Kathy Kanjo, the director and CEO of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, has been named the new director of the UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art. The news comes a little more than two months after UC Irvine announced it had acquired Orange County Museum of Art in a merger that created the new institution.
At that time, a rep for UCI said the hope was to announce a new director in the new year, so Kanjo’s appointment comes ahead of schedule. Kanjo has been at MCASD since 2016. Prior to that, she served as director of the University Art Museum at UC Santa Barbara.
When I first wrote about the merger, UC Irvine confirmed that it was taking over OCMA’s assets, employees and debt. A rep for UC Irvine declined to comment on a number, writing in an email that the budget for the new museum will come from university operating funds.
Kanjo inherits responsibility for a substantial collection of more than 9,000 artworks, including UC Irvine’s Gerald Buck Collection of more than 3,200 paintings, sculptures and works on paper by some of the state’s most important artists, including David Hockney and Ed Ruscha.
“The newly merged collection is both anticipated and underknown,” wrote Kanjo in an email. “I am eager to unveil and contextualize the artistic legacies of the Irvine, Buck, and OCMA collections from a particularly California point of view. Collected over time and together at last, these objects are an asset to be shared generously and supported by scholarly research. The constellation that is the UC Irvine Langson Museum offers a portrait of our state’s innovative artistic impulses.”
Kanjo also said the new museum would get a significant boost from UC Irvine’s research strength and commitment to public service.
“We will create rigorous and welcoming exhibitions that resonate with our region’s diverse audiences, young and old,” she wrote.
Despite the great fanfare of its opening in 2022, OCMA — with its 53,000-square-foot, $98-million Morphosis-designed building on the eastern edge of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts campus — never seemed fully realized. Problems were hinted at — but never explained — in April when CEO Heidi Zuckerman announced her intention to step down.
Meanwhile UC Irvine had been planning to construct a museum for its collection for quite some time. That, too, never really got off the ground. If there were ever a time to build consensus around a new mandate for the merged organizations, that time is now. Kanjo has a vision for the future that appears to center scholarship.
“I want to clarify the core identity of the collection and find connections back to campus and into the community,” she wrote. “The post is appealing because of its connection to UC Irvine, a leading research university, and the opportunity to work with the students within the Claire Trevor School of the Arts and all of the campus resources. The potential to foster innovation by working in a cross-disciplinary/cross-campus way is strong.”
I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt, planning a drive to Orange County in the new year. Here’s your arts and culture news for the week.
On our radar
Broadway star Ben Platt will perform 10 shows at the Ahmanson starting Friday.
(Rob Kim / Getty Images)
Ben Platt: Live at the Ahmanson The award-winning star of stage and screen hits town for 10 shows where he’ll sing his greatest hits and Broadway favorites. And where Platt goes, his big-time friends follow, so expect some great surprise guests each night. 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday and Dec. 19-20; 3 and 8 p.m. Sunday and Dec. 21; 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday. Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. centertheatregroup.org
“Holiday Legends” is this year’s seasonal performance by the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles.
(Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles)
Holiday Legends The Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles’ annual celebration pays homage to the greats, including Mariah Carey, Irving Berlin and Johnny Mathis, plus traditional choral classics, pop Christmas anthems and Hanukkah favorites. 8 p.m. Saturday. 3 p.m. Sunday. Saban Theatre, 8440 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills gmcla.org
The Huntington in San Marino.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Stories from the Library: From Brontë to Butler This series highlights the literary side of the Huntington and its world-class library. In the newest exhibition, journals, letters, photographs and personal items provide a behind-the-scenes look at two centuries of women writers bookended by Charlotte Brontë and Octavia E. Butler. Through June 15. The Huntington, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino. huntington.org
You’re reading Essential Arts
The week ahead: A curated calendar
FRIDAY Holiday Soirée & Cabaret Fountain Theatre celebrates the season with a live announcement of its 2026 season, a cabaret performance from Imani Branch & Friends, plus, a raffle and reception. There will also be two separate performances of the cabaret. Soirée and cabaret: 7 p.m. Friday. Cabaret: 7 p.m. Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave. FountainTheatre.com
Violinist Renaud Capuçon.
(Los Angeles Philharmonic)
Mozart & Sibelius Violinist Renaud Capuçon joins conductor Gustavo Gimeno and the L.A. Phil for a program that combines “Mozartian elegance with brooding Nordic drama.” 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com
Santasia The long-running holiday spectacle featuring broad comedy, musical parodies and old school claymation returns to L.A. for a 26th year. Through Dec. 27. Whitefire Theatre, 13500 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks. santasia.com
SATURDAY
Laurel Halo performs Saturday at the Nimoy.
(Norrel Blair)
Laurel Halo Currently based in L.A., the musician combines ambient, drone, jazz and modern sensibilities in new works for piano and electronics in a preview of her forthcoming album. 8 p.m. UCLA Nimoy Theater, 1262 Westwood Blvd. cap.ucla.edu
Sound + Source Art meets music as DJs Novena Carmel, Francesca Harding and KCRW music director Ale Cohen provide a site-specific soundtrack to the exhibition “Corita Kent: The Sorcery of Images.” 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Marciano Art Foundation, 4357 Wilshire Blvd. marcianoartfoundation.org
Pacific Jazz Orchestra The 40-piece hybrid big band and string ensemble, led by Chris Walden, presents its “Holiday Jazz Spectacular,” featuring vocalists Aloe Blacc, Sy Smith and Brenna Whitacre. 8 p.m. Alex Theatre, 216 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale. pacificjazz.org
Holiday Family Faire Theatricum Botanicum’s annual daylong winter wonderland featuring performances, food and drink and a marketplace; followed by “It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play,” by Joe Landry, and starring Beau Bridges, Wendie Malick, Joe Mantegna and Rory O’Malley. 11 a.m. Family Faire; 5 p.m. “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 Topanga Canyon Blvd, Topanga. theatricum.com
SUNDAY
The band Emily’s Sassy Lime in Olympia, Wash., circa 1995.
(Emily’s Sassy Lime)
Artist Talk Emily Ryan, Amy Yao and Wendy Yao of the ‘90s Orange County riot grrrl band Emily’s Sassy Lime join artist-activist-musician Kathleen Hanna of the band Bikini Kill for a discussion of adolescence, creativity and community. The talk is part of the museum’s “2025 California Biennial: Desperate, Scared, But Social,” which closes Jan. 4. 2 p.m. UC Irvine Langson Museum/Orange County Museum of Art, 3333 Avenue of the Arts, Costa Mesa. ocma.art
English Cathedral Christmas The Los Angeles Master Chorale brings the magic of Canterbury Cathedral downtown, reveling in the grand tradition of British choral works from the 16th century to the present.. 7 p.m Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. lamasterchorale.org
TUESDAY Aron Kallay In “Midcentury/Modern,” the pianist performs works from world premieres by Michael Frazier, Zanaida Stewart Robles and Brandon Rolle, along with 20th century works by Grażyna Bacewicz and Sergei Prokofiev in a program presented by Piano Spheres. 8 p.m. Thayer Hall at the Colburn School, 200 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. pianospheres.org
WEDNESDAY BOTH: A Hard Day’s Silent Night Open Fist Theatre Company’s annual holiday charity concert benefiting Heart of Los Angeles, an organization that helps kids in underserved communities, infuses the music of the Beatles with Gospel flair to tell the Christmas story. 8 p.m. Wednesday-Friday; 3:30 and 9 p.m. Saturday; 3:30 and 7 p.m. Sunday. Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave. openfist.org
Elaine May and Walter Matthau star in “A New Leaf,” which screens at the Academy Museum on Wednesday.
(Film Publicity Archive/United Archives via Getty Images)
A New Leaf Elaine May made Hollywood history with this 1971 screwball noir as the first woman to write, direct and star in her own feature film. Walter Matthau co-stars as a playboy who has burned through his own fortune so plans to marry and murder May’s kooky heiress to get hers. 7:30 p.m. Academy Museum, 6067 Wilshire Blvd. academymuseum.org
Culture news and the SoCal scene
Architect Frank Gehry in his Playa Vista office in 2015.
Swed also wrote a story that came out of a recent trip to Tokyo about Carl Stone, an L.A. based composer from the Japanese capital, who uses his laptop to record environmental sounds and transform them into sonic sculptures. “Stone’s iPad, with its open sonic complexity, created a sense of space, a roomy aural soundscape in which jazz and butoh became elements not egos, not larger than life, just more life, the merrier,” writes Swed.
McNulty wrote an interesting essay about characters breaking the fourth wall and how it can galvanize an audience. “Breaking the fourth wall is a tried-and-true method of calling an audience to attention. But a new breed of dramatist, writing in an age of overlapping calamities — environmental, political, economic, technological and moral — is retooling an old playwriting device to do more than inject urgency and immediacy in the theatrical experience,” McNulty writes.
I spent time in Palm Springs over the Thanksgiving break to cover the grand reopening of the Palm Springs Plaza Theatre, which recently underwent a $34-million restoration. To celebrate, it hosted an intimate show featuring actor, singer, songwriter Cynthia Erivo.
I also had the pleasure of sitting down for an interview with Broadway actor Ben Platt in advance of his 10-day residency at the Ahmanson Theatre. We bonded over being anxious people, and he shared that he keeps his anxiety in check through live performance.
Enjoying this newsletter? Consider subscribing to the Los Angeles Times
Cameron Watson is the new artistic director of Skylight Theatre Company.
(David Zaugh)
Cameron Watson has been named Skylight Theatre Company’s new artistic director, beginning Jan. 1. He will replace Gary Grossman, who is stepping down after four decades at the helm of the Los Feliz-based theater, during which time he turned the company into one of the most respected small theaters in the city. “Cameron’s passion, his theatrical vision and his ability to lead, listen, nurture and mentor make him the perfect fit for Skylight,” Grossman said in a statement.
Earlier this week, philanthropist MacKenzie Scott gave $20 million to the Japanese American National Museum — the largest single gift in the organization’s history. Scott, the former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, also gave the museum $10 million in 2021.
Hamza Walker, the Brick executive director who is behind the critically acclaimed “Monuments” exhibit at the Brick and MOCA, has been honored with the 2026 Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence, given by the Bard College Center for Curatorial Studies. “Hamza’s three decades of curatorial practice have brought forward voices and perspectives that challenge dominant narratives, create dialogue, and have left a lasting imprint on the field,” said Tom Eccles, executive director of the Center for Curatorial Studies, in a statement.
