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Storm Still Lingers Over Defense Attorney’s Training Video

It began as a typical political foray: Prominent defense attorney Jack McMahon, the Republican candidate for district attorney in Philadelphia, called the incumbent Lynn Abraham “racially insensitive.” A familiar campaign claim, yet it uncommonly irked those in the D.A.’s office who knew McMahon from his eight-year tenure as an assistant D.A. After reading his comments in the local newspapers, two prosecutors stepped forward to say they recalled seeing a not-terribly-sensitive training videotape McMahon made back in 1987 for the D.A.’s office. One prosecutor, in fact, had the tape in hand. He had found it in his desk drawer.

Abraham, surrounded by her top deputies, settled before a VCR. The donnybrook that erupted soon after has yet to subside. Politics, legalisms, morals, ethics and barefaced hypocrisy all share center stage; which truly define this melee remains an open question.

First, the genesis. Here are excerpts from McMahon’s one-hour videotaped lesson on jury selection:

“You do not want smart people. I wish we could ask everyone’s IQ. If you could know their IQ, you could pick a great jury all the time. You don’t want smart people because smart people will analyze the hell out of your case. . . . They take those words ‘reasonable doubt’ and they actually try to think about them.

“You don’t want social workers. That’s obvious. They got intelligence, sensitivity, all this stuff. You don’t want them. . . . Teachers, you don’t like. Teachers are bad, especially young teachers. Like teachers who teach in the grade-school level.

“In selecting blacks, you don’t want the real educated ones. This goes across the board. All races. You don’t want smart people. If you’re going to take blacks, you want older black men and women, particularly men. Older black men are very good.

“Blacks from the South, excellent. . . . If they are from South Carolina and places like that, I tell you, I don’t think you can ever lose a jury with blacks from South Carolina. They are dynamite. They are on the cops’ side.

“My experience, young black women are very bad. There’s an antagonism. I guess maybe they’re downtrodden in two respects. They are women and they’re black . . . so they somehow want to take it out on somebody, and you don’t want it to be you.

“Let’s face it, the blacks from the low-income areas are less likely to convict. I understand it. There’s a resentment for law enforcement. There’s a resentment for authority. And as a result, you don’t want those people on your jury.

“It may appear as if you’re being racist, but you’re just being realistic. You’re just trying to win the case. The other side is doing the same thing. . . . The only way you’re going to do your best is to get jurors that are unfair, and more likely to convict than anybody else in that room.

“The case law says the object of getting a jury . . . is to get a competent, fair and impartial jury. Well, that’s ridiculous. You’re not trying to get that. Both sides are trying to get the jury most likely to do whatever they want them to do. . . . . You are there to win. . . . If you think that it’s some noble thing, some esoteric game, you’re wrong and you’ll lose.”

Advice to novices indeed. When McMahon’s videotape reached its end, Abraham and her deputies huddled. They had just seen something obviously repugnant and arguably illegal; the U.S. Supreme Court in 1986 ruled you can’t take race into consideration in selecting jurors. They had also, of course, just seen something that appeared to put a political opponent in an awfully bad light. “All of us,” Abraham would later say, “to a man and to a woman, concluded that it was absolutely necessary, essential and right that this tape be revealed.”

With a cover letter saying “We have determined that disclosure to you is the ethically appropriate course,” Abraham’s office sent the videotape to defense attorneys who represented the 36 people McMahon had successfully prosecuted for murder between 1982 and 1990. Eyes widened with delight in a lot of Philadelphia lawyers’ offices that day. Here were grounds for seeking new trials for convicted clients, and not just in cases McMahon himself had prosecuted. Any young prosecutor who had seen McMahon’s tape was fair game. A cop killer, a barroom shooter, a mobster goon–all had second chances now.

Declared one defense attorney: “That tape is the most disgraceful thing I’ve ever seen. . . . My client deserves a new trial. My client’s been sitting in jail for a decade and a half and never got a fair trial.”

Opined another: “This may have opened a Pandora’s box of hundreds, maybe thousands of tainted convictions. . . . There’s no telling how many attorneys in that office saw that tape.”

The impact even reached into a murder trial then underway, where McMahon was toiling as defense attorney. His client worried what the jurors were thinking about that week’s headlines. McMahon didn’t know. The judge declared a mistrial.

Then came the unexpected turn in this tale. Despite some clucking from law professors–”inappropriate . . . crosses the line . . .troubling”– McMahon didn’t really draw much heat. Local politicos, even black leaders, held their tongues. So did state Supreme Court Justice Ronald D. Castille, who had been D.A. when McMahon made the tape. Suddenly, it was Abraham on the defensive. A backlash had set in.

All sorts of people declared themselves stunned by her release of the videotape. A crass move, they suggested, a new low in politics. For political gain, she had let 36 convicted murderers walk. What’s more, she had trafficked in hypocrisy, not being known herself for much racial sensitivity. Low-down dirty stuff, declared one black city councilman.

Soon McMahon was happily doing the television talk-show route, showing up on everything from “Geraldo” to “Good Morning America.” People were approaching him on Philadelphia streets, shaking his hand, saying: “We’re with you.” Regret and retreat were the furthest thing from his mind.

“It’s done today, it’s going to be done tomorrow, and I don’t apologize for it,” McMahon declared about his jury-selection advice. “I only said what any good jury consultant would charge hundreds of thousands of dollars to tell you: Some people, black or white, help your case, other people hurt it. That’s not being racist–that’s being realistic. Every lawyer in the world uses these techniques.”

For awhile, Abraham tried to counter.

“The sentiments and practices discussed on that videotape are repugnant to me, and they are in direct contradiction to my beliefs and to the policies of this office,” she offered. She was “ethically, morally and legally compelled to make it public” once she learned of its existence. McMahon was a “rogue assistant district attorney.” At a press conference Abraham flatly declared: “I am morally right. I am legally right. I am ethically right.”

Despite the election-year context, some truly believed that this former judge was speaking in earnest. Yet in the end it didn’t much matter. One likely reason: People sensed truth in McMahon’s claims. Whatever Abraham’s motives, the D.A. basically had declared herself shocked–shocked!–at repugnant but fairly common practices.

Three Philadelphia judges, speaking on condition of anonymity in recent days, have told local reporters that McMahon’s techniques are routinely employed by both the D.A.’s office and defense attorneys. One defense lawyer and former prosecutor, on the record, has advised: “I’m not saying everyone does it, but it’s part of real life in the real courthouse.” Philadelphia’s mayor, Edward G. Rendell, a former two-term D.A., has been quoted as saying: “If you look at the totality of what he’s talking about, I think it is a veteran prosecutor lecturing young prosecutors about jury selection.”

Thus, this particular extravaganza rolls on, heading toward a November election, perceived and described in multiple ways. This much, at least, can be fairly said: What finally is extraordinary about McMahon’s remarks is not their content, but their wide and unabashed public circulation.

“It’s flabbergasting,” pointed out jury consultant Paul Tieger, “that this guy put this on a videotape.”

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‘I am a terrorist’, UK activists release video to support Palestine Action | Protests

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‘I am a terrorist’

A UK activist group has released a video of protesters who were arrested by police for supporting Palestine Action, as part of a campaign calling on the government to lift the ‘disproportionate’ ban. A major legal challenge is currently underway on whether the ban was lawful.

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What’s in a rivalry? UCLA newcomers now know after watching video

Red Sanders, the legendary UCLA football coach, once said the rivalry with USC wasn’t life or death, it was more important than that.

Now, some 70 years later, almost half the Bruins roster needed a primer on what it means to play the Trojans.

“We have so many transfers and things,” interim coach Tim Skipper said, “so I wanted to make sure everybody knew how significant this game was.”

That could make Ciaran Dooley, the team’s creative content producer, a rivalry hero rivaling John Barnes, Anthony Barr and Dorian Thompson-Robinson. Dooley produced a video that tried to pack the essence of a nearly century-old rivalry into about five minutes.

Putting aside any worries about where college sports are headed when one needs to explain anything about his biggest rival, the video had its intended effect, sparking cheers nearly a week before kickoff.

