teen

SHARON Osbourne has accused a huge rock star of ‘giving Kelly drugs’ when she was a teen – and branded her a ‘a dry old c***’.

The former X Factor, 73, opened up about what happened during a recent live Q&A screening event for If These Walls Could Rock at the Landmark Sunset Theatre in Los Angeles over the weekend.

While appearing on stage as a special guest on Saturday 15 August ahead of a screener, the TV star alleged that Courtney Love, 62, gave her daughter drugs.

Courtney has previously denied giving drugs to any teenagers, after Sharon accused her in the past.

Back in 2007, Sharon alleged that Courtney was the first person to give Jack OxyContin.

One of the guests in the audience captured what Sharon said on camera as the host asked her: “Oh you know who gave it to her? You don’t have to say, but you know.”

Sharon replied: “Yeah, Courtney Love.”

The presenter replied: “Well now you have said it, I want to hear this story! You tell me what happened.”

Sharon replied: “I will say no more, but, she’s a c*** anyway.

“A boring old c***. A dry, old c***.”

The Instagram user captioned the post: “Sharon Osbourne was telling a story about someone allegedly giving Kelly drugs when she was a young teenager… and then she dropped the name.

“I guess this is the greatest ad ever to go see If These Walls Could Rock.”

The Sun have contacted Courtney’s representative for comment.

Sharon has previously blamed Courtney for her son Jack’s addiction to prescription drug OxyContin.

She said back in 2007: “I will never have time for Courtney Love. She was the first person to give my son Jack the prescription drug OxyContin.

“There’s not a shadow of doubt in my mind about that. My dislike towards her is very personal.”

Courtney denied the accusation and said: “I never did that. I would never give drugs to a teenager.

“F**k you Sharon – as if I would ever give drugs to a teenager.”

The decisions mark both a victory and a setback for President Emmanuel Macron, who had championed both policies.

France’s Constitutional Council has upheld a law passed by parliament to legalise assisted dying in specific circumstances, while striking down a separate bill that sought to ban under-15s from using social media.

The council, France’s highest constitutional authority, issued its rulings on Friday. The decisions mark both a victory and a setback for President Emmanuel Macron, who had championed both policies.

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France is set to join several European countries that have already legalised assisted dying, including Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg, among others.

“This decision marks the culmination of a long democratic and parliamentary effort, conducted with listening, respect, and rigour,” Elisabeth Borne, MP and former French prime minister, said in a post on X about the assisted-dying decision.

“I welcome this definitive validation of a text that guarantees everyone the freedom to choose, within a strict and protective framework.”

The council upheld the law in its entirety while clarifying three provisions, including the so-called conscience clause, under which pharmacists may refuse to assist a patient in ending their life.

Private treatment centres can also refuse to participate in the procedure if it goes against their mission, and other centres can serve local needs. Lastly, in the case of protected patients, the opinion of the person responsible for their welfare must be taken into account.

French citizens and legal residents can request medical support in ending their lives under strict conditions. The legislation stipulates that the patient must be “suffering from an incurable, life-threatening illness in an advanced or terminal phase”, and that the illness must cause “constant physical or psychological suffering that is untreatable or unbearable”. Lastly, the patient must exercise free and informed consent.

The French National Assembly passed the bill last month by a majority of 50, with 291 voting in favour and 241 against.

Meanwhile, the Constitutional Court struck down legislation banning under-15s from social media, citing freedom of expression.

“By prohibiting minors under the age of fifteen from accessing certain online services, the law inherently requires every person, even an adult, to prove their age before accessing them,” the court said in its decision.

“However, by failing to specify the conditions and limits under which such proof must be provided, the legislature has not established the legal safeguards necessary to ensure compliance with these requirements,” it added. The court also said that the law fails to safeguard people’s privacy.

The bill was one of Macron’s flagship policies and was passed by parliament last month.

It stipulated that everyone in France would have to verify their age to access social media sites, and it was supposed to come into effect in January 2027. Macron was eager for the bill to be passed before the presidential election next year.

After Friday’s ruling, Macron asked Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu to work on a new “legally robust draft” of the legislation.

Last month, Amnesty International responded to the French parliament’s decision to impose the social media ban on teens, urging lawmakers to focus their efforts on forcing companies to redesign their apps, including what it described as “addictive features”.

