ROB Reiner’s friends held back tears at the Oscars as the ceremony honored the late director and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, after their tragic deaths.
The couple died in December 2025 after being brutally attacked in their Los Angeles home, and their son, Nick Reiner, is the primary suspect in their murders.
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Rob Reiner’s famous friends held back tears at the Oscars as the ceremony honored the late director and his wife, Michele Singer ReinerCredit: Instagram/michelereinerBilly Crystal gave a speech honoring the late couple Sunday nightCredit: ABCRob and his wife received a special tribute from longtime friend Billy CrystalCredit: GettyRob and his wife Michele died on December 14, 2025Credit: ABC
Hollywood was shocked by the loss of Rob, 78, and Michele, 70, and it was expected that there would be a special tribute to them at the 98th Academy Awards held at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday.
Rob famously rewrote the ending of When Harry Met Sally after meeting his wife, Michele, while shooting the film.
“I first met Rob Reiner in 1975. When I was cast as his best friend in an episode of All in the Family,” Billy’s began in his tribute.
“Rob said, it was fun playing your best friend, why don’t we keep it going. And it was a thrill to see him evolve from a great comic actor to a master storyteller.
“His first film was This Is Spinal Tap. You could stop right there … The comedy was turned up to an 11.”
Billy went on to discuss Rob’s other iconic films, including Stand By Me.
“Audiences then lined up to see his funny, charming films, so he gave them misery!” Billy continued.
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“My friend Rob’s movies will last for lifetimes. Because they were about what makes us laugh and cry and what we aspire to be, far better in his eyes, far kinder, far funnier, far more human.”
“And when Michele Singer entered his life, they were unstoppable. A gifted photographer, she not only produced films with Rob, but it was her energy that had them working tirelessly to fight social injustice in the country that they both loved.
“Rob and Michele Reiner became the driving force in the landmark decision for marriage equality across the United States. And their loss is immeasurable.”
He said Rob told him several times that “it meant everything to him that his work meant something to you.”
“And for us, who had the privilege of working with and knowing him and loving him, all we can say is, ‘Buddy, what fun we had storming the castle.”
Billy’s speech concluded with several actors joining him on stage, including Kathy Bates, Demi Moore and Mandy Patinkin.
More late stars honored at the Oscars
Diane Keaton was also honored at the Oscars’ In Memoriam tribute.
Rachel McAdams, who starred alongside the late actress in The Family Stone, took the stage to honor Diane.
“For over 50 years, luminous on screen and indelible in life, believe me when I say there isn’t an actress of my generation who is not inspired by and enthralled with her absolute singularity,” she said.
“She wore so many hats, literally and figuratively, actress, artist, author, activist, but no hat more important to her than being a mother to her two children.
“She meant so much to so many of us. I remember she used to sing this old Girl Scout song on set, which is just so her: ‘Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, and the other is gold. A circle is round, it has no end. That’s how long I’ll be your friend.’
“And so to our friend, Diane Keaton, celebrating a life in silver and gold, a legend with no end.”
Diane, a four-time Academy Award nominee, died in October 2025 of bacterial pneumonia.
Other stars were honored during the In memoriam segment, including Robert Duvall, known for his roles in The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, Robert Redford, known for All the President’s Men and The Sting and Catherine O’Hara, known for her role in Home Alone and Schitt’s Creek.
“She made us laugh until we cried,” Rachel said of Catherine at the Oscars.
Diane Keaton died in October 2025 of bacterial pneumoniaCredit: Getty ImagesCatherine O’Hara died in January 2026 at the age of 71 after being rushed to the hospital while having difficulty breathingCredit: REUTERSRobert Duvall, known for his role in The Godfather, died at the age of 95 in February 2026Credit: AFP via Getty Images
The death of Rob Reiner
Corey Feldman, who portrayed Teddy Duchamp in Stand by Me, was reportedly not asked to participate in the tribute to Rob, despite being one of the main characters alongside Jerry and Wil.
A source recently told the Daily Mail that Corey was “devastated” by the apparent snub and “wanted nothing more than to honor Rob.”
In January, Rob was subtly recognized at the Golden Globes by host Nikki Glaser, who ended the show wearing a Spinal Tap cap, a reference to the filmmaker’s 1984 film, This Is Spinal Tap.
The comedian also closed the ceremony, saying, “This one went to 11. Thank you, guys, for an amazing night,” a reference to the movie’s famous moments between Rob and co-star Christopher Guest.
Rob and Michele allegedly had their throats slit while lying in bed, and Nick, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and was battling a drug addiction, has been charged with their murders.
The incident occurred hours after the trio attended Conan O’Brien’s holiday party, where Rob and Nick had an explosive fight about Nick’s behavior.
Last month, Conan O’Brien, host of the 98th Academy Awards, broke his silence about the tragedy during a sit-down with The New Yorker.
“I knew Rob and Michele, and then increasingly got closer and closer to them, and I was seeing them a lot,” the talk show host said.
“My wife and I were seeing them a lot, and they were so — they were just such lovely people.
Most Awarded Oscar Winners of All Time
Best Director:
John Ford — 4 wins
The Informer (1935)
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
How Green Was My Valley (1941)
The Quiet Man (1952)
Frank Capra — 3 wins
It Happened One Night (1934)
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
You Can’t Take It with You (1938)
William Wyler —3 wins
Mrs. Miniver (1942)
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Ben-Hur (1959)
Best Actor in a Leading Role:
Daniel Day‑Lewis — 3 wins (most in history)
My Left Foot (1989)
There Will Be Blood (2007)
Lincoln (2012)
A slew of actors are tied in second place having won 2 Oscars, including: Marlon Brando, Tom Hanks, Dustin Hoffman, Sean Penn, Anthony Hopkins, and more.
Best Actress in a Leading Role:
Katharine Hepburn — 4 wins
Morning Glory (1933)
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967)
The Lion in Winter (1968)
On Golden Pond (1981)
Frances McDormand — 3 wins
Fargo (1996)
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
Nomadland (2020)
Meryl Streep — 3 wins (two lead, one supporting)
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) — Supporting Actress
Sophie’s Choice (1982) — Lead Actress
The Iron Lady (2011) — Lead Actress
Best Actor in a Supporting Role:
Walter Brennan — 3 wins
Come and Get It (1936)
Kentucky (1938)
The Westerner (1940)
Many actors are tied for the second place honor with 2 nominations, including: Michael Caine, Denzel Washington, Gene Hackman, Jack Nicholson, Christoph Waltz, and Mahershala Ali.
