story

We’re in something like award season no man’s land right now: the whirlwind of the Oscar nominees luncheon is behind us, but most of the major precursors have yet to be handed out. Which leaves less for the pundits to chew on, perhaps, though it also means there’s finally some spare time to catch up on your reading.

I’m Matt Brennan, editor in chief of The Envelope. Let me be of some assistance.

Cover story: ‘Sentimental Value’

(Christina House / For The Times)

After an entire award season’s worth of conversations about one of the top contenders, it’s rare to hear a new one this late in the game. But when I ran in “Sentimental Value” director Joachim Trier last week, he happily shared his point of view on an anecdote his editor, Olivier Bugge Coutté, recently shared with The Envelope about killing one of Trier’s darlings. “He was right,” Trier admitted with a half-rueful smile, after describing the elaborate aerial shot over a theater audience with which he originally intended to open the film.

Such candor is also a mark of contributor Bob Strauss’ interview with Trier and star Stellan Skarsgård about making the year’s most-nominated international feature, from their discussion of the stroke that permanently altered the actor’s process to bon mots about the film’s depiction of Netflix, demanding directors and more. I was most tickled by Skarsgård’s, um, unvarnished description of the small screen: “The narrative form of television is based on you not watching,” he tells Strauss. “It explains everything through dialogue so you can make pancakes at the same time.”

Digital cover: Kate Hudson

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

When contributor Amy Amatangelo sent me her pitch for a story on “Song Sung Blue,” it swiftly answered the question I want every pitch to answer: Why are you the right person to write this story?

“I am a lifelong Neil Diamond fan,” she wrote. “My dad loved him. I saw him in concert as a child. My dad and I danced to ‘Beautiful Noise’ at my wedding.”

So it was a no-brainer to set her up with this week’s digital cover star, nominated for playing one half of the film’s Neil Diamond tribute band. “Although she’s had a slew of successes in the interim,” Amatangelo writes of the 25 years since “Almost Famous,” “it can sometimes seem that we’ve underappreciated, and perhaps underestimated, Kate Hudson.”

‘Train Dreams’’ not-so-secret weapon

(Lauren Fleishman/For The Times)

Speaking of pitches, the most frequently suggested subject for coverage since the Oscar nominations (not-named-Chalamet-or-DiCaprio division) may be “Train Dreams” cinematographer Adolpho Veloso. Which already made the Brazilian’s wizardry one of the industry’s worst-kept secrets. Count contributor Emily Zemler’s profile among the final nails in the coffin.

“Capturing the enormous trees that would have existed in the early 20th century was a challenge,” she writes of the film, which spans the life of an itinerant logger in the Pacific Northwest. “The production went to protected parks, where they had to be cautious about not affecting the environment. ‘How do you shoot a movie where they’re supposed to be cutting those trees, but they cannot even get close to those trees?’ Veloso says. ‘It was almost like shooting stunts.’”

More stories from our Feb. 19 issue

This article contains spoilers from the Season 3 finale of “Tell Me Lies.”

“Tell Me Lies” ended with the hard truth.

Based on the book by Carola Lovering, the Hulu series centers on the toxic and manipulative on-again, off-again relationship between college students Lucy Albright and Stephen DeMarco — portrayed by real-life couple Grace Van Patten and Jackson White — whose distressing bond causes a ripple effect of chaos and turmoil for their friend group that stretches across eight years.

It all culminated in Tuesday’s Season 3 finale, which brought explosive revelations, the return of old habits and final fractures to the friend group. But what about its central pair?

Across the show’s two timelines, Stephen’s admission to Yale Law School was revoked and his engagement blew up — but is that enough retribution for the most-hated fictional millennial man with a buzz cut after all the emotional and mental abuse he inflicted? Meanwhile, Lucy’s life is upended when she is expelled from school; but years later, and not without making another questionable choice, she is finally free from his torment. For good. Hours before the finale dropped, creator Meaghan Oppenheimer announced the series would not return for another season.

Over two separate video interviews from New York — Oppenheimer from her home; Van Patten and White, later in the day, from a hotel room — The Times caught up with the trio to discuss bringing the dark and twisted saga to an end, why Stephen wasn’t dealt more severe punishment and the love story between Bree and Wrigley. The conversations have been combined and edited for clarity and length.

Lucy (Grace Van Patten) and Stephen (Jackson White) in the series finale of “Tell Me Lies.”

(Ian Watson / Disney)

Before we dive into the finale, the other big news is the announcement that the show will not return for another season. Would you have wanted more or are three seasons enough?

Oppenheimer: This was definitely a very thoughtful, mutual decision that I came to with Hulu and 20th [Television,” which produces the show]. I went into this season wanting to write it with a sense of finality. I always felt like three seasons was sort of a perfect number for a smaller show like this. I always envisioned Lucy and Stephen’s worst, biggest breakup in college, and her public downfall culminating with the wedding weekend. But we went into this season not knowing for sure if there would be another one — and after seeing the amazing fan response and the numbers being so great, we definitely discussed “is there an organic way to keep it going?” I was definitely trying to make a very specific point with the way that Lucy and Stephen ended, which is that it was inevitable that he was going to hurt her, and that if she chooses him over her friends, she’s going to lose them. To keep going after that and force them back in each other’s lives, it would have felt like it was undermining the stakes of everything we set up.

Does it feel like the right time to be done with these characters?

Van Patten: It does. Of course, it’s bittersweet. But in terms of the story, it feels really right that it’s ending here, and we’ve had a beginning, a middle and an end.

White: I like the way that goes out.

Will you be glad to not be the most hated fictional man on TV?

White: I’m stoked. I’m stoked. I really am. I’m really excited to not trigger people like that. It’s a strange burden, like an odd social burden.

Van Patten: Because it’s out of love, but what they’re saying is so negative.

White: Yeah, it’s a compliment, but it’s mean. It’s kind of like how Stephen talks to the other characters.

Grace Van Patten as Lucy Albright in the final moments of the “Tell Me Lies” series finale. (Ian Watson/Disney) (Ian Watson/Disney)

Finales are challenging because they come with a lot of expectations from fans. Since you weren’t sure if the series might return, how did that shape how you wrapped this third season?

Oppenheimer: I had to go into it not worrying too much about what would happen in the future. When we found the [Season 3] ending in the writers room, we all were like, “Oh s—, that’s the ending to the story, not the ending of the season.”

Sometimes, when I see certain [fan] theories, I’m like, “What show are you watching?” I think people that were expecting a resolution to the Macy story, for instance, for him [Stephen] to get arrested — that’s so surprising to me … because I’m like, “I don’t feel like you’re watching the same show that I’m watching.” It’s one of the few things that we kept from the book. He doesn’t get justice for that. In reality, people get away with really bad things and that’s one of the scary truths of the show.

How did you and the writers decide on the moment that ends the series? Lucy choosing to ride off with Stephen after the wedding goes off the rails, only for him to leave her stranded at a gas station.

Oppenheimer: The show was going to end in one of three ways: Does she reject him? Does he reject her? Or do they end up together? I felt for a very long time that they should not end up together because this is a story about abuse. I don’t think this is a love story. It felt like staying true to what the show meant not having this overly positive, optimistic ending where she wins.

