrutiny during his 1960 presidential campaign when asked whether his Catholic faith would make him loyal to the pope and Vatican rather than the U.S.

“His answer, famously, was that he was not running to be a Catholic president,” El-Sayed said. “He was running to be president that happened to be Catholic. I’m not running to be a Muslim senator. I’m running for the U.S. Senate and happen to be Muslim.”

The standoff between El-Sayed and Tommy (who has since been outed as Thomas Teepell, the son of a Republican strategist and a former staffer to Republican Sen. Josh Hawley) has gone viral and is now being referred to as a 2026 election Rorschach test because both the right and left believe they prevailed.

It’s unclear to me how anyone might see El-Sayed’s evisceration of Teepell’s means-to-an-end question as a victory for the right. Perhaps it comes from eight years of watching Barack Obama weather insidious and overt racist attacks with the patience of a Shaolin monk. El-Sayed reacted, therefore they won?

On the left, El-Sayed’s articulate defense was widely applauded, but there were still criticisms that he may have come off as condescending. Liberal podcasters and influencers opined that El-Sayed should have just let it slide — for the 1,000th time.

Such an easy solution when it comes from those outside the sphere of suspicion.

But the reason we’re even having this conversation is because El-Sayed is challenging the norm. His rise to a formidable candidate who is willing to publicly dismantle loaded questions like Tommy’s represents progress wrought by successive generations of immigrants who’ve had to explain themselves ad nauseam.

Our parents and grandparents went out of their way to avoid those kinds of questions by taming their accents, changing their hard-to-pronounce names or eating their “ethnic” lunches outside the break room. The hope was that they’d melt into the proverbial pot with as little friction as possible.

My father, who emigrated from Iraq, did what all his Arab friends did here in L.A. — fit in. They used Brylcreem to tame their thick hair, listened to Johnny Cash and used terms like “guys and gals” as if they’d just stepped out of an Elvis movie.

As the next generation, I made it a point to openly embrace what my dad often downplayed — that we are Arab and Muslim. But given the post-9/11 climate, it came buffered with calming disclaimers: We are not a threat. Al Qaeda does not speak for Islam. And dolma is delicious, dammit.

El-Sayed’s refusal to brush off questions aligning him with terrorists may or may not cost him the election, but it’s a victory for all of us who’ve been defusing suspicion since we were kids.

The clip from the town hall ends with El-Sayed asking Thomas if he’s a Christian who has tried to live by Christian doctrine. Thomas affirmed. Then El-Sayed asked, “Do you disavow any attempt to read any religious doctrine into the laws of our country?” Thomas responded, “I do not.”

El-Sayed replied, “I think it’s you who needs to understand the Constitution, not me.”

50 Cent, the king of petty hip-hop feuds, strikes again.

On Wednesday, Fitty shared a video on his Instagram account of a 20-year-old man identified in police filings as Don Roberts, who is accused of pistol-whipping William Roberts III, the 21-year-old son of Miami-raised rapper Rick Ross.

“I appreciate everyone who believed in me, my family and my friends. I’m out and I’m innocent. The Lord know I’m innocent,” said Don Roberts in the video clip. “50 [Cent] I appreciate you for everything you’re doing for me and believing in my innocence, much love.”

It is unclear if the “Many Men (Wish Death)” rapper posted bail for Roberts — which inmate records indicate was $50,000 — although the rapper was public about his support for the suspect after news broke about the incident.

For context, there’s a longtime beef between Rick Ross and 50 Cent, which dates back to the late 2000s. Both artists released diss tracks aimed at each other, including Ross’ 2009 music video of “Cold Blood,” which showcases the rapper at 50 Cent’s fictional funeral.

On Tuesday, 50 Cent posted Roberts’ inmate information to his Instagram account saying that the Florida man “will be out tomorrow.”

The “21 Questions” singer wrote in the Instagram caption that he was “sending” Drew Findling — the trial lawyer involved in the acquittal of Chicago rapper Lil Durk (Durk Banks), who in September was found not guilty of murder for hire, conspiracy and stalking in the 2022 killing of a rival’s cousin.

“This is a big misunderstanding that can easily be resolved,” continued the rapper, who also used the incident to tease his 2026 film, “Street Fighter.”

The incident involving William Roberts occurred earlier this month, per People, who alleged Don Roberts attacked him at gunpoint at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Fla.

William alleges he was speaking to a woman on a street corner on Oct. 11 when Don exited his vehicle and yelled at her, “That’s what we doin’,” per the affidavit. According to William, Don and the woman were previously involved in a romantic relationship.

William claims that Don approached him with a tan handgun in his right hand and said, “I don’t care who your daddy is, I’ll kill you right here.” According to the affidavit, William alleged that Don hit him on the right side of his head with the firearm.

Although this led to minor swelling, William did not seek medical attention and claimed that he waited to contact police because he was afraid.

Don Roberts was arrested Oct. 16 on charges of aggravated assault and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill.

It’s Thursday night, and sitting at the top of the football bleachers after a two-hour drive from Mission Viejo are JT and Kathy Reis, grandparents of Palos Verdes High twins Christian and Weston Reis.

While one fan shouts criticism at an official’s call at Mira Costa High, Grandma and Grandpa Reis calmly and confidently root for their grandsons, Christian, a running back, and Weston, a linebacker.

“That a way, Christian,” grandma blurts out after a Christian pass reception.

Grandpa is eating popcorn like he’s at a movie and sitting back in his folding chair just taking in the environment.

Weston wears No. 44 because that’s what JT wore playing high school football in Wisconsin.

“We’ve had so much fun,” JT said. “We’re so blessed.”

The Reis twins, Christian (left) and Weston, are junior linebackers for Palos Verdes and Christian plays running back, too.

(Nick Koza)

If you’re fortunate enough to spend time with grandparents at a football game, it feels like going back in time because they offer the most inspiring, educational and illuminating experience of what high school sports are supposed to be about.

They know all the secrets of their grandkids, not to mention their sons and daughters. They are fans no matter whether good or bad things are happening at a game. They are their to supply unconditional positive support — that’s in their mission statement.

Linebacker Weston Reis of Palos Verdes High gets set at his position.

(Nick Koza)

Grandma told me the twins were so identical that not until Weston lost two teeth after hitting his mouth against a car door when he was 3 could they finally figure out a way to identify a difference between the two.

If Weston smiled, they knew it wasn’t Christian.

Now the sons have different uniform numbers, 44 and 42, so it’s easy.

Their son, Matt, played soccer at Santa Margarita High and was inducted into UCLA’s sports Hall of Fame because of his goalkeeping skills. He married Nicole Odom, a South Torrance High grad and softball All-American shortstop at UCLA. Their first son was Jacob, now a backup linebacker at UCLA. Then came the twins.

Incredibly, the family survived tragedy during the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. Nicole was running in the marathon. Everyone was there to watch and root her on — Matt, the goalkeeper for the New England Revolution, their three young boys, a brother-in-law and Nicole’s parents, John and Karen. Halfway through the race, Matt sent the twins away. He was with Jacob when they moved closer to the finish line.

Then a bomb went off. Matt gave 6-year-old Jacob to his brother-in-law to seek cover at a hotel and went searching for his father-in-law. He found him near the finish line “in a river of blood” from shrapnel that went through one leg to another. Matt applied a make-shift tourniquet out of clothing to try to stop the bleeding. It probably saved John’s life. Then Matt went looking for his wife, his shirt full of blood. He found her and explained that John was in bad shape.

John survived after many surgeries through the years. The experience remains ingrained in Matt’s memory, the blood, a coin on the ground, the sirens.

Running back Christian Reis of Palos Verdes High tries to split two defenders as he breaks into the secondary.

(Nick Koza)

They moved to Southern California after Matt’s playing career ended. He became the Galaxy goalkeeper coach and now works as the team’s academy goalkeeper director.

Having four grandparents alive to watch and provide emotional support while playing high school football has to be one of the greatest experiences any teenager can have. And if they slip a grandson $1 for every tackle and $2 for every touchdown (just kidding), even better.

“It’s so amazing,” Christian said. “We get so much family at every game. Both grandparents, but also our aunts, uncles and cousins. They’re always cheering loudly.”

Speaking to the Reis grandparents during Palos Verdes’ 34-14 win over Mira Costa provided insight into their wisdom and experiences growing up in the Midwest and being part of the California experience for more than 30 years.

“Be humble. Be a good teammate. Be a leader, not a follower,” JT said when asked what he tells Christian and Weston.

If you’re watching a high school football game this weekend in the bleachers, say hello to a grandmother or grandfather. They need to be cherished for their loyalty and focus on their grandkids, through thick and thin.

They provide unconditional love and comfort, and everyone can use that any day of the week.

Cindy Crawford and family paid homage to her son, Presley Gerber, in their first public statements since his death at 27.

The supermodel and actor shared a smiling black-and-white portrait of Gerber along with a heartfelt message, writing, “We are beyond heartbroken to lose our beloved son and brother. We feel so blessed to have had Presley in our lives for 27 years.”

