Tim

Mayer, the son of former McLaren team principal Teddy Mayer and a long-time steward for the FIA before being fired by Ben Sulayem last year, said he had submitted a number of ethics complaints to the governing body about the election process.

“We strongly believe a series of ethics violations have been committed in this election process,” he said. “And we have now submitted numerous ethics complaints.

“Assuming the Ethics Committee finds validity to our complaints, who does this go to for action? The president of the FIA or the senate president – both conflicted parties. The statutes don’t provide for any other method or for any appeal. Where is the accountability? This is how institutions fail.

“I am not a revolutionary. I do want to evolve the FIA to a better place so I intend to use the processes of the FIA as much as is don’t believe they are independent or free and open.”

He also questioned the appointment of Daniel Coen as a representative for the world council from Costa Rica when the country has no motorsport events listed, which is a requirement of membership.

Mayer quoted from a report into the FIA produced by the Utrecht School of Governance, which studies public organisations in their interaction with the developments in politics and society.

Its report said the FIA score on the sports governance observer index was 45% which places it “among federations that have adopted the formal trappings of modern governance but lack robust institutional policies and safeguards”.

The report continued: “The FIA’s governance structurally concentrates power in the office of the president, and accountability remains confined within a system over which the president exercises decisive control.”

An FIA spokesperson said: “The FIA presidential election is a structured and democratic process, to ensure fairness and integrity at every stage.

“The requirements for the 2025 FIA elections, including the relevant deadlines and eligibility criteria for the presidential list and World Councils, are defined in the FIA statutes and internal regulations, which are publicly available on the FIA’s website.

“Detailed information regarding these elections has also been made available on a dedicated page on the FIA’s website since 13 June 2025 and communicated to all FIA members.

“The requirements related to the regional representation of the vice-presidents for sport, and to select them from the World Motor Sport Council in order to draw up a presidential list, are not new. These criteria applied to previous elections.

“As to be expected, preparing a candidature for a presidential list or the World Councils requires certain steps to be taken. Prospective candidates have had since the publication of the detailed information on 13 June to prepare their applications.”

Responding to the Utrecht report cited by Mayer, the FIA spokesperson said: “The report commissioned by Tim Mayer’s team finds the FIA’s governance practices to be in line with other federations, particularly those ‘that have made progress in formalising governance structures’.

“The benchmarking process outlined within the report does not find the FIA to be behind the curve. This reflects the fact that the FIA has taken several steps to strengthen its corporate governance policies.

“The FIA was not contacted to confirm any of the statements or assumptions made about its processes, policies and administration within the report.”

Witness testimony began Wednesday with an accusation of negligent supervision in the high stakes trial against the Angels by the family of deceased pitcher Tyler Skaggs.

Tim Mead, an Angels employee of 40 years, was portrayed by the plaintiffs lawyer, Rusty Hardin, during four hours of direct examination as a well-meaning boss who repeatedly ignored company policy by failing to report the improper conduct of Eric Kay, the team communications director who gave Skaggs the fentanyl pills that killed him.

Hardin brought up a litany of instances where Kay likely violated Angels rules that could have resulted in discipline and even termination long before the July 2019 road trip to Texas during which Skaggs died in his hotel room after chopping up and snorting the illicit drugs provided by Kay.

Mead acknowledged that he knew of Kay’s years-long episodes of bizarre behavior, an extramarital affair with an intern, and problems with prescription medication, but that he never reported any of it to human resources.

Hardin asked if he was putting Kay ahead of the organization by doing everything he could to save him, allow him to regain his health and keep him employed.

Mead responded: “I guess I wasn’t consciously doing it at the time. … I was concerned about the organization, for him, his family and my staff.”

Hardin asked Mead if he was thinking of an obligation to organization or to Kay, and Mead replied, “A bit of both.”

Hardin: Did you recognize a conflict between those roles?

Mead: “Yes that entered my mind.”

Hardin asserted that it strains credulity that Mead asserted he knew nothing of Kay using or distributing illicit opioids when on the last day of the 2017 season Kay’s wife, Camela, reached out to Mead to infom him the family was conducting an intervention in their home that evening.

Mead and Tom Taylor, the Angels’ traveling secretary, visited the Kays the next morning, and Camela Kay testified during a deposition that the Kays directed him to Eric’s bedroom, where he had stashed 60 pills, stored in handfuls of 10 in small plastic bags.

Pressed by Hardin, Mead repeated that he couldn’t say he didn’t do what Camela Kay testified he did, but that he had no recollection of it. Mead insisted that he knew nothing of Eric Kay using or distributing illicit drugs to Skaggs or anyone else.

Cross-examination of Mead by Angels lawyers will take place Friday. The court is in recess every Thursday during what is expected to be a two-month trial.

Following Mead on the witness stand will be Taylor and team president John Carpino. More than 75 names are on the witness list, including current Angels star Mike Trout, former manager Mike Scioscia and several former players who testified in depositions that Kay or Skaggs gave them opioids.

Lawyers for the Angels and the family spoke to the jury for the first time Tuesday, delivering dramatically different opening statements.

Angels owner Arte Moreno sat in the front row along with Carpino, although neither one was present Wednesday. Skaggs’ widow, Carli, sat next to Tyler’s mother, Debbie Hetman. Tyler’s father, Darrell Skaggs, was absent because of poor health.

Representing Skaggs’ widow and parents are two lawyers with decades of experience representing high-profile and celebrity clients — Shawn Holley and Hardin.

Early in her career, Holley, 63, worked under Johnnie Cochran and was a member of the O.J. Simpson defense team in 1995. Since then, she has represented clients ranging from entertainment titans Michael Jackson, Tupac Shakur, Justin Bieber, Kanye West, Lindsay Lohan, Snoop Dogg, Axl Rose and the Kardashian family to athletes such as Trevor Bauer, Mike Tyson, Lamar Odom, Reggie Bush and Sugar Ray Leonard.

Hardin, 83, represented the Arthur Andersen accounting firm during the Enron scandal more than 20 years ago. He also has won favorable verdicts for numerous athletes such as Roger Clemens, Wade Boggs, Warren Moon, Scottie Pippen, Calvin Murphy, Steve Francis, Rudy Tomjanovich and Rafer Alston.

The Angels are represented by Todd Theodora, chief executive of the nationally respected law firm Theodora Oringher. Theodora and the Angels have had a longstanding professional relationship.

Theodora served as lead trial counsel for the Angels in the suit brought by the city of Anaheim in 2005 when the team re-branded as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The city sought more than $300 million in damages against the Angels, who prevailed in a jury verdict.

Theodora wouldn’t comment on the Skaggs case because of the ongoing litigation, but after the Angels’ court victory regarding the name change, he described to The Times the all-consuming nature of a lengthy trial.

“You find yourself literally thinking about the case from the moment you wake up until the moment you go to bed and many times in the middle of the night as well,” Theodora said.

The stakes are high in the Skaggs trial. Holley delivered opening statements for the plaintiffs and said a fair estimation of Skaggs’ lost future earnings is $118 million. She added that the Angels must also compensate the family for “loss of companionship, solace, moral support and financial security.” And, Holley said, the family should be awarded punitive damages “not only because [the Angels] failed to keep Tyler safe, they put him in harm’s way.”

Taking a deliberate, soft-spoken approach, Holley walked the jury through a timeline of Kay’s drug use and eventual distribution of opioids. She said Angels team doctor Craig Milhouse wrote Kay numerous oxycodone prescriptions despite the fact he lacked any legitimate medical condition.

Holley attempted to establish that Kay’s drug use escalated year after year, saying there was “a complete failure by the Angels to grasp the magnitude of the problem.”

Holley said that Kay revealed his drug use in text messages and emails, and that a clubhouse attendant witnessed Kay snorting lines of drugs in a kitchen area outside the Angels clubhouse.

Citing evidence in Kay’s criminal trial — he is serving 22 years in prison for supplying Skaggs with fentanyl — Holley said Kay used his Angels email address to purchase illicit drugs on the website OfferUp.

By 2019, Kay’s drug usage had reached a point that he went through an outpatient treatment program that ended shortly before the Angels went on the road trip to Texas during which Skaggs died. Holley contended that human resources requires a “fitness for duty exam” before returning to work following a drug rehab stint.

“The Angels, again, did nothing,” she said. “So less than two months after learning Eric Kay had been dealing drugs to players, two months after Eric Kay overdoses and less than a month after outpatient rehab ended, the Angels decided to send Kay on the road trip. Within hours, Tyler Skaggs was dead.”