The Times this week released its annual list of the 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles. I plan to go to every one. Well, maybe, like 20. It could get expensive.
Call it an accident, call it the plan. But don’t stoop to the reprehensible gaslighting of calling it a lie: It is fact that federal agents have detained and arrested dozens, if not hundreds, of United States citizens as part of immigration sweeps, regardless of what Kristi Noem would like us to believe.
During a congressional hearing Thursday, Noem, our secretary of Homeland Security and self-appointed Cruelty Barbie, reiterated her oft-used and patently false line that only the worst of the worst are being targeted by immigration authorities. That comes after weeks of her department posting online, on its ever-more far-right social media accounts, that claims of American citizens being rounded up and held incommunicado are “fake news” or a “hoax.”
“Stop fear-mongering. ICE does NOT arrest or deport U.S. citizens,” Homeland Security recently posted on the former Twitter.
Tuesday, at a different congressional hearing, a handful of citizens — including two Californians — told their stories of being grabbed by faceless masked men and being whisked away to holding cells where they were denied access to phones, lawyers, medications and a variety of other legal rights.
Their testimony accompanied the release of a congressional report by the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in which 22 American citizens, including a dozen from the Golden State, told their own shocking, terrifying tales of manhandling and detentions by what can only be described as secret police — armed agents who wouldn’t identify themselves and often seemed to lack basic training required for safe urban policing.
These stories and the courageous Americans who are stepping forward to tell them are history in the making — a history I hope we regret but not forget.
Immigration enforcement, boosted by unprecedented amounts of funding, is about to ramp up even more. Noem and her agents are reveling in impunity, attempting to erase and rewrite reality as they go — while our Supreme Court crushes precedent and common sense to further empower this presidency. Until the midterms, there is little hope of any check on power.
Under those circumstances, for these folks to put their stories on the record is both an act of bravery and patriotism, because they now know better than most what it means to have the chaotic brutality of this administration focused on them. It’s incumbent upon the rest of us to hear them, and protest peacefully not only rights being trampled, but our government demanding we believe lies.
“I’ve always said that immigrants who are given the great privilege of becoming citizens are also some of the most patriotic people in this country. I know you all love your country. I love our country, and this is not the America that we believe in or that we fought so hard for. Every person, every U.S. citizen, has rights,” Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach) said as the hearing began.
Less than 5 feet tall, Velez is a graduate of Cal Poly Pomona who was working in the garment district in June when ICE began its raids. Her mom and teenage sister had just dropped her off when masked men swarmed out of unmarked cars and began chasing brown people. Velez didn’t know what was happening, but when one man charged her, she held up her work bag in defense. The bag did not protect her. Neither did her telling the agents she is a U.S. citizen.
“He handcuffed me without checking my ID. They ignored me as I repeated it again and again that I am a U.S. citizen,” she told committee members. “They did not care.”
Velez, still unsure who the man was who forced her into an SUV, managed to open the door and run to an LAPD officer, begging for help. But when the masked man noticed she was loose, he “ran up screaming, ‘She’s mine’” the congressional report says.
The police officer sent her back to the unmarked car, beginning a 48-hour ordeal that ended with her being charged with assault of a federal officer — charges eventually dropped after her lawyer demanded body camera footage and alleged witness statements. (The minority staff report was released by Rep. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, the highest-ranking Democrat on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.)
“I never imagined this would be occurring, here, in America,” Velez told lawmakers. “DHS likes … to brand us as criminals, stripping us of our dignity. They want to paint us as the worst of the worst, but the truth is, we are human beings with no criminal record.”
This if-you’re-brown-you’re-going-down tactic is likely to become more common because it is now legal.
In Noem vs. Vasquez Perdomo, a September court decision, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that it was reasonable for officers to stop people who looked foreign and were engaged in activities associated with undocumented people — such as soliciting work at a Home Depot or attending a Spanish-language event, as long as authorities “promptly” let the person go if they prove citizenship. These are now known as “Kavanaugh stops.”
Disregarding how racist and problematic that policy is, “promptly” seems to be up for debate.
Javier Ramirez, born in San Bernardino, testified as “a proud American citizen who has never known the weight of a criminal record.”
He’s a father of three who was working at his car lot in June when he noticed a strange SUV idling on his private property with a bunch of men inside. When he approached, they jumped out, armed with assault weapons, and grabbed him.
“This was a terrifying situation,” Ramirez said. But then it got worse.
One of the men yelled, “Get him. He’s Mexican!”
On video shot by a bystander, Javier can be heard shouting, “I have my passport!” according to the congressional report, but the agents didn’t care. When Ramirez asked why they were holding him, an agent told him, “We’re trying to figure that out.”
Like Velez, Ramirez was put in detention. A severe diabetic, he was denied medication until he became seriously ill, he told investigators. Though he asked for a lawyer, he was not allowed to contact one — but the interrogation continued.
After his release, five days later, he had to seek further medical treatment. He, too, was charged with assault of a federal agent, along with obstruction and resisting arrest. The bogus charges were also later dropped.
“I should not have to live in fear of being targeted simply for the color of my skin or the other language I speak,” he told the committee. “I share my story not just for myself, but for everyone who has been unjustly treated, for those whose voice has been silenced.”
You know the poem, folks. It starts when “they came” for the vulnerable. Thankfully, though people such as Ramirez and Velez may be vulnerable due to their pigmentation, they are not meek and they won’t be silenced. Our democracy, our safety as a nation of laws, depends on not just hearing their stories, but also standing peacefully against such abuses of power.
Because these abuses only end when the people decide they’ve had enough — not just of the lawlessness, but of the lies that empower it.
The press has often labeled Mon Laferte a “femme fatale” — a seductive woman who inflicts distress upon her love interests.
Nearly two decades into her singing career, the Chilean singer-songwriter has learned to embrace the old-fashioned trope of the wizened seductress in “Femme Fatale,” her ninth studio album, which she released in October.
“I came to the conclusion that there’s a perception of me as a woman who is really liberated — that’s why it’s dangerous. [She’s] a person who is sure of herself and that generates a lot of insecurity in other people,” said Laferte in a Zoom call, just after she attended the 2025 Fashion Awards with designer Willy Chavarria in London. (“I went to Camden and took a photo next to [Amy Winehouse’s] statue,” she noted, citing inspiration in the late R&B star.)
Laferte reckons with her dangerous womanhood on “Femme Fatale:” a compilation of jazzy, cabaret pop ballads, elevated by the roaring theatrical vocals she made famous in such past hits as “Tu Falta de Querer” and “Mi Buen Amor.” Prior to releasing the album, Laferte notably starred as Sally Bowles in a Mexico City production of the famous American musical “Cabaret.” It was a crash course on theater — which heavily influenced Laferte’s now most penetrating record to date.
Each song in “Femme Fatale” feels like a descent into a speakeasy. It tells stories of loves past — which at times feel nauseating for the 42-year-old singer, born Norma Monserrat Bustamante Laferte in Viña del Mar, Chile.
Among them is “Otra Noche de Llorar,” in which she mourns an unrequited love; then there’s “El Gran Señor,” in which she scorns a cowardly abuser of women. The record climaxes with “1:30,” a briskly improvised tune, in which Laferte balances stories of abuse, self-pleasuring and fake orgasms with historical themes — like the global industrial revolution, as well as Pinochet’s Caravan of Death in 1973.
“The song is really political and everything is my own story,” said Laferte, who admits that even she finds her song difficult to listen to. “The last part is the hardest — where I talk about a conquest — to the point where I can’t listen to that song. It’s really uncomfortable. It’s hard to talk about something so shamelessly.”
“Femme Fatale” is a deeply personal journey that leads to Laferte making peace with her past. The record concludes with the lively orchestral number “Vida Normal,” in which she grapples with the revelation that she’s turning into her mother — especially after giving birth to her first child in 2022 with husband Joel Orta, guitarist for Mexican band Celofán.
“It was a really honest way of saying that, after everything, I just want a normal life,” said the five-time Latin Grammy winner.
But before the Chilean femme fatale can settle into a vida normal, she will first embark on the 2026 Femme Fatale tour, which includes dates in Latin America and later the United States. Laferte’s first stop will be in her hometown of Viña del Mar for the International Song Festival. “It’s like returning home,” she said.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Mon Laferte is a five-time Latin Grammy winner.
(Mayra Ortiz)
You were just in London for the Fashion Awards with Willy Chavarria, who was nominated for designer of the year. How was that experience? I came as a guest of Willy’s. We had dinner and saw a lot of super fashionable people, many artists with their super cool looks. Fashion has always been interesting to me ever since I was a little girl, outside of singing, dancing and playing the guitar. I liked to draw women and their outfits, dresses, things like that… Perhaps that’s where my dreams began to be a designer. Aesthetically in my last album, “Autopoiética,” it was all baroque — I was a bit like Marie Antoinette, I wore large dresses in my shows. This time in “Femme Fatale,” [the style is] bohemian, with sequins and makeup running.
“Femme Fatale” is intense and sexy. Why did you decide to go with that phrase for the album title? ”Femme fatale has a bit of a negative weight to it. You think of a scornful woman that always brings misfortune and does evil things. And it’s a name that the press has given me: La Femme Fatale Chilena.
And I liked it. I like this title because I like to play with the concepts of a dangerous woman. I like that it’s dramatic, because I like music that is theatrical and dark. It doesn’t mean that I am that woman who is secure and free — I have been in various moments in my life, not all the time. But I like that people label me in that way.
How would you describe the musical style? I wanted to take [the album] into the world of jazz so that it could sound nocturnal, so it could sound melancholic. In the last couple of years I’ve been listening to a lot of jazz, so why not make an album that I like to listen to? When I was a little girl, I listened to jazz in my home because of my mom, but I felt like it was boring. Later when I was in my teens I was like: “This is elevator music.”
But as I kept growing, I got rid of that prejudice. When I began to listen to jazz without any judgment, I began to find poetry and a lot of madness as well. I think it’s the improvisation aspect; you have to be very daring to enter the void, because your improv is coming and it’s to the death. That’s something that I’m passionate about. I think it’s demented and poetic at the same time.