At the same time, the one thing we’ve learned about Stephen is that he will never let you go unless he’s the one making that decision. For Lucy to actually be free of him, he needed to be the one to walk away. It actually is the only way for her to really wake up and see it.

I will get images for scenes before I know what the actual scene is, and it’ll be almost more of like a symbolic image, or it’ll be a fable that I’ve heard before. But I said to the writers room, “I just want it to be her finally having the decision — Bree or him, friends or him — and her choosing him and then, it’s not this, but it’s as if he just drives away and leaves her by the side of the road.” And they were all like, “He could literally just drive away and leave her by the side of the road.” The idea of her being on this island alone, and the inevitability of it. And that’s why we have the whole —

Grace Van Patten on ending the series: “Of course, it’s bittersweet. But in terms of the story, it feels really right that it’s ending here, and we’ve had a beginning, a middle and an end.”

(Dutch Doscher / For The Times)

Allusion in the previous episode to the scorpion and frog fable?

Oppenheimer: Yes. The answer is, of course, he was going to hurt you because he’s Stephen. It’s in his nature. Also he’s not driving away, thrilled and happy. When he says, I’ve just blown up my entire life. If I hurt you, I’m hurting myself. It’s true. He would have more fun if he just learned to be nice and be with Lucy. But he can’t help it. His nature is to win and to wound and to get the last laugh.

White: That character is all about himself, and this is one final way to leave on the last laugh.

Van Patten: I find the ending to actually be a little bit helpful. I think there’s a lot of freedom and relief in that last moment when she realizes he left her.

There’s that almost wistful look that she has at the gas station, getting the coffees. Then there’s the one when she realizes she’s been stranded and all she can do is laugh. It’s quite the trajectory.

Van Patten: Every time Lucy has gone back to Stephen, she’s completely in denial. There’s a sense of hope, maybe it’s going to be different this time — also, he had just blown up every relationship she had at the wedding. We’re completely on an island together. There’s this hope of like, maybe we can be OK now, there are no more secrets left. The friend group isn’t together. There’s nothing being held over one another’s head. Then she’s hit with, “Oh, my God he did it again. Shame on me.” She totally could have cried, but she just decided to laugh instead because it is predictable. She actually saw it for the first time as definitive.

Jackson White on playing the hated character Stephen: “It’s a strange burden, like an odd social burden.”

(Dutch Doscher / For The Times)

How did you and the writers grapple with why Evan and Bree would invite Stephen to the wedding after everything that happened in college?

Oppenheimer: It’s one of the things that struck me in the book and scares me about a lot of young men in general (especially operating within groups) — the way guys tend to forgive other guys for what they do to girls. When Evan and Stephen leave things in senior year, they’re actually at a relatively good place with each other. Even though Evan knows that Bree knows the truth (about Lucy‘s one-night stand), he knows that Stephen still recognizes the worst parts of him, so he’s made a decision to keep him close in order to keep himself safe. Bree has a line where she says, “I begged Evan not to invite him.” So it’s not up to Bree, and like a lot of people do, she’s decided to accept that her fiancé has this friend she hates.

On social media, there are fans who say they won’t be satisfied if this show doesn’t end with Stephen dying. And there was the theory that characters were plotting their revenge on him to take place at the wedding. What do you make of that? Why not go that route?

Oppenheimer: When you’re writing anything based on fan expectations or giving them the happy ending all tied in a bow, I think you’re doing a disservice to the story. Different writers would do different things. I have to stay true to my taste. Hoping for all that, I get it. But I think that the way that we do it is with a laugh.

But why not go that route? It just didn’t feel realistic. Maybe I’m just very jaded, but as I look around the world — everyone after #MeToo was like, “Oh, did we cancel all the men?” It’s like, “No, we didn’t.” That is the reality of the world that we live in, especially now, with everything coming out about the Epstein files — it’s appalling. To me, it feels almost belittling to people who’ve been abused and been in these kind of things to say, “Oh, it all works out in the end.” But also, I will say, Stephen is not going to be happy. He’s miserable.

White: He was hardwired to hate. I think the character was designed to start hating. He’s started as a confusing character, and by the end, I think it’s pretty clear that he is one-sided and complicated, sure, but also unquestionably immoral. And there’s a lot of satisfaction in wanting to take that person out, especially if you’re projecting your own whatever onto this character. I totally understand the impulse to want to ice him. But that’s not the way the world works, and I think that’s why the ending is well done because [that’s] not always the case. You don’t get that satisfaction. You actually have to live with it for a long time. And I think the message is that it’ll keep happening over and over and over unless you fix it yourself. No one’s gonna save you. You have to heal yourself.

What about the outcome of the college timeline — in the end, Yale revokes its law school admission offer to Stephen after receiving a tip about behavior that goes against its code of conduct, namely the distribution of pornographic material, which we come to learn was Wrigley’s doing. And that’s one big loss for Stephen. What intrigued you about that? And was it always going to be Wrigley who did that?

Oppenheimer: We didn’t think, initially, that it was going to get reported. That was something that someone — I can’t remember who it was — said, “It really doesn’t feel fair for Diana not to get to go to Yale after everything she’s done to get past every obstacle to better her life.” Then when we were deciding who reports him, it was just very obvious that it needed to be Wrigley because it’s the last person Stephen expects. I thought it was really important to have a guy … it really devastates me the way that men choose other men over their female friends and turn a blind eye. I just wanted one boy to stand up against the other mean boys.

White: I think [having Yale revoke his admission] really messed him [Stephen] up. He is a survivor, though, he’s a shark. A lot of these people don’t face consequences. I think eventually they do. Everything does come around. I think the people who wish ill upon other people will get what’s coming to them. We’re just not going to see when. But in his lifetime, he will get his ass kicked in that way.

Grace Van Patten, left, on the set of “Tell Me Lies” with showrunner Meaghan Oppenheimer.

(Ian Watson / Disney)

To move on to Lucy, we learn what happened in the college timeline that led to her being largely estranged from the friend group. Grace, what stands out to you about playing her in that state of numbness to her life crashing down?

Van Patten: It’s been set up the past two seasons, in the present day, that the worst thing happened to Lucy in college, and we haven’t known what that thing was until this last episode. It’s the last piece of the puzzle for the audience to see what really ruined Lucy’s life. It was so tragic and heartbreaking because she is not computing anything. She’s completely reverting back to being a little girl and doesn’t know how to deal with getting in trouble, and she’s not taking in what’s what’s going on; she’s completely disassociating. I think if she allows herself to feel, then she would not be able to pick herself up off the floor. It’s self-protection and complete denial.

“It’s the last piece of the puzzle for the audience to see what really ruined Lucy’s life,” says Grace Van Patten of “Tell Me Lies.”

(Dutch Doscher / For The Times)

At what point did you both learn that it was Bree who released the tape with Lucy confessing to lying about being sexually assaulted by Chris — a lie she told to protect Pippa, his actual victim?

Van Patten: I forget if it was through reading or Meaghan just telling us before we got the scripts. I was definitely surprised by that because the first few episodes, they’re really emphasizing the closeness between Lucy and Bree and how they’ve developed this really tight-knit relationship, which made sense; they were bumping it up to make that feel like real betrayal. But I just see it as Bree getting even.