Theodora countered by saying the team “knows right from wrong,” and that it was Skaggs who engaged in “reckless choices that we teach our children and grandchildren not to do, for good reason.”

Theodora pointed out that in addition to the counterfeit fentanyl pill that Skaggs chopped up and snorted the July 2019 night he died in a Texas hotel room, he had a blood-alcohol level of .140 and a therapeutic level of oxycodone.

“The evidence will show he was not playing through pain, he was not prescribed these pills,” Theodora said. “It is downright shameless for anyone to say it was justified for someone to chop up and snort opioids, that they were just being used to get through a long season.”

Skaggs was involved in three crimes, Theodora said, “one, criminal possession; two, taking or ingesting illicit drugs; and three — as you’ll hear from five players — Tyler was distributing illicit pills to them.”

Opening statements and Mead’s testimony underscored the reasons a recent one-day settlement conference between the two sides went nowhere,

Skaggs was found dead in his hotel room in Southlake, Texas, on July 1, 2019, before the Angels were scheduled to start a series against the Texas Rangers. The Tarrant County medical examiner found that in addition to the opioids, Skaggs had a blood-alcohol level of 0.12. The autopsy determined he died from asphyxia after aspirating on his own vomit, and that his death was accidental.

Prosecutors alleged Kay sold opioids to Skaggs and at least five other professional baseball players from 2017 to 2019. Several players testified during the trial about obtaining illicit oxycodone pills from Kay.

The Skaggs family filed their lawsuit in June 2021, alleging the Angels knew, or should have known, that Kay was supplying drugs to Skaggs and other players. Testimony during Kay’s criminal trial established that Kay was also a longtime user of oxycodone and that the Angels knew it.

The Angels responded by saying that a former federal prosecutor the team hired to conduct an independent investigation into Skaggs’ death determined no team executives were aware or informed of any employee providing opioids to any player.

Fox College Football tweeted that “The Jerry Neuheisel Era has begun with the Bruins.”

ESPN personality Pat McAfee added to the chorus of adoration for UCLA’s new playcaller, tweeting that Neuheisel “just might be a football wizard.”

Other media and sports betting sites tweeting about the Bruins’ turnaround from 0-4 to darlings of the college football world prominently featured pictures of the blond-haired assistant coach.

It was enough to prompt the sports media website Awful Announcing to ask: “Does anyone know that Tim Skipper is actually UCLA’s interim head coach, not Jerry Neuheisel?”

Having been preoccupied with saving a season, Skipper acknowledged being blissfully unaware of any narratives about who’s done what to spark his team’s turnabout.

“I guess it’s good that I don’t get on social media and all that stuff right now because I don’t feel that way,” Skipper said Monday when asked about the notion that he wasn’t getting proper credit. “But I don’t really know what’s happening in the outside world [because] I’m in this [practice] building so much.

“But I love what I’m doing, I’m just working, man, and I just try to put us in the best position to be successful on Saturday.”

Part of any credit distortion might be associated with Skipper having presided over the Bruins’ 17-14 loss to Northwestern after replacing DeShaun Foster. The next week, Neuheisel was elevated to playcaller, helping the Bruins (2-4 overall, 2-1 Big Ten) revive a dreadful offense and roll up a combined 80 points during victories over Penn State and Michigan State.

In truth, there have been enough fingerprints on UCLA’s resurgence to leave countless smudge marks.

UCLA coach Tim Skipper stands on the sideline during the Bruins’ win over Penn State on Oct. 4.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Skipper has provided energy, meticulousness and drive, and his motivational tactics — including leaving printouts asking “ARE YOU A ONE-HIT WONDER?” on players’ seats on the team plane last week — had their intended effect during a runaway victory over Michigan State.

Neuheisel has undoubtedly elevated an offense that struggled mightily under predecessor Tino Sunseri.

Kevin Coyle, the de facto defensive coordinator who was brought in before the Northwestern game to replace Ikaika Malloe, has unleashed an aggressive, disciplined style that has largely compensated for shortcomings that were previously exposed.

There’s also been a host of other contributors, from the scouting staff that helped identify the weakness leading to a successful onside kick against Penn State, to the security guards outside Drake Stadium who continually encouraged players walking into practice amid loss after loss to start the season.

And, of course, don’t forget the players — quarterback Nico Iamaleava’s leadership and poise alongside a slew of others who have risen to the moment after so much early struggle.

The Bruins are favored against Maryland (4-2, 1-2) on Saturday at the Rose Bowl for the first time since they faced New Mexico, and it might be easy to envision their success snowballing. But Skipper said he wasn’t going to introduce the idea of making a bowl game as his next motivational device.

“I’m all about the moment that you’re in, man,” Skipper said. “… This week, kind of, [the mantra] is the standard is the standard and don’t get bored with success. We have to keep doing what we’re doing and always be on the rise, you know?”

As he neared the one-month mark since his Sept. 14 promotion, Skipper acknowledged having initially worried about keeping his roster intact since players could enter the transfer portal or redshirt.

“When I first took over, it was, like, every time I talked to you guys, everybody was asking about who’s redshirting, who’s going to the portal?” Skipper said. “That was the theme that was, like, the No. 1 question. And we’ve been able to keep the team intact, you know, and that’s an everyday thing. I think we’ve shown them that, hey, we can make it, make it a good environment here, even though we have all this change and stuff, just stick with us and we’re going to be all right.”

A clean locker room and the smiles and excitement that come with winning have been among the big changes in the aura around the team that Skipper said he’s noticed since taking over.

“It looks like the guys are in good spirits and things like that, and they know that tomorrow’s gonna be a work day and they better be ready to go,” Skipper said. “But I think we’re giving the guys the ‘why’ and the reasons why we do things, and that’s helping them know what to expect.”

Put me in, coach

UCLA unveiled a sturdy offensive weapon late in the third quarter against Michigan State.

It was Siale Taupaki, a 337-pound defensive lineman used as a blocker when the Bruins reached the red zone. Going in motion on a direct snap to running back Jaivian Thomas, Taupaki flattened a defender as Thomas scored on the second-and-goal play.

“He was begging to be able to do something on the offensive side,” Skipper said of the redshirt junior, who has vacillated between the offensive and defensive lines during his seven seasons with the team. “Sure enough, he went out there and did his job, so that gave us some juice on the sideline and it was good to see.”

Etc.

Skipper said the team’s improved tackling in recent weeks was more of a function of fundamentals than scheme. “We do drills when we get [individual] time that are specifically to use your weapons — your eyes, feet and hands,” Skipper said, “and we’re learning how to wrap up and move our feet on contact because the hardest thing to do is re-start your feet when they stop.” … The University of California regents are scheduled to meet in a closed session Tuesday in San Francisco to discuss the compensation package that will be made available to UCLA’s next coach.

“The Chair Company,” premiering Sunday on HBO, is a conspiracy comedy — dark comedy, one would definitely have to say — in which Tim Robinson goes down a rabbit hole, from one carrot to the next, after a chair collapses beneath him. It’s a thriller in its way; there will be suspense, and injuries, and a lot of screaming, mostly by the star.

Robinson, who co-created the series with Zach Kanin (who also co-created Robinson’s Netflix sketch show, “I Think You Should Leave”), is a difficult hero. His main shtick is the madman underneath a cracking veneer of civilization; physically, he projects a sort of eccentric normality, like a critique of normal. From the beginning of “The Chair Company,” we see that Robinson’s Ron Trosper is tense and nervous and can’t relax, getting into a argument with a waitress over what and what isn’t a mall — he’s been named to lead the development of a new one in Canton, Ohio. (The action all takes place in the state.)

A presentation he’d been dreading goes well, but as he sits back down, his chair — a standard office model — collapses under him, robbing him of a moment of triumph. What most would throw off with a joke sets Ron on edge, and he begins an obsessive quest to track down the manufacturer. But all he comes up with are dead ends and empty offices, and he begins to suspect a conspiracy. When, getting into his car, he’s hit on the head with a pipe and told to stop asking about the chair, it only makes him more determined to uncover it. Lurking, sneaking and stealing will ensue. Reckless behavior. Shouting.

Along with some standard office comedy involving HR reports and Ron’s “know it when I see it” boss (Lou Diamond Phillips, aging gracefully), there is a family element. Wife Barb (Lake Bell) is moving ahead with plans to develop a more attractive breast pump. Daughter Natalie (Sophia Lillis) is getting married to her girlfriend, and wants to change the venue at the last moment to a haunted house. Son Seth (Will Price), a basketball player apparently of enough talent to mention it in the series, has discovered the pleasures of drinking just as recruiters are coming around. It’s not a developed thread, but it gives Price the opportunity to deliver my favorite line in the series: “Some nights I’ll have like four beers and I’ll sit in my room and I’ll put on Abbott and Costello after I’ve had a couple; it makes me feel good to know that [these] two guys found each other because they both seem so different.” Which is a theme of the show.

