Every now and then a rom-com comes along with an absolutely ludicrous premise that we just sort of accept because it creates the unique conditions for watching a pair of budding movie stars fall in love. This year’s entrant is “One Night Only,” written by Travis Braun, directed by Will Gluck and set in a pretty familiar if spit-shiny New York City. The catch is that America, for some reason, has outlawed premarital sex, with the exception of one night a year, when singles can get their freak on. It’s like “The Purge” but for sex, so the Sex Purge.
Braun’s script was on the Black List, a collection of the best unproduced screenplays in Hollywood, which tends to reward hooky, high-concept projects, often to mixed results. That is most definitely the case with “One Night Only,” a film that exists on the vapors of a bizarre plot and the appeal of hot actors.
You probably have a lot of questions, and “One Night Only” is only going to satisfy some of them. How does the government police the premarital sex? With bio-sensors, of course, as explained by a drunken tech bro (Nicholas Braun) in an exclusive lounge. Singles receive small tattoos that turn from red to green during the 12 hours that premarital sex is permitted, body modifications that measure things like oxytocin and dopamine and whether one sensor is in close proximity to another. Sexual acts that are solo, distanced or parallel are permitted, yet many questions still remain about the kinds of hookups that can be had during the mandated ban.
The why of it all is much less satisfactory. An upbeat news report explains that rates of teen pregnancy are down, which is a very 1980s justification. The whole gambit feels dated and underexplored, both conceptually and politically — so you’re saying single straight people are an oppressed sexual minority? Maybe that idea should have been unpacked a little bit more.
On the night of the Sex Purge, the streets are flooded with attractive, thin, largely heterosexual couples making out all over the place. Perish the thought of being single and vulnerable, as they say on “Love Island,” on such a night, which is how we find our two winsome protagonists, Owen (Callum Turner) and Allie (“A Complete Unknown’s”Monica Barbaro). Owen’s a pizza maker whose girlfriend (Maya Hawke) wants to explore someone else; advertising jingle singer Allie has been ditched by her best friend (King Princess) for a prince.
These two strangers are both despondent and desperate. When they bump into each other on the street, a meet-cute turns into a meet-puke, and so the story follows an enemies-to-friends-to-lovers track, as they spend one crazy night continually running into each other on their increasingly urgent sex quest. The script does a good job of throwing up plausible obstacles and sticky situations for these two to navigate: price-gouged condoms, police raids, catfishing, injuries, parental ambushes, etc.
Turner and Barbaro have charm up the wazoo, and Gluck does a fair amount of key-jangling to distract from the nagging issues of the premise itself. There are repeated gags about Allie’s job singing covers of popular songs reworked for pharmaceutical companies and almost too many celebrity cameos. Every time a celeb’s face pops up it’s essentially an “ooh, shiny thing!” moment so that we stop thinking about the intricacies of the world where Sex Purge happens. Allie’s hopeless romanticism isn’t well-established, and there’s a whole complicated climax (no pun intended) involving the Empire State Building that could have been a lot smoother and more intuitive.
Allie’s most impressive feat is making it 12 hours in New York City in spike heels and a sequined micro-mini, but rom-coms are the stuff of fantasy anyway. Yet “One Night Only” doesn’t present us with fun escapism but, rather, a misguided, underbaked and very straight-guy fantasy of what something like this might look like, which is essentially … lots of people kissing in public? It’s tame and weirdly conservative.
Turner and Barbaro give it their best, but not even their charisma can reliably bolster the inherent structural flaws of this concept and its execution. “One Night Only” feels purged of a brain.
Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.
‘One Night Only’
Rated: R, for sexual material, language and brief nudity
One thing is certain — Mets relief pitcher Jefry Yan got everyone’s attention with his high-flying, post-strikeout celebration during his MLB debut on Wednesday in Cleveland against the Guardians.
Called up from triple-A Syracuse a day earlier, the 29-year-old Dominican left-hander took the mound to start the bottom of the sixth inning and faced Guardians pinch-hitter Ángel Martínez. Five pitches into the at-bat, Yan caught the hitter looking on an 88.7-mph slider for a called third strike.
Then came the celebration. Yan jumped up — way up — into the air, contorting his legs into somewhat of a split. He landed in a crouch position and slapped the ground before popping up, standing still with his hands up for a fraction of a second, then walking back up the mound with a bit of a leg slide to commemorate his first Major League strikeout.
“Once I had him with two strikes I said, you know what, I’m going to throw that slider,” Yan said through an interpreter after the Mets’ 6-5 victory in 10 innings. “And if I freeze him, which is exactly what I did, I celebrated accordingly.”
Several batters later, however, Yan commemorated his second major league strikeout similarly. Yan had given up two singles and a walk to load the bases before getting Cleveland designated hitter Chase DeLauter on a 90-mph slider for strike three and the second out of the inning.
Once again, Yan did the whole jumping, landing, ground-slapping thing (no slide this time though). Later in the game, Cleveland’s José Ramírez was seen in the dugout apparently imitating Yan’s airborne style of rejoicing.
While most MLB fans might be seeing Yan’s post-strikeout air show for the first time, the celebrations have actually become a signature move for the player during his long, unconventional journey to the majors.
After initially signing with the Angels organization as a teenage international free agent in 2013, Yan eventually spent several years out of affiliated baseball, playing for semipro and amateur teams while also working odd jobs.
He was signed by the Miami Marlins organization in 2021, followed by the Saitama Seibu Lions of Nippon Professional Baseball and the Colorado Rockies organization before the Mets last August.
Yan has other methods of celebrating during games as well. On Wednesday, after Guardians right fielder Jo Adell — playing his second game for Cleveland after being traded by the Angels earlier in the week — grounded into a fielder’s choice at shortstop to end the inning, Yan did a low slide move and slapped his chest, then smacked his glove emphatically several times and blew a kiss toward the sky while leaving the field.
“If they want to yell at me, if they want to boo me, they can do whatever they want,” Yan said. “I’m in my zone. And yeah, I’m going to enjoy my game any way that I want to.”
Yan gave up two hits and no runs with two strikeouts and one walk in one inning pitched. Five of his pitches, all sliders, reached triple digits on the speed gun.
“It’s real stuff. It’s really impressive,” Mets interim manager Andy Green said. “To get out of a bases-loaded jam, get your first punchout, just excited for him. He deserves that.”
Rhea Seehorn possesses what Vince Gilligan calls “Jumbotron face.” As the creator of “Pluribus” and (with Peter Gould) “Better Call Saul,” Gilligan has relied on Seehorn’s ability to broadcast what her characters are thinking and feeling without saying much of anything. Gilligan loves silences and uses them in long stretches, allowing — or, perhaps more accurately, demanding — his audience to figure out what’s happening on their own.
And in Seehorn he found someone who, with a mere sidelong glance or knitted brow, can let you in on Gilligan’s secrets.
But Seehorn carries this ability wherever she goes, she tells me. People take a look at her and make assumptions. She’s 5 foot 4, lean and seems athletic, though she says she’s “the least athletic person that anybody knows.” That hasn’t stopped her from being cast as a golf instructor in the upcoming second season of the Owen Wilson comedy series “Stick” and a track and field coach in a movie she’s shooting right now called “Running.”
“I do not run,” she told the movie’s director, Gavin O’Connor. “I can tell people to run, but you don’t want to see me running.”
It’s not just work, though, where these deductions are made. Up until a few years ago, when people started recognizing her for playing poker-faced attorney Kim Wexler on “Better Call Saul,” Seehorn would be standing in a store and customers figured she worked there. Shopping at the Gap, she’d be asked if a T-shirt comes in medium. In Target, she’d be queried about where to find the Christmas decorations. Even on set, a background person would approach her, wondering if there’s any more plain bagels at craft service.
Why do you think this happens? I ask her. Because, even with her fame and her Golden Globe win for playing Carol, a sad woman forced to save the world from happiness and the hive mind in “Pluribus,” Seehorn, 54, says this still takes place on a regular basis.
“I’ve asked my friends, and apparently my daydreaming or thinking face looks focused,” she says. “I guess my interior monologue is highly interpretable to people, and if you’re standing in a store and you see somebody really thinking and thinking, they’re like, ‘She must be restocking the shelves.’ When in reality, I’m probably thinking about what I said wrong to somebody at a party in the ’80s.”
Rhea Seehorn as Carol Sturka in “Pluribus.”
(Apple TV)
Seehorn bursts out laughing, which she does often and with great gusto throughout our conversation. We’re at The Times, nine years after her last visit to our offices, which I know because she shows me a photo on her camera roll of her youngest stepson, McLain, taken when we were downtown and he was 9, young enough to still be thrilled about being in a “newspaper building.”
This prompts another take-your-kids-to-work memory.
“I brought him and Gray [the other stepson she shares with her partner of 12 years, real estate agent Graham Larson] to the set of ‘Better Call Saul’ when they were 7 and 9, and the thing they were most excited about was signing an NDA,” Seehorn says. “Everybody in the production office made a huge deal of it, pretending like they were spies, because I knew they’d think that was cool.”
Seehorn played Kim opposite Bob Odenkirk on “Better Call Saul” for six seasons, creating a character that evolved from a minor role to what Gilligan calls the “backbone of the series.” Dazzled by her versatility, Gilligan wrote “Pluribus” for Seehorn. But he didn’t want to tell her about it until he had a script and not just an outline. He asked “Saul” executive producer Melissa Bernstein to act as a spy and tell him if Seehorn was close to taking another job. One day, during the show’s final season, Bernstein told him he’d better pounce.
“I didn’t want to miss my opportunity,” Gilligan says over the phone. “That would have been a bummer. Rhea is the manager that makes the show work.”
(Ian Spanier / For The Times)
Where Kim Wexler was a composed and poised overachiever, suppressing her emotions when things (as they often did) spiraled out of control, “Pluribus’” Carol Sturka lets it all hang out. She’s volatile and angry, drinking heavily to obliterate her regret and rage. The characters share a fierce drive to fight for what they believe is right, which, for Carol, means maintaining her autonomy and resisting the good-vibes group contentment of the Others. A hero has never been more reluctant than this curmudgeon.
Seehorn is the ultimate professional: pleasant, quick to credit her colleagues, a team player. So Carol’s bitter fury feels distinct from her friendly personality as well as anything we’ve ever seen her do onscreen. But it’s not entirely foreign. Talking about the “Pluribus” season finale, she said that while she’s never murdered anyone, she has felt out-of-control rage.
When did this happen?
“I’m not going to tell you that!” she answers, laughing.
I’m just trying to picture it, I tell her.
“I know, because a lot of people are like, ‘I’ve never seen you mad,’” Seehorn says. “I suppress. I suppress too much. That’s something I work on with my therapist. I used to scream and yell as a teenager. That’s how I fought. And I just decided in college one day — I think I had an out-of-body experience — that I don’t want to be this person. And it probably moved the needle too far the other way. Now, when I’m angry, often I withdraw and get very quiet. I say everything is fine and then I’m never speaking to you again.”
That could have made playing a highly reactive character like Carol therapeutic. Instead, it did a number on Seehorn’s body.
(Ian Spanier / For The Times)
“Unlike Carol, I cry often when I’m extremely angry and in the middle of trying to tell someone how upset I am,” Seehorn says. “Like the anger disturbs my body so much that it makes me cry. No matter how much I tried to unplug from Carol, my body didn’t understand that I was pretending.”
We start talking about relationships and unhealthy withdrawal and letting things fester to the point that when the emotions come out, it feels abrupt and the other person has no idea what’s going on. And out of nowhere, Seehorn gives me a taste of Carol, growling the words, “Can you just get it?” with such ferocity that I’m almost physically blown back in my chair.
“God, you scared me with that,” I tell her.
“Thank you,” Seehorn says, beaming.
Because she’s a (generally) well-adjusted human being, Seehorn has developed ways of dealing with the terror and flop sweat that comes with playing the lead on an expensive, highly touted TV series, one that earned 18 Emmy nominations, including one for her lead turn. She converted the garage at her home into what sounds like a veritable wonderland. In one corner, there’s a tiny gym. There’s a place to record voice-over work, not a proper booth, which she’d like someday, but close. There’s a space to be quiet and read scripts. There’s an area where she can paint, sculpt, do jigsaw puzzles, Lego sets, embroider — all the things that ease her anxiety but also help her work through creative blocks.
“If I have too much of a vice grip on a scene and I can’t figure it out, I’ll do a jigsaw puzzle or draw while running the lines,” Seehorn says.
She loves creating things, but she also loves projects that involve following instructions. That soothes her. In the middle of enthusing about a cross-stitch embroidery project, she says, “Don’t roll your eyes at me!” Which I most definitely was not doing. That was my daydreaming, thinking face.
(Ian Spanier / For The Times)
Sometimes these projects make their way inside the house, where Seehorn might turn on the television and watch what she calls “murder TV,” sitting under a big, curved metal dome lamp that feels like an interrogation spotlight. There, her brain still working on what she was doing in her office, she’ll lose herself on multiple fronts as she wrestles with a scene.
Seehorn loves watching shows like “Dateline” because they provide a sense of order in a chaotic world. Bad guy. Bad guy gets caught. Bad guy goes to jail. All is well. But it goes beyond that. As an actor, she loves watching people trying to lie — and failing. She can’t believe how bad people are at not telling the truth.
“Every single time, I’m like, ‘Dude’s lying,’” Seehorn says. “Women too, where I’m watching an interrogation scene and thinking, ‘There’s a zero percent chance you did not know someone was going to break in and shoot your husband.’ It’s funny because as actors, whenever we’re playing criminals that are lying to the police, we’re really good at it.”