Starting with a minutelong hype reel narrated by Barr, the video explained some of the rivalry basics, such as both teams wearing their home uniforms and the winner getting to take possession of the 295-pound Victory Bell before painting it in their primary school color — preferably blue.

“A lot of it was like clips I’ve already seen being from L.A. and around the game,” freshman linebacker Scott Taylor said, “but a lot of the guys who haven’t been here don’t understand how big a deal this is to L.A. and how special this win can be.”

Rivalry lexicon such as “It’s always 8:47 in Westwood” — a reference to the Bruins’ 13-9 upset of No. 2 USC in 2006 — and “Eight more years!” — a chant that broke out at the Rose Bowl in 1998 at the end of the Bruins’ eighth consecutive victory over the Trojans — might need some explaining to a roster that includes 57 newcomers, 52 transfers and 42 players from out of state.

“I made this video to show what the rivalry is really about — the history, the passion, the bragging rights,” Dooley told The Times. “I know everyone on the team already knows what it is, but if there’s anything that I can do to motivate the guys just that much more for the game, I’m going to do it every time.”

Linebacker Isaiah Chisom, a transfer from Oregon State, said the coaching staff also brought in several former players to explain the significance of the rivalry before the Bruins (3-8 overall, 3-5 Big Ten) face the No. 17 Trojans (8-3, 6-2) on Saturday afternoon at the Coliseum. Veteran offensive lineman Garrett DiGiorgio and defensive back Cole Martin also talked about what the rivalry meant to them.

Utah quarterback Devon Dampier (4) holds the ball and pushes Bruins linebacker Isaiah Chisom (32) on Aug. 30.

Utah quarterback Devon Dampier (4) holds the ball and pushes Bruins linebacker Isaiah Chisom (32) on Aug. 30 at the Rose Bowl.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

“I think they’ve done a pretty good job at kind of bringing everybody together,” Chisom said, “so we all know how important this game is.”

Chisom didn’t need a refresher, having grown up in Southern California and played for Bishop Allemany High and Chaminade College Prep. He said he’s already attended a rivalry game and learned about the Bruins’ hatred for the Trojans from Chaminade assistant coach Reggie Carter, a former Bruins linebacker.

“He didn’t like anybody wearing any red,” Chisom said of Carter. “It’s been something I’ve been told for a long time.”

Skipper said he grew up watching the rivalry no matter where he lived — his father, Jim, was a coaching lifer who moved from one city to another and his older brother, Kelly, was DeShaun Foster’s running backs coach at UCLA.

“It’s awesome to finally be part of this thing,” Tim Skipper said. “You watch it so much, I’ve never been to one of these games, and to be able to work it and coach it is going to be awesome.”

Signs of rivalry week have greeted anyone who walked past the boarded-up John Wooden and bear statues on campus, though it’s been a little quieter than the Bruins would have preferred. That’s because they haven’t been able to ring the Victory Bell that’s residing across town after USC won last year’s game, 19-13, at the Rose Bowl.

“We want to get it back, we want to ring it after the game,” DiGiorgio said. “The [USC] guys, they planted flags on our field last year. I don’t know if we’re going to reciprocate that energy because I don’t know if that’s going to start anything, but we’re definitely looking forward to getting that bell back.”

The Bruins have won their last two trips to the Coliseum, giving DiGiorgio motivation to make it three in a row and end his college career 3-2 against the Trojans. There was a consensus at the team meeting Sunday that a victory over USC would make up for all the frustrations the team has endured during a season in which Foster was fired after only three games.

UCLA offensive lineman Garrett DiGiorgio leans forward during a game on Sept. 6 in Las Vegas.

UCLA offensive lineman Garrett DiGiorgio (72) is confident a video the Bruins’ staff produced helped his teammates understand the importance of winning the USC rivalry game.

(John McCoy / Associated Press)

“Beating ‘SC would undo every wrong that has happened this season — that and the Penn State win [over the then-No. 7 Nittany Lions],” Chisom said. “I don’t think we could ask for anything more.”

Even those making their rivalry debut will know what they’re getting into thanks to the handiwork of a content creator whose video might help produce an upset.

“I believe that it enlightened, lit a fire under the guys,” DiGiorgio said, “to be a little excited for this week.”

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Video shows Israeli soldiers shooting surrendering Palestinians in Jenin | Occupied West Bank

NewsFeed

Israeli soldiers have been filmed shooting two Palestinians who were seen on their knees with their hands in the air. The men were shot dead during Israeli raids in Jenin in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli army says it’s investigating the incident. Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh explains.

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‘Wicked’: Man who accosted Ariana Grande at premiere banned from Singapore

For officials in Singapore, one Australian man’s actions at the “Wicked: For Good” premiere earlier this month wrought enough chaos to keep him out of the country — for good.

Singapore’s Immigration and Checkpoints Authority has deported and barred 26-year-old Johnson Wen from reentering the country after he crashed the yellow carpet and accosted star Ariana Grande, according to several reports. A representative for the authority did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.

Singapore’s the Straits Times reported that Australian national Wen arrived in the country earlier this month on a 90-day social-visit pass to attend the movie musical’s premiere and for a vacation. The self-proclaimed “Troll Most Hated” was seen in video jumping over the fan barricade onto the other side of the carpet. He ran toward Grammy winner Grande with his arms and legs flailing before grabbing her roughly around the neck and shoulders. He turned and smiled for the cameras before Grande’s co-star Cynthia Erivo interfered and separated Wen from Grande. He was arrested, charged and later released.

Wen, who has a history of crashing other celebrity events including concerts down under by Katy Perry and the Weeknd, was charged with being a public nuisance days after the incident. Shortly after that, he was convicted and sentenced to nine days in jail.

During his trial in Singapore, Wen said he was “going to stop,” according to the Straits Times. His courtroom statement, however, doesn’t seem to match up with his tone on social media.

Wen re-shared video of the incident Sunday on Instagram. “Dear Ariana Grande thanks for letting me join the Red Carpet 💛,” he captioned the video.

“Wicked: For Good” premiered Friday, a year after after the first “Wicked” film. The sequel also stars Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Marissa Bode and Jonathan Bailey. Jon M. Chu directs both films.

Times assistant editor Christie D’Zurilla contributed to this report.

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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former Trump loyalist, says she will resign from Congress

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a once-loyal supporter of President Trump who has become a critic, said Friday that she is resigning from Congress in January.

Greene, in a more than 10-minute video posted online, explained her decision and said she’s “always been despised in Washington, D.C., and just never fit in.”

Greene’s resignation followed a public fallout with Trump in recent months, as the congresswoman criticized him for his stance on files related to Jeffrey Epstein, along with foreign policy and healthcare.

Trump branded her a “traitor” and “wacky” and said he would endorse a challenger against her when she ran for reelection next year.

She said her last day would be Jan. 5.

The White House did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment Friday night.

Greene was one of the most vocal and visible supporters of Trump’s Make America Great Again politics, and she embraced some of his unapologetic political style.

Her break with him was a notable fissure in his grip over conservatives, particularly his most ardent base. But her decision to step down in the face of his opposition put her on the same track as many of the more moderate establishment Republicans before her who went crosswise with Trump.

Greene had been closely tied to the Republican president since she launched her political career five years ago.

In her video Friday, she underscored her longtime loyalty to Trump except on a few issues, and said it was “unfair and wrong” that he attacked her for disagreeing.

“Loyalty should be a two-way street and we should be able to vote our conscience and represent our district’s interest, because our job title is literally ‘representative,’” she said.

Greene swept to office at the forefront of Trump’s MAGA movement and swiftly became a lightning rod on Capitol Hill for her often beyond-mainstream views.

As she embraced the QAnon conspiracy theory and appeared with white supremacists, Greene was opposed by party leaders but welcomed by Trump. He called her “a real WINNER!”

Yet over time she proved a deft legislator, having aligned herself with then-GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, who would go on to become House speaker. She was a trusted voice on the right flank, until McCarthy was ousted in 2023.