White: I really did like that. I liked playing that I genuinely didn’t do it.

Tell me more.

Van Patten: His first time!

White: Just because every single person will obviously think he did. We’ve just established him for three years as the guy who would do that. And to actually have it not be him is confusing, and it was very fun to play. I did not do this horrible thing — I’ve done a lot of other horrible things, but I didn’t do this.

I love the way you deliver the line, when it clicks for you that it was Bree — “Oh, my God, you released the tape, didn’t you?”

White: If the character’s putting pieces together, I like to try and put pieces together. It was just easy to act in that moment. That entire wedding sequence was very easy for everybody because it was well-crafted. We were all bringing it. We knew it was one of the big, important moments.

The cake got demolished.

White: Branden Cook [Evan] is amazing in that sequence.

Van Patten: He insisted that he do that stunt. He was like stretching beforehand.

White: He was chomping at the bit. Oh, he was ready.

Was the end goal to find a way to use ‘Toxic” by Britney Spears to score the climax?

Oppenheimer: I love it so much. It’s really funny because since Season 1, I was, “When are we gonna use ‘Toxic’?” It’s just so perfect for the show. We were editing that scene and we were throwing different songs in, and we’d actually tried this other song that worked really well — “I Gotta Feeling” [by the Black Eyed Peas]. But then I was like, “Should we just try ‘Toxic’?” And my editor, Jen, was like, “It’s literally now or never.” The way that the music lines up with Evan crashing into the cake. It timed out perfectly.

Wrigley (Spencer House) and Bree (Catherine Missal), during a break from the engagement party, have a conversation about their relationship that leads to sex. (Ian Watson / Disney)

The night of his wedding to Bree, Evan (Branden Cook) learns about her affair with Wrigley. (Danielle Blancher / Disney)

How did you arrive at some of the other big moments, like Bree and Wrigley. She goes through with the wedding, but their secret is out. What happens next for them? It’s also like, is this trauma bonding or … ?

Oppenheimer: I don’t think it’s trauma bonding. I think they’re soul mates, personally. Trauma bonding is a thing, but there’s also something very real about meeting someone in a moment of grief and it has just taken all of your outer layer off, and it has exposed the real you. I think that’s what they’re seeing when they connect at the beginning of Season 3; they’re the truest version of themselves. I knew that I wanted it to come out because Evan could not get away with this. Evan could not have the happy marriage to Bree. Lucy had a choice that she was making with the full knowledge of the choice, but Bree doesn’t know all the things that Evan did to her to completely destroy her relationship with her mom. It would have felt so unfair for that to work out. I always saw that exploding and coming to light. That smile at the end of the wedding, that tells you they’re going to make this work. I literally wrote it into the action line of the script. I said, “Their eyes meet across the room, and they smile. And you get the sense that in spite of it all” — I think I wrote “carnage” — “they’re gonna find a way to make it work.” And I think they do.

White: I like happy endings, just as a viewer. I like when things work out for characters that didn’t really do anything bad. I love Wrigley and Bree. It’s a great relationship.

Van Patten: I love that relationship. I feel like they deserve each other and like they’re the two with the most well-rounded moral compass. They feel right together. And so do Pippa and Diana. They’re the only ones who are leaving happy, in the end. They’re like, “Let’s get out of here. We do not belong here.” And they just walk off. They kind of leave unscathed when everyone else is in the fire?

Grace Van Patten and Jackson White of “Tell Me Lies.”

(Dutch Doscher / For The Times)

Do you wish, especially as a real-life couple, that’s what you could have played?

Van Patten: I thought it was the perfect ending for these characters. If they ended up together and figured things out, it would just be so unrealistic. Look what these people have done to each other for the past three seasons. They’re not going to be OK together.

I guess I mean the whole trajectory, having to play the fictional couple that’s so toxic as you’re starting a relationship.

White: Yeah, not a lot of blending between work and real life.

Van Patten: Thank God. It’s only a nice, warm feeling to know we’re nothing like them. But it’s just fun acting together. We have to do crazy things and say crazy things. It’s very, very separated for us.

What do you hope for your characters?

White: I don’t hope much for him. I’m trying to think if I know anybody like that or with those tendencies — I do. I do know people who have a lot of similarities, and I pray for them, and I hope they do well. I also hope they get what’s coming to them. Actually let me take it to back because if somebody has wronged me, then I wish them the best. But for somebody like him, he’s sort of beyond that, isn’t he? I don’t know how to answer that question. I don’t know what I would want for him.

Van Patten: I hope that final instance that we see in the last episode pushes her into a journey of self-analysis and her really trying to figure out why she looks for that type of thing in a relationship, and why she has been so drawn to that. Hopefully she does the work to change that and focus on the relationships that matter, that she should be paying more attention to. I hope it’s the beginning for her.

On a final note, I will say, I was relieved to see Stephen at least left behind Lucy’s purse.

White: That’s pretty funny.

Van Patten: I wish there was footage of him placing it there. Like, him hopping out of the car and carefully placing it. I always wondered if he parked in a place where he can see Lucy, just to see her reaction.

When the Justice Department released an additional 3 million pages of documents related to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein at the end of January, ARTnews unearthed and published excerpts from dozens of emails between Epstein and David A. Ross, a former director of the Whitney Museum of American Art who started his career in the 1970s as deputy director and curator of video art at the Long Beach Museum of Art.

Ross, who served as the chair of the MFA art practice program at New York’s School of Visual Arts since 2009, promptly resigned.

If the emails had been less damning, the revelation of Ross’ connection to Epstein might have played out differently, but that was not the case. In one letter, dated Oct. 1, 2009, Epstein wrote to Ross that Roman Polanski’s attorney was coming to see him and that he was considering funding an exhibit titled, “Statutory.”

“Girls and boys ages 14 – 25, where they look nothing like their true ages,” Epstein wrote. “Juvenile mug shots, photo shop, make up. Some people go to prison because they can’t tell true age. Controversial. Fun. Maybe it should be a web page with hits, tallied.”

“You are incredible,” Ross wrote back. “This would be a very [sic] owerful and freaky book. Do you know that total porno commercial kiddie picture of Brooke Sheilds that Richard Prince appropriated for an exhibition in the early 1980’s?”

Epstein replied in the affirmative to Ross’ reference to a Prince photo titled, “Spiritual America,” which appropriated a 1976 photo of a naked, 10-year-old Shields taken by commercial photographer Gary Gross.

“They closed it off in the London show,” Epstein noted.

Ross also expressed sympathy for Epstein’s legal travails in 2009 following a 13-month sentence he served in Florida after pleading guilty to reduced state charges of procuring a minor for prostitution.

“Glad the nightmare is over, Jeffrey,” Ross wrote. “It was an undeserved punishment foisted upon you by jealous creeps.”

In an email to ARTnews, Ross expressed remorse that he “fell for” Epstein’s lies.

“Like many he supported with arts and education patronage, I profoundly regret that I was taken in by his story,” Ross wrote. “I continue to be appalled by his crimes and remain deeply concerned for its many victims.”

Ross noted that he first met Epstein when he was director of the Whitney in the mid-1990s. Ross also served as director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston.