Does that mean Seehorn is an adept liar? Yes and no. You’ve seen her act. She can make you believe anything. But when she does lie, she is compelled to confess, even when the fib is innocuous.
“I’ll be in a conversation where there’s a bunch of cool people talking about a movie they saw, and I’ll be like, ‘Oh yeah, that was great!’” Seehorn says. “And then I’ll leave and then I’ll come back and say, ‘I didn’t actually see it. I’m sorry.’ And they’re like, ‘Who’s that weird girl?’ I’m good at lying, but bad at holding the guilt.”
So when you’re telling me you don’t know any details about the second season of “Pluribus,” are you misleading me? I ask.
“I know nothing!” Seehorn says. The atomic bomb in the crate that a helicopter carefully deposits in Carol’s driveway in the last scene? “As soon as they said, ‘Cut,’ I went up to Vince and asked, ‘Now can you tell me what we’re doing?’ And he said, ‘I have no idea.’”
“And all these months later, I know no more than that,” she continues.
But if you did…
“You’d be getting a phone call from me about an hour after we say goodbye, confessing all,” Seehorn answers, smiling.
Comedian and podcaster Christina Pazsitzky just dropped the “divorce episode” of “Your Mom’s House” and addressed her split from Tom Segura after 20 years as a couple: “Mom’s drinkin’ and smokin’ on this episode.”
Pazsitzky told guest host Duncan Trussell that she wanted to formally address the news after word got out that the comedy power couple had separated this year. “Yes, Tom and I are divorcing, and it is extremely sad,” she said, beginning to cry.
“Sorry, I didn’t want to cry this soon. It is very sad. That being said, we have tried to work it out for several years for the sake of our children and our family, and we gave it all we could, but we just couldn’t work things out. We are no longer a couple.”
Pazsitzky said the former couple were trying to make their two children a priority as they navigated the split.
“Look, we had 20 amazing years together, and that’s a really good run, I think, in a marriage,” she said, noting that the two had built their comedy careers, podcasting empire and a family over the course of their relationship.
“I wanted to address the audience specifically because we’ve been through a lot together — for those of you that have listened to us since the very beginning — we’ve been through Tom and I getting married and living in Silver Lake and being two broke comics. We’ve been through births and deaths, tragic accidents, cancer, COVID, all the things, and I want you to know that I’m still your mom, and I’m still here, and we will survive.”
The comedian reassured listeners that she and Segura were amicable and that there was no need to take sides. “This is not an ugly divorce,” she continued. “Like, we’re cool, dude.”
The two became a couple in their 20s while working as stand-ups on the Los Angeles comedy scene. Pazsitzky said the two were “kids” and that people change over the course of multiple decades. She looked back on the “wild ride” of being poor together, living in Silver Lake and getting married with $200 between the two of them.
“Cancer couldn’t kill me, you think a dude’s gonna f— take me out?”
George R.R. Martin says he fears “the worst may be yet to come” as he opened up about the personal challenges that ran parallel to a year of professional highs.
The fantasy author, who created the world of HBO series “Game of Thrones,” said in a post published to his website on Monday that he has “battled sadness and depression” amid a “stressful” and “overwhelming” year of some exciting endeavors, “dreams coming true” and “nightmares.” In his blog post, his first since February, Martin wrote that he has lost friends — he did not provide names — and briefly mused on aging: “I turned seventy-seven last September, and I tell you, getting old is no fun.”
“But there have been amazing times as well,” he continued, “I suppose that’s just life. Of course, I knew that.”
Martin, who is writing his long-awaited book “The Winds of Winter,” said he has fallen behind on blog entries and intends to get readers up to speed, “but my posts are likely to [be] short and rushed.” The author also highlighted the recent critical success of HBO’s “Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” also adapted from his work. While he acknowledged the drama’s nine Emmy nominations, “including the big one, Best Drama,” Martin also noted that his attendance at the upcoming Emmy Awards in September “depends…on, well a lot of things.”
His latest post rings similar to another entry he shared in March 2018, when he reveled in “lots of exciting things going on” but also shared with followers that he is “buried in work, so much that it is starting to overwhelm me.” He announced at the time he would be taking a break from writing his posts.
“I’ll return eventually,” he said in 2018, “Just don’t know when.”
Martin has faced seemingly endless questions about the status of “The Winds of Winter” and his ability to complete the planned sixth novel in his “A Song of Ice and Fire” series that inspired the hit HBO drama “Game of Thrones,” for more than a decade. He tried to shut down those concerns in 2014.
“I find that question pretty offensive, frankly, when people start speculating about my death and my health,” he told a Swiss newspaper at the time.
Since then he has assured fans that progress is ongoing, previously voicing hopes for completion dates that have since passed. What we do know is “it’s going to be a huge book,” Martin teased in 2020.
You can’t keep a beloved news team down, even after more than a decade since being yanked off the air in a move that stunned fans and local TV newsrooms.
For almost 20 years, KTTV Fox 11’s “Good Day L.A.” was hosted by Steve Edwards, Dorothy Lucey and Jillian Barberie, becoming a dominant fixture in the fiercely competitive morning show arena. The show’s popularity for a time outdistanced network morning shows and crosstown rivals “The KTLA Morning News.”
The trio’s freewheeling banter spiced with humorous mayhem and mischief enchanted legions of viewers while bringing freshness to the familiar formula of news, weather and sports. The distinct personalities meshed effortlessly — veteran newsman Edwards, relentlessly upbeat co-host Lucey and fiery weather reporter Barberie, who injected the proceedings with outrageous, at times crass comments along with declarations that “my breasts are real.”
An undercurrent of friction brought an edge to the breezy vibe, with Edwards often acting as the awkward buffer between Lucey and Barberie, who did little to disguise their dislike of each other. Barberie would go on to bash Lucey on Howard Stern’s radio show, calling her “very Christian and Bible-thumpy.” Lucey was frequently distraught by Barberie’s “mean.”
But that winning combination was broken up starting in May 2012, when Lucey was fired as part of a show revamp. Barberie was let go four months later after declining a demotion. And after continuing with other co-hosts, Edwards vanished from the show in December 2017 after allegations of sexual harassment, but there was never an official explanation from him or management about the reason for his departure. The exits sparked a wave of protests from viewers and celebrities, including Suzanne Somers, Piers Morgan and Simon Cowell of “American Idol.”
Dorothy Lucey, left, Steve Edwards and Jillian Barberie in 2001 on the set of Fox 11’s “Good Day L.A.”
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
But good days have returned for the former “Good Day L.A.” hosts. More than a decade after being let go, Edwards, Lucey and Barberie are fired up about their new venture.
The trio has reunited for “So Unanchored,” a weekly podcast fueled by spontaneous riffs on their years together, pop culture and their deep friendship. As they did on “Good Day L.A.,” they consistently interrupt one another and the chatter careens from one topic to the next without a breath. Complete sentences are rare.
“We have not missed a beat,” Edwards said as he, Lucey and Barberie relaxed in an office lounge after a recent taping. “It’s the most effortless thing. It makes us very happy when we get together. There’s an endorphin thing going on.”
“And we like each other more,” added Lucey.
They will tape a special live episode Wednesday at 11 a.m.. New episodes usually appear on Fridays.
The shattering of the “Good Day L.A.” team was particularly traumatic for Barberie, the breakout star of the trio. In addition to getting divorced after the Fox 11 job, she was later sideswiped by financial woes and a devastating health scare.
“I lost my job, got divorced and got cancer all at the same time,” said Barberie, her voice cracking as she sat near Edwards and Lucey in the lounge. “The fact that these two were a constant in my life during those 12 years when I was going through all those things is everything. I’m so grateful.”
Of course, there are major differences from their previous collaboration. While “Good Day L.A.” was broadcast at Fox 11’s massive West Los Angeles studio, “So Unanchored” is a no-frills affair staged at a Canoga Park office park.
The hosts sit in a small office, backed by nondescript office furniture and a framed poster of the vintage “Please Stand By” image broadcast by stations when there were technical difficulties.
Lucey, left, Edwards and Barberie in the Canoga Park office where they tape their podcast, “So Unanchored.”
(Annie Noelker/For The Times)
On their initial podcast, Barberie made it clear that there is no love lost when it comes to her former employer.
“I don’t want anything associated with that show,” she said. “Let’s start fresh, man. They used us and they treated us like s— at the end. Who needs them? Goodbye!”
The other major shift is the relationship between Lucey and Barberie.
“Dorothy and I love each other now,” Barberie said on one episode.
Lucey: “We do. Because the last time you saw us, we really didn’t like each other.”
Barberie: “And Steve has never been happier.”
Edwards: “You two are like sisters. You used to be like brothers — Cain and Abel.”
Barberie: “And then something happened between the three of us that got her and I close, and then I got cancer. She took me to all of my surgeries and took care of me. I’m telling you, it’s a beautiful thing.”
Lucey: “We still hate Steve, though.”
Barberie: “We have that in common.”
The burying of the hatchet is a great relief for Edwards, who was troubled by the tension between his colleagues during their time on “Good Day L.A.”
Barberie pressed Edwards on their first podcast: “Be honest, Steve. Did you like it when we didn’t get along?”
Edwards: “Sometimes it would get ugly and my stomach would turn.”
On “So Unanchored,” Barberie has revived her loose cannon role in their dynamic, raw and unfiltered. She will tear up, and moments later throw her head back with an explosive laugh that bounces off the studio walls.
She detailed her wild lifestyle during her TV days: “From 34 to 40, I was single, had five TV jobs, partied like a rock star, dated anyone I wanted and made a s—load of money.”
Though she eventually landed a talk show on KABC-AM 790 after leaving Fox 11, hard times hit in 2019 as she tried to make ends meet while raising two children as a divorced mom battling cancer.
“When I lost everything, I literally collapsed on my money manager’s table. I was bald and I started crying,” she said.
She listed her ranch-style Tarzana home, which was featured in “MTV Cribs,” for $2.5 million in 2021. She currently rents “a beautiful little apartment way out in Thousand Oaks. I love it and my life is quieter.”
Barberie was more explicit on the podcast: “I haven’t dated in 10 years. I have no tinglies down there. I’m dead from the waist down. I don’t want to date. I don’t want a man, an ape beside me at night if I’m having a hot flash. I have no nipples. I have no desire to cook, sit and talk with you. I don’t care.”
Edwards: “So you’re saying there’s a chance.”
Since leaving “Good Day L.A.,” Barberie, left, and Lucey have developed a close friendship. Edwards, standing center, said, “You two are like sisters. You used to be like brothers — Cain and Abel.”
(Annie Noelker / For The Times)
Scott Sternberg, whose production company produces “So Unanchored,” said “Good Day L.A.” was a clear standout on the morning show spectrum.
“There was something different about ‘Good Day L.A.’ from the other shows,” Sternberg said in a phone interview. “Their personalities were all different, but they could finish each other’s sentences and were not afraid to say what they wanted to say. I felt if I could bring them back together, there would be a huge audience who remembered them fondly.”
Asked to define the magic of their chemistry, Edwards said it was not instantaneous.
“At the time, there were five morning shows, including the network,” he said. “It took years for our thing to happen, but when it did, it happened big. We could do no wrong for 10 years. The ratings were crazy good. There was a run for many years when we were No. 1. We made them a lot of money.”
He continued: “Success is based on the relationship between the people on the show and the audience. Once that is established, it doesn’t matter if the show is good or bad that day. I was going through a lot with these two [Lucey and Barberie], and the audience was doing it with us. But the suits don’t care about that.”
The first indication that the show was in trouble came in 2017, when a new management team initiated a revamp of the morning show.
Lucey wrote at the time in her blog “God and Gossip” that her new boss told her that her voice, which has a trace of raspiness, “made his eyes bleed. Not the crusty yucky pink eye. New guy was saying when I spoke I made his eyes bleed. I have read that can happen after you vomit. Now I could almost see my husband saying something like that to me … But from a new boss…”
But station executives did not express regrets about dismissing Lucey, saying in a statement after her ouster: “The revitalization of ‘Good Day L.A.’ has been refreshing.”
Months later, Barberie was approached about taking a reduced role as a field reporter. She turned it down. Edwards’ departure caused a bigger stir because it was so abrupt. KTTV would say only that he was no longer employed by the station.
“Fox never issued a statement, and I never issued a statement,” Edwards said. “Obviously there was not agreement on what happened.”
As they prepared to leave the lounge, the three hugged each other warmly and said they were looking forward to getting together the following week.
“There is one word for us being back together,” Barberie said. “Home.”
Ariana Grande delivered a four-minute speech to more than 20,000 of her fans in Chicago on Monday night amid reports that she’s stepping away from the public eye due to online scrutiny.
During the first of three sold-out shows at Chicago’s United Center, the “Break Free” singer stopped the concert to address the widespread speculation surrounding her weekend announcement that she’d be stepping away from the public eye when her Eternal Sunshine tour concludes on Sept. 1.
Grande read the prepared statement from her phone, telling the audience that she didn’t want to get nervous and forget.
“Sometimes when a story comes out that’s not directly from me, things can get a little blown out of proportion,” she said. “So I just wanted to speak to my fans directly tonight because I love you so much.
“So basically, the announcement that was made yesterday was not a reactive or impulsive thing. It is something that I had decided. It’s a plan that I had quietly made a long time ago, and it’s a decision that was made from a thoughtful and empowered place, and I want you to know that many, many things can be true at the same time. I want to share this because I heard that my fans were worried that negativity was ruining things for me, but I just have to say, that could not be more the f— opposite.