While there has been an onslaught of lawmakers from both parties heading for the exits ahead of next fall’s midterm elections, as the House struggles through an often chaotic session, Greene’s announced retirement will ripple throughout the ranks — and raise questions about her next moves.

Greene was first elected to the House in 2020. She initially planned to run in a competitive district in northern Atlanta’s suburbs, but relocated to the much more conservative 14th District in Georgia’s northwestern corner.

She showed a penchant for harsh rhetoric and conspiracy theories even before her election, suggesting a 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas was a coordinated attack to spur support for new gun restrictions. In 2018, she endorsed the idea that the U.S. government perpetrated the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and mused that a “so-called” plane had hit the Pentagon.

Greene argued in 2019 that Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), both Muslim women, weren’t “official” members of Congress because they used Qurans rather than Bibles in their swearing-in ceremonies.

Greene was once a sympathizer with QAnon, an online network that believes a global cabal of Satan-worshipping cannibals, including U.S. government leaders, operates a child sex trafficking ring. She eventually distanced herself, saying she got “sucked into some of the things I had seen on the internet.”

Price, Mascaro and Amy write for the Associated Press.

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One Shot with Ed Sheeran review: this hour-long music video is one for the fans

Ed Sheeran teams up with Adolescence’s Philip Barantini for this hour-long Netflix special – but those hoping for candid personal revelations will be disappointed

A guitar-wielding Ed Sheeran takes fans on a musical journey through both New York and his back-catalogue in Netflix’s One Shot – with the help of Adolescence director Phillip Barantini.

The award-winning director, who is best known for producing singularly-shot projects, follows pop icon Ed across New York as he surprises unsuspecting, over-excited fans ahead of an upcoming gig.

The hour-long special, shot in real-time, sees Ed leave show rehearsals at New York’s Manhattan Centre to “go about the town for a little bit” in the hour before his gig.

The 34-year-old dad doesn’t give his voice a breakout, however, with him breaking out into song at rooftop parties, helping a fan with his proposal, crooning at cab drivers and thrilling subway passengers with his chart-topping singles.

From his 2011 breakout hit The A Team and crowd-pleaser Sing, to newer tracks like Galway Girl and Azizam, Ed dives through his discography with just his guitar, his impressive pipes and occasional help from selfie-seeking New Yorkers.

READ MORE: Netflix star and rapper Ghetts charged after fatal hit-and-run that killed man, 20READ MORE: I’m A Celebrity 2025 line-up ‘unveiled’ with three soap stars and son of famous rocker

He’s even given a lift at one point by regular collaborator Camilla Cabello, who picks him up in a four-by-four and feigns surprise with the unconvincing line: “What are you doing in New York?” They duet Ed’s 2015 tune Photograph with Camilla behind the wheel in a scene reminiscent of Carpool Karaoke (which comes as no surprise considering James Corden producer Ben Winston worked on the film).

While One Shot showcases Barantini’s impressive cinematography skills and Ed’s playful performances, those hoping for insights into the Brit Award winner’s life will be left disappointed.

Rather than a follow-up to his candid 2023 docuseries The Sum of It All, One Shot is essentially a very long music video. Ed briefly chats about his calamitous proposal to now-wife Cherry Seaborn while striding through the city, revealing that he got down on one knee in their kitchen after rain dampened his original plans.

He later invites Camilla round for spag bol, telling her that daughters Lyra, five, and Jupiter, three, “will be so excited” to see her. But otherwise, Ed sticks mainly to serenading and fist-bumping his fans.

For hard-core lovers of Sheeran’s ever-growing collection, One Shot is a must-watch if you fancy a dance down memory lane. Plus, it’s much cheaper than paying today’s tour ticket prices.

Those not too bothered by the British pop prince may find themselves switching over fairly quickly – although it’s worth tuning in to admire Barantini’s hypnotic, film-making skills. Much like Adolescence, One Shot will leave viewers scratching their heads as to how certain shots they pulled off the one-take wonder.

One Shot with Ed Sheeran is available to stream on Netflix.

Join The Mirror’s WhatsApp Community or follow us on Google News , Flipboard , Apple News, TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads – or visit The Mirror homepage.



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Ravyn Lenae on the runaway success of ‘Love Me Not’

Last December, Ravyn Lenae stood in the street and pointed her phone at herself to film a TikTok set to her song “Love Me Not.”

“Me after linking with him one last time cause I’m not bringing him into 2025,” she captioned the video — a cutesy kiss-off to a guy she’d clearly decided was holding her back from where she was meant to go.

Nearly a year later, it appears the singer was right: In early April, “Love Me Not” — a swinging, lightly psychedelic soul number about a hot-and-cold lover — gave Lenae her first entry on Billboard’s Hot 100; a week later, she made her debut at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Several months after that, she performed to an enthusiastic crowd at Lollapalooza just before “Love Me Not” peaked at No. 5 in mid-August.

Now, with one of 2025’s biggest hits under her belt, Lenae, 26, is winding down her breakout year by opening for Sabrina Carpenter as Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet tour wraps up this week with six sold-out shows through Sunday at Crypto.com Arena.

“A lot of this period has been me asking other artists, ‘Is this how it normally is?’” Lenae tells me on a recent evening. “How do you balance the social aspect and the online aspect and the touring with also staying highly creative?”

Not to mention tending to a personal life.

“What’s that?” she asks with a laugh. “That’s literally nonexistent.”

The runaway success of “Love Me Not,” which has been streamed more than 700 million times on Spotify, is no doubt what’s put the breathy-voiced Lenae before many listeners for the first time. (A remix featuring Rex Orange County has another 164 million Spotify streams.)

At one point as the song was blowing up, she responded to a fan on TikTok who’d been surprised to learn that Lenae is Black — “Y’all didn’t read the name Ravyn Lenae and think, ‘Oh, that’s a Black girl?’” the singer asks in the clip — then went ahead and clarified that also she’s not British, as some evidently had assumed.

Yet “Love Me Not” actually comes a decade into a career that began while Lenae was still in high school. She signed to Atlantic Records at age 16 and soon was touring and working in the studio with the likes of SZA and Steve Lacy; “Hypnos,” her debut LP, came out in 2022 and made Pitchfork’s closely watched list of the year’s best albums.

“I’m pretty conceited about the fact that I’ve loved Ravyn for as long as I have,” says the singer and actor Reneé Rapp, who like Carpenter took Lenae out on the road this year as an opening act. Rapp discovered one of Lenae’s early EPs when she herself was in high school and has been a fan ever since. “I’m like, ‘You bitches are new, and don’t get me wrong — I’m so happy you’re here. But let’s get it right: I was boots on the ground first.’”

To Rapp’s ears, Lenae’s airy soprano “has this beautiful ping at the top that I’ve only ever heard in Minnie Riperton,” she says. “She’s just like a little fairy. She floats around, and her voice does the same thing.”

“Love Me Not,” which is still hanging out in the upper reaches of the Hot 100, is from Lenae’s sophomore album, “Bird’s Eye,” which came out in August 2024. She recorded the song with the producer Dahi, who’s known for his work with Kendrick Lamar and Vince Staples; Dahi started the track years ago with Anderson .Paak then put it in a drawer before he’d finished it.

“At the time, I was really into MGMT,” Dahi says, referring to the alternative rock duo whose dreamy-jangly guitar sound echoes throughout “Love Me Not.” With Lenae, he pushed the song toward classic R&B — “something that would be played on ‘Happy Days’ or some s—,” he says — but retained a spacey vibe that keeps it from feeling rooted in any specific era or genre.

Lenae says her goal was to create something “soulful and Black but that transcends time and race”; the result can be heard in a lineage of enduring hard-to-classify hits like Outkast’s “Hey Ya!” and Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” that charm listeners across demographic lines.

“If you don’t like ‘Crazy,’ there’s something wrong with you,” Lenae says as a pedicurist exfoliates her feet in a West Hollywood hotel room. It’s the end of a long day that began with an early-morning flight from New York, where Lenae performed with Kali Uchis on “The Tonight Show” and at Madison Square Garden. Now, after a photo shoot, she’s changed into gray sweats to sneak in a moment of self-care during our chat.