The character who makes the series breathe is Mike Santini (Joseph Tudisco), the person wielding the pipe. Ron will track him down, and eventually they’ll become partners in his investigation and, after a fashion, friends. (Though Ron is not always friendly.) Mike is the series’ most original conception, and, in a strange way, its heart — someone not beyond taking money from a stranger to hit another stranger over the head, but sympathetic. Lonely, he craves the connection. Ron, for his part, is forever running out on his family to join Mike in some misadventure.

Robinson, the rare “Saturday Night Live” worker who went from performer to writer, is quite adept at playing this character, which makes Ron exhausting company; it takes a certain sort of stamina, or a love for, this particular brand of chaos to put up with him. It seems hardly credible at times that he’s successfully helped raise two rational children, one to adulthood; has attained an upper-middle-class life (with Lake Bell!); and occupies a position of creative responsibility. There are difficult comic characters you’re nevertheless happy to see — Larry David, because he’s so centered in his world and basically right, Lucille Ball because she’s a genius. But Ron spends so much time at DEFCON 1, dialed up past 11, that it can be off-putting, and drowns out the human inside.

Nevertheless, like any mystery, it draws you along, waiting for answers. Seven episodes of eight were released to reviewers; the seventh ends on what feels like a note of quiet irresolution — if not, in Ron’s mind, satisfaction. But the eighth will surely not let things rest, and you may rest assured — and may need the rest — that eight is not the end.

The old stage at West Hollywood’s Roxy Theatre looks as small as ever to Tim Curry. Back in 1974, the actor spent nearly a year strutting across its boards in fishnets and a snug corset as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the flamboyant, sexually ravenous mad scientist of the musical comedy “The Rocky Horror Show.”

Witnesses to that run of performances still marvel at the spectacle of Curry’s nightly entrance, as he marched from the lobby on a long catwalk, his high heels at eye level with the audience. He would then cast aside his Dracula cape to sing a personal theme song, “Sweet Transvestite.”

“It’s actually really nice to be here because it was another home for me,” says Curry, 79, looking up at the empty stage inside the Sunset Strip nightclub. “It became my stomping ground. I had to appear as though I owned it — and I kind of did.”

At the end of that same year, Curry was back home in England to shoot the feature film version, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” a rock ’n’ roll send-up of old sci-fi and horror B-movies that became both a cult classic and a vibrant symbol for sexual freedom. It is the original midnight movie and is now being feted around the world for its 50th anniversary with a second life as the longest continuous theatrical release in cinema history.

Tim Curry, center, as Frank-N-Furter in 1975’s “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”

(John Jay Photo / Disney)

The role changed Curry’s career forever, and he will be part of some of those celebrations, beginning with a screening of a newly restored 4K version of the film, along with a panel Q&A, at the Academy Museum on Friday.

At the time of the film’s original release in 1975, it tapped into a cultural zeitgeist that mixed glamour and androgyny, akin to the era’s glam-rock movement led by David Bowie. “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” ultimately found a cult of fans who gathered for weekly midnight screenings in costume as the movie’s outlandish characters, performing as a “shadow cast” in harmony with the film onscreen.

“It was part of the sexual revolution, really,” says Curry. “Experiment was in the air and it was palpable. I gave them permission to be who they discovered they wanted to be. I’m proud of that.”

Since a stroke in 2012, the actor has been in a wheelchair and most of his work has been in voiceover. He did appear on camera in a 2016 remake of “Rocky Horror” for television, this time as the criminologist. But it was as the lascivious, self-confident Frank-N-Furter that Curry made history.

On this afternoon, he is dressed in black, auburn hair slicked back. In the Roxy’s lobby is a portrait of Curry in character as the mad doctor in pearls. It was a role he originated in London, on the tiny stage upstairs at the Royal Court Theatre, where it first became an underground sensation.

“Even for the time, there was a lot of courage that went into that performance,” remembers Jim Sharman, who directed Curry in the original stage productions in London and Los Angeles and then onscreen. “Tim himself was actually a kind of quiet intellectual offstage, but onstage he really knew how to let it rip.”

Curry, center, in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”

(Disney)

With a story and songs written by actor Richard O’Brien, who also played the skeletal, sarcastic Riff-Raff, “Rocky Horror” begins with a young couple caught in a rainstorm who approach a mysterious castle in search of shelter and a phone.

Played by then-unknowns Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick, the couple find Frank-N-Furter is hosting a convention of partying aliens in formalwear from the planet Transsexual in the galaxy Transylvania.

The mad doctor is also anxious to show off his latest experiment, the creation of a perfectly formed male, a personal plaything of chiseled muscles and blond hair, as he sings “I Can Make You A Man.” The scene leaves an impression.

“He takes no prisoners — it’s his world and you just happen to live in it,” Curry says with a smile of his Frank-N-Furter. “He doesn’t leave much air in the room. And I enjoyed that because it was so not like me, really.”

Notably, the film shares a 50-year anniversary with “Jaws,” and Curry remembers someone at 20th Century Fox placing newspaper ads that year for “Rocky Horror” with the film’s glossy red lips image and words promising, “A different set of jaws.”

“Jaws,” of course, was a record-breaking summer blockbuster, but as the longest-running theatrical release of all time, “Rocky Horror” really has no competition in terms of impact. It helped establish a culture for midnight movies in open-ended rotation, from David Lynch’s “Eraserhead” to Paul Verhoeven’s “Showgirls.”

At the customary hour of midnight, the restored 4K film will be premiering across the country this weekend, with special screenings and Q&As on Oct. 4 at Hollywood Forever Cemetery and Oct. 15 at the Grammy Museum. The film will then be rereleased on Blu-ray on Oct. 7, with a reissue of the official soundtrack album on Oct. 10.

Also landing in time for the celebration is a new documentary, “Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror,” directed by Linus O’Brien, son of “Rocky Horror” author and composer Richard O’Brien. The 90-minute film explores the making of the movie, the original stage musical and the decades of fan culture that followed.

“When a work of art survives this long, it’s working on many different levels,” says the younger O’Brien, who was a toddler on the set. “You want to live in that house and have those naughty experiences. [People] will be talking about it long after we’re all dead.”

The “Rocky Horror” journey from underground theater to feature film began after Los Angeles music impresario Lou Adler saw the show during a trip to London. Known as a manager and record producer (Carole King’s “Tapestry”), Adler was shaken from his jet lag, instantly recognizing “Rocky Horror” as a potential attraction for his recently opened L.A. club, the Roxy. Within two days, Adler signed a deal to host its U.S. premiere.

At the Roxy, the show was an immediate sensation, fueled by Curry’s wildly charismatic performance. Opening night brought out a crowd that included Jack Nicholson, John Lennon and Mick Jagger. L.A. Times theater critic Dan Sullivan compared Curry to various Hollywood grande dames (Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, among them).

“It was one of the great parties of all time,” Adler recalls during a video call from his home in Malibu. “The acceptance was unbelievable.”

Talk of turning the stage musical into a movie soon followed and a deal was made with 20th Century Fox, with producers Adler and Michael White guaranteeing delivery on a modest budget of about $1 million.

“I don’t know if 20th Century Fox ever understood the film,” Sharman says with a laugh, in a video call from Australia. “They might’ve been relieved that it was going on a low budget and being made on somebody’s lunch money.”

It was the first feature film for many of them. But Adler and White insisted on keeping the stage musical’s creative team together, including Sharman, costume designer Sue Blane and production designer Brian Thomson. With Curry firmly in the lead role, most of the cast members were drawn from the London production. Joining them were American actors Sarandon, Bostwick and singer Meat Loaf.

“I adored her,” Curry says of Sarandon. “She was a witty girl and so beautiful, and a real actress, I thought. You could tell that she had something.”

He also became friends with Meat Loaf, who appeared in the small but impactful role of Eddie, bursting out of a freezer on a motorcycle long enough to sing the manic “Hot Patootie, Bless My Soul.” In 1981, Curry hosted “Saturday Night Live” and appeared with Meat Loaf in a skit that had the actors selling “Rocky Horror” memorabilia. (Curry is still irritated by that one: “Dreadful.”)