“This is not what that is and I just want to make that very, very clear. Nothing can be ruined. Multiple things can be true at the same time. Boundaries can need to be set. Human beings can need a break sometimes. And also, this can be and will continue to be the greatest experience of my professional and creative life.
“I have one more thing to say,” she continued. “No matter what noises exist out there, nothing will ever be able to distort my reality or be more real to me, or louder to to me, than this love that we share, or than how it feels to make art with the people that I love and respect. Absolutely nothing will change that or distort that for me. And I want you to know that. I love you, and this is what I will always take with me and carry with me because the rest of that s— is not mine to carry, so I don’t carry it. I needed to get up here and differentiate that from my truth for you all, because I love you, and this tour has been the most healing, beautiful, corrective, magnificent, special experience and so has putting out [the album] “Petal.” It’s been extraordinary.
“I wish that words were enough to articulate just how much I love you all.”
A representative for Grande on Sunday announced her upcoming hiatus in a statement shared with multipleoutlets.
The announcement coincided with news that the Grammy-winning and Oscar-nominated star would be dropping out of Stephen Sondheim’s West End revival of “Sunday in the Park With George,” in which she was set to star next summer opposite Jonathan Bailey.
Grande “looks forward to finishing [her current] tour and ending it on a high note, both healthily and happily,” the statement said.
Grande will then take “a much-deserved break from public-facing work and appearances, which has led to endless, ongoing public scrutiny.”
The announcement followed the Friday release of Grande’s eighth studio album, “Petal,” and the accompanying music video for the title track in which the pop star takes out a panel of her critics with a chainsaw. In response to the video, fans and foes alike flooded the comments section with remarks about Grande’s appearance and apparent weight loss.
The Times’ pop music critic Mikael Wood wrote of the album, “[T]he pop superstar opens the spigot on what she’s described as an ‘unfiltered rage’ to blast any number of feckless exes, a prying public obsessed with her body and her personal life — and not least herself for allowing anyone the power to hurt her in the first place.”
CHICAGO — Just a few days ago, new Dodgers pitcher Tarik Skubal was on the other side, on a mid-market Detroit Tigers team that had hoped to unseat the Dodgers from the top of the league, before a disappointing season made them sellers at the trade deadline.
Still, with that perspective, he wasn’t going to entertain any talk about the Dodgers ruining baseball.
“I don’t really sympathize with people that blame the Dodgers for anything they’ve done,” Skubal said from the Barrel Room at Wrigley Field on Monday. “They’ve developed a really good organization. They draft well. They acquire talent really well. They retain talent. It’s a winning organization. Now the complaints seem to be [happening] because they’ve won the last two World Series. I don’t think it was like that three years ago. So I don’t really sympathize with people that are complaining. Because the Dodgers do all the right things.”
Skubal didn’t want to talk about his impending free agency. And he said he did not have any conversations with Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris about preferring to be traded to the Dodgers. Before the trade, he told Tigers reporters that he wanted to remain with the only team he’d known and compete for a championship there.
“Initial reaction, there was a lot of emotions,” Skubal said. “I spent eight years with the Detroit Tigers. That place will always be special to me no matter what. In the same breath, I’m excited to be here with these guys. When you watch them from across the way, see them do their thing on TV, you just have a lot of respect because they play the game the right way.
“The entire focus of this organization is on winning championships and that is my entire focus — playing baseball — so we’re very much aligned. I’m ready to go out there and compete and give this organization and city everything that I’ve got.”
The Dodgers put the final touches on their trade deadline, adding catching depth as Dalton Rushing went on the 10-day injured list with a sprained left elbow. The Dodgers added two backstops they’re already familiar with in Ben Rortvedt and Hunter Feduccia. They also added left-hander Kris Bubic, who is dealing with a shoulder injury.
It was clear all along, however, that Skubal was going to be the biggest splash of the deadline — for any team, really. And fuel for frustrated baseball fans upset about the Dodgers acquiring another star player.
“I think the Dodgers have done a fantastic job in player development,” said Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer, who also engaged in trade talks for Skubal. “They have a really good farm system, and Scott [Harris] did the best thing you could do for the Tigers and got a lot of talent back. And obviously they did the best thing for their team.
Dodgers pitcher Tarik Skubal throws in the outfield before the team’s game against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on Monday.
(David Banks / Associated Press)
“And he’s an incredible pitcher. I mean, there’s no question about that. And I guess we’ll see firsthand. But I know there’s been a reaction around baseball about it, but they put themselves in positions to do that deal, and they did, and that’s exactly what they should be doing.”
Skubal had accepted by the end of his last start that he was going to be moving on.
“Losing that game kind of felt like that was kind of it for me in Detroit,” he said. “So not surprised, but that didn’t make the news any easier because I love a lot of those people there. I’ve got a lot of respect about what they do and how they go about their business. A lot of those guys are like my best friends on and off the field. I wish those guys nothing but the best. I’ll be rooting for them, unless we’re playing.”
He officially starts a new chapter Tuesday, taking the mound for the Dodgers at Wrigley Field.
“They’ve been a pretty good baseball team without me,” he said. “So I’m going to show up and kind of be a chameleon in a sense and fit right in with these guys and just jell with them. They’ve got the winning recipe. They know what it takes to win.”
Come 2028, the Democratic presidential campaign promises to be a banger, with all sorts of intrigue and subplots layered within a wide-open fight for the nomination.
In the meantime, Democrats have seemingly resolved at least one 2028 fight, a fracas marked by snarking, backbiting and plenty of acrimony — all the things that make our politics such a grand and glorious endeavor.
We speak of the contest to determine which state will hold the first vote of the 2028 nominating process. And the winner is … South Carolina!
This was a blow to Nevada, the runner-up in the calendar sweepstakes, and not a very sporting one at that. The state Democratic Party issued a huffy news release, insisting Nevada will be the candidates’ first true test of 2028 — emphasis added — reprising the argument over which state offers the best starting path to reclaim the White House and, thus, deserves the coveted lead voting slot.
(California, a perennially frustrated onlooker, is not set to vote until March 7, several weeks into the balloting, which is supposed to start Jan. 22.)
Iowa went first, holding its quaint and quirky precinct caucuses — neighbors gathered in church halls, school libraries and the like as they worked through arcane rules involving “realignment” and “viability thresholds” — followed by New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary.
The change set off a free-for-all this time around, as a dozen states bid for the chance to vote first.
(The two major political parties set the rules for choosing their presidential nominees, independent of one another. Republicans are expected to stick to the traditional lineup, starting with the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, followed by contests in Nevada and South Carolina.)
Last month, after nearly a year of consideration, the Democratic Party’s Rules and Bylaws Committee voted for six states to hold their contests in a window between late January and the end of February. They are, in order, South Carolina, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Michigan and Virginia. The lineup will be presented to the full Democratic National Committee to be voted on and finalized later this month.
Doubtless, you — a normal person — have paid little or no attention to any of this. You’ve got more important things to do, like binge-watching “Widow’s Bay,” or not melting.
But party leaders and political insiders take the process extremely seriously. At stake: bragging rights, a modest economic boost and the chance for local analysts and office-holders to make frequent appearances as experts on the cable-TV chat shows.
The jostling grew particularly fierce between South Carolina and Nevada.
More than 50% of the Democratic primary electorate in South Carolina is Black. In Nevada, Latinos are a substantial and increasingly powerful voting bloc. So, naturally, the competition between the two states assumed fraught racial overtones, which is unfortunate but not surprising, given Democrats’ penchant for picking at sore spots and turning on each other at the slightest provocation.
It was also rather pointless. The order of the presidential calendar is consequential, but far from determinative.
Presidential campaigns have changed drastically in the 50 years since a little-known Jimmy Carter quietly burrowed into Iowa, spent months bunking in folks’ extra bedrooms, then burst to national fame by outperforming his more prominent rivals. Today, the race is a 24/7 affair, followed by voters in all 50 states.
Obviously, the voting has to begin somewhere and the competition between states is well and good. But the trash-talking and, especially, antagonism over race and ethnicity is gratuitous and needlessly divisive. Candidates will show they have the stuff to win the nomination, or not, by building their best case and pitching it to voters.
No matter if it’s a Black church in Las Vegas or a Latino neighborhood in North Charleston. Any location will do.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The first day all the members of the Women’s Professional Baseball League were at the same field, it rained.
That didn’t dampen the smiles around Robin Roberts Field the day before the league opens play Saturday, marking the first professional women’s baseball games in 72 years.
“Getting to be together for six whole weeks or around two whole months with them [if we make the playoffs] is honestly going to be a game changer,” said third baseman Ashton Lansdell, who stars for the USA national team. “I think we’re going to build a really unique and exciting culture that is going to last a very long time, especially with the inaugural season at WPBL. Like we’re starting from the ground up, so we get to build all of these things from the very beginning.”
The Los Angeles Queens, managed by former Dodgers second baseman Eric Young, have arguably the most star-studded roster, behind Savannah Bananas third baseman Lansdell, former Little League star Mo’ne Davis and Japanese ace pitcher Ayami Sato.
The Los Angeles Queens’ Ayami Sato pitches during a Women’s Pro Baseball League exhibition game in March 19 in Fort Myers, Fla.
(Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
“I pretty much have an idea who I want to lead off and who’s my starter,” Young said. “Those two things I do know. But the rest of the lineup, I’m looking forward to making it. The first one will be very special, just like everything else.”
Women’s baseball has been long fractured with few opportunities for the best to gather in one spot. The only consistent tournament has been the Women’s Baseball World Cup, with the U.S. going undefeated in group play this week in Rockford ahead of the WPBL’s quick week of preseason practices.
The WPBL will be the first women’s baseball league since the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which operated from 1943 until 1954 to offset the loss of male baseball players called into action during World War II. The league gained popularity and notoriety when it was dramatized in the 1992 film “A League of Their Own.”
While women’s baseball didn’t boom and girls were mostly limited to playing softball, some women sought a chance to play the sport they loved.
The WPBL, even with a limited six-week season at one location, is helping many players realize seemingly impossible dreams and honoring the first recorded women’s game with a paid crowd and the home of the single-season Springfield Sallies.
Games will span seven innings and the league will use aluminum bats featured in college baseball and softball, while outfield dimensions were altered to be closer to the Women’s World Cup field dimensions. Salaries range from $300-$500 per game for the 15-player rosters.
“It’s just what we’ve all dreamed of our whole lives,” Lansdell said. “The coolest thing out of all of it is that we’re starting this league this year, but in the next five to 10 years, even two years down the road, I’m so excited to see just the growth of women’s baseball and the amount of hope and inspiration that we have.”
Like many women’s baseball players, Lansdell had a history in softball, contributing to the Women’s College World Series season in 2025 at Ole Miss. More recently, she went 11-for-13 with two doubles and two home runs in five games during the U.S. World Cup group stage for a historic .846 batting average.
Players warm up before a game on the fourth day of tryouts for the Women’s Professional Baseball League in August 2025 at Nationals Park in Washington.
(Julia Demaree Nikhinson / Associated Press)
She will be the core of the Queens’ lineup, surrounded by some of the biggest name in the sport. Brittany Apgar grew up playing in all-boys baseball tournaments before playing college softball at Greensboro College.
“I think this is really when the quote that baseball is 90% mental and 10% physical kicks in because that game’s going to be a lot,” Apgar said of the Saturday opener. “Like we have the honor of doing the first game. That will be a lot of pressure on everyone.”
The Queens flaunt one of the best right sides of the infield in the league with Lansdell at third and Curacan 19-year-old shortstop Thaima Maximiliana.
Australian shortstop Caitlin Eynon hit .375 in the World Cup and could contribute to the Queens’ lineup, too.
Davis highlights an outfield that includes Apgar and Japanese center fielder Suzu Narasaki. Amira Hondras, 18, played for the U.S. after spending time with MLB Develops and the Chicago White Sox youth league and is one of the best young women’s baseball prospects in the nation.
Sato leads a staff of pitchers from several backgrounds. Canadian 19-year-old right-hander Michelle Roche plays college baseball in British Columbia while 38-year-old veteran Meggie Meidlinger has been a bullpen stopper for the U.S.
“More than anything, I’m excited for the opportunity to play with talented players from around the world,” Sato said through her translator, Mayo Hiran. “That’s something that I’ve been working for for a long time.”
The Queens face the New York Heights to begin their season and will play 30 games through the start of September before a two-week playoff period.
By this time next year, they may get a chance to play home games in the Los Angeles area. The league hasn’t announced its plans for shifting games outside of Illinois other than to confirm they aspire to do so.
But for a few moments this weekend, in Springfield alone, dreams will come true and a sport will be reborn.
“It’s going to be a lot of people’s first time for a lot of things,” Apgar said. “Some of the people didn’t actually get to make it to tryouts, so there’s some people that are drafted that I haven’t even seen in person before. It’s all exciting.”
In a book nerd battle that’s become so epic, even The Onion has satirized the saga, acclaimed author Susan Orlean has grabbed the mic, and Emily Wilson is admitting she has one regret in her review of “The Odyssey.”
Earlier this week, Joyce Carol Oates panned Wilson’s critique of Christopher Nolan’s big-screen adaptation, and now acclaimed author and journalist Susan Orlean has entered the chat.
“I loved The Odyssey (saw it twice) and love any piece of art that gets people talking and reading and thinking,” she posted on Threads on Thursday. “Emily Wilson is being a bit of a jerk.”