“With the heels I’m wearing all the time, you can see the corns,” she says, looking down to check out the pedicurist’s progress. “I wonder what Beyoncé’s feet look like. ’Cause if mine look like this? She’s putting in work.”

Though “Love Me Not” was singled out by critics right away, the song really took off late last year after a DJ posted a viral TikTok that mashed it up with Solange’s “Losing You” as part of a series exploring “euphoric” breakup songs. An admiring post on X by SZA — “One of my fav albums this year,” she wrote of “Bird’s Eye” — helped bring more attention to Lenae’s music.

Ravyn Lenae

Ravyn Lenae in West Hollywood.

(Ian Spanier / For The Times)

The singer grew up in Chicago, where her mother’s parents landed in the late ’70s as immigrants from Panama. That’s their house on the city’s south side in the music video for “Love Me Not,” which Lenae directed and which shows her and her younger sister dancing just outside the bedroom where Lenae slept as a kid.

“I knew this song would be a lot of people’s introduction to me, so I wanted them to immediately jump into my world,” she says. “My grandparents are very shy people, and when my grandma saw the video, she was like, ‘Oh, Ravyn, baby …’”

Singing at talent shows as a 12-year-old, Lenae wanted to be a “a mix between Alicia Keys and Beyoncé,” as she puts it; later, she learned to perform Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful” and Rihanna’s “Take a Bow.”

“I was like, ‘I’m-a win ’em over with this one,’” she says of the dramatic ballads. “I’m sure I sound crazy on video.”

Lenae, who went on to study at the Chicago High School for the Arts, came to understand that the soft lilt of her voice distinguished her from those powerhouses; she found inspiration in “the sensuality and the femininity” of music by Diana Ross, Patrice Rushen and Janet Jackson, whose “All for You” album — released in 2001, when Lenae was 2 — would become a touchstone.

“There’s a lot to win by not being the loudest in the room,” says Rapp.

Lenae moved to L.A. in 2020. Her first year here was rough, she says — she missed her mom and felt the burden of a bank account with $100 in it. “I remember some crying in the shower,” the singer says now.

Her 2022 song “Skin Tight,” a yearning flirtation she wrote and recorded with Lacy, registered as a turning point; so did the success of Lacy’s quirky soul-rock hit “Bad Habit,” which topped the Hot 100 on its way to Grammy nominations for record and song of the year.

“That was a historical moment for artists like us that have been working at it for a long time — Black artists who’ve always been a little to the left of what was going on,” Lenae says. “Steve going No. 1 showed there really are no rules and that there’s space for all of us.”

Beyond “Love Me Not,” highlights on “Bird’s Eye” include an intimate acoustic number, “From Scratch,” that Lenae says she and Dahi modeled on Lauryn Hill and D’Angelo’s “Nothing Even Matters”; the lush and whispery “Dream Girl,” which features input by Jackson’s longtime collaborators Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis; and “Bad Idea,” a percussive electro-funk jam that interpolates Bow Wow and Ciara’s early-2000s “Like You.”

“All those Ciara hits, I had the choreo down,” Lenae says.

The album also contains the tender yet mournful “One Wish,” which Lenae wrote about her dad not being around as she was growing up.

“I never, ever thought I’d talk about that publicly, but I think I was just at a point in my life where it felt natural,” she says. “And me and him had just started reconciling, so it was very top of mind.” She invited her father to come to L.A. to appear in the song’s video, which depicts a young girl running after a car as a man angrily drives away; the day after the shoot, they went to Roscoe’s and had a long talk about her childhood.

“Yesterday was his birthday, and I forgot,” she tells me. “I felt horrible, but then I was like, Should I feel horrible? I go back and forth with it all the time.”

Lenae is extremely close with her mother, who’ll sometimes join her on the road “just to spend time with me or hold my hand — to sleep in the same hotel bed,” she says. “That’s the person I know I can keep counting on.”

After this week’s dates with Carpenter, Lenae will head east for a handful of shows on iHeartRadio’s Jingle Ball tour — one more chance to build upon “Love Me Not’s” Top 40 breakthrough. Then she and Dahi plan to focus on finishing her next album.

So far, Lenae says, it’s shaping up to be “a little more punchy and explosive” than “Bird’s Eye.” One of the new songs is about her mom; Lenae played it for her when she was here visiting not long ago.

“I had the lyrics up, and as she was reading it, she looked up at me and there was a tear in her eye,” she recalls. “Then we started bawling together. I think that one might end up her favorite.”



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Suspension for spitting to cost Bengals’ Ja’Marr Chase $500,000

It was a spat — or a spit — between two All-Pro NFL players: Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase and Pittsburgh Steelers defensive back Jalen Ramsey.

And it’s going to cost Chase a half a million dollars unless the appeal he filed goes his way.

Chase was caught on video spitting in Ramsey’s direction during Cincinnati’s lopsided loss to Pittsburgh on Sunday. Ramsey retaliated by throwing a punch at Chase and was ejected.

The NFL suspended Chase for one game, which would cost him a week’s pay plus a bonus for being on the active roster totaling $507,156.

After the game, Chase denied spitting and referee Bill Vinovich told pool reporters “We did not see anything that rose to that level at all.” However, video captured the mid-air saliva.

Ramsey, a 10-year veteran who helped the Rams win Super Bowl LVI, responded violently and had to be restrained.

“I’m always going to be all for trash talking … stuff like that,” Ramsey told reporters after the game. “I actually enjoy that part of the game. I think people know that. But as soon as he spit, it was like ‘f— that.’”

Ramsey, 31, said that Chase snatched his mouthpiece earlier in the game, which prompted a scuffle that resulted in offsetting unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. Chase had been guilty of that behavior before against the division rival Steelers, grabbing the mouthpiece of defensive back Ahkello Witherspoon and flipping off safety Minkah Fitzpatrick during a game in 2022. Chase was fined for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Ramsey, who played for the Rams from 2019-2022, is a seven-time Pro Bowl and three-time All-Pro cornerback on a Hall of Fame trajectory.

Chase, 25, has been an elite receiver since being drafted out of Louisiana State in 2021. He was Rookie of the Year and an All-Pro in 2021 and last season again was an All-Pro selection after leading the NFL with 127 catches, 1,708 receiving yards and 17 touchdowns.

This season he already has 79 receptions, including 16 for 161 yards in the Bengals’ 33-30 victory over the Steelers on Oct. 16. Last Sunday, however, he had only three catches for 30 yards in the 34-12 loss.

Despite the appeal, Bengals coach Zac Taylor made no excuses for Chase’s actions Monday.

“Obviously what happened is crossing the line, and we can’t have that,” Taylor said. “I know he’ll own up to that.”

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Taylor Swift to fly to UK for top secret music video shoot that will pay tribute to British Hollywood icon

SHE sang about the Hollywood icon on her new album – and now it seems Taylor Swift could pay homage to Elizabeth Taylor’s British roots by filming the music video here.

Hitmaker Tay is flying to the UK next week for a top-secret shoot.

Taylor Swift is heading to the UK for a top secret music video shootCredit: Getty
The music video is for her track Elizabeth Taylor, which features on The Life Of A ShowgirlCredit: Getty – Contributor

And I have heard whispers that it is for her track Elizabeth Taylor, which features on her chart-topping record The Life Of A Showgirl.

Sixties acting legend Elizabeth — famous for her roles in Cleopatra and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? — was born in 1932 in Hampstead, North London, where there is a plaque, right, on her childhood home. She moved to LA with her family when she was seven.

A source said: “Taylor is super excited to be back in London filming for her new music video.

‘Luxurious and feminine’

“Elizabeth Taylor is a British icon and Taylor wants to pay homage by shooting scenes in the capital.

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“Taylor has always written about her love for London, and the video will capture different locations around the city.”

Actress Elizabeth, who died aged 79 in 2011, was married eight times, including twice to British acting legend Richard Burton, and was often portrayed as searching for lasting love.

Speaking about the track for the official release party of her latest album, Taylor said: “It has got to do with fame, attention, love, notoriety, anxiety that this isn’t going to be forever — and how heartbroken would you be then?