“There is no doubt that regulating platforms to protect children is an imperative of our time. We commend states for taking social media harms seriously but rather than pursuing blanket bans, efforts should be on forcing platforms to abandon their reckless pursuit of profit to the detriment of human rights,” Secretary General Agnes Callamard said.

“Building safe platforms requires a robust response. To ensure platforms are spaces where children can access community, connection and knowledge in a healthy and safe way, governments should first focus on banning the features that drive harm, including engagement-based algorithms that Amnesty International’s research has shown can draw children into rabbit holes of depressive and suicidal content.”

Growing up, filmmaker Fernando Eimbcke didn’t get to watch the scene in “The Breakfast Club” where the teenage characters smoke marijuana. That moment was removed from the VHS copy of the 1980s classic he’d rented because of strict censorship in Mexico at the time.

Drug use or not, that John Hughes movie, as well “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” impacted him profoundly. “Those were movies that spoke to young people, and in Mexico there wasn’t much cinema aimed at teens,” Eimbcke tells me in Spanish on a video call from Mexico City.

From his indie trench, Eimbcke, 55, has tried to fill that void in Mexican cinema — starting with his 2004 acclaimed debut “Temporada de patos” (Duck Season), about two teen boys spending a day without adult supervision. Since then, in films like “Lake Tahoe” (2008) or “Club Sandwich” (2013), the woes of adolescence have dominated his purview.

With “Olmo,” in theaters Friday, Eimbcke has adapted his career-long interest on the youth’s preoccupations to a story on this side of the Mexico-U.S. border for the first time.

Set and filmed on location in Las Cruces, N.M., his bilingual coming-of-age dramedy follows the titular Olmo (played by Aivan Uttapa), a charismatic Mexican American 14-year-old boy in the 1970s, whose bedridden immigrant father requires around-the-clock care.

The tightly written and humorously bittersweet narrative (co-penned by Eimbcke and Vanesa Garnica) unfolds over the course of a fateful Saturday. Nina Sandoval (Melanie Frometa), Olmo’s crush, invites him and his boot-wearing best friend Miguel (Diego Olmedo) to a party, with the condition that they bring a stereo. But Olmo has also been tasked with looking after dad Nestor (Gustavo Sánchez Parra), while his mother works.

Olmo must decide between fulfilling his duty or pursuing his age-appropriate impulse for fun.

It was during the six years that Eimbcke lived in Germany that Plan B, the American production company behind titles like “Moonlight,” reached out with an idea for him to write a screenplay about a Mexican American character. That project didn’t come to fruition, but Eimbcke took advantage of their initial interest to create his own story.

Eimbcke had long been interested in stories of migration, and in the dynamics that occur within “bicultural” families. His experience living abroad heightened this curiosity.

“I’m surprised to see the fear that governments and society have regarding migration today. It’s one of the best things that can happen to a culture,” Eimbcke says. “Everyone is talking about Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey,’ and the story of Odysseus is a story of migration.”

Among the key inspirations that shaped how Eimbcke and Garnica (who have been friends since they were 14 years old) conceived “Olmo” were Dominican American author Junot Díaz’s work, as well as Kevin Bubriski’s photography book “The New Mexicans: 1981-83.”

“He photographed Mexican Americans in the 1980s in New Mexico, and that gave us many ideas,” he says. “He has some incredible, truly beautiful photos of Mexican Americans.”

While scouting locations in New Mexico, the production interacted with local Latino families. In those households, Eimbcke witnessed immigrant parents speaking Spanish to their children who replied to them in English. Similar exchanges happen in “Olmo.”

“If communication is already difficult within a family when everyone speaks the same language, the idea of a family speaking two languages struck me as absolutely fascinating. Rather than an obstacle, I saw it as an opportunity to explore their relationship,” he explains. “Language isn’t always that important. When Olmo and Néstor argue over the stereo, you never really know if they actually understand each other through words or not.”

The complex intricacies of language manifested on Eimbcke’s first bilingual set.

During a scene where Olmo and Miguel finally fix the stereo and begin dancing, Eimbcke wanted a more rambunctious reaction. He started yelling, “More caos. More caos.” The assistant director looked puzzled, thinking the director was asking for “cows.” Eimbcke meant “chaos,” but pronounced it Spanish, which sounds like the farm animal in English.

“It was very difficult for me, because my English is far from perfect, it’s actually quite imperfect,” Eimbcke says sincerely.