Choice words from Orlean, but she knows a thing or two about film adaptations: her 1998 book “The Orchid Thief” inspired Spike Jonze’s 2002 film “Adaptation” starring Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep (who played Orlean), and her 1998 article “Life’s Swell” was brought to screen as “Blue Crush,” also in 2002.
“Why can’t things be the things they are and if they’re different from their source material that’s their new form and their own thing and I SAY THIS FROM EXPERIENCE,” she added in a separate post.
The ire stems from a biting 4,200-word takedown of “The Odyssey” penned by classicist Wilson, who translated Homer’s poem in 2017.
In early interviews discussing the film, Nolan referenced Wilson’s translation, which subsequently skyrocketed in sales. A representative for Audible told The Times on Wednesday that, year over year, purchases of Wilson’s “Odyssey” translation were up by more than 600% across Audible’s U.S., U.K. and Canadian marketplaces.
Wilson’s review, published in the London Review of Books, essentially dubbed Nolan’s film a dud for academics with taste and a blockbuster hit for virgins who like special effects that go “Boom!”
“Nolan’s Odyssey lacks many of the elements that make the poem great. It has nothing convincing to say about time, memory, history, war, or about the relationship between one warrior’s glorious return and the lives of his family, adversaries, comrades, friends and neighbours,” she wrote. “It lacks psychological, emotional, political and ethical depth. Its narrative structure is gimmicky. The writing is abysmal. None of the characters has convincing motivation for their actions or words. There are no sex scenes, and all the food looks horrible.”
Pulitzer Prize finalist Oates, like Orlean, is also team Nolan. “Her tone of dismissal & haughty superiority strike a sour note,” Oates said of Wilson’s review in a post on X. Oates added that rather than Wilson disagreeing with “interpretations of Homer in a collegial manner,” she benefited from Nolan’s film and then attacked it.
Wilson’s review went so viral it crashed the London Review of Books website for a few hours on Monday. On the heels of the missive’s publication, Wilson posted on Bluesky that an earlier draft of the essay was actually more cutting than the version that went live.
“Was I too mean? Or not mean enough? I went through my first draft and tried to take out the snark,” she wrote. “To quote the great poet: ‘Though much is taken, much remains… That which we are, we are.’”
She added in the same thread: “The oddest thing about the response to this essay is people who say it’s ‘personal’. You can disagree about some or all of it! I may well be wrong! But it’s not ‘personal’ to analyze a film or other work of art, even negatively. Criticism is more than ‘Hurray!’ or ‘Hiss!’”
One criticism Wilson admits she regrets in retrospect is her take on Nolan’s race-neutral casting. In the review she wrote that while the casting launched a culture war, it wasn’t actually progressive. She likened the characters portrayed by Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Himesh Patel, Corey Antonio Hawkins and Travis Scott to “versions of the Black best friend, whose only role in the drama is to provide aid to the white protagonist.”
On Bluesky, she wrote, “In this piece, I regret the paragraph about the uses of the POC actors – who are all great, but IMO under-utilized (and why couldn‘t Himesh Patel be Odysseus instead?) I still think the film largely wastes its strong cast, but I framed it badly.”
The creator of “New Girl” has a dark, twisty new show about a … female serial killer?
Since the end of her breakout sitcom, Liz Meriwether has imbued her sharp and charming brand of funny in network comedies like “Single Parents” and “Bless This Mess.” But she’s steadily embraced darker tones in her work — first, with the Emmy-winning Elizabeth Holmes biodrama “The Dropout,” then with last year’s FX miniseries “Dying for Sex,” a delicate dance between laughter and sorrow in its exploration of a woman’s commitment to live her best sexual life following a terminal cancer diagnosis. “Furious,” though, may be her darkest project yet.
Loosely inspired by the 1987 neo-noir “Black Widow,” which starred Theresa Russell as a serial killer who marries and poisons wealthy men for their inheritances, and Debra Winger as the investigator obsessed with tracking her down, the Hulu crime drama deepens the cat-and-mouse dynamic. It follows an FBI rookie and her search for a female serial killer seeking vengeance against the men who abused her as a teenager. And still, it manages to find moments of levity. The first three episodes are currently streaming, with new episodes released every Monday until the finale Aug. 31.
“I’ve just been loving trying different things with my writing,” Meriwether told me during a recent video call. “When this came up, I was like, ‘Oh, wow, a crime thriller, a serial killer show.’ It was so different than what I’d done before. It’s like the shows that I love, so I was excited to try to write one, somewhat naively. It’s funny because I would always roll my eyes a little bit when drama writers thought they could write comedy and then I found myself in the flip side of that being like, ‘Oh, this is so hard.’”
Check out more of my conversation with Meriwether in Guest Spot. And yes, as a devoted “New Girl” re-watcher forever trying to retain my Youths! status, I asked about about the reboot discourse that’s become its own comedy.
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Also in this week’s Screen Gab, our writers recommend the return of a detective comedy that has its schoolteacher-turned-self-taught P.I. on another wild adventure and a Spanish-language limited series that takes place during the 1986 World Cup. — Yvonne Villarreal
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Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times
Diarra Kilpatrick as Diarra Brickland and Shannon Wallace as Chris in Season2 of “Diarra From Detroit.”
(BET / Paramount+)
“Diarra from Detroit” (Paramount+)
Diarra Kilpatrick (“Perry Mason”) created and stars in this smart, sparky mystery as a middle school teacher, also named Diarra, who turns self-described Black Nancy Drew when a man she was dating (Shannon Wallace as Chris) disappears. The new season, which sees the series folded into Paramount+ along with other BET+ series, finds them together again (retrospective spoiler alert: she rescues him at the end of Season 1), with issues — he’s got trauma to navigate, she’s sorting out her identity and desires — and mysteries still to solve, including the identity of the Chief, the city’s Mr. Big. The new season, which feels even more self-assured, picks up old themes of friends and family, as the search for a missing antique desk leads Diarra and friends and accomplices Aja (DomiNque Perry) and Tea (Bryan Terrell Clark) into fanciful new territory, including encounters with Black Freemasons and bikers, the history of Prohibition and a treasure hunt. Local food culture (Superman ice cream, coney dogs, Faygo) gets its due. The mix of suspense, romance and comedy is deft; small details keep the characters surprising and lifelike.— Robert Lloyd
Rafaella Lopez as Barbara, Ian Andrade as Salvador, Aldo Emiliano Navarro as Miguel, Damian Vergara as Tono and Regina Arroyo as Maria in “I’m Not Afraid.”
(Julieta Horak / Netflix)
“I’m Not Afraid” (No Tengo Miedo) (Netflix)
The dilapidated La Esmeralda coffee estate in Mexico’s Veracruz mountains is a lush, beautiful and spooky place — the perfect setting for a kidnap mystery. But in “I’m Not Afraid,” it’s also the wonderfully imperfect backdrop for a compelling tale about friendship and family bonds as seen through the eyes of a child. Set in 1986 during FIFA World Cup fever and a blight that’s ruined the region’s coffee crops, 10-year-old Miguel (played with depth and authenticity by Aldo Emiliano Navarro) first discovers boy captive Felipe (Yago Andreu) hidden and chained in and overgrown area that’s said to be haunted. He’s sure it’s the work of a witch spoken about in local folklore until it’s revealed his beloved parents may have something to do with the abduction. Poverty has driven them and the other families on the estate to make desperate choices. Adapted from Niccolò Ammaniti’s acclaimed novel by Ernesto Contreras (“The Secret of the River”), this six-episode series explores what happens when adults do desperate things in the hope of securing a better future for their children, but it’s the kids who end up saving the day. — Lorraine Ali
Guest spot
A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they’re working on — and what they’re watching
Emmy Rossum as FBI agent Alice Black in “Furious.”
(Sarah Shatz / Disney)
“Furious” feels like a crime story for the Epstein age. The eight-episode psychological thriller stars Emmy Rossum as Alice Black, a troubled rookie FBI agent who left her job as an NYPD detective to escape a violent and traumatic relationship with a fellow cop. She gets enlisted to help track down a female serial killer, played by Lola Petticrew, whose targets are the wealthy men who exploited and trafficked her for sex. But the series isn’t as concerned with its ripped-from-the-headlines relevance. Over video call, creator Liz Meriwether discussed what she was interested in unpacking in TV’s latest addition to the crime drama genre and contributing to the red flag roles played by Jake Lacy. —Y.V.
The series is loosely based on the “Black Widow” film. But how much did current events, specifically stories surrounding Jeffrey Epstein and the powerful men in his orbit, inform what or how you wanted to explore here?
It really did start as a “Black Widow” adaptation. This female serial killer and this female FBI agent in this cat-and-mouse game that has this very weird third act, where they just end up hanging out together on a beach, being friends. I loved that part of it. In the midst of this very exciting female killer-female FBI agent crime movie, there was this story about two women connecting who don’t have anybody else really in their lives to connect with. I dug into that and quickly saw that if the serial killer was just a black widow like she is in the movie, that it wasn’t going to give me enough story for eight episodes. I did a lot of research about real-life female serial killers, which are pretty rare. Female serial killers are almost all victims of horrible violence at different times in their lives. That really got me going, OK, what does it mean if you’re a victim of violence and you start being perpetrator of violence? What are the things that we can forgive and understand, and what are the things that we can’t?
And yes, when I looked out into the wider world and current events and what I was thinking and feeling, I definitely scooped up a lot of a lot of stories that are out there. But it’s not the story of a specific predator. There’s a lot to choose from right now. It should feel relevant. It should have echoes of what’s going on out there. But I wanted the focus to be on these characters, not the men that did these acts.
The parallels between Alice and Catherine — what they each have survived and the different ways they deal with it — come into focus. What were you interested in exploring about the traumatic and lingering effects of abuse through these two women?
Initially, when we were casting Catherine, the question of age came up because all of my writer instincts were like, “Oh well, we need to have Catherine be very young and closer to when she was actually a victim of this predator.” But as I started thinking about it, I was like, I don’t think we’ve seen as many stories about the long-term effects of this violence. There’s no flashbacks in the show. I’m not interested in showing what was done to either one of them [Catherine and Alice]. I really was interested in the aftereffects.
I spoke to a social worker, a psychologist and a trafficking victim, which was one of the hardest conversations I’ve ever had, and also a beautiful conversation. Her name is Jay Benke, and she has an organization that helps people that have been trafficked. She made a really interesting point that stuck with me, which is that when these FBI agents and law enforcement officials build cases, they’re looking at putting the traffickers in jail; they’re not looking at what the people who have been trafficked need for their lives to heal. There’s also an amazing website that a lawyer pointed me to called thelifestory.org, which is videos from different people who’ve been trafficked telling their story — from their childhood, all the way through having been trafficked and then coming out — and it’s in the shape of a circle. Those two resources for me were incredible. On the Alice side of things, we tend to think of the experience of being a [domestic violence] victim as being much more cut and dry than it is for a lot of people. The victim’s relationship with violence and love is very complicated and violence and intimacy can become linked in their brain. It was something that I started to learn about in my research for “Dying for Sex” and continued on with “Furious.”
Lola Petticrew as Catherine in “Furious.”
(Sarah Shatz / Disney)
We see these very girly things, stickers and gemstones, that Catherine holds onto. It reminds us of her emotional or mental stasis.
I don’t know what Lola would say about this, but my thought about the character of Catherine was she was a bit trapped. The choice to go on the path of vengeance feels like a very active choice, but in some ways it’s really limited. It makes your whole life about what happened to you. I feel like Catherine’s story is about breaking out of that trap a little bit, almost trying to give her character a chance to to grow up in some ways. That was definitely a struggle for me going into this because I was like, how am I going to give a serial killer an emotional arc? Catherine is trapped and needs to put the pieces of her memory and her life together in order to move forward.
The thing I love in Episode 3 is the bag that Catherine puts on the bed. That was a big breakthrough for me for Catherine’s character in that her history is something that she’s had to piece together and hold on to, and there’s big gaps in her memory, so she holds on to these material objects in order to just feel like she’s a person. Then in looking at Alice’s character, we felt like she was the opposite in a lot of ways. She had run out of her life with Marshall and [did] not really bring that much. Her whole life is her job; her apartment is really bare.
I don’t mean to sound glib in regard to the subject matter, but you mentioned Marshall, played by Jake Lacy. Why has Jake cornered the market on playing toxic dudes who seem like nice guys?
I haven’t seen “All Her Fault” yet — it’s something that I really need to see. He’s extraordinary in the show [“Furious”], and I had a long conversation with him before he signed on. It’s a very tricky part to play. It was very important to me throughout the process that none of the characters were easily put into bad or good categories — hopefully, we’re constantly making the audience question their feelings and their judgments about people. There’s an incredible documentary called “A Better Man” that is impossible to find. I had to pay like $50 to rent it. It’s this couple that dated when they were in high school, and he was abusive toward her. She got out of the situation, and they’re coming back in their 30s, meeting again and talking about what happened. It’s an unbelievable documentary. I had Jake watch it because I really wanted him to think about Marshall as a human. He really contributed to that, and you can see it in his performance. He’s [Jake’s] a very nice guy.
You know I can’t let you go without mentioning this “New Girl” reboot — or at least the talk of it. It’s become a bit at this point — Lamorne Morris and Jake Johnson pointing fingers at each other. You posted a video on Instagram confessing to sending explicit messages that have caused some tension.