This fall you were in a production of the musical “Cabaret” in Mexico City. How was that experience and did it inspire your music for “Femme Fatale”? Yes! I feel like they complemented each other. I feel that my role as Sally Bowles in the theater fed that universe of “Femme Fatale.” There’s a song in the album, “Vida Normal,” that is a song that could go in a musical and that was the intention. My experience with theater was wonderful and I had a lot of fun and learned a lot in the intensive process.
I wanted to talk about the song, “Vida Normal.” You hint at becoming more like your mother and living a normal life, which feels a bit at odds with the “Femme Fatale” theme. Was that intentional? Totally. Because the first song, “Femme Fatale,” describes me up to the present: I always bring chaos, I always destroy what I love, I’m an expert in self-sabotage. But I have been letting those things go with time, thankfully. With the songs in “Femme Fatale” I went deeper into my past, in order to kill that persona.
[“Vida Normal”] is really honest and represents me in the present. I look in the mirror and I don’t recognize myself when I’m barefaced or before getting in the shower — my body changed, especially after motherhood. It’s true that I see my mother’s face and it’s hard to recognize that. I’m getting old. I’m at that age where I don’t recognize myself as either young, or old, in my 40s. It appeared beautiful to close that album that way. It was a really honest way of saying that after everything, I just want a normal life.
One song that caught my attention was the jazz song “1:30.” You talk about fantasies that women don’t often talk about. What was the thought process behind this song? I think those have been the hardest lyrics I’ve ever written. I touch on a lot of microtopics — masturbation, fake orgasms — I think many of us have gone through that. I talk about abuse, sexual abuse, the Caravan of Death that occurred during the dictatorship of Pinochet in Chile. The song is really political and everything is my own story. The last part is the hardest, where I talk about a conquest, to the point where I can’t listen to that song. It’s really uncomfortable. It’s hard to talk about something so shamelessly.
I talked with my musicians and told them that I wanted this to be fast, almost desperate, almost like the bass being the protagonist so that it gives you a sense of urgency, like [we’re] fleeing in a way. We played together like 8 times and I liked that take.
The album also features Natalia Lafourcade and Silvana Estrada on “My One and Only Love.” What was it like to work with these different voices that are often compared to each other? As all three of us sang, I realized that we are so different, each our own universe. I guess we relate to being singer-songwriters but we are distinct universes. I think that [comparison] has to do with us being women; there’s so many male-led bands that one can say are similar too.
We’re all good friends. I’ve known Natalia for many years now and we love each other and they’re all talented women. All three voices sound very beautiful together and I love harmonizing. It was precious to sing together in a song that I find to be the most beautiful in the album. It’s sweet and honest. It talks about the difficulties between partners — and it describes me and my husband. At the end of the day we love each other and continue to be present.
After 18 months of shopping the script, the proposed Lionsgate Television series based on the gambling scandal involving Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is in development at Starz.
The project will spotlight the audacious theft by Ippei Mizuhara of $16 million from Ohtani to pay off staggering gambling debts. Mizuhara was fired by the Dodgers after the crimes came to light in March 2024. A year later, he was convicted of defrauding Ohtani in federal court and sentenced to 57 months in prison.
The series will be produced by Tony Award winner Scott Delman, known for “The Book of Mormon” and “A Raisin in the Sun,” and sports journalist Albert Chen. Alex Convery, who wrote “Air,” is on board as showrunner and screenwriter while Justin Lin (the “Fast and Furious” franchise) will direct, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
“This is Major League Baseball’s biggest sports gambling scandal since Pete Rose — and at its center is its biggest star, one that MLB has hitched its wagon on,” Chen said in a statement to The Times. “We’ll get to the heart of the story — a story of trust, betrayal and the trappings of wealth and fame.”
Lionsgate was having trouble selling the project to companies with media rights agreements with Major League Baseball — Disney, Warner Bros., Discovery, Apple, Netflix and Comcast — because the companies didn’t want to jeopardize their relationships with the league, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Lionsgate is the former parent company of Starz, but the two formally separated in May.
The story unquestionably is compelling. Mizuhara befriended Ohtani in Japan when the player who would become the most accomplished hitting and pitching combination in baseball history was an 18-year-old rookie with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters.
Ohtani came to the United States in 2018 at age 23, signing with the Angels. Mizuhara soon became his most trusted friend and interpreter, serving as an intermediary between Ohtani and nearly everyone who spoke English, including the media, his agent and Angels officials.
Mizuhara arranged wire transfers from Ohtani’s bank account without the player’s knowledge or permission and impersonated him during more than two dozen phone calls with bank employees, all to feed a gambling habit that accumulated $40 million in losses across thousands of bets.
Mizuhara allegedly collected $142 million in winnings but lost about $183 million.
Ohtani signed a 10-year, $700-million contract with the Dodgers in December 2023 and the scandal came to light three months later. Ohtani was absolved of wrongdoing and described as a victim by federal authorities.
“Ippei has been stealing money from my account and has told lies,” Ohtani said through his new interpreter, Will Ireton, shortly after Mizuhara was arrested. “I never agreed to pay off the debt or make payments to the bookmaker.
“I’m just beyond shocked. It’s really hard to verbalize how I am feeling at this point.”
Ohtani quickly put the episode behind him, leading the Dodgers to World Series championships in 2024 and 2025. He was named National League Most Valuable Player both years.
Before Stuart Scott, the phrase “Boo-yah,” was used to express joy. When he made it one of his catch phrases on ESPN, the expression entered the sports vernacular.
Director Andre Gaines explores the impact Scott had on the media landscape in his 30 for 30 documentary for ESPN, “Boo-Yah: A Portrait of Stuart Scott,” premiering Wednesday.
“He can easily be reduced down to a number of different things, maybe his catchphrases, maybe his style,” he told The Times. “All of these types of things are very reductive and have the ability to sort of diminish his legacy, but the reality is that broadcasting, prior to Stu, looked very different than it did after Stuart.”
The Times spoke to Gaines about the emotional journey he had making the film and capturing the “grit and perseverance” that made Scott a staple of journalism. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How did you decide to open the film with a Stuart Scott quote about his dreams?
Gaines: It really had to do with one of the main themes, conceptually, of the film — the fact that Stuart truly believed that you could manifest your own destiny. It was part of his belief when he tried out for the Jets, was part of his belief when he became the icon that he was. It was something that he really saw, and we had this proof of this through his video journals that he kept over the course of his life that we try to showcase very heavily in the film. So, I wanted to start the film off with a quote from him that was exemplary of that.
Why did you decide to use Scott’s voice throughout the documentary?
Gaines: I always try to tell my stories from the perspective of the subject. I don’t want other people dominating the story or telling the story on behalf of the subject. I want the lead character to be the person to narrate their own story, to narrate their own journey, and for Stuart, this proved to be a bit of a challenge, just because he, for so long, was the interviewer and not the interviewee, and there wasn’t, particularly in the early years of his life, there weren’t a lot of interviews to cut a glean from. But after some heavy research, and digging, we were able to find those little gems, either from his own personal archive, of footage that he shot or from interviews that he conducted, or interviews that he was the subject of the interview with other folks, and able to tell that story. I really wanted to give him the platform to carry us through the entire film and be kind of our spirit guide that takes us through his journey and let him be the leader of his own show.
Black sports reporters only make up less than 34%, according to a report by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports. How do you hope this film changes the landscape of sports journalism?
Gaines: The third of the landscape in the first place, we have Stuart to thank for a lot of that. He was very cognizant of the shoulders of the giants that he stood upon, and understood his place, and once he realized the level of authenticity that he was bringing to a very stilted medium, he took on that burden by just continuing to be himself. My hope is that those numbers just continue to grow. The closer that we get to equity, I think is honoring Stuart’s legacy in the best way possible. Yes, we have this tribute to him. We have this opportunity to see his life in pictures, and really understand his legacy from the ground up, and where it began, but at the end of the day, there’s always gonna be more work to do.
Many athletes want to be rappers, many rappers want to be athletes, Scott managed to smash both worlds together by incorporating some of the language into his reporting. How different is the collaboration between these two worlds because of Scott?
Gaines: What was needed was a glue, something to admonish and recognize both of those realities and how to bring them together. And that was Stuart. That was one of the many things that set him apart. When you look at what Stuart had to endure as a newbie at ESPN 2, and the reason why they ended up hiring him is the same reason why they ended up trying to squash him. The same reason why they were discriminating against him and being prejudiced against him. But he was there as a spirit guide for these two things to come together in such a clear and cohesive and harmonious way. We do have him to thank for so many of the television personalities that we have today as a result of that. He gets a lot of credit for his celebrity. He gets a lot of credit for bringing personality to a very buttoned up and scripted media. But he doesn’t get a lot of credit for being the excellent journalist that he was.
You managed to get a lot of good stories from athletes and his co-workers. What was a story that didn’t make the final cut but still wanted to get out there in the public?
Gaines: There was definitely a really interesting story about a very, very competitive game of pickup basketball between Stuart Scott and Dan Patrick that was pretty incredible, but ended up getting cut for time. There’s another story about a flag football league that they had at ESPN, and they’re playing against some local news stations and guys. Jay Harris tells a story about how Stuart showed up in full pads like this was a real football game. Full pads and goggles and knee high socks and gloves. It was that level of competitiveness that was baked into his soul that showed us what a real fight against cancer actually looks like. He was physically fighting cancer, physically fighting what it was doing to his body, and trying to defeat it through diet and exercise and just a rigorous workout routine. There were a couple of those tidbits that if we had more time, I would love to add in there, but the essence of what those stories are did make the film ultimately.
You really captured his essence in the film. What does he mean to you as a Black filmmaker?
Gaines: For me, he was always a North Star. I started my career in journalism, I should say, went to school for journalism at Northwestern University, and Stuart was also a member of my fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha. There were a couple of the dots that were connected already there for me. So when ESPN called to ask me to do this, it was a thousand times yes. I never got the opportunity to meet him, unfortunately, but I always looked at him as a symbol. It was just an honor to be able to memorialize this incredibly beloved cultural figure in a way that it will live forever, that people can watch again and again, and come back to relive some of the great moments that we all know and love, and learn a whole hell of a lot about the real human being behind it at the end of the day, someone who had trials and triumphs and difficulties and successes just like all of us do. He just had to experience those things on a display as a public figure.
There is an original song by Common in the end-credits. How did that song come about?