Lou Adler, photographed at the Roxy in West Hollywood in 2023.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

“When the movie was a definite thing, there were several big stars who wanted to play the part,” Curry remembers. “Mick Jagger wanted to play it and he would’ve done a great job if you saw ‘Performance.’ But [director Sharman] said he wanted me to do it. I don’t think the studio was happy that he turned down Mick.”

Though Sharman was a very experienced stage director, he had made only one previous film, a 16mm feature called “Shirley Thompson vs. the Aliens.” For “Rocky Horror,” he says he was aiming for “a dark version of ‘The Wizard of Oz.’” He was also inspired by old B-movies and German Expressionism along with lessons learned from the stage. Interior scenes were shot at the old Hammer horror films’ Bray Studios just outside London.

“The reason we don’t have great anecdotes from the shoot is we didn’t have time for anecdotes,” adds Sharman. “It was shot in five weeks.”

Bostwick, appearing in one of his first film roles, remembers, “It felt like a very low-budget but colorful, bright and inspiring musical. You knew from the moment you were around the sets and costumes and lighting and makeup and camera people that they were at the top of their game.”

“The Rocky Horror Picture Show” evolved in some subtle but meaningful ways in its transition from the stage. For the live performances, Curry did his own makeup. “In the theater, I made it look a lot more amateur, deliberately, like he wasn’t good at it but was making a brave attempt and didn’t care much,” Curry says with a laugh. “In the play, it was just a lot trashier.”

For the film, French makeup artist Pierre La Roche was recruited to refine Frank-N-Furter’s exterior. La Roche had previously worked with Bowie during the Ziggy Stardust era.

“He was indeed very French,” says Curry, campily. “He was brilliant.”

An early sign of the challenges the movie would face arrived at an early screening of the completed film for Fox executives. Curry was there with Adler. “You could touch the silence at the end,” recalls Curry. “It wasn’t a very alive audience. There was really no reaction at all.”

Fox also hosted a test screening in Santa Barbara. The audience was a local mix of retirees and university students, and many of the older filmgoers began heading for the exit, until the theater was nearly empty.

But as Adler and a young Fox executive named Tim Deegan sat on the curb outside, they also met young people who were excited about the film. Adler credits Deegan for finding the “Rocky Horror” audience in an unexpected place: indie theaters at midnight.

Its second life began at the Waverly Theater in New York, where it began evolving into a happening that was both a movie and a theatrical experience. At the time, Curry happened to live within walking distance of the Waverly.

“It was a sort of guaranteed party,” he says of any potential moviegoer. “And if he didn’t bring a date, he could perhaps find one.”

On a recent weekend at the Nuart Theater in West L.A., barely five miles away from the Roxy, it’s approaching midnight and the lobby is filled with fans and volunteer shadow performers in “Rocky Horror” drag. Appearing as Frank-N-Furter is Kohlton Rippee, 32, already in his heels and makeup.

Like many here, he sees the film as both an outlet and a connection to a found family — a way “to see aspects of themselves represented in ways that they don’t see from traditional media. It’s like, ‘Oh, I can see myself in this and find this weird community to be around.’”

Bostwick first heard of the film’s second life from others and word trickled in that his every appearance onscreen was met with an affectionate callback from the crowd: “Ass—!” He didn’t see the phenomenon himself until later at the Tiffany Theater on Sunset.

“What do they say, that Disneyland is the happiest place on Earth? I’ve always thought that a Friday and Saturday night at a theater at midnight was the happiest place on Earth,” the actor says of the many raucous screenings he’s witnessed. “Everybody was just having a ball.”

After Walt Disney Co.‘s 2019 acquisition of 20th Century Fox, it turned the House of Mouse into the unlikely steward of “Rocky Horror.” Back in 1975, nothing could have been further from the Disney brand than a rock ’n’ roll musical about a cross-dressing scientist. That year, Disney released “The Apple Dumpling Gang.”

“I guess Walt is kind of revolving in his grave,” Curry jokes.

Even so, Adler says Disney has been a good partner on “Rocky Horror” and is supporting the multiple official anniversary events. “Walt was a breakthrough guy,” the producer notes. “He broke through and made a mouse a hero. So, in a way, he had his own Frank-N-Furter.”

Call him Skip.

That was among the first things Tim Skipper said this week, the interim UCLA football coach’s opening remarks part introduction, part pep rally, part ritualistic cleansing.

The Bruins needed drastic change after an 0-3 start led to the dismissal of coach DeShaun Foster, and Skipper provided a promising start. He was engaging, energetic and about as insightful as one could possibly be only four days into the job.

It was a refreshing departure from a predecessor who displayed little of the enthusiasm that he preached.

In perhaps the most encouraging early sign, Skipper disclosed that there had been no immediate player defections, though that could change given that everyone on the roster has 30 days to enter the transfer portal. Defensive coordinator Ikaika Malloe’s mutually agreed-upon departure was certainly a blow, but the team is finalizing the addition of veteran assistant Kevin Coyle — a former longtime college and NFL defensive coordinator — to help coach the defense for the rest of the season.

The strain of the previous week was apparent in the words of offensive tackle Garrett DiGiorgio, who spoke glowingly of both Foster and Malloe while discussing the players’ role in the struggles that led to the coaching change.

“I think he could tell that we all felt that way,” DiGiorgio said, referring to the team’s brief farewell meeting with Foster, “like we knew we had responsibility as a team and we knew that it wasn’t all on him.”

Skipper acknowledged the need to change the style of play for a team that has been badly outperformed on both sides of the ball. He said the Bruins must play harder, faster and more physical, with coaches helping to make that possible by simplifying schemes so that players could perform without having to do so much thinking.

The new man in charge has considerable experience making the best of a bad situation. Skipper guided Fresno State to a victory over New Mexico State in the 2023 New Mexico Bowl while filling in for sidelined coach Jeff Tedford, and then helped the Bulldogs reach the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl last season after Tedford had to step down because of ongoing health problems.

But Skipper has never stared down a schedule such as the one he faces, with games against Penn State, Ohio State and Indiana just part of a punishing Big Ten slate that starts with a road game against Northwestern on Saturday.

A win over the Wildcats could do far more than reengage fans; it could also prevent a rash of players from using their available redshirt and sitting out the rest of the season. Sticking around to play out the season at 0-4 might feel far less enticing than preserving additional eligibility. Players will need to decide soon because they cannot play in five games and redshirt.

For all his admirable traits, the 47-year-old Skipper is probably not a serious candidate to land the permanent job unless the Bruins go unbeaten the rest of the way. But he’s already shown a willingness to embrace these difficult circumstances, a strong showing undoubtedly putting him in the running for a head coaching job somewhere.

“There’s still nine games left,” Skipper said. “You know, there’s a lot to be motivated about.”

Recruiting fallout

Six high school players backed out of their nonbinding verbal commitments to UCLA in the wake of Foster’s dismissal, including four-star offensive tackle Johnnie Jones.

That left 16 players committed to the Bruins as part of a 2026 high school class that dropped to No. 52 nationally in the 247Sports.com rankings.

What will be the recruiting approach of a staff that might need to seek new jobs as soon as the season ends?

“We have a whole recruiting staff and this is where they’re going to make their money,” Skipper said. “So, they’re in communication with those guys, and they know this is a great place to be. It’s a tradition-rich university, so we’re just gonna keep on sending the message. But ultimately, when everybody turns on the TV and our style of play looks the way that everybody wants it to look, they’ll want to be here.”

In the good news department, teams can restock rosters quickly because of the transfer portal and the tendency of coaches to bring a good chunk of their old team with them to their new destinations. The elimination of the spring transfer portal window will place increased significance on the 10-day window that starts Jan. 2, 2026.

Heard on campus

On the same day that UCLA fired Foster, a group of about 100 former Bruins players representing multiple eras met with athletic director Martin Jarmond via Zoom.

The point of the meeting wasn’t to weigh in on the coaching change or to make suggestions for Foster’s replacement — it was to vent.

According to two people on the call who spoke with The Times on condition of anonymity because the meeting was private, the players talked about getting back to the days when football mattered at the school.

There was also sentiment expressed about feeling shut off from the program, largely as a result of practices established under former coach Chip Kelly. One former player said it was difficult to get a field pass for games and asked how can players give back to a program that makes it hard to be around? The same player noted that at USC, it’s easy for alumni to go back and feel like part of the program.

Another former player who said he was around the program almost daily last season said he would suggest transfer prospects who wanted to come home to Southern California and could be impact players but received no follow-through. Some of those players went on to start at Alabama, Utah and USC.

Jarmond told the former players he appreciated the feedback and provided his email address. Former player James Washington, who helped organize the meeting, said there would be future meetings to keep the discussion going.