“I knew him as a wealthy patron and a collector, and it was part of my job to befriend people who had the capacity and interest in supporting the museum,” Ross wrote, adding that when Epstein was jailed in 2008, he told Ross that it was a political “frame-up” resulting from his support for former President Bill Clinton. Ross said he believed him.

It seems lots of men believed Epstein. Meanwhile, behind all the power lunches, private plane rides and callous late-night emails, far too many women and girls suffered.

I’m Arts editor Jessica Gelt with your arts and culture news for the week.

On our radar

Michael Feinstein and the Carnegie Hall Ensemble will perform Valentine’s Day at Segerstrom Hall in Costa Mesa.

(Segerstrom Center for the Arts)

Michael Feinstein: A Broadway Valentine
The singer, musician, conductor and stalwart proponent of the Great American Songbook celebrates the holiday of the heart with the Carnegie Hall Ensemble. Timeless love songs and lush orchestrations seem like a perfect way to spend the evening.
7:30 p.m. Saturday, Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Segerstrom Hall, 300 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. scfta.org

A detail of miniature “sportraits” from Lyndon J. Barrois, Sr.’s exhibit, “Fútbol Is Life,” at LACMA.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Fútbol Is Life: Animated Sportraits
GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAL! Ahead of this summer’s World Cup, with L.A. as one of 16 host cities across the U.S., Canada and Mexico, arrives this unique exhibition celebrating the beautiful game. Portraying transcendent moments in men’s and women’s soccer, award‑winning animator and visual effects artist Lyndon  J. Barrois, Sr. fashions engrossing scenes in miniature from gum wrappers, glue, paint and other materials. The handmade sculptures and stop-motion animations on display bring together the visual and emotional elements that make it the world’s most popular sport. Jasmine Mendez spoke to Barrois about his process and Times photographer Allen J. Schaben provides more marvelous images.
Sunday through July 12. LACMA Resnick Pavilion, 5905 Wilshire Blvd. lacma.org

The Academy Museum’s exhibition “Studio Ghibli’s Ponyo” opens Saturday.

(Nibariki-GNDHDDT)

Studio Ghibli’s Ponyo
A deep dive into Hayao Miyazaki’s 2008 animated film about a goldfish who longs to be human honors the traditional hand-drawn animation processes used by its creators. The exhibition includes more than a hundred items handpicked by Studio Ghibli: art boards, posters, a Studio Ghibli animation desk and original hand drawings by Miyazaki and others. “Because writer-director Miyazaki very much follows his own star when it comes to story, narratives like ‘Ponyo’ remind you of no one else’s tales,” wrote Times film critic Kenneth Turan upon the film’s U.S. release. “Not only do they offer up fantastical images, like Ponyo running on the crests of waves, they make deep connections to our emotions without following conventional paths, using the logic of dreams to excellent effect.”
Screening 2:30 p.m. Saturday; exhibition, Saturday through Jan. 10. Academy Museum, 6067 Wilshire Blvd. academymuseum.org

The week ahead: A curated calendar

FRIDAY
Nitrate Festival
The American Cinematheque’s annual tribute to the beautiful, if highly volatile, film format that was used from the 1890s until the 1950s, offers audiences the rare opportunity to see this work on the big screen. The festival opens with the 1947 noir “Dead Reckoning,” starring Humphrey Bogart and directed by John Cromwell, and continues with William Wyler’s “The Good Fairy” (1935), Gregory La Cava’s “My Man Godfrey” (1936), William Wellman’s “Nothing Sacred” (1937), Mikio Naruse’s “Wife! Be Like A Rose!” (1935), David Lean’s “Blithe Spirit” (1945) and Cecil B. DeMille’s “Samson and Delilah” (1949).
7 p.m. Friday, through Feb. 22. Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd. americancinematheque.com

Foursome
Matthew Scott Montgomery, Adrián Javier, Jimin Moon and Calvin Seabrooks star in Montgomery’s comedy about a quartet of queer friends who reunite for an emotionally fraught, desire-filled weekend at a cabin. Directed by Tom DeTrinis.
Through March 23. Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave. iamatheatre.com

Guards at the Taj
Two sentries at the Taj Mahal have their friendship, faith and sense of duty challenged in Rajiv Joseph’s play set centuries in the past with contemporary resonance. Behzad Dabu and Kausar Mohammed star. Directed by Behzad Dabu.
8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays, through Feb. 22
El Portal Theatre, 5269 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood elportaltheatre.com

Alfredo Rodriguez, left, and Pedrito Martinez will perform Friday at the Nimoy.

(Anna Webber)

Alfredo Rodriguez and Pedrito Martinez
Pianist Rodriguez and percussionist-vocalist Martinez perform traditional Cuban songs, original compositions and some surprises.
8 p.m. UCLA Nimoy Theater, 1262 Westwood Blvd. cap.ucla.edu

Incitation To The Dance
A young man upends an older gay couple’s relationship in the world premiere of writer-director Michael Van Duzer’s dark comedy.
Through March 15. Theatre West, 3333 Cahuenga Blvd. https://theatrewest.org/on-stage/incitation-to-the-dance

Roksana Pirouzmand
The Iranian-born, L.A.-based multidisciplinary artist’s solo exhibition “everything was once something else” explores the contrasting properties forged by earth and fire through clay and metal works.
Through April 11. Oxy Arts, 4757 York Blvd. oxyarts.oxy.edu

SATURDAY
Attune 1.0
A free public light- and sound-art experience happens simultaneously across L.A. County locations presented by NXT Art Foundations with community support.
4:30-7:30 p.m. Barnsdall Park, East Hollywood; Sycamore Grove Park, Northeast Los Angeles ; Jessie Brewer Jr. Park, Exposition Park; Jane and Bert Boeckmann Park, Porter Ranch; Hansen Dam, Lake View Terrace; Leimert Park, South Los Angeles; Wende Museum, Culver City; Promenade Square Park, Long Beach; Tongva Park, Santa Monica and Loma Alta Park, Altadena. nowartpublic.com

Desert Dreams and Coastal Currents
The exhibition tracks the concurrent emergent of artistic hubs in Southern California and the Southwest, featuring work by artists in areas such as Laguna Beach, and Taos and Santa Fe, N.M.
The Autry, 4700 Western Heritage Way, Griffith Park. theautry.org

Wally Hedrick
“Sex Politics Religion” is a two-venue retrospective of the Pasadena-born artist, who established himself in the burgeoning post-war San Francisco art scene. Hedrick eschewed “style” in favor of pursuing a vision including welded assemblage junk sculptures, Bauhausian abstraction, black monochromes, gestural figuration, graphic signage, pictographic diagrams and near-photorealism.
Through April 4. Parker Gallery, 6700 Melrose Ave.; The Box
805 Traction Ave., downtown L.A. parkergallery.com

Honour
The Ruskin’s grand opening on the Kaplan Stage features Joanna Murray-Smith’s drama on the precariousness of marriage, directed by Max Mayer and starring Marcia Cross, Matt Letscher, Ariana Afradi and Jude Mayer.
8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays, through March 22. Ruskin Group Theatre, 2800 Airport Ave., Santa Monica.

Artist Takashi Murakami.