“I wanted to tell a story that referenced some of the cool things about her life, but that are also parallel to mine.

“I used details from her life, but the feelings of what it kind of conveys are things I’ve absolutely experienced time and time again.

“The production of this is something that I’m so proud of because it’s luxurious and feminine and then goes really hard and tough in the chorus.

“It’s just one of my favourite songs.”

The track has gone viral on TikTok thanks to a remix with Backstreet Boys’ 1997  banger Everybody (Backstreet’s (Back).

Sounds like Taylor’s fans will be in for a treat.

IT’S ALL GREEK TO JACK

HE plays a sinister nanny in the new Prime Video series, Malice – but comic Jack Whitehall has revealed that he also needed to brush up on his cooking skills for the role in the thriller.

He said of his character Adam Healey: “This guy was meant to be quite slick and intelligent. He was meant to be able to make cocktails and be able to cook, so all of these things I had to do so much prep for.”

Speaking on Waitrose’s Dish podcast, Jack added: “I had to train to make a couple of different dishes.

“And one of the things, because a lot of it was shot in Greece, I had to learn how to prepare an octopus.

“They arranged for me to go and meet this chef in this restaurant in Greece who unfortunately didn’t speak any English.

“So when I arrived, he’d got the wrong end of the stick and thought I needed to learn how to bash the octopus – I wanted to learn how to fillet the octopus.

“He kept grabbing these octopuses and whacking them down.

“I was, like, ‘No, no, no, no. I need to learn how to prepare an octopus’.”

Sounds like poor old Jack was really thrown in at the deep end.

RED-HOT MILLIE’S IN GOOD NICK

Millie Bobby Brown stunned in tiny hot pants and Santa hat in a shoot for Florence By MillsCredit: instagram/milliebobbybrown

MILLIE BOBBY BROWN gave fans her Christmas presence by draping herself across a fireplace.

The Stranger Things star dazzled in tiny hot pants, a crop top, fur-trimmed boots and an oversized Santa hat in the shoot for fashion and beauty label Florence By Mills.

Sharing a snap of Millie on Instagram, the brand wrote: “Elf on the shelf? Try Mill on the sill.”

It will be Millie’s first Christmas as a mum after she and hubby Jake Bongiovi adopted a daughter this year. Looks like she’ll sleigh it.

AN AMAISING STAGE TALENT

HAVING risen to fame as Tiffany Butcher on BBC soap EastEnders, Maisie Smith has now proved she is a stage star following her dazzling turn as Marge Sherwood in a theatre adaptation of The Talented Mr Ripley.

The Crown star Ed McVey plays con artist Tom Ripley who becomes infatuated by the wealthy Dickie Greenleaf (Bruce Herbelin-Earle) and steals his identity.

Maisie swaps her native Essex accent for a cool New York twang in the role of Marge, who is Dickie’s on-off girlfriend.

For more than two hours, Ed has the audience under his spell as he flips between his bumbling self and the cool and handsome Dickie.

Now Mr Ripley must convince bosses that this play deserves a spot on London’s West End.

IS IT GET BECK, MACCA?

CRUZ BECKHAM has hinted that he is hoping to work with Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney.

The wannabe pop star and son of David and Victoria Beckham said he would love to collab with Macca, who he was introduced to when he was a kid.

Cruz Beckham has hinted that he wants to work on music with Sir Paul McCartneyCredit: Getty
Cruz was introduced to the Beatles legend as a childCredit: AP

Chatting to me at London’s Winter Wonderland, Cruz revealed: “There are so many people I would love to collaborate with.

“Paul McCartney – he’s such a legend. I’ve always been a huge fan – I met Paul when I was little.

“John Lennon is also a hero of mine.”

He added: “There’s more music coming out next year. Hopefully an album when the record label will let me.”

Cruz officially launched his music career last month by releasing singles Lick The Toad and Optics – the latter an explicit pop track about drugs and sex.

It includes the lyrics: “Take a thousand selfies in your bed while I trip in mine. I love me some mushrooms and good head.”

Cruz has also teamed up with The Kooks frontman Luke Pritchard to work on some songs.

Earlier this year, Luke said: “He’s naturally going to come under criticism because of who his parents are. He’s aware of that.

“It was great when he said, ‘Jesus was a nepo baby too’. I thought that was quite a funny response.”

Meanwhile, Cruz was spotted kissing his girlfriend, songwriter Jackie Apostel at Winter Wonderland on Thursday.

They went Instagram official last year after they were first seen hanging out at Glastonbury in Somerset.

Cruz is clearly going to be a busy boy in the coming months, but hopefully baby Becks and Macca can Come Together at some point.

FAYE: MY WORK IS MY LOVE

STEPS singer Faye Tozer is now dedicating her life to her career after splitting from her husband of 16 years.

The Tragedy hitmaker is thought to have parted from IT specialist Mick Smith in May.

Asked if she has time for romance, Faye said: “I don’t know . . . my work is my love.”

Faye, who turned 50 this week, said she was pleased to still be working.

Speaking on the red carpet for Elf: The Musical in London, she added: “I feel really privileged that I’m here and strong.”


TELLY etiquette guru William Hanson said he declined to appear on BBC’s Celebrity Traitors after show bosses approached him earlier this year.

The final was watched by 12 million fans earlier this month, with comic ALAN CARR crowned the winner.

At Richmond Theatre, William told me: “They didn’t sell it brilliantly to me.

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“They were, like, ‘There is no hair and make-up, if you are in it, you have to film for 12 days, you need 406 different outfits, you are in the Travelodge by Inverness Airport and it is a 40-minute drive and the fee is rubbish.

“I thought, I don’t know if I really want to do this.”
William was a bit of a traitor after all.


This week who I would…

SNOG: ABBA Voyage launches its festive winter bar at the arena in Newham, East London.

MARRY: I LOVE Jamaica concert at Koko in north London on Thursday, raising funds for hurricane recovery.

AVOID: PALS sharing snaps taken during sunny November holidays. We’re not at all jealous.

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Trump says will sue BBC for up to $5bn over edited video | Media News

The US president signals legal war even as the British network apologises for an ‘error of judgement’ in editing his January 6 speech.

United States President Donald Trump says he would likely sue the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) next week for as much as $5bn after the British broadcaster admitted it wrongly edited a video of a speech he gave, but insisted there was no legal basis for his claim.

“We will sue them for anywhere between a billion and five billion dollars, probably sometime next week. I think I have to do it. They have even admitted that they cheated,” Trump told reporters on board Air Force One late on Friday.

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Trump’s lawyers had sent the BBC a letter on Monday, accusing it of defaming the US president with the video of the speech before the 2021 US Capitol riot and giving it until Friday to apologise and pay compensation for what they described as “overwhelming reputational and financial harm”.

The controversy centres on the BBC’s edit of Trump’s remarks from January 6, 2021, the day his supporters stormed the US Capitol. The dispute has pushed the network into its most severe crisis in decades, triggering the resignations of two senior leaders and prompting a wave of political scrutiny.

“The people of the UK are very angry about what happened, as you can imagine, because it shows the BBC is fake news,” Trump said.

He added that he planned to raise the BBC issue with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has backed the broadcaster’s independence while avoiding taking sides against Trump.

“I’m going to call him over the weekend. He actually put a call into me. He’s very embarrassed,” Trump said.

‘Beyond fake, this is corrupt’

The documentary, aired on the BBC’s flagship Panorama programme, stitched together three separate clips of Trump’s January 6 speech. His lawyers say the sequence created the false impression he was inciting the riot, calling the edit “false and defamatory”.

In an interview with GB News, Trump accused the BBC of misconduct. He said the edit was “impossible to believe” and likened it to election interference.

“I made a beautiful statement, and they made it into a not beautiful statement,” he said. “Fake news was a great term, except it’s not strong enough. This is beyond fake, this is corrupt.”

He dismissed the BBC’s apology as insufficient, arguing that the broadcaster had spliced together remarks that were nearly an hour apart. “It’s incredible to depict the idea that I had given this aggressive speech which led to riots,” he said.