For Uttapa, 17, these interactions seemed authentic; he is a second-generation Mexican American whose grandmother came to the U.S. from Mexico, while his mother was born here.

“My grandma speaks fluent Spanish, and she talks to me, my brothers, and my sister in Spanish, and we answer in English,” says Uttapa on Zoom. “That dynamic and that detail in the movie really did make it real to me.”

Based in Las Vegas, the fresh-faced Uttapa started acting at 12. He shared his interest in performing with his parents, who enrolled him with acting coach Frank Parillo. “I remember telling my mom, ‘I just want to entertain. I just want to be relatable and make an impact on people.’ If you can impact one person, then it pretty much is worth it,” he says.

Eimbcke cast him solely based on his self-tape after a long search for the right actor to become Olmo, primarily in Los Angeles and New York.

Since shooting “Olmo” when he was 14, Uttapa has appeared in the latest season of the hit medical drama “The Pitt,” playing Grady Barnhill, who has an asthma attack, in two episodes. Still, playing Olmo remains the highlight of his short but burgeoning career.

“I’ve gotten some auditions here and there about Mexican American or Latino characters, but if I’m being honest, none of them really clicked to me as much as it did with Olmo. I really felt a connection with the character,” Uttapa notes.

That Eimbcke set “Olmo” in the ’70s — based on his memories of watching “Saturday Night Fever” as a child and being enamored by disco music — helped Uttapa connect with the character. At several points in their adventure, Olmo and Miguel break out their best dance moves.

His mother, Uttapa says, thinks of him as an “old soul,” given his eclectic taste in music, from Elvis Presley and Del Shannon to AC/DC and Led Zeppelin.

“I was already familiar with cumbia, because my mom would always teach me,” Uttapa says. “The disco dancing wasn’t really that hard for me because I grew up loving ’70s music, so I’d always dance in my room to it. And being able to show it on screen was really special.”

Eimbcke says he has no secret technique to obtain wonderful performances from his teen stars; the only strategy that works is to lean into fun. “Teenagers are very willing to play. They are willing to take risks,” the director adds. “And I always love combining two schools of acting: the professional and the nonprofessional.” The actors who play Olmo’s parents, Gustavo Sánchez Parra and Andrea Suárez Paz, are seasoned Mexican thespians.

And while Eimbcke may very well be the Mexican John Hughes, there are certainly uniquely Mexican, and perhaps unexpected, references that were foundational for him as an artist.

“I also grew up watching a lot of telenovelas. They were really formative for me, specifically, the telenovelas on the local Channel 2,” Eimbcke confesses. “I remember there was one I followed religiously called ‘Quinceañera,’ starring Thalia. I loved it.”

More than 1,150 cases have been referred to the National Crime Agency (NCA)’s Cyber Choices scheme in the last eight years – nearly 600 of those were in the last three years.

Authorities warn teenage hacking groups are playing an increasingly prominent role in serious cyber-attacks.

Young, English-speaking hackers have been linked to attacks on major organisations including Transport for London (TfL) and MGM Grand in 2024, and Marks and Spencer and the Co-op in 2025.

Individuals are also being increasingly targeted in hacks for their cryptocurrency holdings.

“It certainly has become more of a problem,” said Paul Foster, who leads cyber prevention work at the NCA.

“Certainly English-speaking, western world individuals that we know are now more active in cyber-crime.”

He said young people were engaged with online activity and devices at increasingly young ages exposing them to criminal communities and influences.

Police say many young offenders do not initially set out to become criminals.

Instead, they often begin by experimenting with technology, testing systems or trying to bypass restrictions before becoming drawn into online communities where hacking is encouraged.

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A French teenager has been fined about $465 after pleading guilty to a public nuisance charge in Singapore for licking a straw. Didier Gaspard Owen Maximilien went viral when he posted a video of himself licking the straw and placing it back in a juice vending machine.

After a difficult start to his international career in England, teen prodigy Sooryavanshi stepped up against Zimbabwe.

India’s teenage batting sensation ‌Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has shown remarkable maturity over the past six months, a quality ⁠that has enabled ⁠him to thrive in high-pressure matches after a rapid rise in cricket, India T20 coach VVS Laxman said.

Sooryavanshi smashed an 18-ball half-century in the opening ⁠T20 against Zimbabwe before scoring 81 on Sunday as India completed a 3-0 sweep of the hosts.