Gaines: Common and I have known each other for quite some time. We were working on a TV show several years ago, and he’s just a wonderful human being, an incredible artist, also someone who’s touched so many. I wanted to interview him for the film, because I knew that he had some relationship with Stuart. We talked, and he said, yeah, you know, I’d love to do a song. And I said, you really read my mind. [The song] was just perfectly fitting for what it is that we needed for the end of the film, both solemn and sublime and uplifting at the same time. And that’s a special sauce that he really has among so many musicians.
What do you hope people take away after watching this documentary?
Gaines: I really hope that they’re inspired. I wanted the movie to be so much more than Stuart being defined by the last battle of his life. I wanted it to be defined by his perseverance through his life. Prior to the battle with cancer, he had a series of different challenges that he had to overcome. And so when cancer showed up, I don’t think, uh, he or his family or anybody around him felt that this wasn’t a hurdle that he was going to not overcome, just like he did anything else in his life. But what he showed us all was what real grit and perseverance looks like.
What will be Scott’s legacy in sports journalism?
Gaines: His legacy really should be looked at through that lens as somebody who changed media, somebody who changed broadcasts, news, for the better. Because now we take someone’s having that level of personality on screen, we take that for granted, but that just wasn’t something that existed prior to him.
When I first started playing “Dungeons & Dragons” as a tween, my friends christened me with a new good-natured nickname: gamer geek. While we could spend hours in front of a screen with the latest “Zelda” title, the dice-focused tabletop role-playing game was viewed with suspicion, a ’70s-era invention that belonged to a certain subset of nerd.
Times have changed.
Today, “Dungeons & Dragons” enjoys mainstream recognition, and live game sessions from the likes of Critical Role and Dimension 20, the latter of which last summer enjoyed a date at the Hollywood Bowl, have only further cemented its wide appeal. Now a heavily improvised theatrical production, “Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern” has come to the Montalbán Theatre in Hollywood.
The show, which ran off-Broadway in 2024 after years of development, is celebratory, a victory lap for a game that has endured more than half a century. It invites participation, with actors performing the action inspired by the dice rolls and allowing the audience to influence the direction of the show by making choices via a smartphone.
Alex Stompoly, left, and Anjali Bhimani in “Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern,” a production that invites audience participation.
(Andromeda Rodriguez)
“Twenty-Sided Tavern” brought me back to days and nights crowded around my family’s living room table. My father was an executive with TSR, Inc., the company that created “Dungeons & Dragons” — there were glass dragons on our fireplace mantle, pewter dragons on our bookshelves, painted dragons on our walls and even a metal dragon that hung from a necklace I wore too often (and that probably didn’t help me with getting dates). As a junior high kid, the game was a refuge, a creative tool where I could envision characters, worlds and fantastical scenarios.
There was a lot of math, too, and quite a bit of rules, not to mention addendums to rules and fine print to those rules, but I discovered early on a key to its personal appeal, one that likely makes many hardcore followers of the game cringe: Story comes first, the rules a distant second. In fact, I discarded any directive that got in the way of a more fanciful tale.
It pleased me that “Twenty-Sided Tavern” does as well. When my showing the other week began not with beholders and battles but instead a yarn about trying to flirt with and seduce a dragon, I couldn’t help but smile. For the best “D&D” games, no matter how serious, tense or dramatic they may get, are always a bit silly, or at least they are to me.
“I know we hear about toxicity in gaming all the time, but when I picked up my first ‘D&D’ set that my brother gave to me when I was 8 years old, what was open to me was not just a world of storytelling,” says Anjali Bhimani, a co-producer of the production as well as a regular performer in it. “It was a world where a halfling could kill a red dragon, where it didn’t matter where you came from. There was always a seat for you at the table.
Anjali Bhimani in a production of “Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern.” The actor views the game as a storytelling tool.
(Andromeda Rodriguez)
“I think the sense of belonging that tabletop RPGs and ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ can provide is so, so, so powerful, and I think it really is a means to just bring people together in a way that a lot of other media can’t,” she adds.
“Twenty-Sided Tavern” does have some constraints. It is, after all, staged in a theater. But it also throws the traditional rules of theater by the wayside. Expect, for instance, to be on your phone most of the show. We’ll lightly direct the production, voting, for instance, to explore a castle’s catacombs or the mysterious woods. Many will cheer a good dice roll, and it wasn’t out of the norm at my matinee for the audience to shout suggestions or requests. When, for instance, said storyline about romancing a dragon became a bit risqué, a woman kindly reminded the cast that there were children present. It was toned down, but not before an actor made a joke about the show being educational.
“This doesn’t have to be a stuffy, fourth-wall drama,” says Michael Fell, the show’s creative director. “We can create a sense of community. As much as there is a script — there kind of is — we aim to have engagement with the audience every two pages. That means they’re calling out a name, asked to come on stage or it’s just an election on your phone where you make a choice or play a small mini-game. No engagement on the phone ever lasts more than nine seconds.”
In “Twenty-Sided Tavern,” there are three core actors playing and acting out the game, one dungeon master and a sort of tavern keeper helping to keep score and track of the story. There’s a setup at a bar and a quest involving a threat to the town, but each show is unique. The cast may swap roles, the audience may concoct a monster — my group envisioned a giant, destructive slice of pumpkin pie — and settings will shift based on audience vote, done via smartphone.
It’s a little bit like theater as sport.
“This is gamification of live entertainment. Part of what I’m doing is mirroring what happens in sports entertainment, but in a live theatrical setting,” says David Carpenter, the founder of Gamiotics, which co-developed the show and powers the smartphone tech behind it. “This show has surprised me for years, but one of the early surprises was the entire audience losing their mind when someone rolls a 20. It’s like someone scoring a touchdown. The audience goes nuts because they didn’t see it coming.”
Anjali Bhimani, left, Will Champion and Jasmin Malave appear ready for battle in a production of “Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern.”
(Andromeda Rodriguez)
Like the game, “Twenty-Sided Tavern” theorizes that stories can be at their most powerful when they are not passive, when we as audience members have a role to play and invitation to interact.
Carpenter is curious how far the audience choice can be pushed to shift a narrative. He talks in the future of experimenting more with moral or ethical decisions. There are none in “Twenty-Sided Tavern,” where occasionally the audience may influence an action in a way similar to a dice roll. We’ll tap, for instance, to fill up a meter on a screen, and where it lands may indicate a success or a failure. Here, the smartphone gamification is used to prod a narrative rather than define it, a reminder to me that “D&D” is in some ways a story creation tool.
“There are stories that we have told in tabletop games that I have played that I never would have imagined coming up with in the writers’ room because the dice told the story that they did,” says Bhimani.
‘Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern’
The large-scale audience participation of “Twenty-Sided Tavern” naturally invites a jovial, party-like atmosphere. It succeeds in extending a hand to the audience, welcoming us into what can be a complex, daunting fantasy world. It argues that “Dungeons & Dragons” is for all, much as I did as a junior high kid who made it something of a mission to convert my name-calling friends with the hopes of showing them the joys of gathering with little more than paper, pencils, dice and an imagination.
“It’s still somewhat intimidating to a lot of people because they think, ‘I have to know all these rules and learn all these spells and read all these books,’” Bhimani says. “Coming to the ‘Twenty-Sided Tavern,’ it’s about telling a great story. Yes, we roll dice. Yes, there are spells. But ultimately, that’s just scaffolding to tell a beautiful, improvised story.”
I remember when I played weekly games in high school, my friends used to joke that I, as dungeon master, would “lose” because I did everything in my power to keep everyone’s character alive and playing, wanting to see a narrative to a conclusion that didn’t end in anyone’s death. They wondered if I was running the game incorrectly because they always succeeded. Yet I saw “Dungeons & Dragons” as a wholly collaborative endeavor, and I felt that way again watching “Twenty-Sided Tavern,” an ode to the idea that “Dungeons & Dragons” is best when shared.
And a reminder, too, that there is no wrong way to play it.
Simon Cowell’s new Netflix show sees the music mogul go on the hunt for his next big boyband.
Simon Cowell’s latest Netflix series is almost ready to launch, unveiling the genuine story behind one of One Direction’s most memorable tracks.
The legendary music mogul and Britain’s Got Talent supremo returns to television tomorrow, Wednesday, December 10, on the streaming giant.
This fresh venture allows viewers to witness the entire process from its inception, as Simon conducts auditions and brings hopeful band members to America to compete for their spot in the group.
To assist in assembling the new boyband, the 66-year-old recruited some of his most reliable collaborators, including former Pop Idol panellist Peter Waterman and singer-songwriter Kamille.
However, it’s the involvement of songwriter and producer Savan Koetcha that truly captures audiences’ interest, having amassed over 102 billion streams throughout his career.
Songwriter and music producer Savan Koetcha wrote What Makes you Beautiful about his wife(Image: GETTY)
“Simon gave me my first big break as a songwriter”, Savan revealed.
“And so, since then, we’ve worked very closely on a lot of stuff.”
Simon remarked: “And also you gave us the first hit for One Direction, What Makes You Beautiful.”
Revealing the track’s origins, Savan then disclosed: “It was written about my wife. So there you go. True story.”
The truth behind One Direction’s song What Makes You Beautiful has been revealed(Image: YOUTUBE)
Savan has been wed to Anna Gustavsson since 2009, with whom he has two sons, and has previously spoken openly about her serving as the muse for the beloved One Direction anthem.
Two years ago, Savan took to Instagram to share his joy, stating: “I figured I would write a little something in celebration of What makes you beautiful hitting a billion streams on Spotify.”
He expressed his gratitude, saying: “In the past, I may have taken something like this for granted, but I (thankfully) don’t anymore. This song means so much to me for several reasons.”
Savan continued: “My two boys know this song is about their mother. It makes me so emotional to know that they can see/feel/hear millions (now billions) of people listen to a song about how beautiful and wonderful their mom is. I think she’s starting to like it now too.”
Simon Cowell : The Next Act will premiere on Netflix on Wednesday, December 10.
Despite a lack of first-team opportunities at Leicester, Maswanhise benefitted from being moulded by top-level coaching during his long spell at the club.
He played just once, an opportunity afforded to him by now Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca when he came on as a substitute in an FA Cup win over Millwall.
Pre-Maresca, Maswanhise credits part of his development to former Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers, who worked at Leicester between 2019 and 2023.
“Having the experience to work under them was really good,” the Motherwell man tells BBC Scotland. “I’d like to say I’ve learned quite a lot, adapting to two high-level managers.