BBC chair Samir Shah issued a personal apology to the White House and told British lawmakers that the edit was “an error of judgement”. Culture Minister Lisa Nandy said on Friday the apology was “right and necessary”.

The crisis has already cost the BBC its director general, Tim Davie, and its head of news, Deborah Turness, both of whom resigned this week as accusations of bias and editing failures mounted.

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Rams’ Alaric Jackson faces lawsuit over alleged sex video

Rams left tackle Alaric Jackson is being sued by a woman who alleges that Jackson recorded her without her consent during sex, repeatedly refused to delete the video and taunted her with it, ESPN reported.

Jackson was not available in the locker room after practice Thursday. A Rams official said the team was aware of the ESPN report but would not comment because it was an ongoing legal matter. Jackson and coach Sean McVay will address the matter on Friday, the official said.

Jackson, 27, was suspended for the first two games of the 2024 season for an unspecified violation of the NFL’s personal-conduct policy. The previous March, the Rams gave him a three-year contract that includes about $35 million in guarantees, according to Overthecap.com.

“It’s behind us now,” Jackson said in September 2024 after he served the suspension.

Asked if the suspension was warranted, Jackson said, “They did what they had to do, and I understand it,” he said. “So I’m just going to move past it.”

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‘South Park’ addresses AI fakes, copyright with Totoro and Bluey

“South Park” is known for pushing the envelope, but the latest episode has been described by fans online as “nightmare fuel.”

In what is arguably one of the most disturbing episodes of the year, “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone explore just how easy it is to create artificial intelligence-generated videos — and how easy it is for some people to fall for them, or to be convinced that real videos are fake.

The conversation about Wednesday’s episode has largely revolved around President Trump and Vice President JD Vance being depicted having sex. They tell reporters the leaked video of their affair was a fake, created with Sora 2, the latest version of OpenAI’s video generator.

In the same episode, titled “Sora Not Sorry,” the children of South Park generate revenge-porn videos using Sora as a means of getting back at each other. Butters creates an explicit video of Red with Santa Claus, and then she creates a similarly explicit video featuring Butters and Totoro, of the Studio Ghibli classic “My Neighbor Totoro.”

Chaos then ensues as the children make a frenzy of AI-generated videos featuring well-known (and copyright-protected) animated characters. The South Park police force is dumbfounded by the videos, believing they are real.

Droopy Dog, Rocky, Bullwinkle, Popeye and even the beloved preschool character Bluey are mentioned or make appearances in the episode. Representatives for Studio Ghibli also appear, offering a voice of reason in the madness, saying, “You cannot just do whatever you want with someone else’s IP.”

It echoes the real response Studio Ghibli had when Sora 2 emerged, arguing that OpenAI likely used its content and other Japanese art as machine learning data. The Content Overseas Distribution Assn., an anti-piracy organization representing Japanese IP holders, released a letter in late October saying the organization believes OpenAI’s actions “may constitute copyright infringement.” CODA demanded that OpenAI stop using Japanese content for machine learning and requested that the company respond to claims of copyright infringement “sincerely.”

The latest update to Sora, released at the end of September, is “more physically accurate, realistic, and more controllable than prior systems,” according to OpenAI, and it also features synchronized dialogue and sound effects.

The company sparked swift backlash as it rolled out the new version because it was operating under a system where intellectual property owners had to opt out of the app, which meant users could create videos featuring popular actors, characters, voices and likenesses until the rights holders made the opt-out request.

Unauthorized deepfakes of celebrities, dead figures and copyrighted characters began circulating quickly, including videos of Robin Williams, Michael Jackson and Martin Luther King Jr. in what the company called “disrespectful depictions of Dr. King’s image.” OpenAI and King’s estate released a joint statement in October saying the app would block the ability to create generations featuring King as the company “strengthens guardrails for historical figures.”

After a slew of Hollywood studios and agencies expressed their frustration with this policy, OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman wrote in a blog post that the AI company will be giving rights holders “more granular control over generation of characters, similar to the opt-in model for likeness but with additional controls.”

Some studios have expressed interest in the user-generated content space, with Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger saying on a recent earnings call that the company was having “productive conversations” with unnamed AI companies in an effort to reach an agreement that would also “reflect our need to protect the IP.”

Back at South Park Elementary, as the battle of disturbing AI-generated videos heats up, Kyle questions how creating that kind of content, especially with copyrighted characters, is legal. “Nothing is sacred, Kyle,” Butters tells him. “All you can do is fight fire with fire.”

The episode seems to address Parker and Stone’s own frustrations with their work being replicated, as evidenced by a line from billionaire Peter Thiel, who also appears in the episode: “With Sora 2, I can make the South Park kid do just about anything.”

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JFK’s grandson Jack Schlossberg is running for a U.S. House seat in New York

John F. Kennedy’s grandson Jack Schlossberg is running for the U.S. House next year, announcing Tuesday that he’s seeking a congressional seat in New York City that will be vacated by longtime Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler.

Schlossberg, 32, is a sardonic social media personality with a large following and storied political roots. In a video, he said the district covering a core chunk of Manhattan “should have a representative who can harness the creativity, energy and drive of this district and translate that into political power in Washington.”

Nadler, who is serving his 17th term in Congress, announced in September that he will not run for reelection next year after decades in office, suggesting to The New York Times that a younger Democratic lawmaker in his seat “can maybe do better, can maybe help us more.”

Several possible successors have emerged for the solidly Democratic district, including Micah Lasher, a former aide to Nadler and current New York state lawmaker with deep experience in government. The district stretches from Union Square to the top of Central Park, including the wealthy Upper East Side and Upper West Side neighborhoods.

In his campaign video, Schlossberg took aim at President Trump and Republican governance in Washington, saying “It’s a crisis at every level.”

“We deserve better, and we can do better, and it starts with the Democratic Party winning back control of the House of Representatives,” he said.

Schlossberg has cultivated his online presence with frequent posts weighing in on national political issues, including taking aim at his cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Trump administration’s health and human services secretary who’s been a vocal vaccine skeptic.

Last month, Schlossberg posted on Instagram an image of a Halloween costume for “MAHA Man,” in reference to Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again message and described it as including such things as measles.

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Amazon Prime Video fans can’t wait for ‘dark’ thriller starring huge comedian

Amazon Prime subscribers have been urged to check out a new psychological thriller that’s set to be released onto the streaming service on November 14 – are you going to give it a watch?

Amazon Prime viewers are being urged to check out a gripping new psychological thriller that showcases a well-known comedian in an entirely different role. Malice, launching on Amazon Prime Video on November 14, centres on “a charming tutor who infiltrates a wealthy family’s life”.

As the episodes progress, his dark intentions become apparent when his “vengeful plot unfolds, the family must confront the enemy living under their own roof”. Featuring David Duchovny, Carice van Houten, and Jack Whitehall, audiences are eagerly anticipating the programme, with numerous people sharing their excitement about Whitehall’s role. After seeing the trailer, one viewer commented: “I’ve never thought of Jack as a villain, but now I can’t unsee it. There’s something unhinged about him that I love.”

While another added: “Comedians make the best dramatic actors, Jack Whitehall looks like he’s gonna be amazing in this! Holy Cow!”.

A third remarked: “Jack Whitehall went from Comedian movie actor to drama movie actor.”

While someone else concurred: “Comedians being killers just works cause they got the charisma to lure people in. I think out of the bunch of these types we’ve gotten this’ll be one of the better ones.”

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A further viewer wrote: “Man, even Jack Whitehall can contribute to the British villain trope!”

While another enthusiastic fan remarked: “That’s Jack Whitehall? ! Wow impressive!”

A final viewer commented: “A villainous Jack White? Outstanding! I can’t wait. Woo-hoo!”

Jack Whitehall launched his professional stand-up comedy career in the mid 2000s, making his first major television appearance in 2008.

Since then, he’s gone on to feature in numerous shows and films including Fresh Meat, The Queen’s Corgis, Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again, and Bad Education.