She continues, “He is a sweet, beautiful soul who loved and is loved, now and forever. We are so proud of how he showed up in the world, with kindness and vulnerability. We are grateful for the outpouring of love and support from so many who know and love our family and even strangers who feel our pain. Til we meet again our sweet boy. We love you forever, Mom, Dad and Kaia.”

Crawford concluded the post by thanking photographer Sebastián Faena for taking the image of Gerber, who appears to have angel wings.

Gerber, the brother of model Kaia Gerber and only son of Crawford and her husband, Rande Gerber, died Sept. 20 at a luxury rehab center called Resolutions Living in Santa Monica.

Kaia Gerber shared her own Instagram tribute honoring her late brother. In it, she shared a video of the two of them as children, with the caption “i love you the bluest, to the moon and back and back again, forever big brother.” The post also included a photo of the siblings as children on the beach.

In a lengthier essay included with the photo and video, she addressed the emptiness she’d felt in the weeks since her brother’s death.

“I am learning how to love you when I cannot see you. How to tell you something without picking up my phone to call you. How to be your sister in a world that I can’t reach for you in,” she wrote, adding, “I don’t know how to do that yet.”

Presley, who had been candid about his struggles with addiction and mental health during public appearances on his social media account, entered the Resolutions Living home on Sept. 19. The following morning, he was found dead of what police said was a drug overdose.

As of Sunday, the Santa Monica Police Department was still investigating the source of the drugs Gerber had taken.

An autopsy was performed, but the cause and manner of death have been deferred, “which means additional testing and/or studies were requested in order to make a determination,” according to a Sept. 21 statement from the Los Angeles County medical examiner. It could take a few months for a cause of death to be determined, the statement continued.

His death has sparked questions about how he could overdose on drugs inside the Resolutions Living home. The L.A. Times reported that the facility operates in a regulatory gray area and is not authorized to provide medical care.

The California Department of Health Services is investigating whether Resolutions Living was providing any services that would require a state license after receiving a complaint about the sober living home in September, according to department spokesperson Anthony Cava.

A father whose two-year-old boy fell to his death at a five-star hotel in Cyprus has been fined 3,000 euro (£2,500).

Joshua Foster thought the window was closed when he placed the boy on a sill to show him the view of a waterpark and “lost control” of him, Paphos District Court previously heard.

The boy fell nearly 40ft (12.1m) from the fourth floor of the King Evelthon Beach Hotel and Resort on 12 July, the first day of the family’s holiday in Chlorakas.

Foster, 37, from Essex, admitted causing death through a reckless, rash or dangerous act and was sentenced on Friday morning.

He held back tears as his sentence was handed down by the judge, before hugging his lawyer and parents.

Foster had lifted his son on to the windowsill to show him the view of a water park, the court in Cyprus was previously told.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

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AMANDA Holden has shared a heartbreaking but beautiful tribute to her stillborn son Theo.

The star took to her Instagram story in honour of Baby Loss Awareness Week and tagged the charity Tommy’s.

In the post, Amanda showed a candle with the words “waves of light” on it.

The flame flickered in memory of her little one, who passed away 15 years ago.

Amanda wrote: “Thinking of our beautiful son Theo and sending love to you all #waveoflight #tommys #babylossawarenessweek.”

Earlier this year Amanda opened up about losing her son, emotionally sharing how she still views herself as a “mother of three”.

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She chatted about the experience on her show Amanda and Alan’s Greek Job with Alan Carr.

He was stillborn at 28 weeks in February 2011, a tragedy which happened just a year after she miscarried another baby.

She told the comedian: “I always say I am a mother of three. Because I am.

“When we lost Theo, there wasn’t one moment where I thought ‘why has this happened to me?’

“But there also wasn’t a moment where I blamed God or anything.

“And the way I accepted it was to think that he chose me, just for those few months, to see what it was like to live, and develop, and be in the universe. “Then the universe took him back.

“Now I don’t think that’s religious, but I let him go back.

“And that was my belief, rather than he went back to Heaven as such.

“I felt like he went back into the universe and he is still out there and is part of our family”.

Amanda shares two daughters, Lexi and Hollie, with husband Chris Hughes.

She previously revealed that fellow Britain’s Got Talent judge Alesha Dixon had been a major source of support for her throughout her baby loss.

MOVE over Brad and Angelina – Hollywood has another bitter custody war on its hands, and this one is about to get even messier, with a 13-year-old boy preparing to give evidence against his own parents.

Oscar-winner Halle Berry and her ex-husband Olivier Martinez are locked in an explosive legal battle over their son Maceo after allegations of physical abuse plunged their already turbulent relationship into fresh crisis.

Today Maceo will appear in court to give evidence in a hearing over a restraining order sought by his dad, who has accused 60-year-old Halle of attacking the teenager during an argument at her home in September.

The judge has ruled that Maceo will testify, despite Halle’s objections, although his evidence is limited to the restraining order request and he will appear in a closed courtroom.

It marks a dramatic new chapter in a custody battle that has dragged on for years since the couple’s disastrous marriage collapsed in 2015 after just two years.

And while French actor Olivier insists his son deserves to have his voice heard, Halle claims the boy has been “coached and manipulated”.

The latest showdown erupted after Olivier, who is also 60, obtained a temporary domestic violence restraining order against Halle this month, accusing her of physically abusing Maceo on September 26 this year.

In the court filings, he alleged she jumped on their son, put her hands around his neck and choked him.

He claimed the row erupted after Halle called Maceo “stupid” over a game involving virtual reality glasses, and that afterwards a “traumatised” Maceo begged Olivier to pick him up.

Halle has vehemently denied the allegations, insisting the pair were “roughhousing”.

She says the incident arose as she tried to enforce boundaries, claiming Maceo had been ­physically aggressive towards her.

In a statement, she said: “I have never physically, emotionally, or otherwise abused Maceo. I am a victim of domestic violence, and I help ­victims of domestic violence . . . I am not a perpetrator of violence. I would never hurt our child.”

Halle has found a fierce ally in 18-year-old Nahla, her daughter by former partner Gabriel Aubry, who leapt to her mum’s defence in a sworn declaration.

She said: “I have never seen my mom hit, slap, choke, grab or physically abuse Maceo in any way.

“I have never seen my mom place her hands around Maceo’s neck, put him in a choke hold, restrict his breathing or engage in any conduct remotely resembling the allegations that have been made against her.”

Nahla described Halle as a “loving and devoted parent”.

It is a far cry from how it all began.

Halle and Olivier met in 2010 in South Africa on the set of the horror film Dark Tide, shortly after she had split from French-Canadian model Gabriel.

They got engaged in 2012 and married in France in July 2013, and Halle gave birth to Maceo that October.

For a time they appeared to have found happiness together, with Maceo’s arrival completing the family.

Now Halle’s lawyer Marina Beck has branded the court filing “entirely meritless and deliberately misleading”.

She claimed Olivier had repeatedly violated court orders, “misconduct for which Mr Martinez has already been legally sanctioned”, and alleged he has a ­history of “erratic, possessive and ­violent behaviour”.

Halle also accuses Olivier of ignoring evidence which she says contradicts his version of events, including statements from her now-fiancé Van Hunt, who was present, and what she describes as contemporaneous video evidence.

Her filing reads: “Van Hunt was physically present during the incident and is the only adult third-party eyewitness to the events at issue.”

She argued that Maceo has “a ­personal interest in minimising his own conduct”, claiming he has behaved similarly at school.

Halle told the court that making him testify would place him “directly in the middle of a highly contentious dispute between his parents” and risk harm to his wellbeing.

She added that he has spent the past two weeks mainly in Olivier’s care, discussing the allegations and the litigation.

But Olivier has launched a blistering counter-attack, insisting his son is the real victim.

His lawyer Patrick Baghdaserians said: “We vehemently deny such ­allegations. The child is the primary victim here. Victims of abuse should be able to testify regarding the abuse inflicted upon them.”

He added: “We are not surprised that the opposing party does not want the child Maceo to testify.

“The opposing party is seemingly scared of what the child will say.”

Olivier said Maceo “was concerned that no one will believe him over his mother” and “wants to speak with the court to provide his side of the story”.

He continued in his declaration: “Given that our son is 13 years old, I believe it would certainly be in his best interest for him to address the court.

“I believe that our son’s testimony will be the key to the Court learning the full truth about the events that occurred on September 26.

“I am the parent who wants the truth to come out. I am the parent who does not want to suppress Maceo’s voice.”

Mr Baghdaserians warned that if their son was stopped from speaking, Olivier “fears that [Maceo] would be dissuaded from reporting problems or potential abuse in the future”.

The team also expected Halle “will try to prevent Maceo from addressing the court directly”.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Shelley Kaufman ruled that “the minor child shall not be coached” and reminded both parents that existing orders remain in force, including not discussing custody issues or court papers with him.

But Olivier has hit back by asking the judge to block Nahla from testifying, claiming she is “unquestionably biased” and has “no significant bearing” on the case.