Among those on the Zoom — first reported by the website Last Word on College Football — were Cade McNown, Troy Aikman, Donnie Edwards, Dennis Keyes, Bruce Davis II, Datone Jones, Audie Attar, Matt Stevens, Joe Cowan and Ben Olson.

Olympic sport spotlight: Men’s soccer

Maybe UCLA football can follow the model of this team.

After a winless start to the season, the Bruins men’s soccer team defeated Northwestern in its Big Ten opener and is now 2-0 in conference play after a 3-1 victory over Wisconsin on Friday.

Forward Sergi Solans Ormo, who scored the only goal during UCLA’s 1-0 triumph over Northwestern, gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead with a shot into the bottom right of the goal in the second half against Wisconsin. Forward Francis Bonsu added an insurance goal about eight minutes later.

Once saddled with an 0-3-2 record, UCLA (2-3-2 overall, 2-0 Big Ten) has some significant momentum going into another conference game on the road Friday against Indiana.

Opinion time

Who would you rather have as UCLA’s next football coach?

An exciting lower-level coach such as Tulane’s Jon Sumrall?

A rising star such as Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein?

An existing Power Four coach such as Arizona’s Jedd Fisch?

A wild card such as Mississippi’s Lane Kiffin?

Click here to vote in our survey.

Poll results

We asked “Who will end up as UCLA’s next football coach?”

After 231 votes, the results:

An up-and-comer such as Tulane’s Jon Sumrall, 45%

A known commodity such as Michigan State’s Jonathan Smith, 30%

A hotshot offensive or defensive coordinator, 19%

A former Bruin such as Florida State defensive coordinator Tony White, 6%

In case you missed it

UCLA finalizing deal to add Kevin Coyle to defensive staff for rest of season

UCLA loses defensive coordinator Ikaika Malloe in more fallout from 0-3 start

‘He’s been an underdog his whole life’: Meet UCLA interim coach Tim Skipper

Have something Bruin?

Do you have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future UCLA newsletter? Email me at [email protected], and follow me on X @latbbolch. To order an autographed copy of my book, “100 Things UCLA Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die,” send me an email. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

The Fresno State football players wanted to be heard after so much frustration, so much uncertainty.

A season that had started with their coach leaving the job because of health problems, only to deteriorate further with four losses in six games during a maddening midseason stretch, was now back firmly on the upswing.

Their temporary coach having steadied them through every challenge, including his own uncertain future, those players yearned to preserve what might have been the best part of a burdensome season.

“We want Skip!” the players chanted in the locker room last November after a victory over Colorado State that made them eligible for a bowl game. “We want Skip!”

Tim Skipper, the interim coach who was practically a Fresno State lifer after having starred as a speck of a linebacker for the Bulldogs before going on to coach for them in various capacities, was making the best of what he had to work with once more.

It wasn’t the first or last time he would be needed in that capacity. The Bulldogs had tapped him to serve as the acting coach for a bowl game the previous season after coach Jeff Tedford’s first bout of health issues, and now UCLA is turning to Skipper to lead its team after the dismissal of coach DeShaun Foster on Sunday after the Bruins’ 0-3 start.

It’s an especially difficult spot given Skipper’s ties to his longtime friend, who hired him before this season as a special assistant to the head coach and once called himself “an honorary Skipper.” Skipper’s father, Jim, was Foster’s running backs coach with the Carolina Panthers. Skipper’s brother, Kelly, had been Foster’s running backs coach at UCLA.

“You know, DeShaun is kind of like family,” Jim Skipper said. “Tim’s got his work cut out, he knows that. But he’s up for the challenge. He’s been an underdog his whole life.”

This might be Tim Skipper’s greatest test, far greater than the six consecutive plays inside the three-yard line that the middle linebacker helped Fresno State stymie Ohio State during a goal-line stand in 2000. Among the biggest difficulties facing Skipper are rallying team morale and keeping the roster intact after a winless start that led to the firing of the coach who brought these players into the program. There’s also an offense and a defense that rank among the worst in the country and a persistent penalty problem.

“I know from the outside, people may look and say, the talent’s not changing, this imposing schedule isn’t changing, how can anyone expect different results?” said Paul Loeffler, Fresno State’s radio play-by-play announcer. “But I would say he’s a guy who can foster belief in young men because he believes. He’s relentlessly positive and it’s not fake positivity.

“There’s a gravitas there that I think the players would buy into and as hard as it’s going to be for him because of how close he and DeShaun have been for a long time, I think the way he attacks this opportunity will probably be colored by his experience last year.”

It was easy for Fresno State to turn to Skipper in July 2024 given his performance in guiding the Bulldogs to a 37-10 victory over New Mexico State in the New Mexico Bowl at the end of the previous season. The bowl triumph was welcome relief from a three-game losing streak and worries about Tedford after the coach stepped aside to address health issues.

After the game, Skipper dedicated the victory to his boss.

“He did a wonderful job getting our team prepared and ready for the bowl,” said Terry Tumey, the former UCLA nose guard who appointed Skipper as interim coach in December 2023 when Tumey was Fresno State’s athletic director. “This is a much larger stage, of course, but it’s not a foreign proposition for him to be in an interim situation and kind of taking over and kind of keeping things at bay as the administration figures out its next direction.”

Less than a year ago, Skipper made Fresno State seriously consider giving him the Bulldogs’ permanent job. The team got off to a 5-2 start before second-half slipups against Hawaii and Air Force were followed by a loss to UCLA in which the Bulldogs managed just a field goal after halftime.

Four days later, Fresno State athletic director Garrett Klassy hired USC linebackers coach Matt Entz as the Bulldogs’ new coach. Skipper eventually found a landing spot on Foster’s staff.

“He’s just somebody that’s very knowledgeable and he knows me,” Foster said in July. “So it’s just somebody that I know I can trust, and I’m just excited to be able to add somebody with that type of knowledge to our team.”

Given a new, unexpected opportunity as Foster’s replacement, Skipper, 47, might use any lingering disappointment from his last interim stop as motivation.

“Knowing Tim,” Tumey said, “he’s going to want to prove that he has what it takes to be a head coach, whether it’s this opportunity or somewhere else, and so he has something to prove too. I think our entire program at UCLA, we all have something to prove.”

Skipper’s lengthy coaching career has included stops at Western New Mexico, Sacramento State, Colorado State, Florida, Nevada Las Vegas and Central Michigan in addition to multiple stints at Fresno State. He’s mostly coached on defense but has spent four seasons as a running backs coach.

Scheduled to meet with the UCLA media for the first time on Wednesday morning, Skipper is known for a magnetic personality that allows him to quickly build trust among players. He’s already instituted one meaningful change in allowing photos and videos to be taken at practices after his predecessor had barred that custom.

“He’s so genuine, he’s so engaging, he’s got a million-dollar smile and he’s just present,” Loeffler said, “so I think he’s got a gift in terms of connecting.”

But he’s no softie. Pat Hill, the legendary former Fresno State coach known for backing up his “Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere” mantra with victories over major-conference opponents, said his onetime star defender who still ranks as the second-leading tackler in school history will rise to his latest challenge.

“When he walks into a room, take away the stature — he’s a small guy, he’s 5 feet 8 — but he commands the room and he will get the respect of the team immediately,” Hill said. “I guarantee the team will play with more emotion and they will play harder now.

“I don’t know what the wins and losses will be with the people they have, I really don’t know enough about it, but from a standpoint of leadership and getting a message to the team, he’ll be outstanding.”

Tumey said the expectations going into UCLA’s Big Ten opener against Northwestern on Sept. 27 should be for Skipper to stabilize the program, make sure the Bruins are competitive in conference play and support his players.

But what if UCLA starts unexpectedly rolling off one victory after another?

“Hey, stranger things have happened,” Tumey said. “I was a part of that 0-3-1 football team that ended up going to the Rose Bowl [in 1986]. So you never know.”

Earlier this month, Apple CEO Tim Cook joined President Trump and senior Cabinet members in the Oval Office to announce the company’s plan to invest $100 billion into U.S. manufacturing over the next four years. This comes on top of Apple’s previously unveiled $500 billion domestic infrastructure commitment.

Apple’s ramped-up infrastructure efforts have clear implications for Broadcom‘s (AVGO -3.65%) long-term growth trajectory. As Apple expands its U.S. footprint, Broadcom stands to benefit not only from increased demand for chips but also from its emerging role in powering next-generation networking, connectivity, and artificial intelligence (AI) applications.

Let’s break down why Apple’s continued investment in infrastructure strengthens Broadcom’s strategic position, and how it accelerates the company’s ambitions in AI and beyond.