“When I was with Brendan, it was more about getting used to the environment. Enzo needed a platform – he was really good tactically.”
But how do those two compare with his current boss?
Jens Berthel Askou has received plenty of plaudits for implementing a fearless and vibrant approach to a Motherwell side well worth their current standing of third.
“I’d say he is similar,” Maswanhise says when comparing Askou to Rodgers and Maresca. “The tactics and the system are really helping. It’s clearly paying off right now.
“We’re competing with the top teams in Scotland. If we can keep doing this, maybe we’ll see ourselves on a European tour next season.”
This narration, over an image of three moons hanging in the sky, begins Julia Jackman’s “100 Nights of Hero,” which she adapted from Isabel Greenberg’s 2016 graphic novel and directed. It signifies that we’re in for a level of heightened, self-reflective fantasy storytelling and, in fact, the revolutionary power of storytelling itself is the beating heart of this film.
Jackman takes her own stylistic approach to “100 Nights of Hero” without replicating Greenberg’s aesthetic. You can almost immediately tell this fantastical film has a feminine touch in its colorful, highly stylized look and sound; there’s a certain girlish wit in the vibrant pink hues and the centering of women’s narratives within the mannered compositions. The setting is a secluded, cult-like community that reveres their god, Birdman (Richard E. Grant, in a cameo), and fashions their patriarchal society around the usual tenets: controlling women, producing heirs.
Young bride Cherry (Maika Monroe) is married to Jerome (Amir El-Masry) and though he claims they are trying to have a baby, he is not. Too bad she’s the one who will suffer the consequences of failing to get pregnant. Soon, the hunky Manfred (Nicholas Galitzine) shows up and the two men engage in a cruel bet: Manfred has 100 nights alone in the castle to seduce Cherry while Jerome is away on business. If he fails, he has to find a baby for Jerome, who is uninterested in sex with women. If Manfred succeeds, he gets the castle. But if Cherry strays, she hangs. (It’s a lose-lose situation for the wife, as expected.)
Cherry has one person on her side, Hero (Emma Corrin), her cunning maid, who distracts Manfred from his goal by telling the story of three sisters who engage in the “sinful, wicked and absolutely forbidden” (for women) pleasure of reading and writing. One of the sisters, Rosa (Charli XCX), is married off to a merchant who soon discovers her “witchcraft.”
Every night, Hero tacks on a new chapter of the three sisters, their story interwoven with Cherry and Manfred’s, while we discover that Hero is a part of the League of Secret Storytellers: women who collect tales and weave them into tapestries, their work hiding their true intention while the stories spread from ear to ear.
The issues here are basic and elemental: the trials and tribulations of sex, marriage, fidelity and procreation. Though brides are trapped in castles and men wearing bird masks want to burn the witches, this story is not so out of our time or place. The pressure to “produce an heir” lives on in current pro-natalist arguments and “trad wife” discourse, and the control of women’s bodies — and minds — is required to fulfill the goal of producing more and more babies. This tale doesn’t seem so ancient or fantastical at all.
However, there’s little nuance to the storytelling of “100 Nights of Hero” itself. It feels a bit like feminism for tweens, a young-adult approach to explaining how the liberation of minds is necessary for the liberation of bodies. The film is blunt and obvious to its detriment. Its quirky, opulent aesthetic can only sustain the exercise for so long.
As our interest wanes over the course of this 90-minute modernist fable, Manfred starts to slip away — natural for a folktale that seeks to deprioritize men. Unfortunately, Galitzine’s screen presence is just too powerful to ignore and we notice his absence. Perhaps it’s that Manfred is so swaggeringly confident, Galitzine’s embodiment of fluid sensuality standing in stark contrast to Monroe’s stiff, anxious, breathy performance as Cherry.
The most powerful image of the film, which is made up of interesting images, is of Galitzine covered in blood as he hauls a freshly killed stag home for lunch. If the film is about women discovering their own pleasure and sensuality outside of men, they shouldn’t have made Manfred the most appealing and earthy character on screen.
While “100 Nights of Hero” has compelling actors and beautiful visuals, its storytelling (about the power of storytelling) is unfortunately less than riveting. The urgency of the message is clear but the delivery leaves something to be desired.
‘100 Nights of Hero’
Rated: PG-13, for sexual material, some bloody images and language
More than half of museums reported receiving fewer visitors than in 2019; and nearly one-third noted decreased attendance this year attributed to a drop in travel and tourism as well as the economic uncertainty brought on in part by tariffs, inflation and market instability.
AAM, which represents art and history museums, as well as science centers and zoos, surveyed 511 museum directors to cull its findings, which included a sobering section illustrating the impact of the sweeping federal policies and funding cuts implemented by the Trump administration.
“One-third of museums (34%) have suffered the cancellation of government grants or contracts, most frequently from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Arts,” a synopsis of the report reads. “Only 8% of affected museums report that lost federal funding has been fully replaced by foundations, sponsors, or donors, while 67% report the funding has not been replaced at all.”
After federal funds were lost, 24% of affected museums canceled programming for students, rural communities, the disabled, the elderly and veterans; and 28% reduced programming for the general public. Museums also postponed plans to improve infrastructure or complete new construction.
“The economic impact extends far beyond museum walls, affecting architects, construction firms, engineers, and design professionals who partner with cultural institutions, illustrating just one example of the broader ripple effects throughout local and regional economies,” the synopsis notes.
Museum directors expect the uncertainty of the current moment — which is also affecting philanthropist’s willingness and ability to donate money — to extend through next year. But in reality, the problems could remain unresolved for much longer. Trump has been in office for almost 11 months, with three years to go. During that time chances are nil that funding will be restored to the NEA or NEH, and high tariffs, a cornerstone of Trump’s economic agenda, will continue to inflict financial strain as long as they are in place.
Nonetheless, museums persevere. The report notes, “Over one-third (36%) provide direct educational support such as tutoring, after-school programs, and school supplies. One-fifth (19%) offer workforce development or job training. Museums also provide mental health and wellness resources, digital access and literacy services, civic engagement opportunities, and language access services.”
AAM President and CEO Marilyn Jackson summed up the wish of the organization, writing in a statement, “Museums are doing their part by adapting their business models, engaging with lawmakers, and continuing to serve their communities despite financial headwinds. Now we need policymakers and philanthropists to recognize that investing in museums is investing in education, economic development, and community cohesion.”
I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt seeking sanity somewhere, anywhere. Here’s your arts news for the week.
On our radar
BodyTraffic performs “Coalescence” by Jordyn Santiago.
(BodyTraffic)
‘Check-Mate’ BodyTraffic, the L.A.-based contemporary dance company founded in 2007 by artistic director Tina Finkelman Berkett, showcases four pieces based in storytelling and bold movement: a world premiere by Trey McIntyre for four dancers to the music of Sam Cooke; David Middendorp’s “Flyland,” which uses projection and animation; “Coalescense,” by Jordyn Santiago, which combines contemporary ballet, social dance and movement inspired by house culture to celebrate femininity, queerness, and community; and Cayetano Soto’s “Schachmatt (Check-mate!),” which unfolds on a giant, theatrical chessboard. 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday. The Wallis, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills. thewallis.org — Jessica Gelt
American Cinematheque’s Saturday screening of “Reds” (1981), starring Jack Nicholson, left, Diane Keaton and Warren Beatty, will be part of a tribute to Keaton.
(Paramount Pictures via Getty Images)
‘Reds’ “Big and beautiful, ‘Reds’ isn’t an epic and doesn’t mean to be one,” wrote Times film critic Sheila Benson in her 1981 review. “As shaped by director-producer, co-writer and co-star Warren Beatty, it could be called an intimate epic, history as it was hammered out and argued by some of the most influential minds of the day. … It is also the difficult love story of two strong-willed free spirits, [American journalists John] Reed and Louise Bryant (Diane Keaton),” set against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution. The 35 mm screening is part of the American Cinematheque’s tribute to Keaton, who died Oct. 11. 2 p.m. Saturday. Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd. americancinematheque.com
The Broadway production of “Stereophonic.” The play has its L.A. premiere Tuesday and runs through Jan. 2.
(Valerie Terranova)
‘Stereophonic’ David Adjmi’s Tony-winning blockbuster drama, ablaze with original music by Will Butler, formerly of Arcade Fire, invites us to eavesdrop on the roller-coaster recording sessions of a 1970s British and American rock group on the cusp of super-stardom. Art isn’t easy, as Sondheim told us. But romantic conflicts, inflamed by drugs and alcohol, only add to the creative combustion of a band chasing immortality. Daniel Aukin’s production, with its unerring ear for realism, immerses audiences in the glory and madness of rock ’n’ roll. The play’s L.A. premiere is one of the unmissable theatrical events of the year. Tuesday through Jan. 2. Hollywood Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd. broadwayinhollywood.com — Charles McNulty
You’re reading Essential Arts
The week ahead: A curated calendar
FRIDAY ‘Bob’s Holiday Office Party’ “Insurance claims roasting on an open fire, beer cans nipping at your nose. … It can only mean one thing: The hilariously deranged populace of Neuterberg, Iowa, is reveling once again,” wrote Times contributor Philip Brandes in 2000. And 25 years later they’re still at it in co-creators and co-stars Rob Elk and Joe Keyes’ irreverent farce about an insurance agent with big dreams and some crazy friends and neighbors. Friday through Dec. 21. The Odyssey Ensemble Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., L.A. https://bobsofficeparty.com/
‘DakhaBrakha’ The Ukrainian world music quartet delivers its trademark “ethno-chaos” combining ancient music traditions with cross-cultural influences. 7:30 p.m. Sunday. The Wallis, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills. thewallis.org
‘Fancy Nancy: Splendiferous Christmas’ The family-friendly musical based is an adaptation of the popular children’s picture books series written by Jane O’Connor and illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser. Through Dec. 21. Chance Theater, 5522 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim. chancetheater.com
The L.A. Phil will perform the score for the 35th-anniversary screening of “Home Alone” (1990), which stars Macaulay Culkin, left, and Joe Pesci.