Best Actress in a Supporting Role:
Dianne Wiest —2 wins
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
Bullets Over Broadway (1994)
Shelley Winters — 2 wins
The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)
A Patch of Blue (1965)
Maggie Smith — 2 wins
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) — Lead Actress
California Suite (1978) — Supporting Actress
“And to have that experience of saying goodnight to somebody and having them leave and then find out the next day that they’re gone. … I think I was in shock for quite a while afterward. I mean, there’s no other word for it. It’s just very — it’s so awful. It’s just so awful.”
Conan also admitted that it was still “hard for me to comprehend” what happened to his friends.
The U.S. Sun exclusively revealed that Nick could inherit his family’s $196million fortune even if he’s found guilty of his parents’ deaths.
This would be the case if Nick is found legally insane, which, by California law, would still entitle him to the inheritance.
Nick has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.
Rob and Michele were murdered in their Los Angeles home in December 2025Credit: GettyTheir son, Nick, was accused of their killings and has been charged with has been charged with two counts of first-degree murderCredit: Instagram/romyreinerNick pleaded not guilty to the murders in court earlier this weekCredit: Getty
JACK Osbourne has proudly welcomed a baby girl with his wife and revealed her sweet name which is a touching tribute to his dad Ozzy.
The formerMTVreality TV star, 40, confirmed the happy news in a post on Instagram.
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Jack Osbourne revealed he has named his newborn baby after late dad OzzyCredit: InstagramJack Osbourne and wife Aree Earhart revealed their pregnancy in DecemberCredit: Brian RobertsMuch-loved Ozzy with his son Jack in 2011Credit: Getty
And Jack revealed her name was Ozzy Matilda Osbourne in a sweet nod to his late father.
The tot was pictured lying peacefully next to what appeared to be a bat plushie and a badge that said ‘Hello World’.
Jack captioned the post: “She’s arrived and she’s perfect.”
Ozzy Matilda was born om March 5 just before 9am according to the duck-themed sticker.
Rock legend Ozzy, who died in July aged 76, had been told he was going to be a grandfather again before his death.
Jack previously revealed he and Aree’s tot was giving him hope while grieving for his Black Sabbath rock legend dad Ozzy.
The proud dad has three daughters from his previous marriage – while his and Aree’s firstborn is three-year-old Maple.
Fans were quick to congratulate Jack after his latest annoucement.
One said: “Yay, we have another Ozzy Osbourne! The world is right again.”
Another wrote: “Oh my goodness congratulations I love her name I’m sure ozzy is smiling.”
A third said: “The most perfect name she could have ever received!! Congratulations to you all…I am sure her birth is what everyone’s heart needed!!”
Jack and Aree have welcomed Ozzy Matilda into the worldCredit: Michelle BellerHis dad Ozzy died just 17 days after his farewell gig Back to the Beginning in BirminghamCredit: Ross HalfinJack’s family has grown with another baby
Speaking publicly for the first time about the happy pregnancy news back in December, Jack said it has been the joy his family – including his mum Sharon, 73 – have needed after such a tough year.
In an exclusive interview with The Sun on Sunday he said: “It’s awesome.
“I think it’s been partly a healthy distraction, partly healing – probably in that kind of ‘full cycle’ category, in a weird way.
“It’s very much taken energy out of the grieving side of things and parked in a bit more hopefulness.
“It’s been easy for me – I think it’s been a lot harder for my wife!
“We’re super-excited. It was sort of planned, I should say. It was maybe a little earlier than expected.
“But it’s definitely something that we were wanting to pursue and somehow it happened, miraculously.”
He lasted 21 days in camp and proved to be hugely popular among his campmates.
Ozzy’s death, following a six year battle with Parkinson’s Disease, reshaped Jack’s perception of their relationship with him now saying he is “really cherishing moments” – even the difficult ones.
Jack first rose to fame in 2002 after starring in the hit series, The Osbournes.
He received worldwide attention for his television tenure alongside his family, which included sister Kelly, and parents Sharon and Ozzy.
Ozzy spending Christmas with son Jack and four daughtersJack with Ozzy in the second season of The OsbournesCredit: MTVOzzy would often take Jack and the kids on tour with his band Black SabbathCredit: Rex
Ore Oduba’s wife Portia has revealed her heartbreak as the star puts home on the marketCredit: ShutterstockPortia said their two young kids are devastated as the house goes on saleCredit: Getty
The pair share a son, Roman, eight and four-year-old daughter Genie together.
The TV presenter’s new-build family home in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, is now up for sale but Portia admitted it has left their kids heartbroken.
She said on social media: “I told the children that we are selling the house.
“It’s hard, especially for Roman, to have these conversations. He’s really upset.
“I wanted to let the kids know, I tried to explain why.
“It’s gutting, and I’ve known for a while.”
The family have been living in the property since 2022.
Last November, Portia appeared to take a swipe at Ore after he revealed his porn addiction battle.
Portia shared a photo as she posed with her two children either side of her during an autumn day out.
The lyrics talk about a partner who is “young, wayward and lost in the cold” and includes the phrases “you pulled the wrong trigger”.
Appearing on the We Need to Talk podcast with MAFS expert Paul C Brunson, Ore told how his addiction struggles have spanned three decades.
He candidly said: “I was nine when I was introduced to pornography. That’s when my addiction started.”
Ore added: “While I wouldn’t say the addiction set in immediately, the intrigue started immediately and it didn’t take long for that intrigue to start running my mind over.
Ore revealed last year that he’s been battling a three decade porn addictionCredit: Alamy
“It was the thing that was destroying my life from the inside out.
“But it was a thing I was running to from an early age as a response to the trauma.”
He told Paul he was speaking out as he wanted to “guide my own children.”
The London-based TV and radio anchor shares two children with ex wife Portia, son Roman born in 2018 and daughter Genie, born in 2021.
Ore, who admitted he had become a “master masker” during his childhood due to fears his father would send him back to Nigeria, told of the personal “shame” he had been struck by.
He then told how his brave confessions were for his family.
He said: “I’m sharing this to save my kids.
“Shame kept me silent for 30 years. It took me 30 years, two deaths, and a divorce to finally go: here’s what’s happening.”