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The 15-year-old, who was fast-tracked into international cricket following a breakthrough Indian Premier League ⁠season, was named the player of the series after scoring two half-centuries in the three-match contest.

“Very mature. That’s what I really appreciate about Vaibhav,” Laxman told reporters in Zimbabwe.

“With every experience and every match, he understands, assesses and gets better. He reviews every practice session, not just matches.

“His maturity, ‌understanding and awareness over the last six months have skyrocketed. That’s why he’s been able to handle tough situations and perform under pressure against the best players.”

Sooryavanshi’s success in Southern Africa came after a difficult start to his international career in England earlier this month.

The youngest player to represent India registered scores of 14, 13 and 15 in his first three T20 internationals before being left out of the fifth ⁠match.

Laxman, who has tracked Sooryavanshi’s progress from age-group cricket through ⁠the IPL and into the senior national side, said the teenager’s willingness to learn had been one of his greatest strengths, but managing his fitness remained an important area of development.

“The one area we want him ⁠to improve is his overall fitness,” Laxman said.

“He’s a very young boy. He himself wants to get better in every aspect ⁠of the game.

“Even today, when he got injured, he still wanted to stay on the field”, the coach added, referring to Sooryavanshi’s effort while ⁠attempting a diving catch running in from deep square leg.

“It was our physio who asked him to come off. That’s the eagerness and earnestness he has to contribute in ‌every possible way to the team.”

Laxman said he was not concerned by the left-hander’s struggles in England and backed him to build on his strong start to international cricket.

“I’m ‌sure ‌he will progress and break all the records at the international level. He’s got all the potential and ability to do that,” he added.

TEEN Mom alum Nathan Griffith looks like he’s aged quickly during his latest stint in prison.

In his latest mugshot, former MTV star Nathan, 38, has deep wrinkles in his brows and a long beard as he serves time behind bars in Nevada after he was arrested twice for domestic violence in the past few years.

As The U.S. Sun previously reported, he was sentenced to four years in prison in May 2025 after he was charged with domestic battery in 2023 and again two years later.

He was busted for strangling his sister Heather in the first incident, then charged with assaulting his ex-girlfriend Anastasia and violating his probation in the second.

Nathan had a hearing to request an early release on parole in April, The Ashley’s Reality Roundup first reported.

“I have failed in my decision-making,” Nathan said during the hearing, according to the outlet.

“I have failed in numerous of things I have done in life. And I have failed as a human. Words cannot express how regrettable I am in for my decisions and actions.

“Over the last few years, I became so pathetic that I didn’t care about myself or anything, not even my life.

“I’m sure the parole board has received a few letters describing who I was in my former years, of how great of a person I was.

“We can sit here listening to the many marvelous things I have done and accomplished, or how nice, kind and charitable I am.”

“But the attributes and accomplishments did not land me here in prison.

“My lack of insight and compassion, and selfishness has put me here. I was hurting so intensely inside that I couldn’t manage my pain nor myself.”

He also admitted he struggles with alcoholism, The Ashley added.

As The U.S. Sun reported, he checked into rehab in 2024, though sobriety did not seem to stick.

Nathan is actively working to change his life in prison, he claimed during the parole hearing, completing 11 education certificates, including a trauma program and anger management course.

His parole was approved in July, though he does not have to legally be released until November.

Nathan is the ex-fiancee and second baby daddy of Teen Mom star Jenelle Evans, with whom he shares son Kaiser, 12.

Nathan is still married to May Oyola after their 2022 wedding, despite separating for a brief time in 2025.

In 2021, he told The U.S. Sun he struggles with PTSD and other mental health issues after serving time in the United States Marine Corps.

I was warned in the waiting room of Pasadena’s WeFly: “This is not an arcade,” said flight trainer Corry Joyce. No, what WeFly offers is a professional-grade simulator, one that is traditionally used to train pilots. I am not a pilot, or a pilot-to-be, but I wanted a sense of how planes work, and maybe a chance to fly over my hometown. Only once I strapped into my seat, I found myself to be incredibly nervous. There was no danger here. Joyce, thankfully, would intervene at any mistake, and would helpfully remind me that, unlike real planes, “This one has a pause button.”