(TNS)
‘Home Alone’ in Concert David Newman conducts the L.A. Phil as it performs John Williams’ score for this 35th-anniversary screening of the holiday classic. 8 p.m. Friday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com
‘Mrs. Christmas’ A musical play by Tom Jacobson finds a woman dealing with the legacy of her mother’s holiday traditions through songs and over-the-top storytelling. Directed by Karole Foreman. 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through Dec. 21, additional performance, 7 p.m. Dec. 15. Aurora Theatre, 4412 E. Village Road, Long Beach. theauroratheater.com
‘Twas the Night Before Groundlings The improv troupe’s annual holiday show directed by Ben Falcone and Lisa Schurga gets a three-weekend run. 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, through Dec. 20. Groundlings Theatre, 7307 Melrose Ave. groundlings.com
Esperanza América in the holiday pageant “La Virgen de Guadalupe, Dios Inantzin.”
(Grettel Cortes Photography)
‘La Virgen de Guadalupe, Dios Inantzin’ This free holiday pageant from the Latino Theater Company was adapted for stage by Evelina Fernández from the mid-16th century text “The Nican Mopohua” and directed by José Luis Valenzuela. Esperanza América and Sal Lopez lead a cast featuring more than 100 actors, singers, musicians and Indigenous Aztec dancers, as well as children and seniors from the community. 7 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, 555 W. Temple St., downtown L.A. latinotheaterco.org
SATURDAY Carols by Candlelight The Pacific Chorale’s chamber singers perform classic and contemporary holiday music. 8 p.m. Saturday-Tuesday. Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic Church, 2100 Mar Vista Drive, Newport Beach. pacificchorale.org
‘Esther Perel Ruined My Life’ Inspired by a celebrity sex and intimacy expert, a struggling couple attempt to reignite their passion by opening up their marriage in this workshop production of playwright Mathilde Dratwa’s dramedy. Directed by Jeremy B. Cohen. Through Dec. 15. Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave. adam-shapiro-ewlk.squarespace.com
‘A Snow White Christmas’ This Lythgoe Family holiday panto mashes up the beloved Brothers Grimm fairy tale with contemporary music, including Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars. Through Dec. 28. Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. lagunaplayhouse.com
‘Murmurs in Time’ Third Coast Percussion and tabla virtuoso Salar Nader perform this tribute to celebrated Indian musician and composer Zakir Hussain, who died in December 2024. 8 p.m. UCLA Nimoy Theater, 1262 Westwood Blvd. cap.ucla.edu
Colburn Orchestra Kevin John Edusei conducts “Schelomo,” Ernest Bloch’s Rhapsodie Hébraïque for cello and orchestra, with soloist Sieun Park; and Czech composer Bedřich Smetana’s tribute to his homeland, “Má Vlast (My Country),” featuring “The Moldau.” 7:30 p.m. The Wallis, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills. thewallis.org
SUNDAY Christmas With the Drifters The current lineup of the iconic vocal group performs their hits, including “Under the Boardwalk,” “This Magic Moment” and “Stand by Me,” as well as classic holiday tunes. 3 p.m. La Mirada Theatre 14900 La Mirada Blvd. lamiradatheatre.com
THURSDAY Paul Pfeiffer The sculptor, photographer and video artist explores Corita Art Center’s extensive collection of over 15,000 35mm slides as part of the Corita’s lecture, programming and exhibition series. 7 p.m. Marciano Art Foundation, 4357 Wilshire Blvd. marcianoartfoundation.org
Max Pitegoff and Calla Henkel of New Theater Hollywood.
(Etienne Laurent / For The Times)
‘The End Is New’ A film editor works to complete the unfinished documentary of a recently deceased filmmaker revealing unexpected narratives in a new play by Calla Henkel and Max Pitegoff, founders of New Theater Hollywood. Henkel and Pitegoff will appear Friday for a post-show Q&A, moderated by REDCAT’s Katy Dammers. 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday. REDCAT, 631 W. 2nd St., downtown L.A. redcat.org
Culture news and the SoCal scene
Hollywood sign Ed Ruscha, 1968,
(Museum Associates / LACMA)
Signing off In his farewell column, Times art critic Christopher Knight pens a lovely, insightful and informative piece about how Los Angeles became an art capital during the 36 years that he worked at the paper (plus the nine years prior to that he spent at the Herald Examiner). He credits the transformation to three things: world-class young artists who stayed in the city after graduating its many art schools; global media attention that came with the arrival of the Getty in 1982; and an infrastructure boom that began with the public debut of MOCA the following year. “Looking back, the transformation of the cultural life of Los Angeles during my journalism career has been extraordinary. When I started out, the size of the balkanized art community was small. Now it’s big. Or very big. A few signs of contraction have been glimpsed — a gallery closure here, a market slide there — but it won’t ever be small again,” Knight writes. (We already miss you, Christopher! Come back!)
Tech mogul chips in on hit S.F. opera Times classical music critic Mark Swed declares Huang Ruo’s “The Monkey King” to be “potentially the most important new opera of the year.” In a review of the final performance of the San Francisco Opera hit, Swed writes that the show “operates at the intersections of pop art and high-ish art, of the sacred and profane, of radicalism and die-hardism.” David Henry Hwang wrote the libretto, which is based on the late Ming Dynasty Chinese classic, “Journey to the West.” The production was funded in part by a $5-million gift from Jensen Huang, the founder and CEO of Nvidia.
Bohemian rhapsody For its 40th season, L.A. Opera has once again revived its oft-produced mainstay, “La Bohème.” The company has performed a number of creative iterations of the beloved classic over the decades, but this year it has returned to its most successful production: the one by Hollywood director Herbert Ross. “The latest revival of the Ross production, which I saw at its second performance Sunday afternoon, runs through Dec. 14,” Swed writes. “Well cast and still able to set off a spark or two on stage, it is not likely to disappoint a holiday crowd.”
Star light, star bright Sixty-five years after making her Broadway debut in the Ethel Merman-led production of “Gypsy,” June Squibb, 96, is starring in her first leading role on Broadway in Jordan Harrison’s “Marjorie Prime.” In a delightful profile, Times theater critic Charles McNulty, sits down for a chat with Squibb at the kitchen table of the Upper West Side apartment where she’s staying during the run of the show.
Enjoying this newsletter? Consider subscribing to the Los Angeles Times
He was the real thing One of the greats is gone. Larger than life British playwright Tom Stoppard — who penned “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” and “Leopoldstadt,” among many others — died late last week. He was 88. In a heartfelt appreciation, McNulty calls Stoppard the “true 20th century heir to Oscar Wilde” and describes him thus: “Few people were more agnostically alive than Stoppard, who loved the finer things in life and handsomely earned them with his inexhaustible wit. A man of consummate urbanity who lived like a country squire, he was a sportsman (cricket was his game) and a connoisseur of ideas, which he treated with a cricketer’s agility and vigor.”
Essential Arts editor Kevin Crust contributed a piece listing Stoppard’s nine essential plays — in case you need a refresher course, or would like to pick up a hard copy of one to read. The story also lists a number of films the playwright wrote or co-wrote.
The Soraya salutes outgoing leader The Soraya announced that it is honoring its departing Executive and Artistic Director Thor Steingraber, with a new initiatiive called the Thor Steingraber Fund for Artistic Innovation. The fund, created with financial support from the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Family Foundation and Milt and Debbie Valera, “will underwrite high-quality, original public performances that exemplify The Soraya’s artistic leadership and profile, preserving and perpetuating its commitment to new works, commissions, premieres, and major programs in scale or scope,” according to a news release.
Everything is a matter of taste, and most people know what they like. If you are not already aboard the “Spartacus” express, of which “Spartacus: House of Ashur” is the fifth installment and the first since 2013, you should know in short order whether its mix of soft porn, graphic violence and scrabbling for power is your goblet of wine.
In this reboot, piloted again by Steven S. DeKnight and premiering Friday on Starz, Ashur (Nick E. Tarabay), who was a bad guy in the previous series, killed by Spartacus on Mount Vesuvius, finds himself in the underworld, facing Lucy Lawless, returning for a cameo as Lucretia, who recaps the story and sends him back to Earth in a timeline where he killed Spartacus instead — no reason given, or how it’s being managed. And, presto, Ashur wakes up in bed with “body slaves” Hilara (Jamaica Vaughan) and Messia (Ivana Baquero) as the boss of the ludus — a school for gladiators — where he once was employed by Lucretia’s husband. (And not a very pleasant boss, either.)
All that business with Spartacus and his slave rebellion is done. There is some political backdrop to the show, with Pompey and Crassus going at each other offscreen and an amusingly narcissistic Julius Caesar (Jackson Gallagher) dropping in to draw attention to himself. But at least for the five episodes, out of 10, available to review, “House of Ashur” is mostly a sort of show business story, as Ashur attempts to get his troupe into the big time while banking on an untested newcomer. Call it “Gold Diggers of 71 BC.” With sex and blood.
The newcomer is Achillia (Tenika Davis), a newly enslaved Nubian Ashur finds down at the docks taking apart her guards. (In her lust for freedom, she’s the Spartacus of this “Spartacus.”) But the boys at the ludus, whose ranks notably include decent guy Celadus (Dan Hamill) and his hotheaded son Tarchon (Jordi Webber), are not keen to admit a woman to their ranks and are doubly peeved that Ashur is skipping her into a headlining role. For her part, she’s got a lot a lot of learning to do; trainer Korris (Graham McTavish), the person here you’d most want on your side, may be of help. Ashur doesn’t actually tell her, “You’re going out a youngster but you’ve got to come back a star,” as Warner Baxter said to Ruby Keeler, but the idea is roughly the same.
Ashur’s juggling for a spot on the bill at the big arena brings him into contact with the hoi polloi of Capua, the town where the story takes place; they generally regard him as something to avoid stepping in. (That he’s an ex-slave and a Syrian, whom people call “the Syrian,” doesn’t help.) This gang includes rival Proculus (Simon Arblaster) and his trio of deadly little people, Senator Gabinius (Andrew McFarlane); Real Housewife of Capua, Cossutia (Claudia Black); and their lovely young daughter Viridia (India Shaw-Smith), who has been holed up at home since the death of her husband in the Spartacus wars.
The dialogue appears crafted to set a world record for profanity; practically the only adjective these people use begins with “F.” At the same time, there is a sort of Shakespearean lilt to much of of it; many lines, in my random examination, resolve into iambic pentameter. Most notably, there’s an attempt to mirror Latin grammar by omitting articles and possessive pronouns: “We stray from point.” “What do eyes behold?” It’s a cute but nonsensical idea that just makes the characters come off as comical; there are no articles in Russian either, but we add them when we translate Chekhov, or else Vanya and Yelena would sound like Boris and Natasha. (The original “Spartacus: Blood and Sand” didn’t bother with this device, though it did have characters saying “gratitude” for thanks and “apologies” for sorry.)