He said it was not appropriate for Halle to “insert her daughter into ­litigation that does not involve her”.

The hearing is set to be an ­agonising showdown for two exes who have been trading blows in court for years over how to raise Maceo.

The marriage was short-lived. The couple’s wedding took place in France on July 13, 2013, but cracks soon began to show.

In January 2015, showbiz news ­service TMZ reported that Olivier had appeared to push a worker at Los Angeles airport with a child car seat as photographers closed in.

He was named a suspect in a battery investigation but no charges followed.

By October 2015 the couple had confirmed their split, saying in a joint statement they were divorcing “with a heavy heart” and wished each other “nothing but happiness in life”.

Yet the bitter legal wrangling ­rumbled on for the best part of a decade, with their divorce not ­finalised until August 2023.

The settlement required Halle to pay £6,000 a month in child support, cover Maceo’s private school tuition and contribute more than £41,500 towards Olivier’s legal fees, with the pair sharing joint custody of Maceo.

But the courtroom clashes did not stop there. In 2024 the pair were back in front of a judge over co- parenting therapy, with Halle accusing Olivier of trying to delay it by taking “the summer off” to travel.

She then sought sole custody, claiming Maceo had “serious behaviour and learning problems” and that Olivier refused to get a tutor because it could interfere with their son’s football schedule.

Olivier disputed the claims. Halle also said she had spent more than £150,000 trying to “work with” her ex, and swiped at him over child support.

“As Olivier has advised this court, he lives off my child ­support,” she wrote.

Now Olivier has filed for sole custody and has been granted primary custody, along with a restraining order barring Halle from coming within 100 yards of him.

She has been given two days a week of court-ordered visitation and every other weekend with Maceo.

She has also completed a court-mandated parenting programme.

For now, the battle lines are firmly drawn, with Halle fighting to protect her reputation and relationship with her son, while Olivier insists Maceo’s account of events must be heard.

And with Maceo due to take the stand today, the latest chapter in one of Hollywood’s most vicious ­custody disputes is set to unfold in a courtroom far removed from the glitz and glamour of the world that the former couple once shared.

The Sun has approached representatives for both Halle and Olivier for comment.

When it comes to City Section sports royalty, the Johnson family at Crenshaw High is in a class by itself.

Marques Johnson started the legacy in 1971, igniting the rise of Crenshaw basketball before moving on to UCLA and the NBA. He’s a City Section Hall of Famer. His son, Kris, was a City Section player of the year and led Crenshaw to consecutive state titles.

Now the last of the Johnsons for at least awhile — 6-foot-1 Shiloh Johnson — has transferred to Crenshaw from Windward. She’s the daughter of Marques and is a top junior girls’ basketball player.

Marques has been a strong supporter of the Crenshaw community and authored the book, “Crenshaw Chronicles.”

Just seeing him in the Crenshaw gym this winter with all the City and state championship banners on the walls will be something to enjoy. And look for Shiloh’s siblings and cousins to drop by, too.

“It’s always a great feeling,” Marques said.

Shiloh is now walking through the halls where her grandfather was a teacher, her aunt was a counselor and four of her five siblings went to school.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

Denis Bouanga and Son Heung-min both contributed to all three goals for LAFC in a 3-1 victory over Austin FC on Wednesday night at BMO Stadium.

Neither team found the net until Bouanga took a pass from Son seven minutes into the second half and scored to give LAFC (12-9-9) the lead.

Austin’s Brandon Vázquez scored for the second time this season, using an assist from Myrto Uzuni, to knot the score in the 66th minute.

Bouanga answered the following minute with his 17th netter off another assist from Son, his league-leading 15th of the season, and LAFC went back in front 2-1.

Bouanga returned the favor when he notched his eighth assist on Son’s sixth goal of the season in the 72nd minute for a two-score advantage. Jacob Shaffelburg picked up his career-high fifth assist.

Hugo Lloris totaled three saves for LAFC, which is 2-2-3 since the start of September.

Brad Stuver stopped 10 shots, one off his career high, for Austin (7-11-11), which has lost two straight following an eight-match unbeaten streak.

LAFC improved to 9-3-3 at home, while Austin dropped to 3-8-4 on the road.

The clubs played to a scoreless draw in Austin to close out March.

Jimmy Crowley, the son of former Southern Section commissioner Dean Crowley, had a Friday night off from officiating Big Sky Conference football games, so he went to St. John Bosco last week to evaluate the high school officials for a game against Orange Lutheran.

Southern California high school football games have been used as a proving ground for years and a first stop for officials wanting to move to college and the NFL.

It used to be that the commissioners in the City Section and Southern Section were high school or college officials. Jim Cheffers, a former City Section commissioner, used to officiate in the Pac-8. Now his son, Carl, is one of the top NFL referees and has worked three Super Bowls.

Tony Corrente, a former baseball coach at La Mirada who won a CIF title in 1988, made it to the NFL for 26 years as an official and was referee for Super Bowl XI. Former Hollywood High principal Jim Tunney was a long-time NFL referee.

While fans sometimes don’t appreciate officials, in Southern California high school football, you might be watching a future college or NFL referee.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

The parents of Leah Croucher spoke to This Morning hosts Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard on Tuesday

Leah Croucher’s dad has made a heartbreaking admission.

The disappearance of the 19-year-old became one of Britain’s highest-profile missing person cases, after she vanished on her way to work in Milton Keynes on February 15, 2019. Leah’s body was eventually found more than three years later, just minutes from where she was last seen.

However, while the family were desperately searching for answers, they were wrongly targeted by online sleuths, and accused of being involved in her death. Leah’s parents, John and Claire, have now chosen to tell their story in a new documentary that shares the devastating impact that the case has had on their lives.

Ahead of the documentary airing tonight (Tuesday, October 13) at 9pm on U&W, John and Claire appeared on the This Morning sofa, where they spoke to hosts Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard about the ordeal they’ve faced. During the interview, John spoke about his son, Haydon, who struggled to cope in the aftermath of his sister’s disappearance.

Haydon was Leah’s half-brother, who took his own life in November 2019 – nine months after Leah’s disappearance. On today’s This Morning, Cat Deeley said: “The other person it hit really hard was Haydon. When all the investigations started happening, he handed out leaflets, he tried his very, very best, but it affected him mentally in the end, didn’t it?”

John then explained how close Haydon was to his sister, Leah. “He just couldn’t cope. It destroyed him mentally, and the people played with him online. They tormented him, and it was just horrific to watch. There was no getting through to Haydon to try and calm him down.

“He suffered from bipolar, which made him worse, [and] paranoia. He was getting so angry, and I had to step back for Claire’s sake, for my own sake, to try and find Leah. It was like, ‘Haydon, you’re going to have to go and get help, [your] mum’s going to have to help you.'”

He went on: “Because his mother’s also a victim in all of this, which people forget. They all look at me and Claire, but Haydon has a mother. She’s suffering. How do you console a mother who has to read this evil stuff online about her son.”

Ben Shephard then said: “Tragically, it was too much for Haydon in the end as well, wasn’t it? So, you lost Leah and you lost Haydon. At that stage, you still didn’t know what had happened to Leah.”

Speaking about his daughter’s funeral, John later shared: “We had months to plan Leah’s funeral. If you lose a loved one, it’s days to weeks. Ours was months because of forensic tests that had to be done on Leah.

“We couldn’t dress Leah like you would dress your loved one. We’re never going to be able to give her a wedding, we’re never going to be able to do the normal things a family could do. So, I said to Claire, because Claire was so upset, ‘We can’t dress her, so let’s dress her coffin. Let’s make this the biggest thing we can ever do for her. Our princess. Let’s give her a princess funeral.’ And that’s what we did.”

Mourners lined the streets for Leah’s funeral back in 2023, which Claire said was “heartwarming”. She added: “It was crazy how many people came to pay their respects.”

This Morning airs weekdays on ITV at 10am, while The Search for Leah Croucher: A Parent’s Nightmare will air on Tuesday (October 13) and Wednesday (October 14) at 9pm on U&W

When life is difficult, Samaritans are available day or night, 365 days a year. You can call them for free on 116 123 or visit samaritans.org

AARON Paul has paid tribute to RJ Mitte saying he has been left “heartbroken” after the Breaking Bad star died, aged 34.

Mitte, who famously played Walter White Jr in the Emmy Award-winning show, tragically died on Monday in Brownsville, Texas.

Paul – Mitte’s Breaking Bad co-star who played Jesse Pinkman – told The Hollywood Reporter: “I am at a loss. I am heartbroken over this news.

“RJ, I love you my friend. You will be missed. And to whoever happens to be reading this, please know you are loved, and you are not alone. Always remember that.”

Dean Norris, who also played alongside Mitte as his on-screen uncle Hank Schrader also paid tribute, saying: “Though RJ didn’t play my TV son, I always looked out for him as a young kid on set.