In some ways, I feel like the videos and the interviews and stuff is maybe better than a reboot. If we can see that as the reboot, maybe that would be good for everybody. [The video] came from me getting this question from journalists during the [“Furious”] junket, It was like Hour Eight of the junket, and my brain just disappeared, and I started talking like a stream of consciousness — like I don’t have any more stories to tell or something. And then I went home that night and texted the cast and I was like, “I really messed up the question.” It had been this running joke on our text threads about how they just constantly blame each other, but a lot of the times they blame me like I’m the one that’s like holding up the reboot. I find it so annoying, but then I like answered this question in a horrible way, and then I was like, “Oh, I am going to be the one who has to answer to this.”
If it does happen, it’s going to be a really dark “New Girl” reboot, given the tone of recent projects.
[Laughs] I don’t even know if fans would want what would come out of me at this point.
Last question: What have you’ve watched recently that you’re recommending to everyone?
I love “Taskmaster” [YouTube, Pluto TV]. It’s the thing that brings me joy when I need it and so I always recommend that to everybody — but with the caveat that you have to love British humor. If you love joy and British humor, I highly recommend “Taskmaster.” And Kumail [Nanjiani] was on this last season, which was like really fun.
I’m very behind. “Widow’s Bay” [Apple TV] is No. 1 on my list. I need to watch it. I love Katie [Dippold, the show’s creator] so much.
If you are over the age of, say, 14, you might not be familiar with daughter-father duo Salish and Jordan Matter. But if you are a parent of a Gen Alpha kid, it can feel like you hear about nothing but Salish and Jordan Matter. Their YouTube videos — a high-octane mix of zany challenges, games and hijinks — are admittedly hard to resist, which may be why they rake in millions of views as soon as they blast into the social media universe.
In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.
Sixteen-year-old Salish was in elementary school when she started appearing in her father’s YouTube videos and the channel is like a time capsule of her childhood — or, well, the most public, heavily produced version of it. There’s the day Salish turned her house into a waterpark (73 million views) or the night she had a secret sleepover in a mall (31 million views) or the time she survived 100 babysitters in 24 hours (61 million views). “A blessing and a curse for me is that we’ve documented it all,” says Jordan, whose background is in photography. “I have these beautiful videos of her when she was 10. I was just watching them 30 minutes ago and was like, oh wow, it feels like yesterday.”
Now their creator journey is taking a new turn. Salish and Jordan recently signed a deal with Netflix to develop, produce and star in original projects — it’s the largest such creator partnership for the streaming giant. Their show, “Salish & Jordan Matter,” reached Netflix’s Top 10 this month. Beyond the screen, the duo co-founded the popular teen skincare brand Sincerely Yours. (The launch of one glossy lip balm brought 2,000 fans to the Santa Monica Pier earlier this summer.)
It’s been a wild ride for the pair, but despite their snowballing fame, they swear they’re like any other dad and daughter who bicker, joke around and simply enjoy each other’s company.
“I think we’re pretty chill, right?” Jordan says.
“Yeah, we’re pretty chill,” Salish agrees.
Here they share what they’d do together on a Sunday Funday around their South Bay home, noting that a perfect day would involve the whole family, including mom Lauren Matter and Salish’s 20-year-old brother, Hudson Matter.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
10 a.m.: Wake up and debate the day’s options
Jordan: Salish, what time would you actually wake up?
Salish: Probably like 10.
Jordan: OK, so we’re sleeping in until 10. Then why don’t we go get breakfast? We’ll go to Ocean Diner in Hermosa Beach. We’ll both get huevos rancheros and fresh orange juice. And then I would love to go get coffee at Boy and the Bear in Redondo Beach.
Jordan: Well, if we go to Two Guns, Salish would get the avocado toast.
Salish: No, the chai! It’s so good!
Jordan: OK, well, if Salish has an opinion, that’s what we’re doing. But later today, one thing I would love is a bike ride on the beach. Are you still down?
Salish: [High-pitched voice] Yeah.
Jordan: Did you hear that voice?! That tone is like, “Yeah, but not for much longer.”
Salish: [Laughs] No, I like doing bike rides with you! It’s just that I don’t know how much of a “biker” I am.
Jordan: You’re not one.
Salish: I’m not.
Jordan: But you have an electric bike! You just have to go like [makes e-bike revving motion] vvrrrrrruurr.
11:15 a.m.: Shopping and soup dumplings
Jordan: The next thing we’re going to do is …
Salish: Go to the mall! I like picking out new outfits for him because every day he just wears a black T-shirt.
Jordan: OK, and if we’re going to go to Del Amo mall, we’ll have lunch at …
Jordan: Which means we’ll have to put our name on the waiting list.
Salish: It’s like a two-hour wait.
Jordan: So we’ll put our name down right after breakfast. And then we’ll shop for clothes before our reservation.
Salish: I’ll go to Aritzia and probably Garage. And then you’ll go to Express and Levi’s. I go to PacSun a lot too but normally I don’t find anything there. I always wear sweats and hoodies — literally just sweats and hoodies.
Jordan: Also tank tops. Salish doesn’t like to repeat outfits on videos, so she does need at least one new outfit a week.
And I’ll just follow her around. I’ll be like, ‘Oh, that looks good.’ And she’ll be like, ‘No, it doesn’t.’ And I’ll be like, ‘No, it looks really good.’ And she’ll be like, ‘You’re just saying that.’ And then she’ll ask, ‘Which color?’ I’ll say the blue, and then she’ll get the pink. And I’m like, ‘I’m glad I could be helpful.’ So that’s how shopping with Salish goes. Then finally, there’s Din Tai Fung.
3 p.m.: An afternoon by the ocean
Jordan: Then we would leave the mall because I’m not gonna be there all day. We’re gonna go paddleboarding in Long Beach, in the Naples Canals area. We love anything with water, right? We love vacationing in Lake Tahoe, swimming and boating.
Then we would probably go for a bike ride along the Strand. I would vote for pulling over and having dinner. There’s a really good taco place right near the Hermosa Beach Pier called Palmilla Cocina Y Tequila.
Salish: [Winces slightly] I’m not gonna lie. I don’t really like tacos.
Jordan: Salish is an absolutely impossible eater. All she eats is Chipotle. She’s a vegetarian but she’s a picky vegetarian, so that combo makes it almost impossible for her to find food anywhere. But she’d get the black beans and rice and tortillas and cheese and mix it all together.
Salish: Yeah.
Jordan: See, I basically know everything about you.
Salish: And you would get the chicken!
Jordan: Yes.
Salish: I knew it. But you have to make sure it’s white meat.
Jordan: White meat chicken, mole, enchiladas — yum!
8 p.m.: Family hang time
Jordan: Now if there’s a good horror or suspense movie out, I might convince Salish to go. But that would be a tough sell. So maybe we’ll go back home. We just got a pool, so that’s exciting. And late nights in the pool has become a thing. We might play ping pong or a board game.
Salish: Then my brother and I would probably just chill and talk in one of our rooms. He doesn’t live here so we try to talk as much as we can while he’s home.
Jordan: Our family isn’t looking for big things to have fun — just time together. We just talk and hang out. With Salish, we talk about work but I’m also super interested in what her everyday life is like. You know, from the time she was young, I feel like I treated her like an adult in a way and we’ve always had real conversations. That’s made it easier as she’s grown up. It feels comfortable having these types of conversations.
Salish: Also, I’m a great kid, so like …
Jordan: Of course, of course. You are such a great kid. But you were a spitfire when you were little, I’ll say!
Salish: [Laughs]
Jordan: It’s a joy. It’s a joy to be with her every day.
They might. Because we all remember how frequently the self-inflicted damages were occurring during that bizarre and jarring stretch starting late last year.
We also had him publicly calling out NFL officials on a stream and in a social media post sent from the locker room, and getting fined $25,000 by the league for that. We had his weird post on X — a laughing emoji and “sam darnold” — after the Seattle Seahawks’ quarterback led his team to the Super Bowl LX championship on Feb. 9, when Nacua also was recorded stumbling and dancing in a San Francisco street after the game.
We had this all within just a couple of months. So we had to replace the image we previously had of Nacua as a jolly, smiling football star with a new one: a picture of teeth marks on a woman’s skin.
Ick.
Rams receiver Puka Nacua signs autographs during training camp at Loyola Marymount University on Sunday.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
Nacua said Wednesday that he’s trying to be better, to do better.
“Definitely trying to take accountability for the things that I know that I can continue to change,” the 25-year-old said at Rams’ training camp at Loyola Marymount.
We should all hope so.
There’s enough at stake, don’t you think?
For Nacua, there’s the proverbial bag to secure. For the Rams, there’s the Super Bowl at SoFi Stadium, which everyone believes should be theirs for the taking. And there’s what winning will mean for the franchise’s stature in L.A., a city that’s impressed by little that’s short of championships.
Don’t mess this up, Puka.
No one wants the distraction of bizarre and disturbing behavior, of internet idiocy or civil lawsuits. (Nacua’s attorney, Levi McCathern, said the alleged bite was the result of “horseplay” and the Los Angeles city attorney’s office indicated last week that the matter was on track to be resolved through a program that allows eligible defendants to avoid criminal prosecution and jail time.)
No one wants to wonder what could have been if it turns out quarterback Matthew Stafford can’t count on Nacua getting open and punishing defenders downfield.
And no one should want to see the Rams’ sure-handed wide receiver let generational wealth slip through his fingers.
Nacua is one of those athletes who you trust on the field to make the play, but all his off-field shenanigans gave the Rams reason to doubt him, to make him skip his turn at the big payday.
He was up for a contract extension that could have paid him as much as $160 million over four years, instead he’ll be earning $5.8 million this season. He’ll have to prove himself to the Rams as a reliable investment.
But that’s OK, Nacua said. He’s happy to be back at work.
Rams receiver Puka Nacua tries to slip past defensive back Trent McDuffie during training camp at Loyola Marymount University on Sunday.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
“There have been things outside of my control that I think have impacted the way I’ve been able to kind of focus and enjoy this game of football,” he said. “But coming out here and seeing that jersey No. 12 hung up in my locker is something that I don’t take for granted … the level of connection that I feel like I have with all the guys out there, [it] has never crossed my mind that I don’t want to be out here.”
One of the Rams’ primary weapons on offense, a barefooted Nacua went on the charm offensive after practice Wednesday, opening his media scrum by joking with reporters, asking how his hair looked and whether he had any boogers visible in his nose.
He looked fit, like he’s been taking care of himself. He said he was mostly laying off McDonald’s, seeing a therapist and appreciating football as a safe space. The dad of a baby boy, he spoke about that too.
He said he’s closed his “circle of trust” and expressed regret for actions that, he said, “haven’t been the truest reflection of the person I feel like I am, and how my mother raised me.”
“There’s definitely been conversations with her to apologize, but also for her to say that she supports me,” Nacua said of his mom, Penina, who brought up Puka and his five siblings as a single parent after her husband, Lionel, died in 2012.
“And also my brothers are, I think, my biggest critics as well,” Nacua said. “So there were some intense conversations, but loving conversations, in order to see improvement.”
Nacua is one of the Rams’ best players and absolutely their most popular. The loudest roar at Wednesday’s practice was when he showed up on the sideline with fellow receiver Davante Adams. When it was over, the sound of children shrieking “Puka!” reverberated off the bleachers.
The Rams are fans, too. Nacua isn’t tolerated for his talent; he’s adored for his spirit.
Coach Sean McVay loves the guy, a fifth-round draft pick out of BYU who broke a 63-year-old record for the most receiving yards by a rookie in NFL history: “You know how much I love him and the heart that he has,” McVay said Wednesday. “And I’ve been really proud of what he’s been doing and how he’s taking accountability for some of the things that we can learn from.”
Nacua said he was buoyed by messages from teammates during this turbulent offseason, in which he checked himself into a Malibu rehab facility to, as attorney McCathern said, “focus on his health, personal growth and overall development.”
We all know how valuable Nacua is on the field, but now we’re going to find out how much he values this opportunity, getting to take another rep to repair his reputation.
We’re going to find out if this man of many routes can run straight-and-narrow. Whether the slow-moving train wreck can get back on track. Whether he can keep stacking incident-free days.
Nacua says he can. “I feel,” he said, “very confident about that.”
Almost five years ago, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” swung into theaters in the teeth of a COVID-19 surge and did what almost nothing else could that winter: drove cooped-up moviegoers to cinemas and opened to one of the biggest domestic debuts on record, pulling in $260 million.
This weekend, Peter Parker is back — a little older, more world-weary and facing a far less forgiving market.
The genre’s floor has dropped out since then.
Annual box office revenue for superhero movies is down, on average, about $3.5 billion, about half of what it was during the pre-pandemic years of 2017 to 2019, according to data from the FranchiseRe industry newsletter. Sony Pictures is betting that more real-world stunts, a relatable narrative and Spidey’s lasting popularity are enough to put “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” on the other side of that trend.
Whatever the approach, the commercial appetite is there. Pre-sales for the film, which stars Tom Holland and Zendaya, have been robust, and industry tracking estimates an opening weekend haul of at least $195 million in the U.S. and Canada. If that holds, it would be the year’s biggest domestic debut, beating Walt Disney Co. and Pixar’s “Toy Story 5” ($159.7 million). The movie cost about $225 million to produce and is produced by Sony’s Columbia Pictures, Marvel Studios and Pascal Pictures.
“This movie takes a grounded, emotional approach to the story, and I actually believe that’s what audiences are hungry for,” said Tom Rothman, chairman of Sony’s motion picture group. “It’s got all the whiz-bang wow visuals. But at its heart, it’s more a superperson movie, if you will, rather than a superhero movie.”