The series takes its melodrama seriously, with evident dedication to its staging its complicated fight scenes, of which there are many, and its investment in sets and costumes and effects; the fake blood budget alone must be staggering. (The domestic architecture accords with the Life in Ancient Rome videos I’ve been known to watch, minus the wall paintings, which would, of course, cost more money, and distract the eye from the orgies.) And yet so extreme is it in its violence, and so resolute in its naughtiness, that I also find the series kind of hilarious. It possibly doesn’t help that whenever I hear the name Spartacus I think of Tom Everett Scott declaring “I am Sparta-coos” in “That Thing You Do,” and sometimes of Magnus Scheving as Sportacus, the athletic superhero of the 2004 kids show “LazyTown.” But that’s on me.
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
In an apparent first since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a Russian MiG-29 Fulcrum fighter has been destroyed, according to Ukraine. Interestingly, there has been little to no evidence that Russia has been using any of its MiG-29s in the conflict in Ukraine, and this latest incident does little to clear up that point. What we can say with confidence is that the target of the drone strike looksexactlylike one of the relatively advanced carrier-based versions of the jet, but it may have been a non-operational example, or possibly even an elaborate decoy.
❗️On December 4, 2025, at the Kacha military airfield in occupied Crimea, operators of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine’s special unit “Prymary” successfully struck and destroyed a russian MiG-29 multirole fighter. pic.twitter.com/k2Cgsm9k0f
— Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (@DI_Ukraine) December 4, 2025
According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR), in a post on Telegram, the strike was carried out on the night of December 4 by the “Ghost” special forces unit, using long-range drones of undisclosed type. Based on the video footage, they could well be the same fiber-optic types that have been launched from Ukrainian drone boats.
As well as the MiG-29, an Irtysh surveillance radar was also hit, the agency said. The MiG-29 was at the airfield of Kacha, just outside the port city of Sevastopol, in Russian-occupied Crimea, while the radar was struck near Simferopol, also in Crimea. A video published by the GUR shows both targets being attacked.
“GUR special forces continue to systematically weaken Moscow’s air defense system over the temporarily occupied peninsula, destroying radars, anti-aircraft systems, and now also fighter aircraft of the Russian Armed Forces,” the GUR said.
The Fulcrum in question appears to be a Russian Navy MiG-29KR or MiG-29KUBR. Since both these jets, which are single-seaters and two-seaters, respectively, have the same cockpit canopy, it is very hard to distinguish between them in the available imagery. The single-seater has an additional fuel tank in place of the back-seater’s cockpit.
A Russian MiG-29KR aboard the Admiral Kuznetsov. YouTube screencap
Satellite imagery of Kacha over recent months also reveals at least one dark-gray-painted Fulcrum, which would also conform with it being a MiG-29KR or MiG-29KUB, or a mockup thereof. Puzzlingly, the MiG in question appears to have come and gone from the base at different periods. We have looked at satellite imagery over much of the last year, and it seems to have been present intermittently over the summer at the facility.
This parking spot at the Kacha airfield is sometimes occupied and sometimes not in historical satellite imagery. The most recent available high-resolution @planet image with the spot occupied (Sept. 23) shows what indeed appears to be a MiG-29 (17 m length). pic.twitter.com/oihXrAwmJ2
The Russian Navy’s MiG-29KR and MiG-29KUBR are superficially similar to the original MiG-29 but use an all-new airframe. Compared to the basic MiG-29, they feature a new digital fly-by-wire control system, plus upgraded engines, avionics, and weapon systems. The jets have a larger wing with double-slotted flaps, leading-edge vortex controllers (LEVCONs), an arrester hook, and other features that allow them to operate from the Russian Navy’s sole aircraft carrier, Admiral Kuznetsov. The aircraft has also been exported to India.
In 2012, Russia ordered 20 MiG-29KR and four MiG-29KUBR fighters, and the first example took to the air in 2013. The fighters are normally land-based at Severomorsk, alongside Su-33 Flankers, which are also carrier-capable, but far less advanced than the MiGs.
As we have detailed in the past, the Admiral Kuznetsovhas not been to sea for years, and the prospects of it doing so again are increasingly slim. As a result, it’s somewhat puzzling that we haven’t seen them being employed by Russia in a land-based role during the war in Ukraine, although there are at least unconfirmed claims that they’ve been utilized in some capacity.
MiG-29KR seen during a somewhat recent Norwegian patrol/intercept. As I have noted before, a bit puzzled they have not taken part in Ukraine. They are relatively advanced fighters with absolutely no carrier to train or deploy on. With so much of Russia’s tactical air arm rotating… https://t.co/2rgN2wYfHypic.twitter.com/p0BRzl7Wle
The MiG-29KUB/KUBR brings a true multirole capability that was absent from early-generation Fulcrums.
It can carry up to 9,920 pounds of weapons and stores on nine hardpoints (eight under the wing and one under the fuselage). Air-to-air weapons include up to six medium-range R-77 (AA-12 Adder) air-to-air missiles with active radar guidance, or up to six short-range R-73 (AA-11 Archer) air-to-air missiles with infrared guidance.
Air-to-surface options include four subsonic Kh-35 (AS-20 Kayak) or supersonic Kh-31A (AS-17 Krypton) anti-ship missiles, or four KAB-500Kr TV-guided bombs. The aircraft also has a single 30mm cannon in the port leading-edge root extension.
An Indian Navy MiG-29K with inert (from top to bottom) R-73, R-77, and Kh-35 missiles. Photo by ARUN SANKAR/AFP via Getty Images ARUN SANKAR
As such, the MiG-29KUB/KUBR is one of the most capable tactical fighters in the Russian inventory, albeit limited by its relatively small numbers.
Ever since first annexing Crimea in 2014, Russia has thoroughly militarized the peninsula, using it as a base for regular missile and drone attacks against Ukraine, operations in the Black Sea, as well as land operations into southern Ukraine. However, the peninsula has come under repeated missile and drone attacks by Ukraine.
Oddly, however, the MiG-29 in the video was parked on a helicopter landing pad, and the base itself has never hosted regular fighter jet operations. Previously, only helicopters and flying boats operated there. Indeed, two Be-12 Mail flying boats were targeted in another drone strike at Kacha, as you can read about here.
For the first time in history 🔥 The warriors from the @DI_Ukraine destroyed two russian Be-12 Chayka amphibious aircraft. Be-12s amphibious aircraft are equipped with expensive equipment for detecting and combating submarines. This is the first ever strike on a Be-12. The… pic.twitter.com/s8MskN8ZAo
Stefan Büttner, an expert in Russian airbase infrastructure, told TWZ that he has had doubts about MiG-29s regularly operating from the base ever since the first satellite imagery emerged. To his knowledge, no official or unofficial photos have ever been shown depicting fighter operations there, and there are hardly any large areas of concrete to support such operations. It’s also worth noting that other airbases in Crimea (and elsewhere) that host tactical jets used in the conflict, two of which are located very close by, have received hardened aircraft shelters to protect them.
One explanation put forward by Büttner is that this aircraft was a decoy, placed on the base to tempt Ukrainian strikes and protect other assets using the facility. This could imply a MiG-29KUB/KUBR withdrawn from service, likely after a mishap that was too costly or complex to repair. It could also be a fabricated decoy intended to resemble this more advanced version of the jet. Still, the drone footage posted indicates if it were a custom-built decoy, it would be extremely high-fidelity in nature, with even the lower parts of the jet matching perfectly with a real MiG-29KR.
A satellite image from June 10, 2025, and shared with TWZ by Büttner, also shows a MiG-29 at Kacha, but no sign of any jet deflectors or traces in the grass from the thrust of the engines, raising questions about the jet’s activity. Even if it were a real flyable aircraft, why would just one be deployed sporadically at a base with no tactical aviation support when two other bases that host fighter and attack aircraft contingents sit close by?
As it stands, there are significant doubts about whether this Fulcrum, or any more like it, was being used in an operational context in the Ukrainian conflict. While the aircraft would certainly be of value to the Russian campaign there, we will have to wait for more evidence to confirm whether they have actually flown from Kacha, an airfield that is far from suitable for their use.
NEW YORK — The New York Times filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Pentagon, attempting to overturn new rules imposed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that have led to most mainstream media outlets being banished from the building.
The newspaper said the rules violate the Constitution’s freedom of speech and due process provisions, since they give Hegseth the power to determine on his own whether a reporter should be banned. Outlets such as the Times walked out of the Pentagon rather than agree to the rules as a condition for getting a press credential.
The Pentagon press room now includes mostly conservative outlets that agreed to the rules, and representatives from those organizations participated Tuesday in a briefing with Hegseth’s press secretary.
“The policy is an attempt to exert control over reporting the government dislikes,” said Charles Stadtlander, spokesman for the Times. The newspaper filed the case with the U.S. District Court in Washington.
The Pentagon had no immediate response to a request for comment on lawsuit.
Many still reporting on Pentagon from afar
Despite losing credentials, outlets denied access to the Pentagon have continued reporting on the military. They have led coverage this past week on stories that questioned Hegseth’s role in military strikes on boats with alleged drug smugglers, including one targeted with a second strike after survivors were spotted.
Nevertheless, the Times said denial of access to the Pentagon restricts its reporters’ ability to do their job. Because the new policy gives Hegseth the right to oust reporters working on stories he does not like, even if those stories do not involve classified information, it has a chilling effect on journalists, the newspaper argued in court papers. Lawyers are also concerned similar restrictions will be put in place at other federal agencies.
The Pentagon has argued that the policy imposes “common sense” rules that protect the military from release of information that could put them in danger. During her briefing Tuesday, Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said the legacy media outlets are not missed.
“The American people don’t trust these propagandists because they stopped telling the truth,” Wilson said. “So, we’re not going to beg these old gatekeepers to come back and we’re not rebuilding a broken model just to appease them.”
Outlets that reach millions barred
Several news outlets whose coverage reaches millions of people, including The Associated Press, Washington Post and CNN, asked the Pentagon for access to Wilson’s briefing. They were denied and told it was for credentialed press only.