“He was a sweetheart of a young man and will be greatly missed. This is so heartbreaking, I can’t believe it. Thinking of him and his family.”

Read more in The U.S. Sun

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Mitte’s representative confirmed to TMZ on Monday that Mitte had tragically passed away in Texas.

They said: “It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of beloved actor, philanthropist, and passionate disability rights advocate RJ Mitte.

“RJ Mitte was best known for his role as Walter ‘Flynn’ White Jr on AMC’s critically acclaimed, award-winning series Breaking Bad. 

“Drawing from his own experience living with cerebral palsy, Mitte brought authenticity to the role and built a platform on disability awareness and inclusion.”

His cause of death was not immediately disclosed, however, the outlet reported that he died by suicide.

Mitte was born on August 21, 1992, in Jackson, Mississippi, and was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at just three-years-old.

But he used his stardom as a Hollywood actor to become a leading disability rights advocate.

He spent most of his childhood using crutches, but improved his ability to walk over his teenage years through sports and exercise.

Just months before his death, Mitte told young people who also live with the condition to “never give up”.

He told Future of Personal Health: “My hope is to inspire a ‘never give up’ mentality.

“If there is something you want in life, pursue it no matter how hard it may be. Keep your dreams alive. Don’t lose sight of who you want to become.”

Off the set, Mitte served as a celebrity ambassador for several organizations, including United Cerebral Palsy and Shriners Children’s.

He was also the president of his own charity – The Mitte Foundation – which supported philanthropic efforts and community initiatives, challenging stereotypes around people with disabilities.

Breaking Bad – often credited as one of the best TV series of all time – aired on AMC for five seasons between 2008 and 2013, earning a staggering 58 Primetime Emmy nominations.

Mitte was cast in the leading role of Walter “Flynn” White Jr in 2008 at the age of 15, going on to star in 56 episodes of the hit crime drama.

He played the son of Bryan Cranston and Anna Gunn’s characters – Walter and Skyler White – and his character also had cerebral palsy, as Mitte drew on his own experience for the part.

A week before his sudden death, Mitte appeared on the Joe Vulpis Podcast, where he spoke about his early days in acting and his time on the show.

He called auditioning for Walt Jr “one of the longest auditions of my life”, saying he was one of the last characters to be cast in an audition process that took six months.

Mitte added: “It was me versus another individual at the time. An hour later, Vince called me and goes, ‘Hey, RJ, you got the part. Pack your bags. Go back to Los Angeles, and come back to set. You’re already late. We’re already filming. We need you here’.

“And that was history for me.”

Reacting to the news of Mitte’s death, Vulpis said on social media: “I had the honor of sitting down with RJ Mitte not too long ago and I can genuinely say he was such a kind, incredible, and gentle soul.

“My heart goes out to his family and loved ones, and I wish them peace and privacy during this difficult time.”

Mitte’s breakout role came after starting his career in entertainment as an extra in shows such as Everybody Hates Chris and Hannah Montana.

It opened up further opportunities with the TV star going on to feature in shows including Switched at Birth and Netflix’s animated series The Guardians of Justice.

He also appeared in several films including the drama “Triumph” from 2021, which he also executive produced.

Mitte’s final public appearance came just days before he tragically passed away as he smiled on the red carpet for the premier of his new movie – Talking to Strangers – on September 30 in California.

He was a Screen Actors Guild spokesman for actors with disabilities and in 2013, he received the SAG-AFTRA Harold Russell Award.

A year before his death, Mitte got engaged to his longtime girlfriend, Kennedy Suarez, in October 2025.

At the time, Mitte gushed about starting a life together with Suarez, telling People: “I’m thrilled to have found my person, my partner in life who makes me want to be better, no matter what we’re doing.

“Kennedy is my everything and I can’t wait to officially start our life together and see what adventures life takes us on next.”

If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text Crisis Text Line at 741741.

New restrictions have stripped Medicaid coverage from certain legal immigrants, including refugees and victims of human trafficking, as part of broader federal changes to the health insurance program that are expected to force millions off their coverage.

The change effective Oct. 1 cut from Medicaid what is estimated to be hundreds of thousands of people who legally immigrated to the United States, many of whom work and pay taxes, in the latest Trump administration policy to target foreigners.

The move is part of sweeping changes to Medicaid under President Donald Trump’s 2025 tax cut and policy law, with many set to take effect early next year. The Medicaid changes are projected to result in 7.5 million fewer people with health insurance, according to the Congressional Budget Office’s 2025 estimate.

Advocates say that without Medicaid, people will not be able to afford private insurance and will either delay care or end up in emergency rooms, adding pressure to a strained health system. For immigrants, the cuts could be felt more acutely, compounding the effects of other administration efforts to restrict their access to public assistance as part of a broader immigration crackdown.

“This is about telling every immigrant in the United States that they are not welcome here and that they should leave,” said Ben D’Avanzo, a senior strategist at the National Immigration Law Center, which has pursued litigation against the Republican administration over its immigration agenda.

Refugees, asylum seekers, victims of human trafficking and domestic violence are among those who have lost coverage. Green-card holders were not impacted.

Lauren Bis, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement that “immigrants must be able to support themselves without taking from overburdened benefits programs paid for by hard-working American taxpayers.”

D’Avanzo said many people who have lost coverage will likely only realize when they need medical care. But for some, the change has been felt immediately.

Dwindling supplies of lifesaving medication

In Tucson, Arizona, María Chacon has been caring for her son Jesus for almost five years since a car accident at 17 left him unable to breathe on his own. He requires a ventilator, a feeding tube and daily medication, and must be turned once every two hours to stop sores from forming. Chacon said he sometimes opens his eyes.

The family is originally from Mexico and entered the U.S. on a T visa, offered to victims of human trafficking, in 2018.

Chacon said Medicaid has helped cover almost $25,000 per month of care for her son, which includes a small stipend for her and her husband as compensation for being long-term caregivers. She said doctors have explained that even if they both worked 24 hours a day, they would not be able to cover the cost of his care.

“Since that day I haven’t been able to sleep. We haven’t been able to eat or anything. We’re wondering what we’re going to do?” Chacon said.

Jesus takes medication that Chacon estimates costs $7,000 a month. The supply runs out in mid-October. Without coverage, she does not know how her son is going to survive.

Chacon found out just days before the cuts that she was losing care. She called the state’s Medicaid offices to appeal. Although she is in the process of obtaining a green card, Medicaid coverage would only kick in five years after she is approved.

Steven Camarota, research director for the Center for Immigration Studies, a right-leaning think tank that seeks less immigration, said the administration “is trying to nibble around the edges” with the Oct. 1 cuts, finding piecemeal ways to curb immigration into the U.S.

Camarota believes the government should screen legal immigrants for income potential and education, reducing the number who might rely on public benefits once they cross the border.

“You need immigrants who are unlikely to need welfare,” he said, or those with high educational attainment.

The administration recently revived a federal rule that could deny green cards to immigrants who use public benefits that could include food stamps, Medicaid, housing vouchers and others.

Chacon believes the cuts to Medicaid coverage are part of the administration’s clampdown on immigrants. She said her son is in no condition to travel.

“I know that’s what he’s doing, but, as my son is, I couldn’t go to Mexico,” Chacon said.

Millions more will be dropped from Medicaid

Medicaid, jointly funded by states and the federal government, has become a political focal point during Trump’s second term. The president has pushed to root out what he describes as fraud in the program. In July, the administration deferred over $1 billion in Medicaid payments to California and Minnesota, claiming there was suspected fraud; critics argued the move targeted Democratic-led states.

As more people are cut from Medicaid, the federal government is predicted to reduce program spending by $911 billion, according to healthcare research nonprofit KFF.

In Arizona, officials said 29,000 legal immigrants were cut from Medicaid rolls on Oct. 1. In Florida, estimates are closer to 177,000. Overall, more than 281,000 immigrants from nine states and the District of Columbia are estimated to lose Medicaid coverage, according to KFF.

As more states implement various restrictions to coverage, 7.5 million people are expected to lose coverage by 2034, according to analysis by the Congressional Budget Office.

Without coverage, people will turn to emergency rooms for care. When people delay seeing a doctor, conditions can worsen and become even more expensive to treat.

“At the end of the day, it does raise the cost for the states because once you get these people in for something that could have been prevented, they could not go to the doctor because they were uninsured; they most likely will end up at a hospital in an emergency room,” said Carmen Feliciano, the vice president of policy and advocacy at UnidosUS, a Latino civil rights organization.

UnidosUS partners with community organizations to help provide medical care, but Feliciano said they already are overwhelmed and would not be able to support the number of people who are going to lose medical coverage in the coming months.

“We are not going to have the capacity to serve all the people who need it,” Feliciano said.

Schuettler and Hussein write for the Associated Press.

They said the hotel was dirty and food on the all-inclusive trip was undercooked. They also claimed to see faeces in the swimming pool on more than one occaision

A family say their £4,000 holiday was ruined by a “filthy” hotel which left their five-year-old on antibiotics. Samantha Smithson, 34, and husband Dion Hart, 31, took their two children – aged two and five- and Samantha’s parents away to Tunisia in August.