Broadcom has deep inroads with hyperscalers

While Apple may be one of Broadcom’s most visible partners, the company has also been quietly building deep ties with AI hyperscalers — Alphabet being a notable one.

Broadcom’s portfolio spans custom silicon, networking switches, and optical interconnects — the foundational layers that power modern data centers. These may not be headline-grabbing products, but they serve as the invisible scaffolding that enables AI models to train at scale and keeps data workloads flowing smoothly — avoiding costly compute and connectivity bottlenecks.

What makes Apple’s reliance on Broadcom so compelling is how it bridges two high-growth landscapes: consumer electronics (i.e., semiconductor components for the iPhone) and enterprise-grade AI infrastructure. Broadcom’s established relationships with hyperscalers validate its role as a provider of specialized, mission-critical technologies. Meanwhile, Apple’s endorsement amplifies that credibility — signaling to the broader AI ecosystem that Broadcom is a trusted partner.

In essence, Broadcom is solidifying its influence across the entire technology stack — from chips inside of consumer devices to the infrastructure driving next-generation AI applications inside hyperscale data centers.

Image source: Getty Images.

Broadcom is a quiet beneficiary of rising AI infrastructure investment

The explosion of AI workloads has only heightened the need for networking gear and the specialized chips that enable big tech to operate at scale. While Broadcom dominates many of these use cases, it rarely commands the same spotlight as Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing.

The reason is straightforward: Broadcom isn’t building GPUs that capture headlines. Rather, the company designs the connective tissue that allows GPUs, CPUs, and memory chips to communicate efficiently. Without Broadcom’s technologies, generative AI advancements would remain throttled by data transfer limits and networking bottlenecks.

Is Broadcom stock a buy right now?

While Broadcom lacks the same levels of excitement that have crowned peers like Nvidia as an “AI darling,” this hasn’t translated into a bargain stock price. On the contrary, Broadcom now trades at a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of 45 — well above its three-year average and essentially at the highest point of the current AI cycle.

AVGO PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts

Broadcom’s premium valuation tells a clear story: The market increasingly views the company as a structural beneficiary of ongoing AI buildouts. Although expectations remain high, Broadcom’s relationships with hyperscalers, as well as its alliance with communications leaders such as Apple help diversify the company’s ecosystem and drive home its broad depth across various applications and use cases.

Unlike Nvidia or AMD, Broadcom does not need to rely on generational product cycles to capture the attention of investors. Instead, the company’s appeal lies in its subtle, less-visible services that keep the digital economy humming along.

This quiet, indispensable nature makes Broadcom less vulnerable to hype-driven volatility while still offering meaningful upside given its exposure to myriad secular trends reshaping the technology landscape.

While the stock isn’t cheap, Broadcom represents a durable infrastructure play as the AI narrative continues to unfold. To me, Broadcom is a compelling opportunity to buy and hold over the long term.

ESPN announced some changes Thursday for its NBA broadcast teams going into the 2025-26 season — among them, a promotion for Tim Legler and a contract extension (but also a demotion) for Doris Burke.

Legler will join the network’s lead NBA crew, which also includes play-by-play announcer Mike Breen, fellow analyst Richard Jefferson and reporter Lisa Salters.

That team will call the 2026 NBA Finals on ABC, as well as the conference finals, several first- and second-round playoff games, a Christmas Day game and NBA Saturday Primetime games on ABC.

Legler is a former NBA journeyman who won the league’s three-point shooting contest during the 1996 All-Star festivities. He retired as a player in 2000 and joined ESPN as an analyst the same year.

ESPN did not provide details on Burke’s contract extension, other than to say it is for multiple years. According to a press release, Burke will call “full slates of games throughout the regular season and the NBA playoffs” on ESPN and ABC with play-by-play announcer Dave Pasch.

Burke has been with ESPN since 1991 and joined the network’s lead NBA broadcast team in 2023. When she called the 2024 NBA Finals, she became the first woman to serve as a TV game analyst for a championship-round game in one of the four major professional U.S. men’s sports leagues.

In 2018, Burke received the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame’s Curt Gowdy Media Award for outstanding contributions to basketball.

The news that Burke’s future with the lead NBA team was up in the air was first reported by The Athletic in June ahead of the 2025 Finals. Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle spoke in support of Burke during his news conference before Game 1.

“She’s changed the game for women in broadcasting,” Carlisle said. “Doris is a great example of courage and putting herself out there.”

Also on Thursday, ESPN announced a multi-year extension for Jefferson, who has been with the network since 2019 and called his first NBA Finals this year.

Michael Shanks’ “Together” is the only romance you’ll see this year that’s infatuated by John Carpenter and Plato.

A fusion of body horror and couples therapy, it centers on a sunken cave with a pool of water that, when sipped, makes cells thirst to meld with the nearest mammal. In the opening sequence, this urge to merge overtakes two dogs who smush together like the monster mutt in “The Thing.” (Thankfully, the camera doesn’t linger; the whimpering is plenty.) Now, it’s Tim and Millie’s turn. The unhappy boyfriend and girlfriend, played by real-life spouses Dave Franco and Alison Brie, have moved from the city to the forest anticipating that the scenery change will make or break their relationship. Blend is more like it.

How does ancient philosophy squeeze into a gooey metaphor for codependence? According to Jamie (Damon Herriman), a history teacher at the school where Millie works, Plato’s “Symposium” claims that humans were once rebellious, eight-limbed beings who tumbled around doing cartwheels. Zeus cleaved us pesky mortals in two as a form of control, figuring that we’d be so consumed by the quest to find our other half that we’d never get around to toppling Mount Olympus — and if that didn’t work, he’d leave us “on one leg, hopping.” (Shanks can save that for the sequel.)

It’s worth noting that Plato was kidding, a three-millennium-old joke that’s essentially, “Take my wife — Zeus!” But mating does preoccupy our mental bandwidth, and welding together two lives is unwieldy. Tim and Millie have been dating for a decade, from their hopeful 20s to their resigned 30s, and have become so mismatched in maturity that their efforts to stick together feel less like giddy Grecian handsprings and more like a three-legged race. As Millie confesses early on, “I’m not sure if we love each other or if we’re just used to each other.”

Brie and Franco lend the fictional couple their intimacy, but dial down their spark. Only a few scenes allow their characters any welcome emotional connection. There’s no sense of peeking behind their celebrity curtain, so we’re with Millie’s best friend Cath (Mia Morrissey) when she openly wishes the pair would split for good. But Millie and Tim have leaned on each other so long that neither is sure how to stand on their own. The emotional and physical pain to come has the sense of being aboard a train chugging toward certain disaster. There’s opportunities to jump off, but no one has the nerve to try.

Alison Brie, left, and Dave Franco in “Together.”

(Ben King / Neon)

Shanks is attuned to how a long-term twosome divides up duties (and identities), defining themselves by what each one contributes and, in the process, becoming less of a whole person. Tim can’t drive. Millie can’t cook. Tim is the broke musician. Millie has the steady job. “I’m the boring one,” she says begrudgingly. Meanwhile, the resentful girl struggles to label Tim’s role, stammering to Jamie that she lives with, “my partner, my Tim, my boy-partner Tim.”

“Boy-partner” sounds right. The design teams have outfitted Franco’s hipster with goofy sweatshirts and a fledgling mullet. He can’t even commit to the most famously noncommittal hairstyle. Yet, before long, Tim finds he’s unable to leave Millie’s side for a moment. Every time he touches her, the rest of the world seems to disappear: The focus goes shallow, the fine hairs on Brie’s skin dapple in the light, her muscles creak as loudly as tectonic plates. She’s confused. He keeps apologizing, becoming increasingly flustered and frantic.

The film will go on to have memorably fleshy visuals. (Picture massaging butter underneath the raw skin of a Thanksgiving turkey.) “It Happened One Night’s” Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable relied on a flimsy Wall of Jericho to keep themselves separated. Here, when things get tricky, Millie and Tim reach for an electric handsaw.

Gross? Totally. But empathetic too. Brie’s Millie is sensible and vulnerable, while Franco manages to makes us pity his bad boyfriend Tim. Part of his aloofness comes from grieving his father’s death and his mother’s subsequent mental breakdown; the rest is his shame that his rock ‘n’ roll dreams have yet to become reality. “I thought you’d make Millie cooler,” her younger brother Luke (Jack Kenny) says. “Instead …” Luke adds with a snort, as the rest of the sentence slides into the abyss, taking Tim’s ego with it.