He added: “The reason I felt like I needed to speak out on this, is because I wanted to guide my own children when it comes to it, when it comes to them seeing stuff that is going to be there.
“They’re going to come across it.”
Ore then confessed: “I never imagine I’d ever share this with anyone but in the last year I’ve spoken to friends and family and some amazing, supporting people in my working world who have all shown so much love and pride in me talking about something that is a problem for so many of us.”
The couple announced they were ending their nine-year marriage in October, with presenter Ore then confirming the news on Instagram.
The couple’s break-up shocked longtime followers of the pair, who have watched on as they got engaged, married and welcomed two children.
They first met in 2010 when they were studying at Loughborough University.
Portia was also a prominent support for Ore when he competed on Strictly Come Dancing in 2016, eventually lifting the glitterball alongside pro partner Joanne Clifton.
Swerving rumours of the long-derided “Strictly curse”, Ore made sure Portia bonded with Joanne throughout their time on the show together.
Yet he revealed their sad spit in an emotional message to fans.
The statement read: “Hi guys. Portia and I are sad to announce that we separated earlier this year [2024].
“We’re so grateful for all the love you’ve shared with us both over the years.
“And we want to thank you in advance for respecting our privacy as we navigated this difficult transition.
“We will be making no further comment. Be kind, always.”
Ore and Portia ended their nine year marriage in October 2024Credit: Getty
The 60-year-old star is perhaps most recognised for playing the lead character in the BBC mystery drama series Jonathan Creek, which aired from 1997 through to 2016. He’s also been the only regular panellist on the BBC quiz show QI since it launched in 2003, remaining longer than its initial presenter, Stephen Fry.
Alan launched his career in stand-up comedy, and has embarked on numerous live tours, with his latest taking place last year. The entertainer has also penned three well-received memoirs: My Favourite People and Me (2009), Just Ignore Him (2020), and White Male Stand-Up (2025).
Alan is scheduled to feature on James Martin’s Saturday Morning later today (March 7). Today’s instalment will also showcase chef Sami Tamimi and horticulturist David Domoney, alongside James preparing dishes in his Hampshire kitchen, reports the Express.
Ahead of his appearance on James Martin’s ITV programme, fans might be intrigued to discover that Alan has a famous wife.
The comic is married to writer and former literary agent Katie Maskell. Katie studied English and Drama at Warwick University, before finishing a one-year postgraduate qualification at London drama school, East 15.
She notably won Waterstones’ £5,000 Children’s Book Prize in 2010 for her novel, The Great Hamster Massacre. Alan and Katie’s paths crossed backstage during a QI recording in 2005, with the couple getting engaged six months later.
Their wedding took place in 2007, with comedian and Strictly Come Dancing champion Bill Bailey serving as Alan’s best man. The pair share three children. Their eldest daughter, Susie, arrived in 2009, their son, Robert, in 2011, and their youngest, Francis, was born in 2016.
Alan previously revealed how he first met his wife during an appearance on The One Show last year. In the episode, presenter Alex Jones remarked: “Everybody loves, of course, QI. And we heard the story that that’s where you actually met your wife.”
“Yeah, it’s true. 20 years ago,” Alan confirmed. An image of the couple then flashed up on screen, prompting Alex to joke: “She’s beautiful. [You’re] punching, Alan… She’s stunning.”
Alan then elaborated: “I saw her in the audience at QI and just as I saw her, this is what happened right, we had a stunt set up with a sugar glass, which is a glass that can smash, right? And then Arthur Smith, a brilliant comedian, was on the other team and he had a glass, and he thought that was a sugar glass. It wasn’t a sugar glass.
“He threw it in our direction, I forget who was on my team. And as it came towards me, I thought, ‘I’ve just spotted someone in the audience I wanna talk to afterwards and this could end my career. This could finish me.'”
The star concluded: “I nearly died, but in fact, it hit the desk and broke. It was very funny, and I met her in the green room afterwards. Luckily for me, she wasn’t wearing her glasses, so she couldn’t see what I looked like.”
James Martin’s Saturday Morning will air at 9.30am on ITV1 today (Saturday, March 7), whilst QI is available to stream on BBC iPlayer
For the latest showbiz, TV, movie and streaming news, go to the new Everything Gossip website
By my count, Philip Glass has written 28 operas, the same number as Verdi. The count is iffy because Glass pushes the boundaries between what we tend to call opera and the fuzzier idea of music theater. His first, “Einstein on the Beach” in 1976 — a collaboration between the composer and the late, innovative theater maker Robert Wilson — is a non-narrative effusion of imagery, movement, music and text, each a brilliantly independent entity that somehow excites a hard-to-pin-down purpose.
His latest (and probably his last, Glass turns 90 this year) is “Circus Days and Nights” — a touching and thrilling opera for a circus and staged at a circus in Mälmo, Sweden, in 2021 — caps a wondrous 45 years of operatic advancement. You would have to go back to Handel’s 42 operas, Mozart’s 22 or Verdi’s oeuvre for operatic equivalence.
Glass’ subject matter varies widely in epochs and ethoses, from ancient Egypt to Walt Disney’s Hollywood. Taken as a whole, these 28 operas reveal how we got to be who we are historically, artistically, spiritually, politically and fancifully, often including more than one of those categories, as in his third opera, “Akhnaten,” which Los Angeles Opera has now remounted at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. The instantly recognizable musical style has remained, over the years, consistently abstract and refreshing. It doesn’t tell you how to think, how to feel, even how to understand. It simply grabs your attention; you do the interpreting.
Still, America knows little of Glass’ operatic enormity. The early “portrait” operas — “Einstein,” “Satyagraha” (about Gandhi) and “Akhnaten” (the 14th century BC Egyptian pharaoh) — appear in repertory here and there (meaning mostly in Europe) as do a trio of operas based on Jean Cocteau films. The rest remain little mounted, while several but not all have been recorded. The Metropolitan Opera, for instance, commissioned “The Voyage” in 1992 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ arrival in the Americas, but the epic opera is nowhere to be found in our semisesquicentennial year. It is sadly no longer even thinkable that “Appomattox,” Glass’ revelatory reminder of an America that once honored goodwill negotiation over political self-interest, return to the Kennedy Center, where its final version had its premiere 11 years ago.