But when they arrived at their hotel on August 10, they were apparently put in a room that had just a double, which Samantha shared with the children, and a single bed, which Dion took. The couple also claim they found exposed cabling, wobbly balcony railings, a smashed light, and a shower tray that did not drain inside the room.

They said the hotel was dirty and food on the all-inclusive trip was undercooked, so they shelled out around £500 extra buying food from outside the hotel. They claimed to notice faeces in the swimming pool twice and alerted staff. Booking provider On The Beach has offered the family a partial refund of £496.

Samantha, an operations manager, from Canterbury, Kent, said: “It was the most horrendous experience. Our room wasn’t safe and I spent the whole week feeling anxious about the kids. I was in tears all the time, it was awful. We just couldn’t wait to get home.

“I do not believe that £496 fairly reflects what our family experienced or the significant difference between the holiday we paid for and the holiday we actually received.”

The family said rubbish was left out, and their towels were dirty. Samantha said the hotel had no air-con in the 40-degree heat. Playground equipment was broken, and the advertised spa and gym were not open, Samantha said.

Their five-year-old has been given antibiotics for 40-degree temperatures and gunky eyes since coming home, and doctors said it was likely caused by dirty water, Samantha said. Samantha and builder Dion booked the holiday, in the Abou Sofiane Sousse hotel and aqua park, through online-travel-agent On The Beach.

Samantha made a complaint on August 17 and on August 25, and was offered a partial refund 28 days later. Samantha, who shared the story on Talk to the Press, said: “It’s just unacceptable to book in more people than they have capacity for, and to take bookings for rooms they don’t have.

“I’m really disappointed that On The Beach didn’t help us at all. We trusted them with our money and have been completely let down. We spent the whole time trying to contact them, but you can’t speak to anyone.

“It was filthy everywhere; it was horrible. Our kids were hungry the whole time because the hotel food we had paid for was so bad, and dangerous.”

A spokesperson for On the Beach said: “We’re sorry that Ms Smithson was disappointed with her hotel stay and we have been in contact directly in an effort to resolve her complaint.

“A partial refund of the hotel cost has been offered and has not yet been accepted.”

Abou Sofiane Sousse Hotel and Aqua Park were contacted for comment.

Movie stars are an endangered species. They still exist, sure. Their beautiful faces still fill 50-foot screens, beaming down on us. Yet, there is a shortage of, say, Michael Douglas. A man who, over the span of decades, played an American president, a troubled detective, and a Wall Street tycoon so convincingly that the FBI recruited the actor to do a PSA for investment bankers about the perils of financial fraud.

The night before I meet Michael Douglas on Zoom, I have a hard time sleeping. I want to be well-rested before I meet the leading man — perhaps one of the last leading men from an era in Hollywood that felt limitless. What do I mean by that? He’ll tell you. His new memoir details his movie-making career as a prolific producer and actor, along with his affair with his “Romancing the Stone” co-star Kathleen Turner, mudslides in Mexico, snorting cocaine with O.J. Simpson, encounters with Princess Diana and screaming matches with Paul Verhoeven that end in blood. In short: the life of a movie star.

“People say to me: Michael Douglas. When I see your name, I don’t know what I’m going to get, but I know it’s going to be good,” Michael Douglas says.

(David Urbanke / For The Times)

Halfway through our conversation, something unanticipated happens: Douglas reveals that he doesn’t quite see himself as a movie star. After gentle pushback, he elaborates. Instead, Douglas sees himself as a chameleon.

“People say to me: Michael Douglas. When I see your name, I don’t know what I’m going to get, but I know it’s going to be good,” he says.

He’s speaking from his home in New York. Behind him is a moody 18th-century Orientalist painting, its scene too indistinct for me to make out. His smiling face — which, like most American moviegoers, I had watched 50 feet tall in the dark — glows with warmth even on my laptop screen. It seems abnormal even to witness him in miniature.

To be clear: Michael Douglas is a movie star, whether or not he wants to cop to it over Zoom. It’s in his blood. His father, Kirk Douglas — born Issur Danielovitch to Russian Jewish immigrant parents — was a legendary actor whose shadow Douglas struggled to escape, as he details in the early chapters of his memoir. He spent his childhood on movie sets, watching his father spar with iconic directors like Stanley Kubrick. Michael Douglas was subject to violent and angry outbursts as well. “Dad’s volatility kept us on edge,” he writes. He felt suffocated by his father’s legacy, often hoping to shake the title of “Kirk Douglas’ son.”

Early in his career, Douglas left his starring role on TV’s “The Streets of San Francisco” after producing his first film, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” which became a breakout success. On that film, he had to deliver the shattering news to his father that he was too old to play the lead — essentially, firing his father from his dream role. It was a betrayal. Instead, the role went to Jack Nicholson, who would later win an Academy Award for his humanizing portrayal of Randle McMurphy. The film won multiple Academy Awards, launching Douglas’ career as a heavyweight producer and later an actor. Escaping the shadow of being Kirk Douglas’ son has been a lifelong battle for the actor.

(Grand Central Publishing)

Occasionally, inheritance can be a burden. In his own life, Douglas details how he was a distracted father and husband who lost sight of his son, Cameron Douglas. During Cameron’s childhood, Douglas was elsewhere — on location in the Mexican jungle in “Romancing the Stone,” then a disastrous film production in Morocco for “Jewel of the Nile” that included a fatal plane crash that resulted in three crew members’ deaths. To cope with the breakneck pace of show business, Douglas sought refuge in women, cocaine and work.

Cameron’s troubled youth reached a crescendo when he was sentenced to five years in federal prison for drug smuggling, with an additional sentence for drug possession in prison — serving seven years in the end. It was enormously painful for Douglas, who also struggled with addiction, and had sought out treatment to provide an example to his son.

In a late chapter, he recalls confiding in Rob Reiner, who also had a son who struggled with addiction issues. In the memoir, Douglas addresses the killing of Rob and Michelle Reiner in December 2025; their son Nick has been charged with murder. “We both had sons with serious drug issues and we both, at times, had been at the end of our rope,” Douglas writes. “It was a heartbreaking confessional for us, but I know we gave each other some measure of comfort during the hard times.”

Why trudge through movie history, turning over every stone and every wound, in a nearly 500-page memoir? Because, according to Douglas, it’s time.

“Your 80s may be a good time to share,” the actor says, who recently turned 82. “People interested in movies, we give them a certain insight into the process, and maybe they could learn something. For others, it’s just gossip.” His battle with Stage 4 oral cancer brought the contours of his life into stark relief, sharpened by seven weeks of radiation and chemotherapy. His official diagnosis was tongue cancer, but he told the public he had throat cancer, hoping to stall speculation in the press about the possibility of disfigurement — and, more specifically, the prospect of losing his tongue. It was isolating, and Shane Salerno — the memoir’s co-author — stayed by Douglas’ side.

Michael Douglas.

(David Urbanke / For The Times)

As much as Douglas’ memoir, “One Helluva Ride,” is a revealing and delightful account of a life in show business, it is also a love letter to California — a place where Douglas spent much of his adult life, beginning at UC Santa Barbara. The college travel brochure read: campus by the sea. “I remember the cover of it was a guy walking down the beach with a surfboard, two girls in two-piece bathing suits. In 1963, I never saw a two-piece bathing suit back east.” He was sold.

The California years made an impression. Douglas is still, at heart, a hippie. Raised in stiff East Coast prep culture, he was reborn in the California sunshine. “I transferred into becoming a hippie, influenced by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, hallucinatory drugs, and the world that existed in the early ‘60s in San Francisco.”

Strangely, Douglas argued that some of the utopic sentiments of the 1960s are returning. “People are beginning to look back at that time, and realize how important family is — cooperation, sharing,” he says. “Socialism is not a four-letter word or something that’s terrible. There are other things to pursue in life other than just making money.”

“Your 80s may be a good time to share,” Michael Douglas says.

(David Urbanke / For The Times)

Like the characters he portrayed, Douglas is far from perfect. He admits that he struggled — in his first marriage, and later as a father. After marrying Diandra Luker, Douglas was unfaithful, having relationships with co-stars, most notably Turner on the set of “Romancing the Stone” in the Mexican jungle. The two denied the relationship for years. Now, with Turner’s blessing, Douglas writes about their involvement in his memoir.

Before Turner, there was Diane Thomas, the film’s waitress-turned-screenwriter, with whom Douglas had an affair. Thomas’ life was tragically cut short in a car accident involving a Porsche that Douglas had gifted her.

Then there were the rumors. On the set of “Basic Instinct,” some speculated that Douglas and Sharon Stone were having an affair. They weren’t, he explains. Douglas was instead locked in a power struggle with director Verhoeven, who, during one particularly heated argument with the actor, suffered a burst artery in his nose, turning the confrontation into a bloody scene. Douglas, meanwhile, was involved with another co-star, Jeanne Tripplehorn. “They were so focused on a possible relationship between Sharon and me, they missed the real relationship happening between me and Jeanne,” he writes.