And yet to set foot in a WeFly cockpit is to be alternately in awe and overwhelmed. I was in a near 1:1 replica of the insides of a Boeing 737 Max. Buttons, knobs, switches and flashing lights surrounded me. And to fly a plane, I would have to let go of everything I knew about driving a car. Turning in the air, for instance, is much different than turning on a runway. And do I watch the screen, or look out the windshield? Often the former, even though I enjoyed buzzing Long Beach’s Queen Mary, flying under the Golden Gate Bridge and circling Chicago’s Wrigley Field. When it came time to land however, my palms got a little sweaty. Navigating height, winds and the steadiness of my plane was a challenge, one akin to handing a grade-schooler a calculus book, summarized Joyce. Let’s just say I needed his co-piloting skills. And I’m not great at math.

Typically, WeFly’s clientele, says Joyce, are a mix of aviation aficionados or non-commercial pilots. The space also gets a fair share of those with a fear of flight, arriving at WeFly with the hopes to conquer it. “They want a sense of control,” Joyce tells me. But WeFly is also ideal for anyone who is amazed by air flight, or those who may someday dream of being a pilot. Though it uses “Microsoft Flight Simulator,” it is no game. Sessions for 30 minutes start at $129, and WeFly’s trainers will tailor it toward one’s experience. I made sure, for instance, that crashing was turned off. But I forgot, however, to turn with the brakes when it came time to land. Yet the plane was intact, and, as Joyce reminded me, “At least you’re on airport property.”

It’s not often that I remark on a casting announcement, much less one about “Scooby-Doo,” but the second I opened an email from Netflix, my jaw dropped.

A chocolate brown Great Dane puppy with blue eyes and a teal collar sitting on a tile floor gazed at me from my computer screen — I squealed. I mean, look at him. His floppy ears, grumpy little face and paws you just want to shake hands with. He’s perfect.

“Scooby-Doo: Origins” is the streamer’s upcoming live-action series, slated for release in 2027, featuring this mystery-solving pup. It marks the first time a real dog has played Scooby-Doo. For many viewers, their first exposure to Scooby and his gang was via the ‘70s Hanna-Barbera animated version, which aired on Cartoon Network in reruns in the ‘90s and early aughts, or the reboots on ABC and the WB, now the CW, more recently. Several live-action theatrical and TV films have been made over the years, but they’ve always featured a computer-generated dog. Yes, that means it took nearly six decades to have a real-life Scooby.

The previously announced cast includes key players in the Scooby gang: Mckenna Grace as Daphne Blake, Tanner Hagen as Shaggy Rogers, Abby Ryder Fortson as Velma Dinkley and Maxwell Jenkins as Fred Jones. Paul Walter Hauser is also slated to appear as a series regular in an unnamed role. Showrunners Josh Appelbaum and Scott Rosenberg helm the series.

According to the show’s logline, it’s a “modern reimagining of the iconic mystery-solving group of teens and their very special dog” that takes place at summer camp. Said dog may have been witness to a supernatural murder, leading the group of teens to set out to solve the case. It’s an origin story for Scooby and his gang.

While I wouldn’t consider myself a “Scooby-Doo” superfan, I am a fan of very cute dogs. I’ll have my Scooby snacks ready in case we ever cross paths.

DISGRACED reality TV star Stephen Bear has set up a market stall selling £2 smoothies with his pregnant teenage wife.

Bear, 36, was spotted on Sunday flogging fruit juice in Walthamstow, north-east London, with his Brazilian missus Miami, 19.

The former Ex on the Beach cast member was sentenced in March 2023 to 21 months in prison for uploading CCTV footage of himself having sex with ex-girlfriend Georgia Harrison, 31, to his OnlyFans account without consent.  

An eyewitness who saw the Walthamstow-born sex offender, who won the 18th series of Celebrity Big Brother in 2016, said: “I was walking past the market at about 1pm on Sunday and spotted him and recognised him from Ex on the Beach.

“He had set up one of those folding tables and someone stopped and asked him for a selfie.

“By the time I went back that way around an hour later they had gone.

“They were doing different flavours like strawberry and mango, putting the fruit in a nutribullet blender and selling them for just £2 in those plastic cups with the round lid on the top.

“It’s hard to think he’s even making a profit at that price, fruit is so expensive at the moment.”  

Bear announced his intention to set up a stall in the market in a social media video posted three weeks ago.