L.A. Opera has been better than most American companies in its attention to Glass. It has excellently presented the three portrait operas on its main stage, beginning with “Einstein” in the final and most brilliant revival of the original Wilson staging. The “Satyagraha” and “Akhnaten” revivals have been the designed-to-dazzle inventions of quirky director Phelim McDermott, a co-founder of Impossible, an eccentric British theater company. When new in the last decade, they felt the most arresting productions of these operas since Achim Freyer’s in Stuttgart, Germany, in the early 1980s. Almost every performance at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion has sold out.
John Holiday as the titular ruler in Philip Glass’ “Akhnaten” at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
(Ariana Drehsler / For The Times)
McDermott’s “Akhnaten” got the most attention thanks to breathtaking jugglers and lavish costumes, along with a touch of full-frontal novelty as Akhnaten gets clothed in his kitschy, glittery getup for his inauguration. Glass had chosen the pharaoh because he is thought to have been the first monotheistic ruler.
Akhnaten is revealed in episodes of his life that are not fleshed out but presented as ritual, including the ravishing love duet with his wife, Nefertiti. The revolutionary pharoah builds a great city and reduces spiritual chaos by focusing on a single-minded form of worship. He looks androgenous in portraits, which led Glass to create the role for countertenor.
The sung texts are in ancient languages, and there are no projected song titles. Instead, a narrator gives a somewhat notion of what’s what in the language of the audience, as is Akhnaten’s great aria, a hymn to Aten (god of the sun).
Ultimately, the pharaoh’s prescient spiritual optimism comes in conflict with the all-powerful establishment priests, who kill Akhnaten and Nefertiti. The opera ends with Akhnaten’s son, presumably Tutankhamun, restoring polytheism, and then, once the staging jumps millennia into the future, it’s rediscovered by modern-day tourists. The currency couldn’t be missed Saturday, the Shia cleric and Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei having just been assassinated along with his wife at the start of America’s and Israel’s Iran war.
Sun-Ly Pierce as Nefertiti and John Holiday as Akhnaten in Philip Glass’ “Akhnaten” at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
(Ariana Drehsler / For The Times)
In the opera, it so happens, the ghosts of Akhnaten, his wife and mother, have the last word in a glorious trio.
When first performed at L.A. Opera a decade ago, the lavish production, co-produced with English National Opera, helped recover a neglected opera. In the meantime, “Akhnaten” has gone practically mainstream. The Metropolitan Opera, which also mounted McDermott’s production, released it on CD and DVD, winning a Grammy for best opera recording.
Since then, the choreographer Lucinda Childs, veteran of “Einstein on the Beach,” has staged a stunningly chic “Akhnaten” in Nice, France, that is available on YouTube. Last year, director Barrie Kosky created a sensation with his staging at Komische Oper Berlin, which starred American countertenor John Holiday.
Holiday happens to be the Akhnaten in the L.A. Opera revival, and he is magnificent. McDermott had built his production around the gracefully emotive Anthony Roth Costanzo, slight and luminous in voice and build and game for nudity. If Costanzo’s disarming enthusiasm for the role has been significant in mainstreaming “Akhnaten,” Holiday, who is a very different presence, may be the next step.
Although he can be a popularly gregarious crossover performer, here he suggests a ruler of profound, unflappable dignity, rather than vulnerability. His hymn to Aten is an exercise in majesty, an ode not just to the sun but to the expanses in which our solar system circulates.
In general, the singers class up the production. Sun-Ly Pierce as Nefertiti and So Young Park as Queen Tye add allure. The large cast of smaller roles and chorus is excellent. Zachary James returns as both Amenhotep III, Akhnaten’s father, and the engaging narrator who occasionally threatens to get carried away. McDermott had perfectly employed James as the droll animatronic Disneyland Lincoln in his animation-friendly, slightly goofy production of “Perfect American” in Madrid, where the opera premiered. Here McDermott’s inspired staging demonstrated that Glass’ forgiving personal portrait of Walt Disney makes it the quintessential Hollywood opera that no one dares bring to squeamish Hollywood.
Zachary James as Amenhotep III in Philip Glass’ “Akhnaten” at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
(Ariana Drehsler / For The Times)
Hollywood, however, is hardly squeamish when it comes to synchronized jugglers. For McDermott, they suggest somber ritual and were, in fact, known in Akhnaten’s Egypt. For the audience, they are a thrill a minute. For Glass, they may take on deeper meaning now that the circus is where he landed 26 operas later.
As for Finnish conductor Dalia Stasevska, making her L.A. opera debut, she keenly keeps score and bounding balls together with cinematic flair. Glass removed violins from the orchestra to achieve a dark, primordial orchestral sound along with pounding percussion. Stasevska finds light, color and action. She conducts for the moment. Picturesque wind instruments suddenly burst forth as if a flock of birds were flying over the pyramids. Solo brass can sound momentous. The percussion pounds like nobody’s business, opening the score up to all the implied emotion and glitter on an over-stuffed stage.
Childs’ exalted use of dance and Kosky’s dazzling theatrical imagination may have moved us into a sleeker, more sophisticated and paradisal Glassian realm, but the sheer passion McDermott and Stasevska bring continues its own attraction.
In the meantime, McDermott has worked with Glass on a theatrical show, “The Tao of Glass,” that has been seen in New York and will run throughout much of the summer in London. In a better world of Glass, it would be running alongside “Akhnaten” at the Ahmanson. But the Labèque sisters will be at Walt Disney Concert Hall at the end of the month with a two-piano program based on Glass’ operatic Cocteau trilogy. Also check out L.A. Opera’s several excellent podcasts on “Ahkhnaten” — the company has quietly become a leader in the medium.
‘Akhnaten’
Where: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 Grand Ave., L.A.
When: Through March 22
Tickets: $33.50-$415
Running time: About 3 hours, 40 minutes, with 2 intermissions.
March 2 (UPI) — Danise Baird, the wife of Republican Rep. Jim Baird, has died from complications of injuries she sustained in an early January car crash, according to a statement from the Indiana congressman’s office.
Jim and Danise Baird were involved in a car crash on Jan. 5, hospitalizing both of them.
Little information about the incident has been made public. According to a social media statement published by their son Beau Baird in mid-January, they were involved in a hit-and-run on the night of Jan. 5. He added that his mother suffered “nearly 15 breaks and fractures.”
Less than two weeks after the crash, Jim Baird, who is 80, announced that he and his wife had been discharged and were recovering.
On Sunday, his office announced that Danise Baird had died.
“A devoted wife and loving mother of three, she was the foundation of their family and will be deeply missed,” the statement said.