When he and his current wife, actor Catherine Zeta-Jones, made it official, Douglas went to the other room to make breakup calls to five other women. (By this point in the memoir, Douglas has enough goodwill to pass this off as charming.) “From the moment I met Catherine, and we formed our family, I was a new man,” he writes.

The memoir enshrines Douglas’ petty show-business grievances too: a repaired grudge against David Letterman, a TV co-star who stole his longtime girlfriend, and a bouquet sent to Julia Roberts to apologize for his drunken buffoonery. In Douglas’ words: “There’s two or three people that I share my hostilities with.” He clashed with Brian De Palma, who was originally attached to direct “Fatal Attraction” and tried to have Douglas fired. De Palma underestimated Douglas and was replaced by Adrian Lyne. Years later, De Palma apologized, but Douglas rejected it.

It is impossible to tell the story of Douglas’ career without the women he encountered. The films he championed helped establish a new type of female lead — in all their powerful, morally ambiguous and deranged glory. “An actress was not allowed to play a villain,” he says. In “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” the actor struggled to cast Nurse Ratched. “A whole number of leading actresses turned that part down until we found Louise Fletcher, who went on to win an Oscar.”

For Glenn Close, Sharon Stone and Kathleen Turner, acting opposite Michael Douglas was transformative. After her role as a murderous, sex-crazed bisexual in “Basic Instinct,” Stone became one of the biggest stars of the 1990s and earned an Oscar nomination for Martin Scorsese’s “Casino.” Close‘s portrayal of the mistress-turned-lovesick psychopath in “Fatal Attraction” earned the actor her first lead Oscar nomination after three supporting nods. Turner went from being primarily known as the sexy femme fatale of “Body Heat” to a Golden Globe-winning star with box-office clout after her collaboration with Douglas. Sure, she sued him, too, but their friendship survived.

However, it wasn’t until his role as Gordon Gekko, the fast-talking, impulsive tycoon in 1987’s “Wall Street,” that Douglas was in full force, winning an Academy Award for lead actor. Directed by Vietnam veteran Oliver Stone, Douglas delivered an unforgettable performance about the dangers of unchecked capitalism and greed. At an early New York screening, Douglas recalls Wall Street traders being stunned by the film’s stinging accuracy. “A lot of the Wall Street characters were there, very cocky at the time; they all were shocked because we caught them.”

To his surprise, Wall Street financiers approached him on the street to praise Gekko — anointing him as their hero. “I said, ‘I was the villain.’ ‘No, no, no,’” he said. “So it showed me a lot.”

It speaks to Douglas’ gifts as an actor that he could transcend the caricature of white male entitlement he portrayed with such precision. In “Falling Down,” filmed during the 1992 uprising triggered by the Rodney King verdict, Douglas plays an unemployed defense worker, a man so consumed by disillusionment and blinded by his own sense of victimhood that he cannot recognize the harm he inflicts on others. The character would prove eerily prescient, anticipating an archetype that would take shape in the decades to come. An entire generation mistaking the actor’s brilliance as an invitation.

Perhaps that is the strange thing about being a movie star: Audiences decide who you are, and what you mean to them. For a chameleon, an actor who spent a lifetime resisting other people’s definitions of him, that might be the ultimate paradox.

As our conversation winds down, I remind him of his immense contributions to filmmaking, through producing and acting. It seems redundant, but I say it anyway. His response is polite.

“Quirky,” he said. “‘Falling Down,’ ‘The War of the Roses’ — I love those quirky films.”

“I’m proud of my movies,” he says. “I’m very proud of my movies.”

Connors is a culture journalist in L.A. She covers books, food, entertainment and offbeat Los Angeles. She’s currently at work on a book of essays about tourism in all its forms.

SCARLETT Moffatt has shared some adorable new photos of her son Jude meeting her newborn for the first time.

The star and her partner Scott Dobinson welcomed their second child – son Clark – earlier this week.

In the new photos, Scarlett is sitting up in her hospital bed surrounded by her expanded little family.

Clark is laying on one of Scarlett’s legs wearing a small cream coloured baby suit, while Jude is sitting between Scarlett’s legs.

Jude smiles widely at his little brother, who is partly resting on his lap.

Proud dad Scott is beaming by the bedside while the sweet moment unfolds, taking it all in.

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Scarlett gushed in the post’s caption on Instagram: “The moment Jude met Clark.

“Watching the boy who first made me a mammy become a big brother is a moment I’ll treasure forever.

“And judging by the last slide, Clark did very well with his choice of Transformer toy for his big brother.”

Announcing news of the birth on October 9, Scarlett shared online: “Our beautiful boy is here! Clark Xander Dobinson.

“Arriving a little earlier than expected and not quite as straightforward as planned, our little family of four was made complete on Monday.

“Our hearts have never been so full, and I’d do it all again for you, Clark.”

The I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! star announced that she was expecting baby number two back in April by showing her fans and followers snaps of her baby scan in a short video.

In the clip, the expectant mum’s son Jude could be heard talking about being a “big brother“.

Scarlett beamed as she held up a pregnancy scan and posed alongside Scott.

She captioned her sweet reveal: “We honestly can’t believe we’re writing this…

“After everything, we feel unbelievably lucky to be able to say… our family is growing.

“One little miracle gave us Jude, and now he’s going to be a big brother.

“And if there’s one thing we know for certain, it’s that he is going to be the most amazing big brother.

“We are so grateful, so excited, and still a little bit in shock…

“Our hearts are fuller than we ever thought possible.”

OLIVIA Bowen has revealed her four-year-old son came within millimetres of losing his eye after a freak accident at nursery.

An ambulance was called to rush little Abel to hospital after he impaled his eye with a stick while playing outside last year as part of forest school.

Olivia, 32, described the phone call informing her as the “scariest” of her life and she immediately made her way to the school to be by her son’s side.

Speaking exclusively to The Sun, Olivia said: “It was probably his first big accident, and when we got there, he just had a patch over his eye, there was blood everywhere.

“We didn’t know whether it had gone right into his eye and touched his eyeball, if it had missed it, if it was stuck, we had no clue, because he wouldn’t let us open it.”

Abel needed surgery to fix the wound, which included a sliced tearduct, and had a stent fitted to help with drainage during recovery.

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Love Island runner-up Olivia, who is also mum to Siena, one, said it was a “pure miracle” that Abel could still see and a follow-up eye test found he had 20-20 vision.

“I’ve never really thought about how important eyesight is, it’s something we take for granted every single day, especially with the kids, starting school, learning to read, it’s something I’ve never particularly thought about until that moment,” said Olivia.

The terrifying ordeal was the motivation for the mum-of-two to back a new campaign with The College of Optometrists that encourages parents to take their young children for free eye tests before they start school.

New research has found that just five percent of under-fives had an eye test last year.

Now, in a new drive to diagnose conditions early and achieve the best possible outcomes, The College wants parents to book appointments for their little ones.

In the UK all children under 16 are entitled to free eye tests, and this rises up to 19 for those still in full-time education.

And the research shows under-16s fare better than the preschoolers, with close to half having tested their eyes in 2025.

“The opticians, they’re just so kind,” said Olivia. “This is their job, this is what they do, and they want us to be going, because catching things in kids’ eye health early is so important, especially at that stage, before they start school.

“It’s daunting enough starting school, imagine if your child has got an issue with their eyesight? It’s going to make it even harder, so catching it at that point is probably the biggest piece of advice that they want to get through to everyone, and then follow up appointments, every one to two years.”

It never has been about the glory for Semaj Morgan.

Not the touchdowns. Not the name, image and license deals. And not even the 2024 national championship he won with Michigan.

For the UCLA wide receiver, all of that plays second fiddle to giving back to his community in Detroit and touching the lives of the people around him through the Semaj J. Morgan Foundation — an initiative he started when he was 17 years old.

“My foundation is definitely the best thing that I do. It’s great being a football player, but being able to give back and show people that I really care for others and not just about football and money, I want to be able to pour back into the people that support me and show me love,” Morgan said. “A lot of people don’t get to wake up every day and know that there’s going to be food around. A lot of people in the city of Detroit don’t even know if they’re going to eat at all.”

UCLA receiver Semaj Morgan is surrounded by children he has helped through his foundation.

(Courtesy of the Morgan family)

Morgan decided he wanted to start the foundation when he handed out toys with the Dream Team Male Mentoring group, telling his dad, Semaj T. Morgan, that community service was his calling. But at 17, he was too young to have his name on the paperwork, so his parents opened the foundation for him.

Since the foundation’s launch in February 2023, Morgan has hosted turkey drives, during which he gives away 2,000 turkeys, 2,000 food bags and 1,000 hot meals along with hats, coats, scarves and gloves, in an effort to tackle the health and food gaps in his community.

Morgan also has spearheaded back-to-school giveaways, handing out backpacks and supplies to children.