(Shin Suzuki)

Takashi Murakami
The new solo exhibition “Hark Back to Ukiyo-e: Tracing Superflat to Japonisme’s Genesis” features 24 paintings by the Japanese artist.
4-7 p.m. opening, free and open to the public; exhibition continues through March 14. Perrotin, 5036. W Pico Blvd. perrotin.com

Mythical Creatures: The Stories We Carry
Immigrant narratives and pan-Asian mythology infuse this immersive exhibition featuring contemporary artists including Dinh Q. Lê, Dominique Fung, Lily Honglei, Greg Ito, Wendy Park, Momoko Schafer, Kyungmi Shin, Sanjay Vora and Lauren YS. Conceived by L.A.-based Korean American artist and muralist Dave Young Kim.
Through Sept. 6. USC Pacific Asia Museum, 46 N. Los Robles Ave. Pasadena. pacificasiamuseum.usc.edu

PASSION + MYSTERY
Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, led by conductor Jaime Martín, celebrate Valentine’s Day weekend with Fauré’s “Pelléas et Mélisande” and Gernot Wolfgang‘s “Desert Wind,” and are joined by pianist Fazıl Say for Beethoven’s “Piano Concerto No. 3.”
7:30 p.m. Saturday. Colburn School, Zipper Hall, 200 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A.; 4 p.m. Sunday, The Wallis, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills. laco.org

Red Harlem
Four Black actors in 1932 Harlem are recruited by the Communist Party to make a film in the Soviet Union in Kimba Henderson’s drama based on true events. Directed by Bernadette Speakes.
Through March 15. Company of Angels, 1350 San Pablo St. companyofangels.org

Retro Romantics: An Academy Film Archive Trailer Show in 35mm
Vintage cinematic love stories unspool in their original abridged glory, seductively beckoning you to the movies.
7:30 p.m. Academy Museum, 6067 Wilshire Blvd. academymuseum.org

SUNDAY
Black History Month at The Ebell
Soprano Gertrude Bradley performs a tribute to Joel Graham, accompanied by pianist Greg Schreiner in an African Americans for LA Opera recital; and Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (ICYOLA) salutes the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in “I, Too, Sing America,” a nod to the Langston Hughes poem.
AALAO Recital, 12:30 p.m. Sunday; LA Voices: ICYOLA, 4:30 p.m. Sunday. Ebell of Los Angeles, 743 S. Lucerne Blvd. https://www.ebellofla.org/

Isidore String Quartet
The group performs “Brahms: the Admirer,” an exploration of the composer’s work alongside complementary pieces by Bach and Beethoven.
3:30 p.m. Caltech Beckman Auditorium, 332 S. Michigan Ave. Pasadena. colemanchambermusic.org

What Happened to Flamenco
Clap your hands as dancer and choreographer Fanny Ara brings the folkloric tradition to life.
7 p.m. Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave. fountaintheatre.com

TUESDAY
Seth MacFarlane
The erstwhile animator, writer, producer, director, actor and comedian picks up the mic, backed by an orchestra, for a program dedicated to the music of Frank Sinatra.
8 p.m. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com/events

WEDNESDAY
I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change
Barry Pearl directs the long-running off-Broadway musical comedy revue on modern love, featuring book and lyrics by Joe DiPietro and music by Jimmy Roberts to open ICT’s 41st season.
Through March 8. International City Theatre, 330 E. Seaside Way, Long Beach. ictlongbeach.org

Patti LuPone
The Broadway star marks the 25th anniversary of her “Matters of the Heart,” which ran on Broadway and London’s West End and toured the globe.
8 p.m. Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Segerstrom Hall, 300 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. scfta.org

Preservation Hall Jazz Band
Can’t get to New Orleans for Mardi Gras? The Soraya brings it to the Valley via the deep roots of this legendary French Quarter ensemble.
8 p.m. The Saroya, 18111 Nordhoff Street, Northridge. thesoraya.org

Emma Elizabeth Smith as Catherine of Aragon in The North American touring company of “Six.”

(Segerstrom Center for the Arts)

Six
The national tour of the Broadway musical by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, a modern pop take on the sextet of women who were the wives of Henry VIII.
Through March 9. Hollywood Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd.; March 10-15. Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 300 Town Center Dr., Costa Mesa. sixonbroadway.com

THURSDAY
Compagnie Hervé Koubi: Sol Invictus
The French-Algerian choreographer’s dance troupe performs “Sol Invictus,” with a score featuring music by Swedish composer Mikael Karlsson, minimalist composer Steve Reich and digital composer Maxime Bodson.
7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. February 19 – 21, 2026 The Wallis, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd. Beverly Hills. thewallis.org

Culture news and the SoCal scene

The cast of “Brassroots District” performs on Sunday.

(Gabriella Angotti-Jones/For The Times)

Features columnist Todd Martens checked out “Brassroots District: LA ’74,” a piece of immersive theater he describes as “part concert, part participatory theater and part experiment, attempting to intermix an evening of dancing and jubilation with high-stakes drama. How it plays out is up to each audience member. Follow the cast, and uncover war tales and visions of how the underground music scene became a refuge for the LGBTQ+ community. Watch the band, and witness a concert almost torn apart as a group on the verge of releasing its debut album weighs community versus cold commerce. Or ignore it all to play dress-up and get a groove on to the music that never stops.”

The UCLA Hammer Museum has announced the winner of the $100,000 Mohn Award.

(Eric Staudenmaier)

Artist Ali Eyal, who grew up in Baghdad in the late 1990s and early 2000s during U.S. military operations in Iraq, is the recipient of the $100,000 Mohn Award, which honors artistic excellence, in conjunction with the Hammer Museum’s Made in L.A. 2025. In addition to the award money, the Hammer will produce a publication for Eyal. The Hammer also announced that sculptor Carl Cheng has been given the $25,000 Career Achievement Award; and that painter Greg Breda won the $25,000 Public Recognition Award.

The news out of the Kennedy Center continues to be grim. This week, Trump-appointed center president Richard Grenell sent an email to staffers informing them that significant cuts would be implemented when the center closes for renovations, beginning July 4. “Over the next few months, department heads and I will be evaluating the needs and making the decisions as to what these skeletal teams left in place during the facility closure and construction phase will look like,” Grenell wrote in the email obtained by The Times.

— Jessica Gelt

And last but not least

Want a giant stuffed mochi? So do I.

Six months and 16 Oscar nominations ago, Delroy Lindo hopped on a Zoom call with the awards consultants running the campaign for Ryan Coogler’s genre-defying American horror story, “Sinners.” Actors don’t often participate in these meetings. But Lindo had received so much love for his turn as bluesman Delta Slim since “Sinners” premiered in April, he figured, “Why not sit in?” Mostly, he just wanted to ask one simple question: How can we make the most of this moment?

“I don’t know what their answer was, but it seems to have worked,” I tell him over lunch recently.

Lindo starts rapping on the wood table separating us and doesn’t stop until I ask if he’s a man given to superstition.

“Can I tell you where I think it comes from?” he asks. “I’m acutely aware absolutely nothing is promised. There’s no such thing as a sure thing. Anything can happen. So in knocking wood, one is trying to increase one’s chances that the outcome will be what one wants.”