“We ask that you keep the congressman and his family in your prayers during this difficult time.”
Jim and Danise Baird were married for 59 years, according to his office, which said they had built “a life centered on faith, family and service.”
Indiana Gov. Mike Braun offered his condolences online.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with congressman Baird and his family as they grieve this devastating loss,” he said in a statement.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., recalled seeing Danise Baird by her husband’s side as he worked in Congress.
“They are salt of the earth people and Jim and his family have sacrificed so much for our country,” she said. “Jim and his family are in our hearts and prayers during this difficult time.”
Neil Sedaka
American singer/pianist Neil Sedaka performs at the “BBC Proms In The Park” in Hyde Park in London on September 11, 2010. Photo by Rune Hellestad/UPI | License Photo
CHEF Gordon Ramsay serves up some romance with his missus.
Ramsay, 59, held hands with Tana, 51, and cuddled up for a kiss while out at the weekend.
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Gordon Ramsay was spotted out for a stroll with wife, Tana, over the weekendCredit: TillenDoveThe loved-up couple cuddled up for a kissCredit: TillenDoveGordon said he loves aspiring chef, Brooklyn 26, and has been in contact offering supportCredit: AP
Their loved-up stroll in South West London comes after Gordon waded into the Beckham family feud.
He urged David’s estranged son Brooklyn to “remember where you came from” last month in an exclusive interview with The Sun.
The Michelin-starred restauranteur said he loves the aspiring chef, 26, and has been in contact offering support.
The Chicago area native previously lived in New York — where he first found fame as Conan O’Brien’s sidekick on “Late Night” — before moving to Los Angeles in 2001. Three years ago, he moved to Pasadena. “Now that I live here, I would not live anywhere else,” he says.
There are some practical benefits to the city. “I am such a crabby old man now, but it’s like, there’s parking, you can park when we have to go out,” Richter says. “The notion of going to dinner in Santa Monica just feels like having nails shoved into my feet.”
In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.
But he mostly appreciates that Pasadena is “a very diverse town and just a beautiful town,” he says.
For Richter, most Sundays revolve around his family. In 2023, the comedian and actor married creative executive Jennifer Herrera and adopted her young daughter, Cornelia. (He also has two children in their 20s, William and Mercy, from his previous marriage.)
Additionally, he’s been giving his body time to recover. Richter spent last fall training and competing on the 34th season of “Dancing With the Stars.” And though he had no prior dancing experience, he won over the show’s fan base with his kindness and dedication, making it to the competition’s ninth week.
He hosts the weekly show “The Three Questions” on O’Brien’s Team Coco podcast network and still appears in films and TV shows. “I’m just taking meetings and auditioning like every other late 50s white comedy guy in L.A., sitting around waiting for the phone to ring.”
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.
7:30 a.m.: Early rising
It’s hard for me at this advanced age to sleep much past 7:30. I have a 5 1/2-year-old, and hopefully she’ll sleep in a little bit longer so my wife and I can talk and snuggle and look at our phones at opposite ends of the bed, like everybody.
Then the dogs need to be walked. I have two dogs: a 120-pound Great Pyrenees-Border Collie-German Shepherd mix, and then at the other end of the spectrum, a seven-pound poodle mix. We were a blended dog family. When my wife and I met, I had the big dog and she had a little dog. Her first dog actually has passed, but we like that dynamic. You get kind of the best of both worlds.
8 a.m.: Breakfast at a classic diner
Then it would probably be breakfast at Shakers, which is in South Pasadena. It’s one of our favorite places. We’re kind of regulars there, and my daughter loves it. It’s easy with a 5-year-old, you’ve got to do what they want. They’re terrorists that way, especially when it comes to cuisine.
I’ve lived in Pasadena for about three years now, but I have been going to Shakers for a long time because I have a database of all the best diners in the Los Angeles metropolitan area committed to memory. There’s just something about the continuity of them that makes me feel like the world isn’t on fire. And because of L.A.’s moderate climate, the ones here stay the way they are; whereas if you get 18 feet of winter snow, you tend to wear down the diner floor, seats, everything.
So there’s a lot of really great old places that stay the same. And then there are tragic losses. There’s been some noise that Shakers is going to turn into some kind of condo development. I think that people would probably riot. They would be elderly people rioting, but they would still riot.
11 a.m.: Sandy paws
My in-laws live down in Long Beach, so after breakfast we might take the dogs down to Long Beach. There’s this dog beach there, Rosie’s Beach. I have never seen a fight there between dogs. They’re all just so happy to be out and off-leash, with an ocean and sand right there. You get a contact high from the canine joy.
1 p.m.: Lunch in Belmont Shore
That would take us to lunchtime and we’ll go somewhere down there. There’s this place, L’Antica Pizzeria Da Michele, in Belmont Shore. It’s fantastic for some pizza with grandma and grandpa. It’s originally from Naples. There’s also one in Hollywood where Cafe Des Artistes used to be on that weird little side street.
4 p.m.: Sunset at the gardens
We’d take grandma and grandpa home, drop the dogs off. We’d go to the Huntington and stay a couple of hours until sunset. The Japanese garden is pretty mind-blowing. You feel like you’re on the set of “Shogun.”
The main thing that I love about it is the changing of ecospheres as you walk through it. Living in the area, I drive by it a thousand times and then I remember, “Oh yeah, there’s a rainforest in here. There’s thick stands of bamboo forest that look like Vietnam.” It’s beautiful. With all three of my kids, I have spent a lot of time there.
6:30 p.m.: Mall of America
After sundown, we will go to what seems to be the only thriving mall in America — [the Shops at] Santa Anita. We are suckers for Din Tai Fung. My 24-year-old son, who’s kind of a food snob, is like, “There’s a hundred places that are better and cheaper within five minutes of there in the San Gabriel Valley.” And we’re like, “Yeah, but this is at the mall.” It’s really easy. Also, my wife is a vegetarian, and a lot of the more authentic places, there’s pork in the air. It’s really hard to find vegetarian stuff.
We have a whole system with Din Tai Fung now, which is logging in on the wait list while we’re still on the highway, or ordering takeout. There’s plenty of places in the mall with tables, you can just sit down and have your own little feast there.
There’s also a Dave & Buster’s. If you want sensory overload, you can go in there and get a big, big booze drink while you’re playing Skee-Ball with your kid.