“Brand New Day” picks up where the last film left off. A spell has erased Peter Parker from the world’s memory — the price of undoing the public exposure of his identity — leaving him a stranger to his best friend, Ned, and to MJ. Without those friendships, he pours himself into his crime-fighting work to stave off his loneliness.
That feeling of being adrift without knowing where to turn is what the filmmakers built the movie around.
“We’re all really isolated from each other,” said Amy Pascal, one of the film’s producers who has overseen the entire franchise. “That kind of longing for connection between people and not knowing how to make it happen and living in a world where we become more and more remote, matched the moment that people are going through.”
The smaller scale was also a reaction to what came before it. “No Way Home” brought back Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield in a time-bending multiverse crossover, and there was no topping it.
“That was a movie that was 20 years in the making,” Pascal said. “There was no way to be bigger than that. So we went smaller. We went internal instead of external, and we found the bigness in that.”
Peter Parker’s isolation is what drew director Destin Daniel Cretton, who made 2021’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” and was an executive producer on the Marvel Television series “Wonder Man.” He said he related to the pain and tragedy the character goes through, and to the idea of a superhero story that felt like it was happening in a real place.
The production’s rule of thumb became trying to execute scenes practically, in front of a lens, wherever possible.
That included a tank chase shot largely on a street in Glasgow, Scotland, on the first day of filming, complete with a rig that let an actor swing with explosions going off behind him. Thousands of people showed up to watch, which was “a big adrenaline rush on day one,” Cretton said.
A later set piece — Spider-Man against a group of red-clad ninjas known as the Hand — was shot at a former prison outside London.
Cretton’s insistence on real locations has an argument behind it. At a moment when audiences want to know what goes into moviemaking and are increasingly unsure whether the myriad images they’re looking at were generated by artificial intelligence, the answer is visible labor.
“Right now, more than ever, I think it’s important for audiences to really feel that people made the thing that they’re watching, and people went through an experience to make the thing they’re watching,” said Cretton, who grew up watching behind-the-scenes segments on his favorite DVDs. “All of that, I think, is just as important as the thing that they’re watching.”
Effects alone don’t carry a superhero movie — or any movie, for that matter — anymore, Cretton said.
“The action can be great, the [visual effects] can be fantastic, the explosions can be huge, but if there isn’t some type of emotional spine that connects with people where they are and what they’re going through, it’s just another big, explosive movie,” he said.
The slump itself isn’t in dispute. Many of Marvel’s newer films haven’t come close to the heights its predecessors once cleared, and this year, movies like Amazon MGM Studios’ “Masters of the Universe” and Warner Bros. and DC Studios’ “Supergirl” underperformed in theaters.
What’s driving it is contested.
“I don’t think it’s fatigue of the genre,” Rothman said. “I think it’s the audience wanting new things and less predictability.”
For Marvel, long treated as the genre’s gold standard, part of the problem was volume; a dense web of interconnected films and TV shows that made casual viewers feel like they had too much homework to do before a new premiere.
The likeliest near-term explanation for that estimated $195-million opening, though, may have less to do with tone than with supply and brand. “Brand New Day” is the first Marvel superhero film since last year’s “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” and Spider-Man remains one of the most commercially durable characters in the genre.
The calendar is also less accommodating than it was. The latest “Spider-Man” installment opens against Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” and holdovers including “Toy Story 5” — a considerably more crowded field than the thin, pandemic-era slate its predecessor benefited from on the way to $1.9 billion.
And the movie has a second job. With Disney and Marvel’s “Avengers: Doomsday” arriving at the end of the year, “Brand New Day” has to leave audiences wanting it.
“It’s got a lot riding on it,” said Steve Granelli, a teaching professor and division head of communication studies at Northeastern University. “Not just in terms of this being yet another ‘Spider-Man’ film, but also this being a huge storytelling device in the larger [Marvel franchise].”
Which is the tension at the center of the pitch. The filmmaking team went internal on purpose, and built a movie about a young man nobody remembers. It also has to set up the largest external event on Marvel’s calendar.
CHICAGO — In the nearly nine months since he was hired as head coach at UCLA, Bob Chesney has won over a lot of hearts and minds with his unwavering sense of belief.
First, he won over his star quarterback, Nico Iamaleava, who opted to stick with the Bruins after a 3-9 season a year ago. He won over 45 new transfers, who came to UCLA as part of the portal’s 11th-ranked class and seems to be winning over recruits, too, with UCLA currently ranked in the top 10 among 2027 classes. He even won over once-dormant Bruin donors, who, according to the school’s athletic department, have now poured over $41 million in private support into UCLA athletics over the past fiscal year, an increase of 80% from the previous year.
“It’s his energy, man,” Iamaleava said. “He brings a different type of energy.”
At this point, the only thing it seems Chesney hasn’t won yet at UCLA is an actual football game.
He couldn’t do anything about that Wednesday from the podium at Big Ten media days. Though, as far as first impressions go in this conference, Chesney certainly had a leg up on his predecessor, who stumbled through his own opening address two years ago.
But as the season draws nearer and a new era of Bruin football begins, all the enthusiasm does beg the question: What does a successful debut actually look like for Chesney at UCLA?
Chesney said Wednesday he had no interest in setting those expectations or “in putting artificial limits on ourselves.”
“Outcomes have to be earned,” he said. “And I think in the end, potential is a gift, right? The work is becoming. That’s the work.”
Considering UCLA’s recent history, you can understand why Chesney wouldn’t want to wade too far into setting expectations. Hope, after all, may be his most valuable resource at the moment.
The Bruins are coming off a season in which they won just three games, their fewest in more than 54 years. They’ve reached the nine-win mark once in the past decade. And just two UCLA coaches in a half-century — Jim Mora and Terry Donahue — have clocked a winning campaign in their debut seasons with the Bruins.
“There’s no better place I’d rather be at this moment in time,” Chesney said. “I strongly believe in the power of what UCLA is.”
The collective Big Ten media seems less convinced, having voted the Bruins to finish 13th in their preseason conference poll. That’s exactly where they finished last season.
But there are some things working in Chesney’s favor. For one, a schedule that includes just four opponents picked to finish in the top half of the Big Ten.
It doesn’t hurt, either, that his quarterback got a full spring and summer under his belt as a Bruin. Iamaleava didn’t join the program until late in the process last season after his transfer portal drama dragged out through the spring and summer. Then once he started to find his bearings, UCLA’s coach was fired.
There was no such uncertainty this offseason, as Chesney moved to quickly retain Iamaleava.
“It was a matter of making sure he understood we had a plan,” Chesney said. “That was the most important thing we could do to make sure he stuck around and he did.”
Not only was Iamaleava impressed with his plans to prepare him for the NFL, but he found himself right away swept up in the coach’s personality.
“When you first talk to him,” Iamaleava said, “it kind of sounds like you’re talking to a poet or something, the way the words roll off.”
Chesney is counting on Iamaleava to make things move smoothly for UCLA’s offense this season. But the most marked difference for the Bruins on that side of the ball should be the ground game.
The Bruins boasted one of the least dynamic rushing attacks in the Big Ten a season ago, as Iamaleava led the team with just 505 rushing yards. Their lead running back, Jalen Berger, rushed for a meager 364 yards over the course of the season.
Meanwhile, at James Madison, Chesney had three running backs with as many yards last season. The Dukes rushed for the fifth-most yards (3,381) of any Football Bowl Subdivision team.
Their lead rusher, Wayne Knight, followed Chesney to UCLA and should step in as one of the best backs the Bruins have had in years. Of the 30 backs in college football with over 200 carries, Knight averaged the most yards per carry last season (6.63).
“There’ll be a commitment to playing that style of football,” Chesney said.
The rest is mostly just a projection, a fact that Chesney openly acknowledges.
“Everything here is ultimately conceptual,” he says.
But one change has already taken hold, if you ask Iamaleava. One that might appear unrecognizable from recent history at UCLA.
“He’s definitely changed the mindset in there, just how you feel. I don’t know how to explain it,” Iamaleava said.
“When Ches walks into a room, he just brings that winning mentality.”
One balmy October day in Havana, as the Cuban French sister act Ibeyi plotted the video for “Offerings” — an electro-spiritual ballad from the new album “Offering,” released in June — Lisa-Kaindé Díaz unceremoniously asked her twin Naomi Díaz, to ceremoniously shave her head on camera.
Naomi was accustomed to Lisa-Kaindé’s whims long before they became professional artists. But to take a blade to her sister’s voluminous curls would be a bridge too far.
“I was like, ‘Hell no. I’m not doing that!’” Naomi recalled to The Times, over a Zoom call from Paris.
“As always, when I come with my woo-woo stuff, Naomi is eye rolling like, ‘Girl, what is this s—?’” said Lisa-Kaindé. “But this time around, Naomi was like, ‘OK.’”
The music video ended with Lisa-Kaindé releasing her locks into the sea.
At the core of Ibeyi, which translates to “twins” in the Yoruba language, is the polarity between sisters. Lisa-Kaindé is the bleeding heart who whispers divinity into her lyrics, and Naomi grounds them with the beating pulse of her percussion. They sing in unison, both in tension and harmony. This is the synergy that illuminates their atmospheric approach to the Afro-Cuban jazz tradition.
Born into a musical family in Paris — their mother the French Venezuelan singer Maya Dagnino, their father the Grammy-winning Cuban percussionist Anga Díaz (of Irakere and Buena Vista Social Club) — the 31-year-old sisters jump-started their music careers at 18 when they were discovered by British producer Richard Russell, who also helms the indie powerhouse XL Recordings. After releasing a self-titled debut in 2015, the Díaz sisters appeared in the utopian short film for Beyoncé’s “Lemonade,” then released two more albums under XL: 2017’s “Ash” and 2022’s “Spell31,” which Lisa-Kaindé admitted underperformed expectations.
For “Offering,” they parted with XL and braved the studio as independent artists, inviting new collaborators into the project such as producer Michael Brun (J Balvin, Victoria Monét)and the famed Cuban conguero Pedrito Martinez.
“Things didn’t go the way you wanted them to go, now what does it free?” said Lisa-Kaindé. “It freed a lot of things, in our personal and professional lives,” she added.
The duo returned to their roots in Havana last fall to film the visuals for “Offerings” — as well as other singles “Aset” and “Hurry Hurry,” which were co-directed by Corry Van Rhijn and Roman Pichon Herrera. Family, friends and neighbors filled the frames with dancing and dominoes; their apartments painted in shades of mint, butter yellow and palomino pink, flecked with a patina cultivated by humidity and time.
As Cuba remains a topic of heated debate in the U.S. — or a political football — the Díaz sisters remind listeners that the island nation is still home to over 10 million people, including their relatives, whom they’ve visited regularly since they were little girls.
In 2027, Ibeyi will embark on a North American tour, which kicks off Jan. 27 at the Fillmore in San Francisco and includes a stop at Pacific Electric in Los Angeles on Jan. 29. (“I want everybody to cry, dance and twerk that ass at our shows!” said Naomi.) The Díaz sisters spoke to The Times about their season of upheaval and the recovery that informed their first independent outing yet.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
What has changed for you the most since you released “Spell31?”
Lisa-Kaindé: A lot has changed, personally and in the world. We needed to stop for a little bit and gather our thoughts, reflect on our career and all that we have done. We went from anger to sadness to acceptance. We left XL Recordings, which was our home for 10 years [and] three albums. We also stopped working with Richard Russell, whom we love. He was one of the first people to hear the album. But we really needed to experience something new.
Naomi: We started when we were 18, and now we’re independent and more in control than ever. We tried to find new producers with whom we felt a deep connection. That was like leaving a marriage and going on Tinder and having lots of bad dates… Our sound is so strong that we’d eat them, so we had to find producers whose sound could stay strong with ours.
I hear a lot of heartbreak in this album, but also making peace with that. How do you personally heal from the pain of such endings?
Lisa-Kaindé: We just go through the s—. There’s no other way. I think we should all be courageous to change. Look into the mirror and be like: “Who am I? What do I want to do?” And just live. L-I-V-E. It could also be L-E-A-V-E.
You have a T-shirt that says, “I used to make spells, now I make offerings.” What does that mean to you?
Lisa-Kaindé: “Spell31” [went] hand-in-hand with my high expectations. I felt like we needed to put a spell on the world, so that the world would love us. When “Spell31” didn’t meet the expectations I had, it was painful. I went into a meditation and came out thinking: “I used to make spells. Now I make offerings.” Suddenly it was so obvious I was trying to feed myself from the wrong source of protein. What if I just gave without expecting anything?
Some of your lyrics name orishas from the Yoruba religion, such as Elegua and Olokun. What does your spiritual practice look like?
Lisa-Kaindé: The older we grow, the more religious I’m becoming … but Naomi lives her spirituality in very different ways. For her, twerking in a sweaty club can be one of the most spiritual things ever. She’s getting more and more gangster.
Naomi: It’s how we grew up. We never use the word “spiritual,” but spirituality can be a lot of things. To me, there’s nothing more spiritual than being in [famed Atlanta strip club] Magic City. Some people are gonna light a candle. Everybody can do whatever the f— they want.
Lisa-Kaindé: It’s about living in a way that is aligned with what makes you vibrate, what makes you feel alive.
What was it like for Naomi to cut Lisa’s hair in the video for ‘Offerings?’
Naomi: I was scared that she would not like her reflection. She came [to me] with, “Can you be the one shaving my head?” And I was like, “Hell no. I’m not doing that!” She was like, “Please, [it’s] really important for me as a twin.”