So you’ve been knocking on wood for the last six months?

“Hell, yes!” Lindo answers, laughing. “Hell, yes!”

Now I’m the one who’s laughing, which Lindo appreciates. But he has more to say on the subject.

“You have to understand something,” he continues. “When an actor does a piece of work and it really touches people and has an impact like it did with Delta Slim and ‘Sinners,’ you can’t help but think how it might be broadened. I try to maintain an emotional distance because I have no control over much of it. Awards season.” He shakes his head. “So …” Lindo pounds on the table again. “Knock … on … wood.”

You want an illustration of the unpredictable nature of the acting profession? Lindo and I wouldn’t be at this table talking and rapping and toasting the first Oscar nomination of his long career if one particular cut of “Sinners,” the version Coogler showed him at the Imax headquarters in Playa Vista more than a year ago, had gone out into the world.

Lindo, left, on the set of “Sinners” with co-star Michael B. Jordan and writer-director Ryan Coogler.

(Eli Ade / Warner Bros. Pictures)

If you’ve seen the film, you’ll no doubt remember Delta Slim delivering a monologue in the car riding to the juke joint with Stack (Michael B. Jordan) and Preacher Boy (Miles Caton) where he recalls the lynching of a fellow musician. The scene ends with Lindo breaking into a guttural humming and drumming, expressing pain that transcends words.

When Lindo saw the movie that first time, the monologue had been truncated, and the scene preceding it, where their car passes a chain gang and Delta Slim stands and exhorts the prisoners to “hold your heads,” was gone too.

After the credits finished rolling and the lights came up, Coogler asked Lindo what he thought of the film. Lindo looked at him. “Can we talk, man?” They went outside, and Lindo laid out in his steady, resonant baritone why he thought Coogler needed to reinstate the chain-gang scene, which reveals Delta Slim’s origin story — and surely, since the chain-gang scene is intertwined with the monologue in the car, that should go back into the movie too.

“What Ryan did so brilliantly is he took the time to introduce all of the main characters in their native environments so the audience gets invested in them and what they mean to the community,” Lindo says. “For Delta Slim, those scenes were the fundamental building blocks.”

It should be noted that there were many different cuts of “Sinners”: one as short as 90 minutes, one that opened with the vampire Remmick being chased by the Choctaw, one without the celebrated surreal musical sequence that became the centerpiece of the film.

“The Delta Slim monologue had a lot of ‘Is it in, is it out?’ debate,” “Sinners” film editor Michael P. Shawver says. “But I knew in my heart and soul I was never going let the movie out without that being in it.”

Coogler, it turns out, saw it that way too.

Delroy Lindo.

(Bexx Francois / For The Times)

“I couldn’t imagine making a movie about the blues without giving some deeper context on what that music really signifies,” Coogler writes in an email. “It’s easy to get lost in the rhythm and the artistry of it all, but the blues was born from a lot of pain and adversity in a particular time and place. When I wrote the script, I felt like I needed a living, breathing embodiment of that, and Delroy nailed it.”

“We could have filmed that monologue a thousand different times and it would have taken on new life with each take,” Coogler continues. “The gut-punch way he ends it, going from telling the story of a lynching to drumming along and humming … it’s macabre, sorrowful and beautiful all at the same time. It shows you exactly why Delroy’s such a masterful actor. If you ever needed to give someone the world’s fastest lesson in what the blues is about, he gives it to you right there.”

“God bless him,” Lindo says.

“Working for the camera, we’re at the mercy of the editing process,” Lindo notes. He speaks slowly, deliberately, always choosing his words carefully because language is important to him. It’s his currency.

How does he feel about that loss of control?

“It’s scary,” Lindo says. “One had better make one’s peace with that very quickly. If you don’t, you will get your feelings hurt. It’ll be a problem.”

Asked to pinpoint when he came to terms with that, Lindo remembers “Clockers,” the 1995 Spike Lee crime drama in which he played the intimidating drug kingpin Rodney Little. It was his third collaboration with Lee, following “Malcolm X” and “Crooklyn,” and the two enjoyed a mutual respect and rapport. But Lee still cut three of Lindo’s scenes, which Lindo understood — “kind of, sort of.” Lee was looking at the larger story. Those scenes weren’t essential.

“Making one’s peace with it is not the same as accepting it and being happy with it,” Lindo says, raising an index finger, a gesture he often makes when telling you something he considers important. “It’s just the way it is. It’s a fact of life.”

When talking about his career, Lindo, 73, tells me more than once that “it’s not where you start, it’s where you finish.”

The first time he tells me this we are talking about one of his early lead acting turns, starring in the 1983 Yale Repertory Theatre production of “A Raisin in the Sun,” the story of a struggling Black family dealing with discrimination in 1950s South Chicago. Lindo played the frustrated patriarch, Walter Lee, and won some strong reviews. But he felt like he was the “weak link” in the production. In a GQ profile, it was written that Lindo, born in London, couldn’t convince himself that the African American experience was his to interpret.

“Nope,” Lindo says. “I did not say that.” Again, the index finger. “You’re giving me the opportunity to set the record straight.” He pauses and closes his eyes. “Doing that play, I had an inner monologue playing in my head that cast doubt on my ability to play the part successfully. And it continued and it grew. It became a tape and then an album and then a series of albums. It eroded my confidence.”

“You know what it was?” he continues. “It was a self-esteem issue. It was an issue of me saying to myself, ‘You’re not good enough. You want to do one of the great parts in the theater? No. You don’t have it.’ Now, what’s the root of all that?” Lindo laughs, clasps his hands together and raises them. “The roots of that are food for myself and a therapist.”

But there is a happy ending to the story. Lindo was cast once more as Walter Lee, for a production of “A Raisin in the Sun” mounted at the Kennedy Center in 1986. Lloyd Richards again was directing, indicating to Lindo that maybe he wasn’t as bad as he thought he had been. Richards did tell Lindo that he needed to jettison some of the neurotic choices he was making as an actor.

“Those are the words he used, ‘neurotic choices,’” Lindo says, shaking his head. He pauses. “Man, I’m giving you a lot here. But it’s OK. You know why it’s OK?”

Because you’re enjoying our conversation? I venture.

Delroy Lindo.

(Bexx Francois / For The Times)

“No,” Lindo says. “I’m not particularly enjoying telling you about my failures. But this was an absolute period of growth for me as an actor all because I learned the most important thing: preparation, preparation, preparation.”

For his reprise of “A Raisin in the Sun,” Lindo called musical multihyphenate Oscar Brown Jr. and asked if he could fly to Chicago and pick his brain about life on the city’s South Side in the 1950s. Lindo walked the streets where “Raisin” playwright Lorraine Hansberry lived, steeping himself in what it meant to exist in that place and time. After that, the tape was no longer playing in his head, even when co-star Esther Rolle’s face fell after she realized that Lindo had been cast as Walter Lee. She thought she’d be headlining with Glynn Turman, but Turman had dropped out.

“Eight days, maybe nine into rehearsals, Esther turned to me — and this is when I knew it was going to be all right — and she said, ‘You’re a nice actor,’” Lindo remembers, smiling.