The 36-year-old secured the King of Comedy title at the British Comedy Awards in 2012, and has received seven other nominations including the Breakthrough Award at the Broadcasting Press Guild Awards in 2013, and Comedy Performance at the Royal Television Society in 2013.

Plot of Malic

Discussing Malice’s storyline, an Amazon Prime statement reveals: “Adam (Jack Whitehall) is a charismatic tutor who charms his way into the life of the wealthy Tanner family while they’re on holiday in Greece.

“When the family’s nanny falls dangerously ill, Adam orchestrates his way into their London home, and his true vengeful nature begins to emerge..

“Adam now starts to turn Jamie Tanner (David Duchovny) and Nat (Carice Van Houten) against each other and secretly plots to bring down the entire family.

“When Adam’s obsession with the family raises questions, those who dig deeper into his past find themselves playing a dangerous game.

“With his world collapsing around him, Jamie starts to realise that Adam may be responsible for all their recent disasters – but is it too late to save his family?

“In this revenge thriller that proves the past never stays buried, one question remains: how do you protect your family from the enemy within.”

Malice will be streaming on Amazon Prime Video in the UK from midnight GMT on Friday, November 14, 2025.

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You can thank Kacho López Mari for your favorite reggaetón music videos

Director Kacho López Mari’s critically and culturally acclaimed portfolio includes over 40 music videos and short films that, if played at a YouTube watch party, could leave you and your primos feeling as if you just flip-booked through modern Latin music history.

Some of the music videos have captured the trophies of genres, like Tego Calderón’s “Abayarde” and Daddy Yankee’s “Gasolina,” both essentials on any reggaetón playlist. Other visuals were works of activism — like Bad Bunny’s “El Apagón — Aquí Vive Gente,” the 22-minute music video and investigative short that shed light on the economic crisis that Puerto Ricans continued to face after Hurricane Maria.

A music video has the power to capture today’s culture, tomorrow’s stars, and yesterday’s immediacy. And thanks to López Mari’s legendary lens, we’re able to behold many iconic Latin music moments. Here are 15 of his must-see videos.

These interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity.

Tego Calderón, “Abayarde / Gracias” (2003)

Filmed in Manatí, Puerto Rico

Before producing and directing music videos, López Mari produced “underground” parties in Puerto Rico — and commercials at Paradiso Films.

That changed when López Mari’s superior, Sigfredo “Freddy” Bellaflores, heard his young son, Sigfredo Jr. — who would go on to produce videos for Bad Bunny — listening to Tego Calderón’s music in the shower. The next day, Freddy came into the office and threw the Calderón CD at López Mari.

“ ‘If you can reach that guy, we’ll do a video for him for free,’ ” López Mari recalled Freddy telling him. “ And I’m like, OK, I’ll get that guy.”

A few days later, López Mari used his party-producing connections to set up a meeting with Calderón’s team, which told López Mari he could pick the song off Calderón’s debut album, since Paradiso Films was financing the video; the team then asked him to meld another song, “Gracias,” into the visual.

“ That’s why the video is a six-minute piece,” said López Mari. “Back in the day, the reggaetón videos would be two or three songs in each video.”

The young director scouted the location, created the storyline to connect the two songs and presented the treatment to Calderón. Soon afterward, López Mari shot his first music video.

“It was a big phenomenon,” he said. “When that came out, Tego was like a rocket going up to the moon.”

Ricky Martin, “Tal Vez” (2003)

Filmed in Buenos Aires

López Mari co-directed this video with Carlos Pérez, his childhood friend who would later direct the video for Luis Fonsi’s “Despacito.” Both 20-somethings at the time, López Mari and Pérez, recruited a “dream team” to execute it — including Andrzej Sekula, cinematographer for “Pulp Fiction” and “Reservoir Dogs,” as well as Brigitte Broch, Oscar-winning production designer and art director for “Amores Perros” and “Romeo + Juliet.” The editor was Jeff Selis, the most nominated editor in the history of the MTV Video Music Awards.

Ricky Martin needed ample star power for what would be his first Spanish release since “Livin’ La Vida Loca.” Martin liked López Mari’s treatment so much that he would commission the same crew to make the video for 2003’s “Jaleo.”

Daddy Yankee, “Gasolina” (2005)

Filmed in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Released pre-YouTube, the original video for “Gasolina,” the lead single off Daddy Yankee’s 2004 album “Barrio Fino,” maximized MTV’s four-minute allotment by mixing in two additional songs into the same visual: “No Me Dejes Solo” (which featured Wisin y Yandel) and “King Daddy.”

Yet when the song blew up, Daddy Yankee needed a longer video — and fast. However creatively edited, the visual actually loops the minute-and-a-half of material originally shot, making it a controversial piece for the co-directors.

In a phone interview, Pérez said that he values the song’s cultural and historical impact, but the video “never felt reflective of our work.” López Mari agreed it wasn’t his finest piece, but it did introduce the world to reggaetón and helped establish an aesthetic for the genre.

Calle 13, “Adentro” (2014)

Filmed in Arizona and Puerto Rico (Barriada Morales in Caguas and Cantera Roca Dura in Manatí)

From Calle 13’s final album, the video for “Adentro” earned López Mari a Latin Grammy nomination for best short form music video. In it, frontman René Pérez Joglar, or Residente, raps regretfully about buying a Maserati as baseball legend Willie Mays hands him a bat, which he then uses to smash the car. It’s later pushed off a cliff.

“For me, it’s a work of art,” said López Mari. “It’s basically a piece to destroy a half-million-dollar car — that [Residente] bought as an anti-capitalist statement.”

Calle 13, “Multi_Viral” featuring Julian Assange, Kamilya Jubran, Tom Morello (2014)

Filmed in the West Bank

Art is a weapon for López Mari and Calle 13, who sympathized with the Palestinian struggle. López Mari told me he considered the “Multi_Viral” video, which was filmed in the West Bank in 2013, was “one of the most important projects” he’s ever worked on.

The video follows Palestinian children as they build a guitar from parts of a gun. Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, who’s featured on the song, joined them onset in the West Bank. López Mari’s brother, Santiago “Chago” Benet Mari, who served as deputy photographer, told me how filmmaking has taken him and his family places he would have likely never otherwise visited.

“Film is a universal language,” said Benet Mari.

Calle 13, “Ojos Color Sol” featuring Silvio Rodríguez (2014)

Filmed in Buenos Aires

“Ojos Color Sol” was filmed the same day as the memorable 2014 World Cup semifinal match in which Germany thrashed Brazil, 7-1, so concentration levels onset were “fragile” among die-hard soccer fans that day, López Mari recalled.

Still, López Mari’s video would go on to win him his first Latin Grammy for best short form music video, alongside Tristana Robles, López Mari’s life partner, as well as the producer and co-founder of Filmes Zapatero. The song featured Cuban musical legend Silvio Rodríguez, and the video starred Golden Globe Award-winning Mexican actor Gael García Bernal and Spanish actress María Valverde, who share a powerful kiss.

Juanes, “Loco de Amor (La Historia)” (2014)

Filmed in Puerto Rico (San Juan, Río Piedras, Bayamón)

The 16th annual Latin Grammy Awards were historic. After “Ojos de Sol” won best short form music video, “Loco de Amor (La Historia)” won best long form music video — a 16-minute project visualizing four of Colombian superstar Juanes’ songs. This made López Mari the winner of both categories in the same night — a feat never accomplished before or repeated since.

“I like the aesthetics of [López Mari]’s work and his way of working,” Juanes told the San Diego Union-Tribune in 2014.

Calle 13, “La Vida (Respira el Momento)” (2015)

Filmed in Salinas, Puerto Rico

“La Vida (Respira el Momento)” was the final video López Mari released with Calle 13 before they disbanded. It featured López Mari’s daughter and nephew, Residente’s nephew, as well as pro boxer Miguel Cotto and MLB player Ángel Pagán. But there’s an even buzzier person who makes an appearance in this video — filmmaker, actor and poet Jacobo Morales, the director behind the 1989 film “Lo Que le Pasó a Santiago,” the only Puerto Rican film to earn an Oscar nomination to date.