We didn’t have any mirrors. It was tough, but [as] I was doing it, I was like, “I hope she’s gonna love herself.” At one point I looked at her and I was like, “Oh, you’re so beautiful!” And she was like, “If Naomi tells me I look beautiful, I am.” It was really powerful.
In the closing track, ‘Lucky,’ you sing: ‘We can’t manifest for s—; God will always choose for us.’ Be honest, is this in response to those trending videos on social media about manifestation magic?
Lisa-Kaindé: Funny enough, we’ve never talked about this to the press. … But I went kind of cuckoo with the manifestation while making “Spell31.” I started writing three times a day: “It’s gonna do well.” It was the first time I ever did that. And when it didn’t work, I was like, “What do you mean? I did all of the things y’all told me to do!” And that’s why I’m saying we can’t manifest for s—. What happened was exactly what was supposed to happen.
My own outlook changed after a priestess told me to keep an altar to bring offerings to my ancestors. If you want something … you have to give the universe something to work with!
Lisa-Kaindé: You need to give! That doesn’t need to be a religion or whatever. Just be kind. It’s an exchange. There’s always a price — and that doesn’t have to be a terrible thing. It could be a very beautiful thing. I think it’s better if there’s a price. You’re not just demanding the universe to give you something just because you say it enough times.
I sense more thunder in the sounds of ‘Offering,’ especially in Naomi’s percussion. ‘Mosh Pit’ is a storm of trap and acoustic elements. Can you talk about making this song?
Naomi: This was the first song we made for the album. We met Michael Brun, who is Haitian and lives in New York. We wanted a tough energy, we wanted dragon energy in this song. I listen to a lot of rap and trap, so there’s a little more of myself in this. Ibeyi is like a needle between Lisa and I; for 10 years, the needle moved a little more toward Lisa, but now it’s moving toward me. Life is like that.
You shot multiple music videos in Cuba. What made you decide it was time to make these videos in Havana?
Naomi: We recorded the videos in September and October. We wanted to show Cuba because it’s remembering our dad. Home is Paris, London and Havana for us.
Lisa-Kaindé: After having done the visuals from “Spell31” inside the studios … we needed something more personal. We had never done visuals in Cuba, but I think it’s because we’re very protective of Cuba. We’re protective of what the world sees Cuba as, whether it’s the old ladies smoking cigars, or the American cause. We’d go there in the summers [for] our whole lives. We wanted to show something beyond what tourists see. These are the people who actually live there. It’s important to know how people live.
Naomi: We wanted to be with our people and show the real Yoruba, Cuban way of living. Parties full of elderly people, young people … everybody twerking!
This big house party happens in the video for the song ‘Aset.’ Can you tell me about shooting the party scene?
Lisa-Kaindé: Funnily enough, I think our family was more involved behind the scenes. Naomi’s best friend helped with all of the wardrobe because she’s a fashion girlie. One of the directors we’ve known since we were 15 years old, he’s like a brother to us. We also worked with a conguero, like our dad, his name is Karín. We filmed the “Offerings” video in his house. Then we went to La Playita 26, which is not far from our old house, to look at the sea.
Naomi: What’s beautiful is that it was all real. It was also [full of] people we didn’t f— know. But it was raw.
Lisa-Kaindé: The day we filmed “Aset,” when I saw Naomi dance, I was like: “Here we are. Here is that freedom [we’ve been] missing.”
Emmy-nominated composer Bear McCreary has taken a reverse road to symphonic rock. Prog rockers have traditionally integrated symphonic elements; other rock bands have done orchestral versions of their songs. McCreary began creating television and film scores, discovered his inner metalhead, and has since bridged those worlds with his “Singularity” project. It all adds up to a different take on that time-honored formula.
The second of the two albums, “The Singularity: Ekleipsis,” is out Friday and features contributions from guitarist Steve Vai, Coheed and Cambria frontman Claudio Sanchez, Fall Out Boy frontman Patrick Stump and McCreary’s younger brother Brendan, who sings on half the tracks. The multifaceted album feels like “I am Bear, hear me roar.”
“I love that quote,” he says, laughing, during his two-hour interview with The Times. “I want to put that on the posters. I feel like ‘The Singularity’ is a temper tantrum of a record from someone who had been writing music for other people for 20 years, then all these ideas exploded out.” Two years after the release of the first “Singularity” album, “Ekleipsis” feels more focused and personal to him.
From Anthrax dinners to sessions with Slash, Stewart Copeland and Bulgarian choirs, McCreary’s restless curiosity drives genre-bending songs that wrestle with identity, diaspora and the world listeners are trying to survive.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
The first “Singularity” double album — which featured guests like Serj Tankian, Corey Taylor, Rufus Wainwright and Joe Satriani — tied into a graphic novel about a man who repeatedly experiences loss and death at the hands of a villainous character in his every life across their multiverse. This leads to a major revelation at the end. Although McCreary says that “Ekleipsis” is not disconnected from that universe, it is not strictly tied to a narrative.
“I wasn’t setting out to write a concept album again,” McCreary admits, “but there’s something immediate in all the lyrics. Half of them are specifically talking about the world that we all find ourselves living in and trying to overcome in some way.”
McCreary’s sonic diversity continues with “Ekleipsis.” Gojira frontman Joe Duplantier collaborated with the McCreary brothers and the Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices choir on “Black Box” to create a work of dissonant majesty. The composer improvised his way through the initial stages of “Pray for a Storm,” his high-energy collaboration with famed drummer Stewart Copeland.
“Let’s all go into your studio with nothing,” McCreary recalls telling the irrepressible percussionist. “I’m not even going to bring an idea. We’ll plug in our instruments, set the mics up and play. I want to capture your ideas and your energy, then shape it into a song based on the pieces that I get.”
McCreary sees new endeavors as a learning experience. He meets his collaborators in the way they like to work. He was awed while writing with Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith on the anthemic “Cool Kids.”
“Those guys are true songsmiths,” the composer declares. “I think they’re unrecognized as songwriters. They wrote for Ozzy Osbourne. They’re focused on hammering down a riff until it works. We walked into a studio with a riff that Duff had written and walked out with this song that we brought Slash onto. We got that band experience [with them].”
McCreary is best known for scoring series like “Battlestar Galactica,” “The Walking Dead” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” along with movies such as “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” and the “God of War” video game franchise. He gained entry into metal through a dinner with Anthrax guitarist and “Battlestar” fan Scott Ian two decades ago.
“‘I know you. You’re a guy who loves Sepultura,’” Ian told him, invoking a musical link for the composer. Intrigued, McCreary listened to Sepultura’s folk-infused Brazilian death metal and loved it. His metal journey began.
Ever since, McCreary has been itching to dive into that arena. He has an important collaborator in that quest.
“My brother’s my secret weapon when it comes to rock,” McCreary says. “His body of [rock] knowledge makes up for mine. Our emphasis is in a different place. He is a fantastic producer because he’s got a really good radar for when things are useless, when a part of a song isn’t pulling its weight. It’s a very good influence to have someone like that. He’s got a great lyrical sense and an incredible voice.”
McCreary says Brendan is often the driving force of their lyrical efforts, and “sometimes we co-write with other people. Claudio Sanchez wrote all the lyrics on ‘Sweet Misery.’ It just depends.”
The younger McCreary was the propelling wordsmith on “One Fine Day.” “It’s about our experience as being in the Armenian diaspora and exploring what that means to us,” McCreary elaborates. “All the songs are very personal, which is another thing that sets this record apart from the last record. Many of them were personal, but I also had a weird song about an automaton that fell in love.”
Mentored at USC by Elmer Bernstein, McCreary now leaps from “God of War” themes to a Higgs boson rock musical and a roaring Singularity tour that hits L.A. on Sept. 17.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Before he jammed with rock icons, McCreary was mentored by the late, iconic Elmer Bernstein for nearly the last decade of his life. The burgeoning young composer organized Bernstein’s music archives, sat in on recording sessions and audited his senior-level classes for three years while studying at the Thornton School of Music at USC. McCreary says that Bernstein “really set me on the path that I am now on, not because I learned how to orchestrate or how to write music from him. But he showed me the life that I could envision myself having when I was 15 or 16, that crucial time when you’re really setting the rudder for where you’re going to go in life.”
That rudder has steered him to many shores. McCreary has been co-writing the musical “Particle Fever” with Zoe Sarnak (“Galileo).” Pulitzer Prize finalist and Tony winner David Henry Hwang (“M. Butterfly)” wrote the book, and Tony nominee Leigh Silverman (“Suffs”) is its director. It is based on the documentary of the same name about the discovery of the Higgs boson — the “God particle” — at the Large Hadron Collider in CERN. It will debut at the La Jolla Playhouse in February 2027.
“It is a really kick-ass, earnest rock musical about a really ambitious discovery,” McCreary says. “My hope is that it actually has some of the swagger and fun that people found in ‘Hamilton,’ which also was a very dry subject that you learned about in eighth grade.”
The 47-year-old composer exudes an infectiously upbeat energy. He loves challenges and says he learned that charisma and charm are valuable assets to get in the door to prove one’s talents.
“I’m wired to be very positive and collaborative,” he concedes. “But I got so oppressively excited in my 20s that I started annoying people. My lesson was walk it back.”
His creative energy continues unabated. He’s even scored shorts for filmmakers he met through Twitter. (“I’m down to work.”) He has been blogging about his musical life for 20 years for a core group of followers. (“In hindsight, if Jerry Goldsmith had done that in the ‘80s, my God, my life would be different.”)
McCreary started as a high school keyboardist, then found the accordion in college, an instrument that gave him greater stage motion and which he later used to great effect in his music for the “Outlander” series. He loves to headbang while playing the hurdy-gurdy, an instrument he picked up in 2010 and later employed in the “Black Sails” show and “God of War: Ragnarok” video game. He learned guitar to play rhythm during his 2025 shows.
Those riffs will be on display at the Wacken Open Air festival on Friday and during McCreary’s eight-date September “Singularity” tour of the West Coast that hits L.A. on Sept. 17. McCreary has performed his symphonic scores in Europe and America with orchestras, but now he also loves to rock out (loud).
A big secret of the ambitious McCreary’s success harks back to lessons of simplicity that Bernstein taught him.
“The giant theme that I wrote for ‘God of War’ can be played with one finger on a piano,” McCreary reveals. “That is the thing that it boils down to, and that is what I listen for in music. Most of the time it means there’s a melody in there that sticks with you, and it doesn’t matter how well it is produced or how epic it is or how loud it is. A good song is a good song is a good song, and it really doesn’t matter how good a band performs. If the song is good, it will connect with people.”
He said the quiet part out loud. As the artistic director of New York’s Public Theater and one of the art form’s most prominent leaders, Oskar Eustis is known to do that. And as always, he got the art world talking.
When Eustis, 67, announced Wednesday that he would step down from his role at the Public in 2028 — after 23 years — he said in a New York Times interview that “the American nonprofit theater movement is over.” This has been whispered about and lamented since the COVID-19 pandemic led to temporary theater closures across the country that have since become permanent, but it is rare to hear it expressed so candidly.
Did Eustis, one of the key players in that vaunted movement — the man who helped foster “Hamilton” — really mean what he said? And if so, how does theater move on in the face of obstacles that at times feel as though they are scattered across an increasingly difficult course? In a wide-ranging follow-up interview with the Los Angeles Times, Eustis addressed the path forward.
Lin-Manuel Miranda and Phillipa Soo portray Alexander and Eliza Hamilton in “Hamilton.” The megahit premiered off-Broadway at the Public Theater under Oskar Eustis in 2015.
(Disney+)
It’s not an easy one, but Los Angeles theater leaders working in the trenches, including Tarell Alvin McCraney at Geffen Playhouse, Danny Feldman at Pasadena Playhouse and Snehal Desai at Center Theatre Group, already knew that. They talked with the Los Angeles Times about their plans at the crossroads reached by American theater in light of Eustis’ imminent exit.
Eustis traces the rise of the American nonprofit theater movement to the late 1950s when W. McNeil “Mac” Lowry, director of the arts and humanities program at the Ford Foundation in New York, began organizing existing regional theaters into a national movement.
“What happened during that period was that a consensus emerged,” Eustis said, noting that it was expressed in the form of national endowments, state arts agencies, public policy institutes and corporate philanthropic departments. “An idea of the common good was held throughout the country, and there were many stakeholders. And part of that idea of the common good was a broadly held belief that Americans deserved serious, non-market-driven performing arts.”
With no feudal background, America lacked a capital city like London or Paris designed to showcase the arts, so the idea spread across all 50 states. This led to the proliferation of the regional theater movement, said Eustis, as well as that of symphony orchestras and ballet companies.
“The explosion of the regional theater movement is actually, in retrospect, astonishing,” Eustis said. “From a few scattered theaters in the 1950s, by the early ‘70s, there were over 400 professional nonprofit theaters in every state of the union. Tens of thousands of people were employed. Millions and millions of audience members every year. That’s the field that I walked into in the early ‘70s.”
Fifty years later, those stakeholders have “absolutely zero consensus on whether theater should exist as a nonprofit performing arts field or whether we should exist at all,” Eustis said. “It’s gone.”
“We’ve kind of been living, in a way, off inertia of this old idea,” he added.
The great pandemic pause, along with the racial reckoning in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the continued fracturing of a shared reality under President Trump, served to reveal how fragile that consensus was, Eustis said, and, “It’s not coming back.”