“We don’t do it just to do it. We do it because we’re trying to close the educational gap that our kids in Detroit suffer from,” Morgan’s father said.

“When you have a kid that’s going to school with the same notebooks and pens and highlighters and erasers that their counterparts have, now they have more confidence when they go to school.”

Morgan received a grant from the Ballmer Group, founded by Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and his wife, for the foundation’s DiscoverWorks Summer program. The initiative serves 250 families, giving students the opportunity to get their test scores up in the morning and go on field trips in the afternoon, alongside other enrichment activities such as robotics and mentoring.

UCLA quarterback Nico Iamaleava celebrates with Semaj Morgan after scoring a touchdown against Purdue at the Rose Bowl on Sept. 19.

(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)

But the endeavor closest to Morgan’s heart is the foundation’s Mother’s Day and Father’s Day events.

“These are mothers and fathers who lost their sons to gun violence. Semaj is their son, and he takes his NIL money, and he takes them to dinner, buys them gifts as if their son was here,” Morgan’s father said. “These are parents that a lot of these children’s murders have not been solved, so this is a way for us to bless these parents, let them know that they’re not forgotten. There’s never a dry eye in the room.”

The events — which started out with 10 moms and five dads and are up to 35 moms and 20 dads — are particularly special to Morgan, who was friends with some of the sons of the parents involved. Morgan said that seeing the parents and hearing their testimonies puts everything in his life into perspective.

While Morgan is humble about the effect his foundation has had on the people around him, others are taking notice.

UCLA receiver Semaj Morgan holds up a Michigan state Senate certificate recognizing his foundation’s work to support people in Detroit.

(Courtesy of Morgan familiy)

Morgan was recognized on the Michigan House floor by state Sens. John DaMoose and Rosemary Bayer for the community service that he’s led in Detroit.

And during the 2024-25 academic year, Morgan was nominated for the inaugural Big Ten Jackie Robinson Community & Impact Award by his previous school, Michigan, for his philanthropic work.

“He understands his mission and call in life, and that’s to bless other people. He’s not about him; he’s about other people, and it’s very rare that you see individuals at such a young age understand their mission and cause in life,” Morgan’s father said.

“Football is one thing, but when he’s giving out turkeys, food bags, hats and coats, he has a bigger smile than getting in the end zone because he understands these people need help.”

Morgan’s desire to help others was inspired by Curtis Blackwell — Morgan’s travel football coach and president of Sound Mind Sound Body Sports Academy. Morgan’s father said Blackwell always urged players to give back to others.

Blackwell, who coached Arizona Cardinals cornerback Will Johnson, Buffalo Bills cornerback Maxwell Hairston and former Michigan safety Makari Paige alongside Morgan, stresses education before football and places an equal emphasis on academics, athletics and life skills.

And because Michigan does not get the same high school football exposure as Texas, Florida or California, Blackwell was keen on getting his players on college visits, leading to Morgan receiving more than 25 offers — a direct result of the travel the team made to raise players’ exposure.

“Growing up in a single-parent home, I was fortunate to get a scholarship to college, and it was because of my coaches. And had it not been for my coaches, I don’t know where I would be,” Blackwell said. “If we as coaches are the best people to really influence young people, they will listen to their coach more than their mom, their teacher. And so if we can get the coaches to be the teachers off the field, we could really change their attitude.”

Blackwell was astounded that Morgan was the pupil who took the program’s mission the furthest, surpassing the efforts of NFL players and affecting people well before he’s turned 21.

“You don’t have to wait till you get to the NFL to make an impact. You don’t have to wait till you retire to give back. You can do something every step along the way, and that’s what we teach to our kids — lift as you climb,” Blackwell said. “Semaj took that and ran with it. He has a really big heart and he’s a person that is a giver, not a taker. He’s going to give you the shirt off his back.”

UCLA receiver Semaj Morgan catches a touchdown pass against Purdue at the Rose Bowl Stadium on Sept. 19.

(Kevin Terrell / Getty Images)

Morgan earned his bachelor’s degree at Michigan and is working on his master’s degree at UCLA while playing football and running his foundation from the West Coast. But he may miss his first foundation event when UCLA travels to Ann Arbor to play his former school in November, although coach Bob Chesney already gave him permission to stay in Michigan after the team leaves.

Morgan’s greatest achievement that weekend may not involve the scoreboard at the Big House.

“I might not have done the best on the field last year, but being able to come home knowing that I’m touching people’s lives, that’s the biggest thing for me,” Morgan said. “To do this at such a young age, and grow so rapidly and touch so many lives, it’s great for me. After football, I want to continue to give back to people. I eventually want to be able to start football programs.”

Thousands of people have taken to the streets of Rio de Janeiro in a student-led protest against presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro and the growing influence of Brazil’s far right.

The march happened on Wednesday, just days after far-right Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, earned the most votes in the first round of the country’s presidential race.

Bolsonaro won 47 percent, ahead of his closest rival, incumbent left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who gained 45 percent support.

Since neither candidate surpassed the 50 percent threshold, they will face each other in a run-off on October 25.

The results have triggered fears that Brazil could become the latest Latin American country to see its presidency switch from left to right.

Protesters marched through downtown Rio carrying signs reading “Never again Bolsonaro” and “No to the father, no to the son”. Others held banners reading “Dictatorship never again” and “Get out Bolsonaro”.

“I’m here because I believe in democracy. Because I’m scared,” said Alice Carneiro, 25, an administrator in maritime shipping who participated in the protests. She explained that, under a far-right government, she feared a backlash against her wife, who is transgender.

Jair Bolsonaro, the former president, led the country from 2019 to 2023. But his single-term tenure was marked by a series of controversies related to his far-right policies.

He voiced support for Brazil’s past military dictatorship, which was responsible for the disappearance and murder of hundreds of perceived dissidents. He also spread unfounded claims about the accuracy of Brazil’s election system, leading to a court ruling that barred him from holding office for eight years.

Currently, the former president is serving a 27-year sentence after being convicted of plotting to overturn his 2022 election defeat. After Lula’s inauguration in 2023, Bolsonaro’s supporters stormed government buildings in the capital, reportedly hoping to trigger a military uprising.

Critics have framed Jair Bolsonaro’s actions as a threat to Brazil’s democracy.

But Senator Flavio Bolsonaro has received his father’s endorsement, and he has backed amnesty for his father, a prospect that has raised concerns among protesters.

“I find this rise of the far right and the rise of Bolsonarism in Brazil very, very sad,” said Emmanuel Araujo, 19, who is preparing for university entrance exams.

“Lula might not be my preferred candidate,” Araujo added, “but amid this barbarism, we have to choose between someone we can keep criticising and someone who might take away our right to speak.”

My maternal grandmother, Marcela Miranda, was born in Arizona’s copper country in 1914 and lived in the United States until she was about 7.

She was part of a generation whose parents were from the rancho of El Cargadero, Zacatecas, and started families in el Norte while waiting out the Mexican Revolution in the 1910s and the Cristero Revolt in the 1920s. Many returned to their home village when things calmed down.

After growing up in Mexico, my grandmother moved to California with my grandfather and their children in the 1960s. Only the American government considered her a native-born U.S. citizen, while society dismissed her as a Mexican. We grandchildren always considered our Mama Chela a doña — a grand Mexican dame who never wore pants and frequently covered her hair with a veil out of modesty. All she remembered from her early childhood in Arizona were snippets of the nursery rhymes “Did You Ever See a Lassie?” and “The Bear Went Over the Mountain.”

The El Cargadero diaspora, which mostly settled in Anaheim, saw our forebears’ American birth as a stroke of provenance allowing them to legally enter the U.S. and give their progeny a head start that other Mexicans could only dream of. It’s a story I’ve repeatedly told over my decades-long journalism career, and no one has yet challenged my description of my grandmother as an immigrant.

If they did, I’d think they had too much time on their hands, or maybe that they were a wackjob contrarian.

Cue Steve Hilton.

The Republican candidate for California governor is trying to make a scandal out of his Democratic opponent, Xavier Becerra, portraying himself as the son of Mexican immigrants. Twice last week during their CNN debate, Becerra said his parents came to California “with $12.” In previous interviews during his decades in the political spotlight, Becerra has shared that his father, Manuel, was born in Sacramento in 1928 and moved to Mexico as a child during the Great Depression, eventually returning to the land of his birth.

Hilton, who has been endorsed by President Trump, has as much a chance of becoming the Golden State’s next governor as Stephen Miller. But he and his supporters have latched on to Becerra’s statement like it was the borderlands version of stolen valor. Critics combed through Becerra’s family genealogy like Indiana Jones searching for the Holy Grail, then posted their findings online — Becerra’s dad grew up in Tijuana before coming back to California, then married in Guadalajara before returning in the 1950s to Sacramento, where Xavier was born — to claim that Becerra is one giant, pandering fraudster.

“Unlike Xavier Becerra, I am an immigrant,” the British-born son of Hungarian refugees harrumphed on social media. He followed up by declaring that Becerra is “LYING” about his family’s American experience “in order to score identity points.”