9 p.m.: Head to bed ASAP
I am very lucky in that I’m a very good sleeper and the few times in my life when I do experience insomnia, it’s infuriating to me because I am spoiled, basically. When you’ve got a 5 1/2-year-old, there’s no real wind down. It’s just negotiations to get her into bed and to sleep as quickly as possible, so we can all pass out.
MUSE frontman Matt Bellamy has found some solace following his split from model Elle Evans, his wife of six years.
I’m told he has been spending time with sex therapist Gaia Polloni — who he dated for nine years in the Noughties.
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Matt Bellamy has found some solace following his split from model Elle Evans, with sex therapist Gaia PolloniCredit: ErotemeWe revealed at the weekend that Elle and Matt had called time on their marriageCredit: Getty
A source said: “Matt and Gaia are still good mates and they’ve been spending time together following his split from Elle.
“It’s been a hard time for him, naturally, as it would be after the end of any marriage.
“Gaia has always been a great sounding board. Matt is focused on healing and moving forwards into co-parenting with Elle.”
Matt was seen in Notting Hill, West London, last week without his wedding ring and walking next to Italian Gaia.
The Last Kings of Hollywood: Coppola, Lucas, Spielberg—and the Battle for the Soul of American Cinema
By Paul Fischer Celadon Books: 480 pages, $32
If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.
Paul Fischer showed “Jaws” to his daughter when she was 10. She wasn’t scared. In fact, she loved it so much that she dressed as Richard Dreyfuss’ Hooper for Halloween. To Fischer, who watched “Raiders of the Lost Ark” at age 4 (“I remember the melting heads but I don’t think I was traumatized”), it shows the staying power of some of the ’70s blockbusters.
“It’s the flip side of how these franchises became so massive and had such a long tail,” he said in a recent video call with The Times, discussing how each generation still finds “Star Wars,” “Raiders,” “E.T.,” “Jaws” and “The Godfather.” “They’ve created films that endured and that overshadow others.”
The narrative then follows their journeys from the late ’60s through the early ’80s, filling in the “ecosystem” the trio came up in and how they wanted to change the system to gain creative autonomy. Spielberg worked within the system, Coppola spent lavishly and even ostentatiously to build his own studio and Lucas found his independence through a quieter, more conservative and technology-driven route.
(Martin Scorsese, who was friends with the three and “the most interesting human being of that generation of filmmakers,” gets plenty of ink but was not a titular character, Fischer said, because he remained an outsider who just wanted to make movies, not change the system.)
“I’m not going to pretend I can tell you what was going on in their heads but I tried to make people feel like they were there when it happened,” Fischer said.
While none of the three men would be interviewed, Fischer had decades of quotes and conducted his own interviews with hundreds of people in the filmmakers’ orbits to get a fuller and more honest story. (He added that their representatives were uniformly helpful with fact-checking and providing photos. “There was never a door closed on me,” he said in an accidental reference to the final scene of “The Godfather.”)
Coppola, “who changed quite a bit, was the hardest one for me to pin down,” Fischer said. “There are layers of complexity to him and his willingness to treat the creative life as if it’s an experiment.” Blending that with his self-indulgent philandering and spending of money, he added, “you can change your mind about that guy every five minutes.”
During that era at least, Fischer said Lucas and Coppola seemed ”completely devoid of any self-awareness.” He chronicles how Coppola pressured Lucas to accept changes to his first feature, “THX 1138,” so the studio would release it while Lucas viewed that as Coppola pushing him to sell out. Meanwhile, Lucas was pushing Coppola to do a studio film for hire to keep his fledgling Zoetrope Studio afloat, making Coppola feel pressured to sell out. (That movie was “The Godfather,” so it worked out OK for Coppola.)
“They keep giving each other advice about how to do things and then betray that same advice when it applies themselves,” he said, although he added that he doesn’t “whip them for 300 pages for having giant egos,” and said it’s part of the recipe to be a visionary filmmaker, especially in the Hollywood studio system.
Ultimately, the book depicts Lucas as more of a sellout, acting like the studio suits he once detested as he pressures “The Empire Strikes Back” director Irvin Kershner to make changes, often based on budget and then focusing more on profitability as he conjured up characters like the Ewoks for “Return of the Jedi.” Fischer doesn’t believe Lucas would recognize that version of himself in the book. “He’s someone who lost his BS detector and has drunk his own Kool-Aid.”
In Fischer’s telling, the creative and business sides are interwoven and inseparable from each other and from the personal relationships — their friendships and rivalries with each other but also their relationships with those who worked for them or loved them.
“They were all able to do what they did because of wives or partners or friends or college classmates, who did a lot of the work without being household names,” he said. To fully tell the story, he devotes plenty of narrative space to Coppola’s wife Eleanor, and his most prominent mistress, Melissa Mathison, who later wrote “E.T.,” producer Kathleen Kennedy, who co-founded Amblin Entertainment with Spielberg, and Lucas’ wife, Marcia, who edited the first “Star Wars” trilogy (and Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver”).
“How did these guys break through? Well, they were middle-class white dudes and these women looked after some of this stuff they couldn’t,” Fischer said. “Those aren’t the only reasons these guys became who they did but without that, they probably [wouldn’t have].”
Fischer celebrates the three men’s vision and talents — he calls “The Godfather” “a perfect film” and says Spielberg “speaks the language of a camera better than anybody else”— but the book makes clear how often they got lucky or were saved from themselves.
If Coppola had spent his money more judiciously, he might not have done “The Godfather;” Lucas resisted hiring Harrison Ford to play Han Solo as well as Ford’s creative contributions; and if someone had bankrolled the first feature film Spielberg pitched before latching onto “Jaws” — “a sex comedy San Francisco Chinese laundry riff on Snow White” — it could have sunk his career.
Additionally, Lucas and Coppola’s friendship frayed when the latter snatched back the directing gig for a film he had long ago promised to his buddy. “But imagine George Lucas making some weird low-budget, ‘Battle of Algiers’ version of ‘Apocalypse Now’ in the back streets of Sacramento,” Fischer said. “That sounds pretty crappy. And we would have lost one of the great, novelistic experiential movies that we have.”
Lucas, meanwhile, dangled his idea for “Raiders of the Lost Ark” before Spielberg’s eyes, then told him that Philip Kaufman had dibs. “He’s a fine director but we would have lost something there too,” Fischer said. “There are these crossroads there but still there has got to be something special about these three or they couldn’t have had repeated successes like they did.”