For a first-time feature director, Shanks expertly fuses himself to the audience’s POV. He knows that we know where this is going — the title gives the game away — so his job is to goose the inevitable in ways that make us squirm and gasp. Working with the cinematographer Germain McMicking and the production designer Nicholas Dare, he plunks us into standard jump scare scenarios — the dark hallway, the subterranean lair — and then tricks our eyes into looking at the wrong corner of the frame.

His talent for misdirection also applies to the narrative. Shanks expects us to clock the unacknowledged wedding ring on Herriman’s Jamie, a Hallmark rom-com charmer, and so his script takes our suspicions and twists them once, twice and a third time for good measure. Even steeled for a plot point we’re dreading — the couple making the terrible choice to do something more adult than hold hands — when the scene finally arrives, it’s ickier and more humiliating than we could have imagined.

My quibbles with the ending are too close to spoilers to cite outright. But the delight of the film is that its editor Sean Lahiff has the rhythm of a shock comic. He favors nasty jolts and cartoonish rim shots, like when Millie advises Tim not to do anything stupid and Lahiff immediately smash-cuts to the guy running off full-tilt. Nothing about “Together” screams comedy, yet that’s precisely how it’s put together. Awkward humor is the skeleton under its prestige nightmare surface, even as it’s wonderfully, heartbreakingly tragic to watch our leads roil to melt together like mozzarella. How’s that for an update on the old quip? Make my wife — cheese!

Belgian champion Tim Wellens claimed his first Tour de France stage victory with a breakaway win on stage 15.

The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider has done a lot of work for race leader Tadej Pogacar in the opening two weeks of the Tour but, freed from his domestique duties for the day, attacked on the final climb of the hilly 169.3km ride from Muret to Carcassonne.

The 34-year-old ultimately won by one minute 28 seconds, with fellow Belgian Victor Campenaerts finishing second and Julian Alaphilippe third.

Wellens’ team-mate Tadej Pogacar crossed six minutes later in the peloton to maintain his lead of four minutes 13 seconds over Jonas Vingegaard in the general classification standings.

Sunday Brunch host Tim Lovejoy is known for his clean-shaved look but the presenter once stunned viewers after revealing that wasn’t always the case.

Sunday Brunch host Tim Lovejoy once left viewers gobsmacked when he revealed that he used to sport a full head of dreadlocks, a far cry from his current clean-cut image.

The revelation came during an episode of the Channel 4 show in 2017, where Tim even shared a throwback photo showcasing his abundant dreadlocks.

Hair became the hot topic while Tim was conversing with that day’s guest, Louisa Johnson, who won the X Factor in 2015. It was then that Tim dropped the bombshell about his past hairdo.

“I did used to have dreadlocks,” he admitted. The confession drew a surprised response from fashion expert Gok Wan, who couldn’t contain his disbelief: “Did you really? Shut up!”

Despite Gok’s playful command for silence, Tim promised to dig out a photograph to prove his former look, as reported by the Mirror.

Gok was visibly taken aback and delighted when he saw the old picture of Tim’s dreadlocks on display.

He commented: “I love it! Honestly! I really like it. I love it. You’ve got a good bone structure for it. We need to get you a wig. We need to get you a weave!”

Tim jokingly agreed with Gok’s excitement, quipping: “When I have my showbiz hair transplant I’ll get it done again.”

Previously, Tim has been candid about his thinning hair and even went bald to support Macmillan’s Brave The Shave campaign, which encourages people to shave their heads to raise funds.

During a candid chat with Lloyd Griffith last year, Tim opened up about his attempts to make his hair appear fuller.

He admitted: “I saw someone use it in makeup one time, I started using that powder, the powder to just thicken it up a bit. But then it’s like ‘What am I doing?'”

The presenter has been quite forthcoming about discussing his hair thinning over time.

A viewer once questioned on X: “Tim, when did you start losing your hair? My son is 21 and distraught as he is losing fast. Did you investigate any of the procedures available? I feel for him as it’s denting his confidence.”

To which Tim responded empathetically, “Whether we like it or not, it’s tough. The problem with procedures is that once you’re in, you have to keep going. This is why I didn’t go through with the transplant. The only real advice is to go short and own it. It took me a while.”

Sunday Brunch is available to watch on My4.

BBC Sport pundit Tim Henman believes Carlos Alcaraz “looks comfortable on any surface, against any opponent” after the defending champion sees off Britain’s Cameron Norrie in straight sets to reach the semi-finals at Wimbledon 2025.

Watch live coverage from every court on BBC iPlayer.

Available to UK users only.

Sunday Brunch was back on our screens this morning (6th July) and it wasn’t long before hosts Tim Lovejoy and Simon Rimmer were forced to address some ‘tragic news’

Sunday Brunch presenter Tim Lovejoy brought the programme to an abrupt stop shortly after it began, as he delivered some “tragic news”.

The television favourite made his comeback on our screens this Sunday (6th July) morning with co-host Simon Rimmer, as they invited a host of celebrities into the renowned kitchen.

But just a few minutes into the broadcast, Tim paused to pay tribute to Diogo Jota. The Liverpool footballer was tragically killed in a car crash, with the devastating news breaking less than two weeks following his nuptials.

In the wake of the tragedy, fans have been sharing their deep sorrow, prompting Tim and Simon to dedicate Sunday Brunch’s opening segment to the late sportsman, reports the Manchester Evening News.

Addressing the audience at home and those present in the studio, Tim said: “Before we get on with the show, there has been some really tragic news this week about Diogo Jota, and being a Liverpool fan…”

Simon interjected: “It’s shocking. Pete and I were talking in makeup. A human tragedy, a 28-year-old man, who has just got married and had two young children. I think the way in which the football community has come together is very very powerful.”

Directing the conversation towards Peter Hooton, one of the day’s guests, Simon asked: “What do you think Pete?”

The singer, a devoted Liverpool supporter, expressed: “The way people have rallied round. It’s an absolutely devastating thing for everyone, for the family, for Liverpool fans and just football in general. You can see that with the Club World Cup, with all the tributes in America.”

Former footballer Stuart Douglas confessed: “I couldn’t believe it when I saw it and it just overshadowed everything and that became more important than anything else.”

He elaborated: “More important than the World Cup, more important than the Euros because someone has lost their life and for the brothers I cannot imagine how his family are feeling. It’s so sad.”

Tim chimed in with a heartfelt message: “Yes, thoughts go out to their family.”

Tragically, the 28 year old and his brother were involved in a fatal car crash in Spain, with the Guardia Civil stating: “The information we have so far is that the car, which was a Lamborghini, was in a road traffic accident and left the road due to a tyre blowout while overtaking.”

They added: “It was in the early hours, 00:30 BST, in the municipality of Cernadilla in the province of Zamora. The car caught on fire, and the two occupants were killed.”

Sunday Brunch airs from 10am on Channel 4 every Sunday

Sunday Brunch hosts Tim Lovejoy and Simon Rimmer issued an apology to comedian Aisling Bea after they asked her a ‘boring’ question about motherhood

Sunday Brunch hosts Simon Rimmer and Tim Lovejoy playfully said sorry to comedian Aisling Bea after they quizzed her on her personal life.

The Irish comedian made an appearance on the Channel 4 morning show alongside guests like Big Zuu, with Kat Sadler and Lizzie Davidson from Such Brave Girls.

Almost immediately into the show, Tim disclosed a backstage chat with Aisling, prompting a cheeky apology from him.

He explained: “Aisling, this morning you came in and I said to you, ‘How is it being a mum?’ and then Simon said to you, ‘Congratulations, I’ve not seen you since becoming a mum,’ and you said, ‘Simon, the boring thing and being a mum is that everyone keeps asking about it’.”

“So I apologise for that,” he said with a chuckle: “But how is it being a mum?” reports the Manchester Evening News.

Aisling responded with playful repartee: “Thank you for apologising, I’ll work on forgiveness but I can’t guarantee it.”

She continued: “I still identify as a child-free, single lady because of the vibe but I do have a baby and a boyfriend.”

With her signature wit, Aisling commented on “rival show” Saturday Kitchen, saying her little one “couldn’t get her head around it” so she likely wasn’t watching her mum today.

Opening up about motherhood, she added: “I feel like I’m not a mum yet, at the start you’re just like dealing with a new person in the house, I think it’ll be a while before that feels like I’m a mother.”

Aisling revealed that she and her partner Jack Freeman became parents for the first time in August last year, after getting celebrities like Paul Rudd and Travis Kelce to announce her pregnancy news months earlier.

She took to Instagram to share the birth of her baby, posting a series of photos showing her growing bump, ending with a final snap of her cradling her newborn daughter in hospital.