Preparation, preparation, preparation. For Delta Slim, Lindo read books on the blues, listened to Son House, Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf and immersed himself in the culture of the Mississippi Delta. When it came time to shoot that monologue in the car, he was ready. On the next-to-last take, Lindo improvised, letting music take the place of words. Jordan went with it, turning to Caton in character, saying, “You got that guitar in your hand, don’t you, boy?” Caton begins playing.

“Man, we were all in the work,” Lindo says.

Where did that improvisation come from? I ask.

“It’s the musical manifestation of the pain I’m feeling,” Lindo says. “It’s the only thing I know how to do in that moment.”

It’s the blues.

“It’s the blues, man,” Lindo says. “I’ve heard it said numerous times: That’s where the blues comes from. And as an actor who participated in that moment, communicating that is extraordinary and profoundly gratifying.”

(Bexx Francois / For The Times)

To say the mood at Ryan Coogler’s production company Proximity Media has been euphoric would be an understatement.

You too would be more than euphoric if your film landed in the year’s box office top 10 and set the all-time record for most Oscar nominations.

But “Sinners” wasn’t built in a day. It’s been a slow and steady ascent — call it, well, one success after another — since Coogler founded the company in 2018 with his wife Zinzi (they married in 2016) and USC film school buddy Sev Ohanian. And the director is unstinting in his praise for his partners.

“Zinzi is meticulous and detail-oriented and the one that keeps it all together,” Coogler wrote in an email to The Envelope. “She is humble and observant but is the smartest person I know and knows me extremely well. Sev is exceptional at strategy, and the most experienced producer of the three of us, which is invaluable. … Together, they act as a bridge between the creative and the business, which allows me to stay focused on the film.”

The three have been working together since Coogler’s 2013 feature debut, “Fruitvale Station,” based on the true story of Oscar Grant, a young Black man shot to death by a transit police officer in an Oakland BART station.

Bringing audiences in close proximity to stories and subject matter often overlooked forged the name of the company, which now includes feature film, television, nonfiction, music and podcasting departments.

Past film projects include the Oscar-winning “Judas and the Black Messiah,” “Space Jam” and “Creed III.”

“They are on a fast rocket with an upward trajectory for almost any project they bring to the marketplace,” said Andrew Goldman, adjunct professor of film and television at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. ”Every company in town will want a Proximity/Ryan Coogler project. They have cracked a formula of both critical acclaim and box-office successes.”

A recent installment of the podcast “In Proximity” featured Michael B. Jordan and Ryan Coogler getting in the weeds about the production of “Sinners,” including how Jordan distinctly portrayed twins Smoke and Stack.

Moving forward, it looks like Proximity’s sights are set on stories based on another duo: “The X-Files’” Mulder and Scully, the iconic opposites-attract FBI agents who forged a deep personal partnership while investigating strange and paranormal cases over 11 seasons on Fox, beginning in 1993 and stretching until 2018.

Warmly displaying their camaraderie and creative interdependence, Zinzi Coogler and Ohanian spilled more about their company over Zoom, including their early days, people who inspired them and how they’re adapting to the shifting media landscape.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Michael B. Jordan, left, and Miles Caton in “Sinners.”

(Warner Bros. Pictures)

What is the origin story of how Proximity Media formed?

Ohanian: It officially became a company on April 6, 2018, over lunch in San Francisco, but the roots go back to 2008 at USC film school, where I first met Ryan Coogler. We became friends working on student films and reconnected when Ryan and Zinzi were finishing “Black Panther.” Around that time, I had just produced “Searching,” and we started talking seriously about forming a company together.

Zinzi, what made you want to partner with Sev and Ryan formally?

Coogler: After years of working with Ryan unofficially, especially on “Fruitvale Station,” we knew we wanted to make it official. Sev had always impressed me with his creativity and relentless work ethic. When Ryan and I discussed founding a company, Sev was the only person we wanted to approach. Luckily, he said yes — and that’s how Proximity really began.

Did you ever imagine Proximity would grow as it has?

Ohanian: Honestly, no. Back when we were making “Fruitvale Station,” we were just trying to get the movie finished. But looking back, it feels inevitable because we’ve put in years of steady work and built strong relationships in the industry.

Coogler: We couldn’t have foreseen this success. But the foundation of our collaboration — our shared belief in storytelling and craftsmanship — has never changed since those early days.

What projects are you most excited about now?

Ohanian: Last year was a landmark one. We released “Sinners,” had streaming hits like “Ironheart” and “Eyes of Wakanda,” and launched Season 3 of our “In Proximity” podcast. We also have several documentaries and new TV shows in development, plus a long-rumored “X-Files” project that’s close to launching.

Tell us about the atmosphere within the company.

Coogler: There’s a lot of laughter between the three of us — Ryan, Sev, and me. In our early days, someone once asked, “Can I get the real name of your company?” We cracked up at that and recorded the moment. It keeps us humble and reminds us how far we’ve come.

How did you approach producing “Sinners?”

Coogler: It was our first time being sole producers on something Ryan wrote and directed. We saw it as a big moment for Proximity — a chance to support Ryan’s creative vision from start to finish.

Do you have defined roles within Proximity?

Ohanian: Roles shift depending on the project. We each bring different strengths — Ryan as director, me from the indie film side, and Zinzi with her broad experience and steady leadership. We’ve built a team of about 20 people who’ve grown with us, including some who started as assistants and are now producers.

Did other production companies serve as an inspiration?

Coogler: We’ve leaned on amazing mentors — Jim Morris at Pixar, Kevin Feige and Lou D’Esposito at Marvel, and Charles King at Macro. Their guidance shaped how we lead and structure our company.

Looking ahead, how is Proximity adapting to the changing media landscape?

Ohanian: Change has been constant since day one — recessions, strikes, streaming shifts. We stay adaptable through yearly retreats, often at Pixar, to reassess our strategy and think creatively about the future.

How do relationships like the one with Michael B. Jordan influence your work?

Coogler: Michael’s family to us. We’ve been through so much together — from “Fruitvale Station” to “Creed III” and “Sinners.” That trust and history make the work special every single time.

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. I’m Eric Sondheimer. Playoff pairings have been announced for high school basketball. There’s only one unbeaten team left and what an intriguing story.

Unbeaten Elsinore stands alone

There’s only one unbeaten team in the Southern Section basketball playoffs. And what an intriguing story regarding 28-0 Elsinore.

Back in 1974, when Elsinore when 27-0 until losing at the L.A. Sports Arena in the Division 1-A final, Peter Rettinger rode to the game as a middle school student on the rooter bus and Rick Wolter played in the game as a sophomore.

They’ve been co-head coaches at Elsinore for 32 years. This season, they have a top junior guard in Kamrynn Nathan, averaging 25.2 points. “He’s fun to watch because he’s really creative,” Rettinger said.

Elsinore won the Mountain Pass League and has wins over Chino Hills, Murrieta Valley and Murrieta Mesa. Elsinore was placed in the Division 2 playoffs and opens at home Wednesday against Sonora.

Much has changed since Rettinger was a student at Elsinore, which used to be the only high school in the “Valley” from Corona to Temecula. Now there’s two new high schools in Elsinore, three in Temecula and three in Murrieta.

Wolter retired from teaching and Rettinger is still teaching.