Writing about their failures, foibles and frustrations did not lessen the hold that these three men and their movie magic have on Fischer. He recounts a story of his own connection to one film with undisguised delight and enthusiasm. After graduating film school at USC, he was producing a documentary (“Radioman”) in New York when he learned that “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” was doing some filming in Connecticut. “Obsessed,” he finagled his way onto the set and into a job. “All I did was turn off the air conditioning,” he said. “‘Roll camera,’ I flip it off. ‘Cut,’ I turn it on. I did that for four days. But when Harrison Ford walked by wearing that jacket, I was 5-years-old again. That was cool.”
Miller is a freelance writer in Brooklyn who frequently writes about movies.
California may be losing two of the state’s most famed residents and generous political donors.
Filmmaker Steven Spielberg recently moved to New York and Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg is eyeing purchasing a new property in Florida, stirring speculation about whether their decisions are tied to a proposed new tax on California billionaires to fund healthcare for the state’s most vulnerable residents.
Although a handful of prominent conservatives who bolted out of California noisily blamed their departure on the controversial wealth tax measure, as well as the state’s liberal ways and what they describe as cumbersome business regulations, neither Zuckerberg nor Spielberg has given any indication that the tax proposal is the reason for their moves.
A spokesperson for Spielberg, who has owned homes on both the East and West coasts since at least the mid-1990s, said the sole motivation for Spielberg and his wife, actor Kate Capshaw, decamping to Manhattan was to be near family.
“Steven’s move to the East Coast is both long-planned and driven purely by his and Kate Capshaw’s desire to be closer to their New York based children and grandchildren,” said Terry Press, a spokesperson for the prodigious filmmaker. She declined to answer questions about his position on the proposed ballot measure.
Director Steven Spielberg presents president Bill Clinton with the Ambassadors Humanity award at the 5th Annual Ambassadors for Humanity Dinner Honoring former President Bill Clinton to support the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation held at the Amblin theatre Universal Studios on February 17, 2005 in Los Angeles, California.
(Frazer Harrison / Getty Images)
On Jan. 1, Spielberg and Capshaw officially became residents of New York City, settling in the historic San Remo co-op in Central Park West. The storied building is among the most exclusive in Manhattan, having been home to Bono, Mick Jagger, Warren Beatty, Tiger Woods and many other celebrities. On the same day, Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment opened an office in New York City.
Zuckerberg and his wife, pediatrician Priscilla Chan, are considering buying a $200-million waterfront mansion in South Florida, the Wall Street Journal first reported this month. The property is located in Miami’s Indian Creek, a gated barrier island that is an alcove of the wealthy and the influential, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner.
Representatives for Zuckerberg declined to comment.
The billionaires’ moves raised eyebrows because they take place as supporters of the proposed 5% one-time tax on the assets of California billionaires and trusts are gathering signatures to qualify the initiative for the November ballot. Led by the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, they must gather the signatures of nearly 875,000 registered voters and submit them to county elections officials by June 24.
If approved, the tax would raise roughly $100 billion that would largely pay for healthcare services, as well as some education programs. Critics say it would drive the wealthy and their companies out of the state. On Dec. 31, venture capitalist David Sacks announced that he was opening an office in Austin, Texas, the same day PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel publicized that his firm had opened a new office in Miami.
The proposed ballot measure, if it qualifies for the ballot and is approved by voters, would apply to Californians who are residents of the state as of 2026. But residency requirements are murky. Among the factors considered by the state’s Franchise Tax Board are where someone is registered to vote, the location of their principle residence, how much time they spend in California, where their driver’s license was issued and their cars registered, where their spouse and children live, the location of their doctors, dentists, accountants and attorneys, and their “social ties,” such as the site of their house of worship or county club.
It’s unclear whether the proposal will qualify for the November ballot, and if it does, whether voters will approve it. However, a mass exodus of a number of the state’s billionaires — more than 200 people — would have a notable effect on state revenue, regardless. The state’s budget volatility is caused by its heavy reliance on taxes paid by the state’s wealthiest residents, including from levies on capital gains and stock-based compensation.
“The highest-income Californians pay the largest share of the state’s personal income tax,” according to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2026-27 budget summary that was published in January. “The significant share of personal income taxes — by far the state’s largest General Fund revenue source — paid by a small percentage of taxpayers increases the difficulty of forecasting personal income tax revenue.”
This reliance on wealthy Californians is among the reasons the proposed billionaires tax has created a schism among Democrats and is a source of discord in the 2026 governor’s race to replace Newsom, who cannot seek another term and is weighing a presidential bid. He opposes the proposal; Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT.) campaigned for it Wednesday evening at the Wiltern in Los Angeles.
“I am not only supportive of what they’re trying to do in California, but we’re going to introduce a wealth tax for the whole country. We have got to deal with the greed, the extraordinary greed, of the billionaire class,” Sanders told reporters Feb. 11.
Zuckerberg and Spielberg are both prolific political donors, though it is difficult to fully account for their contributions to candidates, campaigns and other entities because of how they or their affiliates donate to them as well as the intricacies of campaign finance reporting.
Spielberg, 79, a Hollywood legend, is worth more than $7 billion, according to Forbes. He and his wife have donated almost universally to Democratic candidates and causes, according to Open Secrets, a nonprofit, nonpartisan tracker of federal campaign contributions, and the California secretary of state’s office.
The prolific filmmaker, who won acclaim for movies such as “Schindler’s List,” “Jaws,” “Jurassic Park” and the “Indiana Jones” trilogy, was born in Ohio and lived with his family in several states before moving to California. He attended Cal State Long Beach but dropped out after Universal Studios gave him a contract to direct television shows.
Zuckerberg, 41, launched Facebook while in college and is worth more than $219 billion, making him among the world’s richest people, according to Forbes.
His largest personal federal political donation appears to be $1 million to FWD.us, a group focused on criminal justice and immigration reform nationwide, according to Open Secrets.
Zuckerberg, who is currently a registered Democrat in Santa Clara County, has donated to politicians across the partisan spectrum, including Democrats such as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and current Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to Republicans such as President Trump’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio when he ran for the White House and Chris Christie during his New Jersey gubernatorial campaign.
Both men’s personal donations don’t include their other effects on campaign finances — Spielberg has helped countless Democratic politicians raise money in Hollywood; Zuckerberg’s company has made other contributions. Meta — the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration committee in December 2024. Zuckerberg later attended the president’s swearing in at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda.