In a playful post, she wrote: “Trip advisor review of Pregnancy One star,” and listed a series of “negatives” such as it being “expensive” and leaving her feeling “very unrested”.

“Not as described online or in pictures. Reminded me of the Glasgow Willie Wonka experience. Towards the end of my stay I was repeatedly kicked in the nuts,” she continued.

She then went on to list: “UTIs, bleeding, depression, cramps, insomnia, nosebleeds, sinus blockage, migraines, vomiting, being randomly touched by people without asking, bones mushing, organs moving, skin stretching, being told that you’ll forget all the pain/that it’s a privilege / that it will all be “worth it” in the end, heightened awareness of climate change and worst of all- boredom- all described as « normal » and was repeatedly recommended « a nice bath » as a fix to all of the above.”

Aisling also shared the “positives”, saying she enjoyed the bath at the end and appreciated the help with her bags, adding: “Before checking out, nearby kebab shop man provided free extra chips and quite a flirty wink, which I appreciated. Was given a little gift at check out which is, admittedly, quite cute. “

Sunday Brunch airs from 10am on Channel 4.

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill’s daughter Gracie McGraw has clarified her coming out journey.

On Monday (2 June), the eldest child of the country music icons celebrated the start of Pride Month with a post on her Instagram story.

“EVERYONE GET MORE GAY NOW. HAPPY FREAKING PRIDE. I love being queer,” she wrote.

Shortly after uploading the joyous message, an array of media outlets interpreted Gracie’s post as a coming-out announcement, resulting in them reporting it as such.

However, it didn’t take long for the 28-year-old to shut down the claims and reveal that she’s been out and proud. 

“It has come to my attention that some tabloids have taken an Instagram story I posted yesterday and have used it as clickbait, saying I’ve come out. Let me be VERY clear here… I have been an out and proud queer, bisexual woman, and I wouldn’t have it any other way,” she wrote.

“I have and will always be very vocal about my support of LGBTQIA+ rights and the community, but thank you very much to these tabloids for shedding light that it’s pride month!!!”

Instagram: @graciemcgra

Gracie went on to deliver an inspiring message to other LGBTQIA+ people who may not have the support, love or understanding from their families.

“Just know that there is a beautiful community out there that loves you and cares about and for you!! Check on your people and keep safe out there. Give love to each other. GM,” she concluded.

While Tim and Faith have not commented on Gracie’s posts, they have expressed their love and support for their daughter in the past.

In 2020, Tim gushed about his eldest daughter’s acting career in LA, telling PEOPLE: “She makes me proud every day because she’s such a strong, independent young lady who speaks her mind. She makes me proud every day of the way she lives her life.”

Instagram: @graciemcgra

While Gracie has been openly queer for some time now, there are a handful of public figures who have recently come out.

Check out all the celebrities who’ve come out as LGBTQ+ in 2025 (so far) here. 

In a world trying to erase LGBTQIA+ stories, we keep writing them. Join our mission as shareholders in Gay Times and help us fight for your rights. Find out more at investors.gaytimes.com.

LEGENDARY British actor Tim Curry was seen on a rare outing in Los Angeles today, 13 years after suffering a major stroke.

The 79-year-old was spotted leaving Gelson’s supermarket wearing a red sweater, matching trainers, and black trousers.

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Also sporting dark sunglasses and clutching a paper bag, Tim was pushed in a wheelchair by his carer.

Tim’s 2012 stroke left him partially paralysed on one side of his body and affected his speech.

The health crisis forced him to step away from acting and public life for several years.

A celebrated actor, Tim is known for his charismatic performances in film, television, and theatre.

He became a cult icon playing Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

His other notable roles include Wadsworth the butler in the cult classic Clue and Pennywise the Dancing Clown in the 1990 adaptation of Stephen King’s It.

The stroke had a severe impact on Tim’s mobility, leaving him reliant on a wheelchair and carers for support with everyday tasks.

Since 2012, Tim has undergone extensive physical therapy and rehabilitation to regain as much movement and speech as possible.

He has kept a low profile in recent years, rarely seen in public and not active in major acting projects.

However, Tim has made some notable appearances and engaged with fans through interviews and virtual events.

In 2015, almost three years after his stroke, he made a rare public appearance at the Actors Fund Tony Awards Viewing Party in Los Angeles.

There, he received a lifetime achievement award and spoke openly about his recovery, highlighting how maintaining his sense of humor was vital to coping with his health challenges.

More recently, since 2023, Tim has participated in virtual video chats with fans through conventions like GalaxyCon.

He has also shared occasional video messages on social media, providing insight into his life post-stroke and answering fan questions about his recovery and career.

In addition to these appearances, Tim marked a notable return to acting in 2024 with a role in the horror film Stream – his first feature film role in 14 years.

The film was released in select theaters in August 2024.

He has also remained active in voice acting, lending his talents to animated series and projects, further demonstrating his enduring passion for performance.

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The BBC can help tackle a “crisis of trust” in UK society, the broadcaster’s director general has said.

Tim Davie has set out measures he says will allow the broadcaster to play a leading role in reversing a breakdown in trust in information and institutions, as well as combating division and disconnection between people.

They include expanding fact-checking service BBC Verify, giving children lessons about disinformation, and doing more to scrutinise local politicians.

“The BBC is ready to play its full part – not simply defending tradition, but shaping the future,” he said in a speech on Wednesday.

“A future where trusted information strengthens democracy, where every child has a fair start, where creativity fuels growth and social capital, and where no-one is left behind in the digital age.”

Mr Davie added: “The future of our civilised, cohesive, democratic society is, for the first time in my life, at risk.”

The speech to civic and community leaders in Salford set out Mr Davie’s vision for the corporation’s future.

The BBC’s current royal charter, which sets out the terms and purposes of its existence, expires in 2027, and negotiations with the government about its renewal are ramping up.

“We believe that we must reform faster and get more support to avoid decline,” he said.

He said he was not asking for the “status quo” in funding, and said he would “keep an open mind” about the future of the licence fee or what could replace it.

“We want modernisation and reform,” he said. But any future method of funding must ensure the BBC remains a universal service, he stressed.

“All the funding models that have been floated in the debate have their merits and drawbacks. But some such as advertising or subscription don’t pass the test of building a universal trusted public service.

“Beyond that, we keep an open mind. And we continue to actively explore all options that can make our funding model fairer, more modern, and more sustainable.”

He also called for “more help” from the government to fund the World Service, calling it a “priceless national asset”, and saying “the government should invest for significant growth, not survival”.

However, there have been recent reports that ministers are drawing up plans for cuts to World Service funding.

Mr Davie argued that the BBC could play a key part in making the UK a “global leader in trusted information”, support democracy, boost education and economic growth, and improve digital access.

The BBC’s future would involve “doubling down on impartiality, championing free, fair reporting alongside landmark investigative journalism, investing in BBC Verify and InDepth as well as increasing transparency and holding our nerve amidst culture wars”, he said.

The BBC can “help turn the tide” and improve trust by “dramatically increasing” the amound of news coverage on platforms like YouTube and Tik Tok have a stronger presence amid the online noise.

It will combine AI agent technology with BBC journalism to create “a new gold standard fact checking tool”, he said, but without relinquishing editorial oversight.

“Our aim is to work globally with other public service broadcasters to ensure a healthy core of fact-based news.”

The BBC will also:

• Expand its expand Local Democracy Reporting Service from focusing on local councils to scrutinise health authorities, police and crime commissioners, and regional mayors
• Create specialist BBC Insight teams across the UK to do more investigative reporting, and expand local BBC Verify and InDepth work
• Launch new political debate radio shows for different areas, modelled on Radio 4’s Any Questions
• Give every child “proper training on disinformation” and potentially develop qualifications in disinformation studies
• Offer offer a new BBC family account for every parent of a young child, offering support at key milestones from birth to leaving school
• Move more executive roles outside London

The BBC says it is the most trusted news provider in the UK, with 45% of the population naming it as the source they trusted the most in 2024. That is down from 57% a decade ago.

Mr Davie also called for a national plan to switch off traditional broadcast transmissions in the 2030s, and ensure a “smooth” transition to internet-only delivery of programmes.

The BBC could launch its own device aimed at people who haven’t switched to streaming, based on the existing Freely online service, Mr Davie said.

“We want to double down on Freely as a universal free service to deliver live TV over broadband.

“And we want to consider developing and launching a streaming media device with Freely capabilities built in, with a radically simplified user interface specifically designed to help those yet to benefit from IP services.”