Morales sits down in the middle of a road to look through a handful of photos, reflecting on his life’s most precious moments — inadvertently foreshadowing his later role in videos from Bad Bunny’s 2025 album, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” such as “Baile Inolvidable,” which were also directed by López Mari.

Juanes, “Mis Planes Son Amarte” (2017)

Filmed in Mexico (Veracruz, Mexico City and its outskirts) and Medellín, Colombia

“Mis Planes Son Amarte” directly translates to “My Plans Are to Love You.” A play on words in Spanish, it could also be heard as “My Plans Are to Mars.” Using that double meaning, Juanes and López Mari innovated what’s considered to be Latin music’s first major visual album (every song has a video): a one-hour film of 12 songs that follows Juanes’ character as an archaeologist and astronaut, exploring the dimensions of life and love.

Chayanne, “Di Qué Sientes Tú” (2018)

Filmed in Mexico City

In 2018, López Mari added the actor and pop balladeer Chayanne to his roster of Puerto Rican icons he’s collaborated with. For the making of Chayanne’s music video for “Di Que Sientes Tú” (Say What You Feel), López Mari took the crew to Mexico City.

“It came at a time when I was falling in love with books again,” said López Mari. “I was surrounded by literature [by Gabriel García Márquez], [Jorge Luis] Borges, Luis Rafael Sánchez — and that literary energy made its way into the set. It all came together in a way that was beautiful and poetic.”

Bad Bunny, “Callaíta” (2019)

Filmed in Puerto Rico (Arecibo, Hato Rey neighborhood of San Juan, Guaynabo)

In the first of many collaborations between Bad Bunny and López Mari, they created a “dream-like atmosphere” of summertime in Puerto Rico. In a 2023 video interview with Vanity Fair, Bad Bunny said it successfully conveyed the feeling of a “hug.” Bad Bunny also said he knew the actress, Natalia L. Garcia, was the right woman for the project as soon as he saw her.

López Mari discovered Garcia on Instagram. “I [loved] her look,” he said. “She reminded me of Uma Thurman in ‘Pulp Fiction’ because of the haircut.”

López Mari’s brother Benet Mari, served as the director of photography — and happened to have the resources to get a carousel on the beach. “Everything was perfect,” said López Mari, calling it a “beautifully executed video” that hit all the notes and goals of marrying image and song.

Don Omar, Residente, “Flow HP” (2021)

Filmed in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Los Angeles

In the video for their first-time collaboration, “Flow HP,” Don Omar and Residente, both Puerto Rican industry veterans, amplify their pride for the motherland by rapping in front of the island’s flag, resulting in an unforgettably powerful visual. López Mari and Residente actually directed the video together.

Bad Bunny, “El Apagón — Aquí Vive Gente” (2022)

Filmed in Puerto Rico (San Juan, Güajataca, Rincón)

“[Taylor Swift] fills it [her videos] with Easter eggs,” said López Mari. “So, what does Benito do? He fills it with Puerto Rican history.”

In nearly six months, López Mari and his team worked to produce what began as a Bad Bunny video and expanded into a hard-hitting documentary. In collaboration with Puerto Rican investigative journalist Bianca Graulau, the short film shed light on the recurring blackouts in Puerto Rico after 2017’s Hurricane Maria and how the government’s lackluster recovery efforts exacerbated the greater infrastructural crisis — all of which they strongly consider to be byproducts of U.S. colonialism.

(Fun fact: This video also featured clips from López Mari’s directorial debut with Calderón.)

Juanes, “Canción Desaparecida” featuring Mabiland (official video) (2023)

Filmed in Medellín, Colombia, and rural outskirts

In this video, Juanes and singer-MC Mabiland call to mind more than 121,000 people forcibly disappeared between 1985 and 2016 in their native Colombia. After long shying away from political and social content that colored his first album, Juanes knew he wanted to make an impactful video with López Mari, who felt connected to the story because of his own political inheritance.

Bad Bunny, “Baile Inolvidable” (2025)

FILMING LOCATION: San Juan, Puerto Rico

Normally, López Mari listens to a song several times before he writes a treatment for the direction of a music video. Yet for “Baile Inolvidable,” he only got to listen to it once. He happened to be in the room when Bad Bunny presented the album “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” to Apple Music executives and his crew for the first time.

López Mari says he met with Bad Bunny weeks later, in the Río Piedras music studio where the artist had recorded the song. There, López Mari presented his storyboard drawings and location ideas for the video and listened to the song “like 20 times,” he said.

López Mari shot the dance class portion at the Arthur Murray Dance Studios, a famous school for classic salsa in San Juan. The live performance portion of the video was filmed at the University of Puerto Rico’s auditorium, where Robles and López Mari had recently creative directed a Concert for Energy Independence for Casa Pueblo.

“As every artist evolves, the same happens to us directors,” said López Mari. “We keep learning… [And] hopefully, more videos will be made that are more relevant, [that] contribute more to the cultural exchange, [and] that aren’t just a bunch of flashy visuals and bells and whistles.”



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Mel C, 51, shows off impressive abs in revealing workout gear as she films sexy new music video

SPICE Girl Mel C has cranked up the heat and put her rock hard abs on display during a shoot for her new music video – Sweat.

The toned 51-year-old star gave fans a glimpse at work behind-the-scenes of her latest musical offering.

Still proving she’s every inch Sporty, Mel C gave a glimpse inside her shootCredit: YouTube / Mel C
Sporty Spice showed off her gym-honed figure in the videoCredit: YouTube / Mel C

She told followers alongside the footage: “Little SWEAT shoot BTS clip now live on YouTube.”

Jumping around on an exercise bike, the sports-lover showed off her enviable muscles in a variety of show-stopping outfits and shades.

She looked pumped in a selection of wardrobe changes including a string-tied bra top and cut-out bikini-style cover up with black trousers.

Proving she still lives up to her Sporty Spice persona, the singer looked incredibly toned, while exuding girl power in her ab-flashing workout gear.

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The mum-of-one’s new track Sweat is an electro-house single that samples Diana Ross’s iconic hit Work That Body.

It’s set to feature on Mel’s upcoming ninth studio album due to drop on May 1, 2026.

Speaking of her dance single Sweat, she wrote: “I’m so happy this track is finally all yours. Dance to it. Run to it. Lift to it. SWEAT to it.”

Although the singer missed her fellow bandmate’s wedding in July, Mel C issued a sweet message to her friend Mel B.

The popstar was absent from Mel’s happy day at St Paul’s Cathedral on Saturday, which saw Emma Bunton, 49, the sole other girl group member in attendance.

The Sun revealed earlier in the year how the Spice Girls are planning a massive tour in 2026 to celebrate 30 years since debut single Wannabe was released.

Sporty Spice had her say, revealing certain members needed more “convincing” than others, with Victoria Beckham currently not set to take part.

She is expected to keep out of it just like she did with their sell-out 2019 reunion tour, while Geri Halliwell-Horner may also need some persuading.

The Liverpudlian previously appeared on the No Filter with Kate Langbroek podcast and Mel said: “Next year is a big year for us and we have to acknowledge it in some way.

“So we are talking about what that’s going to look like and for me, Melanie, I know for sure, and Emma [Bunton], we’d be back on stage. But sometimes other people need a little bit more convincing.”

On the prospect of all five members being back on stage together for the first time since 2012, she said: “It would be the best thing ever, ever, ever. And sometimes it feels like a duty to the world.

“When we did the shows in 2019, it brought so much joy to so many people. Not everybody likes the Spice Girls but loads of people do.

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“We’re living in this weird world right now. There’s so much negativity and mad s**t going on. Let’s all spice up our lives.”

And talking about Mel B, she added, ironically: “We’ve decided now we’re not going to tell Mel anything because she can’t keep her mouth shut.

The singer has showcased her impressive absCredit: YouTube / Mel C
The toned Spice Girl wore a cut-out bra top to help launch her new musicCredit: YouTube / Mel C
Mel C is set to release her album in 2026Credit: Refer to source
The Spice Girls could be making a return for their 30th anniversaryCredit: Getty

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