Where does that leave American theater in 2026?
“We’re faced with the need to prove to the people in our individual communities that we matter enough to them that they should support us,” Eustis said. “Now, that’s not a very bad demand to put on an art form.”
Except, as every theater that has lately dared put on a show created by new, experimental or unknown artists knows, it can feel like an insurmountable task.
Danny Feldman, artistic director of Pasadena Playhouse, said that the days of theaters underpaying talent are over.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
Smaller theaters across the country, including many in L.A., have shuttered with staggering regularity in the last six years, which puts even greater pressure on the city’s most prominent nonprofits to shine a light on a sustainable model moving forward.
Feldman, Pasadena Playhouse’s artistic director, noted that Eustis represents the second generation of leaders of the “first chapter” of the nonprofit regional theater movement. “And that to me is what is now undeniably at the end.”
He said he and Eustis have discussed the subject at length. “We are now in a very different era. And the things that got us to this point are not the things that are going to get us to the next chapter.”
McCraney, Geffen Playhouse’s artistic director, said forging a path forward in nonprofit theater without succumbing to commercial pressure to produce only guaranteed hits requires the delicate balance of surfing.
“And there’s no better place to surf than in L.A.,” McCraney said over the phone from the Public, where he was meeting with Eustis and other theater leaders to share ideas. “I feel very connected to a bunch of folks who recognize that the regional theater model has always had to have radical vision, and that those radical visions need revision, because our most practical job is to make sure that communities have stories.”
Tarell Alvin McCraney, artistic director of Geffen Playhouse, compared the balancing act theater leaders must perform to surfing.
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
It’s not just the way theater tells — and funds — stories that must evolve. It’s the entire business model, the leaders note.
The beauty and the founding of the original regional movement, said Feldman, was artists saying, “New York is not just where it’s at. We’re going to go to our communities. We’re going to make things with and for them, and really build these ecosystems that are deeply entrenched in these local communities around the country. … And I think the underbelly of that — that maybe has not been discussed as much — was always an element of subsidized labor involved.”
In L.A. and elsewhere that meant a lot of artists in the front and back of the house working for incredibly low wages. The pandemic effectively put an end to that, and as workers demanded fair compensation, the cost of producing shows skyrocketed. Most theater leaders agree that part is as it should be. Eustis points to the recent unionization of the Public’s production department as a case in point.
“For the first time in history, everybody who’s swinging a hammer on our productions has health insurance,” he said. “They have it through the union. That’s a good thing. And it’s put a shock wave through the whole industry, but you know what? We figured out how to pay development directors. We should figure out how to pay carpenters. That’s part of growing up.”
Center Theatre Group Artistic Director Snehal Desai said Oskar Eustis’ departure from New York’s Public Theater represents a “pass the mantle” moment.
(Etienne Laurent / For The Times)
Desai, CTG’s artistic director, said he views Eustis’ decision to step down as a “pass the mantle moment.”
“Oskar has been a huge mentor to so many of us,” Desai said. “It’s up to us, the next generation of leaders, to figure it out, just as his generation did in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s when they built these institutions for us.”
At CTG that means exploring a new way of doing things including touring shows, intensive work in various communities and site-specific productions, all of which “can change the financials and the model of how we’re doing business.”
As for Eustis? He plans to leave the Public in the best possible shape for the next generation of artists, and never wavers from its core mission. “This is a theater of democracy that believes that the culture belongs to everybody,” he said.
“Other than going to the White House, there were a lot of people from California, senators from California that are not just people who work for the government, but they’re Dodgers fans as well,” Rojas said Friday before the Dodgers’ series opener against the Mets. “So it’s pretty cool to give people that watch games and support us throughout the year [an opportunity] to get to see us.”
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) posted on X, “Think we can do this every year, @Dodgers?” with three photos — one of himself with their back-to-back World Series trophies, another posing with a World Series ring on his finger, and a group shot that included Rojas, Roberts, Klein and Dodgers president Stan Kasten.
Rep. Luz Rivas (D-North Hollywood), whose district includes several San Fernando Valley neighborhoods, posted on social media that she thanked Rojas for hitting his tying home run in Game 7of the World Series.
“Thank you to Miguel and the team for stopping by Capitol Hill,” she posted on X. “We can’t wait to welcome them back again next year (with a THIRD trophy, perhaps?…).”
The Dodgers’ visit to the White House on Thursday frustrated the portion of their fan base that wanted their team to stand up against the president’s anti-immigration policies.
Only two players on the active roster who were part of the 2025 World Series team did not attend: shortstop Mookie Betts, who told reporters he’d rather spend time with his family, and reliever Edgardo Henriquez, who declined to comment via Dodgers PR.
“This is something that I don’t really think about [being] political,” Rojas said of visiting Capitol Hill and the White House. “…I’m representing the Dodgers, and I’m going to these events just because I’m part of the Dodgers, and the Dodgers are deciding to go there. And I feel, as a professional, your job doesn’t just stop when the game is over. You have to do some things outside the field that sometimes are tied to success and to the things that you do on the field. So, for me, it’s a privilege to get the opportunity to go to a place where you will never be if you don’t have success in sports.”
Roberts, who has also talked about separating the visit from politics, kept his review brief.
“It was good,” he said. “It was an honor to be there.”
Ohtani update
Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani is scheduled to throw a bullpen session Saturday, his second since receiving an injection in his left knee at the beginning of the All-Star break.
“That’s the beauty of where we’re at right now,” Roberts said. “We’re not going to push him. There’s constant conversation going on each day. But the main thing is with Shohei and this pitching thing is to remain nimble.”
Even if Ohtani’s bullpen goes well, Roberts said he probably won’t be ready to return to the rotation next week.
“That’s too early,” Roberts said. “I feel good that it won’t be next week.”
R&B singer Nivea publicly revealed her recent leukemia diagnosis on an episode of the Atlanta-based performance and interview series “Cadillac Chronicles.”
In a conversation with host Brian Freeman, the 44-year-old Grammy-nominated artist said she was diagnosed earlier this year and is “grateful to God” for her health as she undergoes treatment.
“I’ve been going through treatment, and everything is going great so far, and I expect it to continue. Amen, amen, amen,” she said on Tuesday’s episode.
“Cadillac Chronicles” features Freeman riding in his 1974 Cadillac Eldorado with a musician, usually a hip-hop or R&B artist. In addition to discussing gratitude, Nivea also performed her hits from the car’s passenger seat, including 2002’s “Don’t Mess With My Man,” which earned her a 2003 Grammy nomination.
It seems the diagnosis hasn’t slowed her down. The singer also revealed she’s working on new music and going to school for audio engineering, which she said she’s “always wanted to learn.”
“I’m doing all the things I want to do,” she said. “Loving on my children, and just being grateful and taking every opportunity that comes my way.”
Nivea — born Nivea B. Hamilton — was married to singer-songwriter and record producer The-Dream from 2004 to 2008, and shares three children with him: daughter Navy Talia, born in 2005, and twin sons London and Christian, born the following year.
She also shares a son, Neal — who performs as Lil Novi — with rapper Lil Wayne.
Leukemia is a cancer of the blood that begins in the bone marrow, which varies based on the type of blood cell affected and the stage of the disease. The “Complicated” singer did not reveal which type she was diagnosed with, but said she maintains a “positive” outlook in all areas of life.
“I’m very grateful for life. It’s so cliche to say, you don’t know the time nor the hour, but it’s true, and it just helped me put a lot of things in perspective,” she said. “I live in gratitude religiously.”
The 2026 FIFA World Cup has wrapped, but some Angelenos who rented their homes to fans are still tallying up profits from a month of soccer frenzy in the city.
Driven by projections of massive tourism and a $750 first-time host incentive from Airbnb, many local property owners expected a sizable payout. While some savvy owners were able to cash in big during the tournament, others experienced only a moderate bump.
But something they all walked away with was some extra cash in their pockets and a blueprint for the LA28 Olympics.
We spoke with three L.A. Airbnb hosts to find out what they earned through their rentals during the World Cup, the luxurious renovations and amenities that helped their properties stand out and what advice they’d give others to prepare for the next global gold rush.
Wellness retreat-inspired house in Inglewood, 3 bedrooms
Lia Pilla turned one of her Airbnb properties into what she calls the Pink Palms Retreat. The Inglewood home features an infrared sauna, a large hot tub and more.
Price during the World Cup: During opening weekend, I got $2,730 for two nights. Of course, I have to pay a cleaning fee, but just in two nights, I’m a few hundred short of paying my mortgage, so that was really cool. For the following games, I maybe got like $400 to $500 a night. Then for the final weekend, I got like $3,400 for four nights, so it went back up.
What updates did you make, if any, to prepare? Last July, I did a full remodel of the house and turned it into what I call Pink Palms Spa Retreat. It’s all pink on the outside. It has an infrared sauna and a huge hot tub that can fit up to like 20 people. It has a large dining table with a firepit on top of the table, lush privacy trees and a custom gym.
Were you surprised with how things played out? I was expecting to make a couple hundred thousand off this World Cup, I’m not gonna lie, but I didn’t so I was like “OK. That kind of sucks.” I think L.A. got a little bit [cheated] with the teams we had. We had Team USA, which was cool, but we didn’t have any of the the big name teams like Argentina or France or Spain, so I think that’s one reason why the prices weren’t as high. I also think the political climate has made a big impact. Some people are scared to come to the U.S. or they aren’t allowed to come. But I’m happy with what I did get.
What’s one thing you’re thinking about doing with the money you made? I always invest back into the business. I want to touch up everything at all of my properties, so it continues to look like the pictures because your reviews are so important. I also have a Europe vacation planned.
Any advice for hosts preparing for the Olympics? Do your research on the market. Think “If I’m traveling to Los Angeles, what would I want?” because it’s also about the experience you create. Know what amenities people like. If you’re starting out or you’re already a host, I highly recommend having software in place for property management, cleaning and pricing.
‘Hillside hideaway’ in Woodland Hills, 2 bedrooms
Matthew Motamedi was surprised to see an influx of bookings on his Woodland Hills hideaway, which is roughly 30 miles away from SoFi Stadium.
Pre-World Cup rate: In late spring, we were charging $250-$280 per night on average.
Price during the World Cup: It was around $300, which is normal during July for us. We undercut the hotels and some of the other listings in our area by $100.
What updates did you make, if any, to prepare? We added a super crazy, comfy couch made of fake fur and people love it. That’s one of the important things about an Airbnb. There needs to be a really good hangout spot, so the couch needs to be super comfortable, and if the couch isn’t comfortable, no one wants to stay there.
Were you surprised with how things played out? Our property was so far away from SoFi Stadium (nearly 30 miles) so I thought it was going to be a non-event for us. It was supposed to be like that, but it definitely affected us because I started getting a lot of European and Spanish-speaking tenants.
What’s one thing you’re thinking about doing with the money you made? We’re definitely putting the extra money back into the property because we’re not there yet. There’s so much we want to do. During the World Cup, I was able to upgrade the AC unit, added a smart thermostat and invested in landscaping, which we want to do more of. We want to invest in the curb appeal and add more outdoor furniture. Maybe a movie room. We also want to get an auto pen so we can write handwritten cards for guests because it’s kind of hard to write perfect handwriting in different languages and in cursive. [Laughs] You can pick a font and it holds a ballpoint pen. To have that would be really cool.
Any advice for hosts preparing for the Olympics? You have to curate the experience and get more involved. If you can’t get involved, you need a co-host. Find a cousin, a sister, a brother, a friend, someone you trust with good taste to help you. Also, don’t just put up random paintings. Make it so that people want to move there. A lot of my guests are like “I wish I could live here.” You need a hotel scent and to provide laundry supplies. Ask your guests about their allergies and snack preferences then put together a snack basket. They freak out when they see that. Have a comfy couch, add plants like the fiddle-leaf fig (it looks bougie and you only have to water it once a week) and get a good cleaner. With that, you’re going to do really well.
Modern suite with luxurious amenities in Westchester, 1 bedroom, 2 guests
How long have you been a host? I started my [rental management] business about 10 years ago, but have been a full-time host for roughly eight years.
Pre-World Cup rate: About $195 a night.
Price during the World Cup: $234, which is about a 15% increase so a little bump. It wasn’t anything crazy.
Were you surprised with how things played out? I probably was expecting a little bit more because it was such a huge event. What I was a little surprised by though was how long the stays were. I was thinking that people were going to come in for a few days, but most of my stays were for a week or longer. We were pretty booked. I think we only had a couple days in between bookings.
What updates did you make, if any, to prepare? We bought the home a year ago and we’ve been getting it ready for the last four months. I added a private hot tub and an Eight Sleep Pod, which is a really fancy mattress topper that heats and cools your mattress. I tried to go all out with my amenities. We’ve got all the fancy soaps, deluxe robes and we added a washer and dryer. I always think about what I’d want when I’m traveling. I always put Q-tips, cotton balls and makeup wipes. For the kitchen, just having all the little stuff you need there. A wine bottle opener is No. 1.
What’s one thing you’re thinking about doing with the money you made? Paying my property taxes and my mortgage. [Laughs] Honestly, we’re putting it toward our living expenses and being able to afford our house. It’s been a huge help because everything is so high.
Any advice for hosts preparing for the Olympics? Really think about what you would want and put yourself in the shoes of the traveler. I always recommend people to try out your space before they rent it out. That will help you realize things like this faucet doesn’t get hot water or I forgot to put an ice cream scoop in the kitchen. You don’t want your guest to be a guinea pig.