“We’ve always had a positive experience,” Rettinger said. “The parents realized we are the product of the valley and tried to do the best we can with whatever we team have.”

They’re a true neighborhood team supported by loyal neighborhood families.

Boys basketball

The Southern Section playoff pairings released Saturday includes Sierra Canyon as the No. 1 seed for the Open Division. There are 12 teams and four divisions for pool play. Here’s a look.

Here are the Southern Section pairings.

Kaiden Bailey of Santa Margarita had zero points against St. John Bosco but contributed eight assists.

(Dylan Stewart / 1550 Sports)

The McDonald’s All-America Game revealed its rosters for the boys and girls games. Here’s the report.

Santa Margarita won the first Trinity League tournament with a 57-56 win over St. John Bosco. Here’s the report.

St. Bernard won the Del Rey League title behind junior guard Brandon Granger. Here’s the report.

Thousand Oaks’ Dylan McCord has had a great senior year shooting threes. He had 43 points and 10 threes in a win over Newbury Park. Here’s a report.

Palisades won its first Western League title in 30 years and gained the No. 1 seed for the City Section Open Division playoffs. Here’s the City playoff seedings.

Sun Valley Poly coach Joe Wyatt guided his team to a 12-0 record in the East Valley League and 28 consecutive league wins. Here’s the report.

The Times’ final regular season top 25 basketball rankings.

Girls basketball

Sophomore forward Kiara Wakabi helped Birmingham win its 32nd West League game in a row.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

Birmingham won the West Valley League title in a close game over Granada Hills and is seeded No. 2 for the City Section Open Division playoffs behind Westchester. Here’s a look at the Patriots’ win over Granada Hills.

Andrea Antonio, a freshman at Hamilton, scored 54 points in her team’s 85-83 overtime win over Palisades.

The Southern Section Open Division pairings were released, and the top three seeds are Ontario Christian, Etiwanda and Sierra Canyon.

Bow ties for Reggie

Reggie Morris Jr., in 2013. He has a collection of bow ties he brings out for the playoffs.

(Nick Koza)

It’s time to break out the bow ties for Reggie Morris Jr., the head basketball coach at Redondo Union. He has won Southern Section titles coaching at Redondo, Leuzinger and St. Bernard. He won a City title at Fairfax.

Here’s what Morris has to say about preparing to challenge Sierra Canyon and others in the Open Division playoffs.

Super Bowl connections

Patriots special teams player Brenden Schooler during his high school days at Mission Viejo.

(Los Angeles Times)

Southern California was well represented in Sunday’s Super Bowl, with former local high school players on the rosters of the Seahawks and Patriots.

Here’s a look at the path those players took and why they made it, according to their high school coaches.

During Super Bowl week, the two NFL rookies of the year announced were from Southern California. Receiver Tetairoa McMillan from Servite and the Carolina Panthers and linebacker Carson Schwesinger from Oaks Christian, UCLA and the Cleveland Browns.

Wrestling

The City Section boys and girls wrestling championships will be held Saturday night at Roybal. Admission is $12. There’s a $5 parking charge.

The Southern Section individual championships will have six divisional finals Friday and Saturday at Westminster, Fountain Valley, Canyon Springs, Great Oak, Moorpark and Glenn. It will help determine qualifiers for the Masters Meet at Sonora on Feb. 20. Admission is $14.

Redondo Union won its first Southern Section Division 6 boys wrestling championship. El Modena won Division 5. Corona took Division 4. South Torrance took Division 3. Temecula Valley won Division 2. St. John Bosco won Division 1.

Santa Ana won the Diviison 1 girls title. Chaparral won Division 2. Oxnard Pacifica took Division 3. Sonora won Division 4.

Soccer

Palos Verdes is seeded No. 1 for the Open Division boys competition. Mater Dei is seeded No. 2.

Here’s the boys pairings.

Santa Margarita is seeded No. 1 in Open Division girls.

Here’s the Southern Section girls pairings.

The City Section playoff pairings will be announced Monday.

Notes . . .

Orange Lutheran coach Rod Sherman.

(Nick Koza)

There will be three new head football coaches in the Trinity League this fall after Orange Lutheran announced that Rod Sherman was no longer the football coach and Chris Reinert resigned at Servite. JSerra hired Hardy Nickerson as its new coach. Here’s the report on Sherman’s departure. Here’s the report on Reinert’s departure and the many changes happening in the nation’s toughest football league. . . .

The National Federation of State High School Assn. football rules committee has clarified and strengthened a rule that prohibits slapping the head of any player on offense or defense. Here are the rule changes for 2026. . . .

Noah Thayer, who was one of the best kickers in the Southland until suffering an injury at JSerra, has committed to Cal Poly. . . .

Junior receiver Michael Farinas of Chaparral has committed to UCLA. . . .

Junior linebacker Mike Davis Jr. of Mater Dei has committed to UCLA. . . .

Jaslene Massey of Aliso Niguel had the seventh-best girls shot put effort in state history at the winter championships at Arcadia High with a mark of 52-10 1/4,

Junior receiver Tycen Johnson of Chaparral has committed to Arizona State. . . .

Sophomore all-league linebacker Allen Kennett V has transferred from Servite to Santa Margarita. . . .

Spud O’Neil, the baseball coach at Lakewood since 1984, has announced 2026 will be his final season. He has 970 victories over 52 seasons that includes stints at St. Anthony and Colton. . . .

The Coliseum League is getting a change for football in the fall. Moving out are Dymally and Fremont, which will be switching to the Metro and Exposition leagues. Moving in is Marquez, which will join Crenshaw, Dorsey, King/Drew and Washington Prep. . . .

Lorenzo Hernandez, who was football coach at Garfield from 1999 through 2024, is the leading candidate to become head coach at Whittier, which has Garfield’s former principal. Hernandez served as athletic director at Garfield since the fall. He’d be taking over a program that is headed to a new league if they select him. . . .

Eddie Ficklin has resigned as football coach at Cantwell Sacred-Heart. . . .

Matt Casey is the new football coach at Arlington. . . .

Eric Carnohan is the new director of aquatics at Servite. . . .

Chace Holley from Bay League champion Redondo Union has committed to Pepperdine.

From the archives: Robert Garcia

Former San Fernando football coach Robert Garcia is now an assistant coach at Bishop Alemany.

(Robert Garcia)

Former San Fernando football coach Robert Garcia has joined Dennis Keyes’ staff as an assistant coach at Bishop Alemany.

He was head coach at San Fernando from 2011 until the summer of 2021, winning two City Section Division II titles and a Division I title. He left to run a family restaurant business. He has helped coach with Keyes before since both have sons playing youth football.

Here’s a 2012 interview after winning a City title.

Here’s a story from 2018 when the Rams recognized San Fernando.

Recommendations

From the Daily Breeze, a story on new Bishop Montgomery coach Oscar McBride.

From The562.org, a story on Lakewood baseball coach Spud O’Neil announcing this will be his final season after 52 years coaching baseball.

From the Oklahoman, a story on the governor supporting open transfers in high school sports.

Tweets you might have missed

Until next time….

Have a question, comment or something you’d like to see in a future Prep Rally newsletter? Email me at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com, and follow me on Twitter at @latsondheimer.

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