But he said it would likely be after he makes his boxing debut on July 25.
He is due to fight Andy “The Silencer” Lee at York Hall in Bethnal Green, east London.

In the clip posted to his TikTok on May 10, in which he can be seen being driven by his brother Rob, Bear said: “We’ve got some breaking news guys.

“Me and Rob’s decided we’re going to inquire and get a market stall down Walthamstow market.

“We’re thinking you don’t want to travel far to sell your bits and pieces, and if you never need to store anything, the house is, like, five minutes away from Walthamstow market.

“So send me a DM, what you think we should sell on our stall and then we’re going to inquire.

“Probably going to be after my boxing match, July 25, I’m going to get that out of the way first.”

After Rob suggested selling T-shirts or fruit and veg, Bear said: “I think if you’re holding fruit and veg, it’s going to go off, so we’re not going to do that.

“But we’re going sell something out of the ordinary.

“Send us a DM, what you think we should sell on our market stall.”

Bear married then 18-year-old Miami in her native Brazil in July 2025, around 18 months after he was released from HMP Brixton.  

The couple – who post X-rated content together – announced in March that they are expecting their first child.

Bear, who served 10 and a half months of his sentence, was ordered to pay his former Love Island and The Only Way is Essex star ex Georgia £207,900 in civil damages.

In March 2024, Georgia later said that she had received “not one penny” of it or the £212,515 she was owed for lawyers’ fees.

Bear was then ordered to pay HM Treasury the £22,305 he made in profits from subscribers after uploading the video and £5,000 in compensation to Georgia.

The Sun asked Bear for comment.

WASHINGTON — Shrey Parikh felt the pressure of arriving at the Scripps National Spelling Bee as a favorite, but his confidence showed every time he got a word he knew. And when the bee came down to a lightning-round tiebreaker against Ishaan Gupta, Shrey left no doubt.

Shrey turned a tense, high-quality final into a blowout Thursday night, racing through the 90-second “spell-off” and getting 32 words right to be crowned the best young speller in the English language. Ishaan spelled 25 words correctly in the tiebreaker.

A 14-year-old from Rancho Cucamonga, Shrey finished third in 2024 but lost his school bee last year when he was battling a fever. He has dominated the bee circuit since, winning several highly competitive online competitions against many of the same kids he outlasted this week in the nation’s capital.

Ishaan, a 12-year-old seventh-grader from Jersey City, N.J., was a semifinalist this year, outperformed some veteran spellers in the finals, and has another year of eligibility left.

Sarv Dharavane, a 12-year-old sixth-grader from Dunwoody, Ga., finished third for the second consecutive year and has two more years to improve that placement.

For the first time in the bee’s history, second- and third-place finishers from the same year have gone on to win. Faizan Zaki won last year, and two years ago he was the runner-up, just ahead of Shrey.

Sporting a business-casual look with a dark, long-sleeve collared shirt, khakis and sneakers, the lanky Shrey strode to the microphone with a dour, apprehensive expression that instantly vanished when he heard his word from pronouncer Jacques Bailly and nodded vigorously — his tell that, yes, he knew it.

Upon hearing the announcement confirming his victory in the spell-off, Shrey turned and shook his competitor’s hand.

He can credit his victory to intense preparation. Shrey’s coaching team included Sam Evans, who has tutored each of the past three champions, and Sohum Sukhatankar, a co-champion himself in 2019. He competed nonstop against other top spellers, pored through advanced study guides and tried to eliminate the variables that had led to the few unexpected exits of his long spelling career.

Former spellers, coaches and other observers described this group of finalists as unusually strong, and they showed off their skills early by going 18 for 18 to start, breezing through the first spelling and vocabulary rounds. Aiden Meng of Orinda, Calif., ended that streak when he was tripped up by “catometope” to start the second spelling round.

Then the crowd gasped when the bell rung on two thought to be capable of winning it all: Oliver Halkett for “Faesulae” and Zwe Spacetime for “vaesite,” words with tricky combinations of origins and vowel sounds.

The bee’s move to Constitution Hall, a point of contention for spellers and their families because of the inconveniences it caused, helped imbue the event with a lively atmosphere, with more intimate seating and better sight lines bringing the crowd closer to the action.

New television host Mina Kimes of ESPN narrated the action smoothly alongside longtime bee analyst Paul Loeffler.

Nuckols writes for the Associated Press.