What more proof do California voters need that Hilton is laughably out of touch with how we live? Many Mexican Americans, including my cousins and me, consider family members raised in Mexico to be immigrants, even if they were born in the U.S. Growing up down south forever shapes your language, work ethic, appreciation for how hard life can be and so much more. When they return to the U.S., such people often find themselves ostracized as paisa — country — and must learn the mores of American life, just like those born abroad.

To argue that calling them immigrants is technically wrong is like getting angry at people who don’t pronounce Los Feliz the Spanish way. For Becerra’s critics to claim he’s stretching his immigrant roots to appeal to Latino voters is an insult to Latinos. We know a cultural faker when we see one, and the Becerra family story isn’t an anomaly; it’s our lives.

Gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton addresses patrons at Victorio’s Ristorante in North Hollywood in September.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

“It’s a weird gotcha,” said Cal State Fullerton Chicano studies professor Alexandro José Gradilla, whose wife’s grandmother was born in California and raised in Mexico, then bounced between the two countries for the rest of her life. “What’s the dis? Where’s the dunk? It’s so normative, especially of that generation. We cannot have the 2026 definition of immigration, the border and policy apply to a completely different landscape.”

Becerra’s critics subscribe to “this very American bias that an immigrant only moves once to the U.S., the land of opportunity, of hope — all that mythology,” Gradilla continued. During the Ellis Island era, he noted, European immigrants returned to their home countries with their U.S.-born children, and then those children faced many of the same hardships as first-time arrivals when they came back to the U.S. as adults.

“‘We don’t call those people expats or returnees — ‘immigrant’ is the only intelligible label we understand,” the profe concluded. “Until we come up with a better label, Becerra’s dad is an immigrant.”

There are many legitimate reasons to bash Becerra, from his refusal to participate in more debates to his paltry number of public rallies to a platform that sounds like more of what created California’s current woes. His family history isn’t it.

Hilton’s fixation on Becerra’s immigrant bona fides shows how desperate he is to gain some traction, any traction, with Latino voters. He at least has picked up on Latinos’ regard for immigrant success stories. But after bragging about being the candidate of legal immigrants, for Hilton to hold being born here against someone who went back and forth between the U.S. and Mexico is a weak salsa pendejada.

Hilton would have been better off with his conservative base if he had labeled Becerra the son of an anchor baby.

At a press conference with elected officials to oppose Proposition 39, which would mandate voter identification, my colleague Nicole Nixon asked Becerra about Hilton’s attacks on his dad. Becerra finally unlocked the inner cholo so many of us have been waiting to see, instead of the Chicano Ned Flanders he’s been projecting for decades.

“So this is what happens when people who don’t understand immigration start to pontificate,” he responded, summarizing his family story once again and pointing out the discrimination his father faced as someone of Mexican heritage, birthright citizenship be damned.

“Steve Hilton may not know that [Mexican American history] because he’s not from the U.S.,” Becerra said. “Steve Hilton may not know that because even though he’s an immigrant, he hasn’t taken the time to research.”

Wow, the brown Democratic candidate calling the white Republican candidate a dumb immigrant — California politics sure have changed!

But Becerra’s smackdown had a point. Conservatives deeply misunderstand what it is to be Mexican American. We’ve never fit into the American assimilation story and so have created our own narrative, one that people like Hilton refuse to accept at their own peril.

Hilton needs to take a Chicano studies class, where discussions about the fluidity of Mexican identity inevitably come up.

And, wouldn’t you know it, Gradilla planned to bring up that very subject with his students this week — he didn’t even know about Hilton’s attacks against Becerra until I told him.

The profe has had to update his lectures about the forced removal of upward of a million Mexican Americans south of the border during the Great Depression. He relates that history to the present, when many undocumented Latinos are returning to the countries of their birth with their U.S.-born children, either because they’ve been deported or to avoid being arrested and locked up under Trump’s hellfire immigration enforcement regime.

“For Hilton, anyone of Mexican heritage in this country needs to be grateful, you need to be loyal, and you need to be here,” Gradilla said. “Who would ever want to leave the U.S.? Well, some people have to.”

Democrat Xavier Becerra, the frontrunner to become the state’s next governor, often invokes the story of his parents’ humble beginnings as immigrants from Mexico who, through hard work, built happy and productive lives in California.

“My parents came to California with $12 in their pocket. They lived the California dream,” Becerra said during last week’s gubernatorial debate with Republican rival Steve Hilton, aired nationally on CNN.

Becerra for years has described himself as the “son of immigrants” when talking about his upbringing, but that claim has come under scrutiny by Hilton and other critics who accuse Becerra of embellishing his family history. Becerra’s mother is from Guadalajara, Mexico, but his father was born in Sacramento and raised in Tijuana — making him a U.S. citizen and not a legal immigrant.

“Unlike Xavier Becerra, I am an immigrant. Unlike Xavier Becerra, my father was an immigrant. My stepfather too. My whole family,” Hilton wrote in a post on X.

Hilton is an immigrant from the United Kingdom and is the son of Hungarian immigrants who fled their homeland during a revolution in 1956.

Richard Grenell, a former Trump administration official, accused news outlets of letting a lie “continue for decades” throughout Becerra’s tenure as California attorney general and then as a Cabinet official in the Biden administration.

Becerra has openly discussed the details of his parents’ story, which unfolded on both sides of the border and in many ways reflects Mexican immigrant trajectories during the historical period of the 1920s and 1930s.

During speeches and in interviews Becerra has described how his father, Manuel, was born in Sacramento in 1928 and taken back to Tijuana as a young boy, with few jobs for Americans during the Great Depression, and even fewer jobs for Mexicans working in the U.S. His father traveled between the two countries often, and, as an older child, he would look for work in the U.S.

Becerra on Tuesday accused Hilton of “casting lies” about his family’s background, saying that the Republican failed to understand the struggle that many Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans faced in this county decades ago. He said his dad would tell of the days when he couldn’t walk into some establishments that had posted signs that read “No dog, Negros or Mexicans allowed.”

“This is what happens when people who don’t understand immigration start to pontificate,” Becerra said Tuesday after a morning rally against Proposition 39, a voter identification measure, at Guelaguetza, a Oaxacan restaurant in Los Angeles’ Pico-Union neighborhood.

“I am very proud of my parents, and I consider them immigrants because even though my dad was born in the U.S. — in a country that wouldn’t treat him the way it would treat other U.S. citizens — my dad was a proud immigrant,” Becerra said. “I am proud that I am their son. I am the son of immigrants.”

G. Cristina Mora, a UC Berkeley professor of sociology studying attitudes toward immigration, said Becerra’s critics misunderstand a common phenomenon at the time, when immigrants moved back and forth across a southern border that was much more porous — very different from the militarized border of today.

Beyond the dwindling jobs and precarious economics of the 1930s serving as a push factor for many Mexican families, a wave of xenophobia also helped send hundreds of thousands back to Mexico. A wave of mass deportations across the Southwest states resulted in more than 1 million Mexicans and their descendants being forced out of their homes and loaded on trains out. More than 60% were U.S. citizens.

Mora, who also serves as co-director of the UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies, said “it was a time of very great anti-Mexican fervor.” Many sought to later return. Some were deported multiple times.

“There are many types of immigrants. There’s so much nuance,” Mora said. “To think there’s only one immigrant story would just be to not know California.”

Becerra’s campaign spokesperson Jonathan Underland in a statement accused Hilton of hypocritically attempting to capitalize on an immigrant narrative.

“Steve Hilton doesn’t seem to have a problem with immigrants who look like him — but openly attacks immigrants who look like Xavier Becerra,” Underland said. “Trump ignited a deep anti-immigrant animus among MAGA voters, and Hilton is tapping into that as he scrambles to distract from his bizarre ad campaign that alienated some of his closest allies.” Last week, Hilton’s campaign put out a provocative, sexually suggestive ad that drew criticism from his fellow Republicans.

Becerra, both on Tuesday and throughout his long political career, has often described his parents’ upbringing.

He said his father’s family moved back to Tijuana during the Great Depression. His father, he said, was the eldest child and was forced to leave school after the sixth grade to help support the family. He began working as a preteen, bouncing back and forth between the U.S. and Tijuana. He would tell stories about being a shoe shiner, at times of celebrities and movie stars. He also worked in the farm fields with his dad and sometimes with his uncles.

In the early 1950s he married Becerra’s mother, Maria Teresa, who lived in Guadalajara.

“When they decided to make a go of it outside of Guadalajara, they went to Tijuana. They didn’t have great success, so that’s when they decided to come to the U.S.,” Becerra said on Tuesday. “So when I say my parents came to California with $12 in their pocket, it’s because, Steve Hilton, my parents came to California with $12 in their pocket.”

Becerra’s father later began a construction career that lasted 30 years, while his mother worked as a clerical worker and later purchased rental properties.

Times researcher Cary Schneider contributed to this report.