The Times is citing Wilson’s “propagandists” comment as evidence that the Pentagon is discriminating against reporters for their points of view. That is the same argument that the AP is making to stop President Trump from denying access to its journalists to events in the Oval Office and Air Force One. The AP case is currently wending its way through the federal court system.
Times lawyers say they believe their viewpoint discrimination case is stronger because Times reporters no longer have credentials to enter the Pentagon. AP journalists are able to enter the White House, but not to some specific newsmaking events there.
The Times’ case is being filed on behalf of the newspaper and one of its reporters, Julian E. Barnes. The Defense Department, Hegseth and chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell are named as defendants.
In a statement, the Pentagon Press Association, a group that represents journalists who cover the agency, said it was encouraged by the Times’ “effort to step up and defend press freedom. The Defense Department’s attempt to limit how credentialed reporters gather the news and what information they may publish is antithetical to a free and independent press and prohibited by the First Amendment.”
While going it alone in its lawsuit in order to move quickly, the Times said it would welcome the support of other news organizations.
Every year, hundreds of people gather in downtown L.A.’s cathedral for the Latino Theater Company’s annual holiday pageant, “La Virgen de Guadalupe, Dios Inantzin.”
The nonprofit theater company has put on its rendition of La Virgen de Guadalupe and Juan Diego’s story every December since the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels opened in 2002. Over the last two decades, the free performance has become one of the city’s biggest holiday events.
Founded in 1985, the Latino Theater Company is dedicated to portraying the Latino experience onstage year-round. The organization hosts around seven plays annually, but the holiday show is the only one it performs entirely in Spanish.
“For us, it’s a gift to the city. Spanish-speaking audiences don’t get much. So, during the holidays, it’s so important,” says Latino Theater Company Artistic Director José Luis Valenzuela. “People come every year, with their grandparents and their children. But, this year feels special.”
In light of the ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and the amount of fear in L.A.’s Latino communities, Valenzuela, who directs the pageant every year, says now is the time when “we need to be together as a community.”
The Latino Theater Company will have its annual holiday performance, “La Virgen de Guadalupe, Dios Inantzin,” Friday and Saturday at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.
(Photo from Latino Theater Company)
Written by actor and playwright Evelina Fernández, the show is adapted directly from the mid-16th century text the “Nican Mopohua.” It tells the story of Juan Diego, a peasant of Chichimeca descent who was visited several times by the Virgin Mary. In 2002, he was canonized by Pope John Paul II, becoming the first Catholic saint from the Americas.
Over 100 actors, singers, Aztec dancers and local community members will take the stage to perform the miraculous tale through song and dance. De Los caught up with Valenzuela ahead the holiday show, taking place this Friday and Saturday. The event is free and open to the public.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
There are only a few days until the performances. How are these final rehearsals feeling?
It’s a complicated show, because there are so many people. We have the children, the principals [lead actors], and the choir all rehearsing separately. This is the week when they all come together, and we have to work on coordinating all the sound, the lights, the blocking — everything.
This is all in the beauty of doing theater, though. It all has to be perfect. There are a lot of things that go into the final product, and right now, it’s a lot of moving parts.
You’ve been directing this same pageant for over 20 years. Will there be any new elements this year?
There will be a new song and some bigger dances. We have 30 children [in the play], which is the most we have ever had. They have a little song and dance. We usually have the choir sing it with them, because there weren’t enough children to be able to hear them. But this year, they’re going to do it without the help of the choir. I know it’ll be magical because it’s not only in Spanish, but there’s some Nahuatl in there.
But overall, we need to be together as a community. We’ve been so aggressively attacked and targeted [by recent ICE raids]. We’ve been reminded of who we are and have been told what our place in this society is. This year, the pageant is going to be more meaningful.
Even in my own theater, we brought in 80,000 people last year. This year, we lost 10,000 people because of the fear of gathering and being outside. It’s horrifying for the community to feel that way. What this production does is solidify the idea that we can come together and that we have dreams and desires.
The Latino Theater Company will have its annual holiday performance, “La Virgen de Guadalupe, Dios Inantzin,” this Friday and Saturday at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.
(Photo from Latino Theater Company)
Are you worried that the turnout might not be as big due to the ongoing ICE raids?
I hope that it’s going to be bigger. People know what this is, and they need to be in community. We need to be able to sing together, and see our culture with pride, with humanity, with love and with talent. We are not criminals.
Beyond the professional actors and dancers, this performance includes a bunch of local community members. What do you notice about those who volunteer to be in the show?
They renew their idea of faith, not only their faith in La Virgen, but faith in themselves, in their dignity and their own culture. That’s why they do it. I have people who have done it for all 20 years. We need to see ourselves in this production to see how beautiful and talented we are. We need to see how much the community wants to be together.
Thinking about the story of Juan Diego and La Virgen, why do you think it’s important to revisit it annually?
It’s all about understanding that through perseverance and courage, Juan Diego was able to succeed because he created the miracle. He persisted and never gave up. As I direct the show every year, I learn something new. There are some years, I focus on the doubts Juan Diego had, or his courage or his humility. But as we all change from year to year, there’s always something new to understand from it.
What have you learned from the story this year?
This year, I’ve noticed a need for compassion. The society that we live in right now is so hard. It’s all about blame and hate. But Juan Diego’s story can provide comfort and joy. There’s this idea that he was somehow understood and came out victorious by creating a great miracle.
Is there anything you hope people take away from this community performance?
I want people to understand that our history is amazing. It has been a history of struggle, but we go through our struggles with joy — we sing. That’s the beauty that I want people to walk away with.
It’s hard to discern a unifying theme in the best film scores of 2025. This year’s cinema certainly favored the bold and audaciously musical, in the literal sense — from the devilish fantasia of “Sinners,” composed by Ludwig Göransson, to the heavenly devotion of “The Testament of Ann Lee,” with score and songs by Daniel Blumberg.
Jonny Greenwood returned, roaring, with his music for swarming strings and neurotic piano in “One Battle After Another.” Also swarming: Jerskin Fendrix’s bee-inspired soundtrack for “Bugonia.” Boldest yet, perhaps, was “Tron: Ares” — as a neon thrill ride that doubled as a music video for one of the most kick-ass, ’80s-coded Nine Inch Nails soundtracks.
But gentle, impressionistic scores also cut through the blaring fog. Among the standouts were Nala Sinephro’s music for “The Smashing Machine” — a jazzy watercolor painting that revealed the soft interior of a hulking mixed martial arts fighter — and Bryce Dessner’s dreamy landscape for “Train Dreams.”
“The minimalism and the restraint of the film is reflected in the musical palette,” explains Dessner, working with the director-writer duo Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar for the fourth time. Their most recent collaboration was “Sing Sing” — they’re drawn to stories about men with tender hearts — and the pair so trusted Dessner, an American composer who is also a member of the band the National, that he was able to start writing before they even completed the film.
The score is a tone poem for cascading piano, string quartet and sighing clarinet lines. Dessner says he thought of himself as a landscape painter, conveying not only the American West in the early 1900s and the passing of time but also the inner landscape of taciturn, sensitive lumberjack Robert Grainier (Joel Edgerton) and his relationship with his wife, Gladys (Felicity Jones).
“The American landscape is full of all this beauty and wonder and also terrible history — it’s soaked in blood, literally,” says Dessner, who played many of the instruments heard in the score, largely recorded in an old studio in Portland, Ore. “The music inhabits a poetic space in the film.”
Stitching together the bombastic and the beautiful is Alexandre Desplat’s score for “Frankenstein.” This was his third film with Guillermo del Toro — he won an Oscar for “The Shape of Water” — and Desplat sees it as the “third movement of the triptych of this operatic story of creatures.”
Wanting to accentuate the ironic delicacy of the brawny colossus (Jacob Elordi), created from spare body parts and brought to life by a doctor (Oscar Isaac) driven mad by grief and trauma, Desplat wrote lots of music for solo violin, played with a pure tone by Norway’s Eldbjørg Hemsing.
“I wasn’t sure at the start if it would be right, but it became the voice of the creature,” the French composer says. “So this tiny, beautiful, fragile, extremely expensive instrument — when you pick up a violin, it weighs nothing, and yet it creates the most pure and beautiful sound. It doesn’t sound like, you know, the big boots of the creature walking, but something very haunting and deep and heartfelt. Because the creature needs to be loved by the audience, and we need to share the fragility of this creature and its need of love and being loved.”
It doesn’t get much more delicate than breath, which was one of the animating ideas for Hildur Guðnadóttir’s score for “Hedda.” The never-conventional Icelandic composer drew on the connection between breath and inspiration for this modern telling of the Henrik Ibsen play, about a bored housewife (Tessa Thompson) who spends an all-night party scheming and manipulating her guests.
Accompanying Hedda throughout is a choir of scooping notes, which by the film’s chaotic finale crescendo into a slightly horrific melee of wild vocals.
“I was not looking for people to be singing in any perfect way,” Guðnadóttir explains. “I was really just asking people to be who they were, and somehow out of the breath we started vocalizing and doing experiments with how everyone sang and where we sounded good together.”
Her choir was actually the film’s cast and crew, and they recorded on the part of the set where a giant chandelier plays an important role.
Other parts of the score feature jazz percussion and trumpets befitting 1950s England, where the story takes place. Guðnadóttir wrote a wistful, melancholic theme for Hedda that is often played by solo trumpet, and which she turned into an end credits song with lyrics by director Nia DaCosta. (Similarly, Dessner co-wrote a song for the “Train Dreams” credits with Nick Cave, who sang it.)
Still, what moviegoers sometimes crave most is an old-fashioned, crowd-pleasing anthem. That’s where Hans Zimmer and “F1” come hurtling in: His score for the summer race-car movie starring Brad Pitt is a pulsing electronica joy ride — a dance track for humans traveling at inhuman speed.
“It sort of let me go back and be a crazy boy and use a lot of synthesizers,” says Zimmer, who started his career as a synth programmer and who previously scored the racing movies “Days of Thunder” (1990) and “Rush” (2013).
“This is not a complicated score,” Zimmer says, “and at the same time, it is a complicated score because of the amount of notes I got rid of, the amount of complications I got rid of. I’m German; it’s easy for us to write incredibly pretentious, you know, with a lot of Sturm und Drang and meaning and all that stuff. It’s hard for us to say: We’re just going to go and give the audience a fun time.”