Zuckerberg, born in White Plains, N.Y., created an early prototype of Facebook while at Harvard University and dropped out to move to Silicon Valley to complete the social media platform, as depicted in the award-winning film “The Social Network.”
He still owns multiple properties in California and elsewhere, including a controversial, massive compound on Kauai that includes two mansions, dozens of bedrooms, multiple other buildings and recreational spaces — and an underground bunker that features a metal door filled with concrete, according to a 2023 investigation by Wired. The cost of land acquisition and construction reportedly has topped $300 million.
Meta is based in Menlo Park, Calif., though it has been incorporated in Delaware since Facebook’s founding in 2004.
Times staff writer Queenie Wong contributed to this report.
James Van Der Beek passed away after a cancer battle last weekCredit: instagram/vanderjamesIt has now been revealed that James and his wife renewed their wedding vows before he diedCredit: GettyJames and his wife are seen here with their six childrenCredit: James Van Der Beek/Instagram
Along with his wife, Kimberly, James is survived by their six children Olivia, 14, Joshua, 12, Annabel, 10, Emilia, 8, Gwen, 6, and Jeremiah, 3.
Now his heartbroken wife has revealed how the couple renewed their vows shortly before he died.
Kimberly revealed they managed to quickly put together a small ceremony with the help of close friends and family.
Speaking to People, she said: “We decided two days beforehand, and our friends got us new rings, filled our bedroom with flowers and candles, and we renewed our vows from bed.”
Kimberly described their vow renewal as ‘simple and beautiful and moving’Credit: Getty
The heartbreaking statement read: “Our beloved James David Van Der Beek passed peacefully this morning. He met his final days with courage, faith, and grace.
“There is much to share regarding his wishes, love for humanity and the sacredness of time.
“Those days will come. For now we ask for peaceful privacy as we grieve our loving husband, father, son, brother, and friend.”
Billy Steinberg, who wrote the lyrics to some of the biggest pop hits of the 1980s — including Madonna’s “Like a Virgin,” Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors” and Heart’s “Alone” — died Monday at his home in Brentwood. He was 75.
His death was confirmed by his lawyer, Laurie Soriano, who said the cause was cancer.
For the record:
4:31 p.m. Feb. 16, 2026An earlier version of this post said that Billy Steinberg died at 74. He was 75.
A master of the melodramatic power ballad, Steinberg wrote vividly about the experience of being overwhelmed by love. In “Like a Virgin,” the narrator sings of having been lost in the wilderness — “I was beat, incomplete / I’d been had, I was sad and blue” — only to meet someone who makes the singer feel “shiny and new.” In “Alone,” the narrator lies in a dark room late at night, listening to the clock tick as they ponder an unconfessed infatuation.
“Like a Virgin,” which Steinberg co-wrote with his frequent creative partner Tom Kelly, spent six weeks atop Billboard’s Hot 100 in late 1984 and early 1985. With Kelly, Steinberg went on to score four more No. 1s on the Hot 100: “True Colors,” “Alone,” Whitney Houston’s “So Emotional” and the Bangles’ “Eternal Flame.”
Among the other hits he wrote were the Pretenders’ “I’ll Stand by You,” the Divinyls’ “I Touch Myself,” and “I Drove All Night,” which was recorded by both Lauper and Roy Orbison.
Born in Fresno in 1950, Steinberg moved as a child with his family to Palm Springs, where his father had a business growing table grapes in the Coachella Valley. He started writing songs while studying literature at Bard College in the late ’60s. Yet after his junior year he began having severe anxiety attacks and dropped out of school, as he wrote in a 2004 essay posted on his website. He moved home to Palm Springs and worked on his dad’s vineyards, writing lyrics as he drove around in a red Ford pickup truck.
In the late ’70s, Steinberg formed a new wave band called Billy Thermal — the name pointed to the Coachella Valley town where the vineyards were located — that eventually got signed to the producer Richard Perry’s Planet Records. Billy Thermal made an album that went unreleased, though Linda Ronstadt and Pat Benatar recorded several of the band’s songs; Ronstadt’s version of “How Do I Make You,” from her “Mad Love” LP, hit No. 10 on the Hot 100 in early 1980.
After Billy Thermal broke up, Steinberg formed a group called i-Ten with Kelly, whom he’d met at a party thrown by Fleetwood Mac’s onetime producer, Keith Olsen. The duo released an album in 1983 that featured an early version of “Alone.”
Steinberg won a Grammy Award in 1997 for his work on Celine Dion’s “Falling Into You,” which was named album of the year. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2011. His survivors include his wife, Trina, and his sons Ezra and Max.
Frederick Wiseman, a preeminent documentary filmmaker, has died. He was 96.
The filmmaker’s death was announced by his family Monday in a statement released by Zipporah Films, Wiseman’s distribution company.
In a career that lasted nearly 60 years, Wiseman produced and directed 45 films beginning in 1967 with “Titicut Follies,” a documentary on the the patient-inmates of Bridgewater State Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Massachusetts, through 2023’s “Menus-Plaisirs — Les Troisgros,” a documentary on the Troisgros family’s Michelin three-starred restaurant in Ouches, France. His final film earned universal critical acclaim, and was recognized as the best nonfiction film of 2023 by the New York Film Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. Awards and the National Society of Film Critics.
“Wiseman, whose observational approach has often been mischaracterized as objective or omniscient, here drops any pretense to neutrality, so potent and overpowering is his sense of kinship with a fellow artist,” wrote Justin Chang in his 2023 review. “The marriage of sensibilities in front of and behind the camera is the stealthiest meeting in ‘Menus-Plaisirs — Les Troisgros,’ and the most unexpectedly satisfying.”
A scene from Frederick Wiseman’s “Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros.”
(PBS)
The filmmaker considered both Cambridge, Mass., and Paris his homes. His films, to an extent, reflected that transatlantic residency in their freshness of perspective. They display an innate curiosity and astonishing degrees of empathy, intelligence and perceptiveness, with subjects ranging from public and social institutions to cultural and specialized spaces and the minutiae of human interactions.
Wiseman’s other films included “High School” (1968), “Welfare” (1975), “Juvenile Court” (1973), “Public Housing” (1997), “La Danse” (2009), “National Gallery” (2014), “Ex Libris — The New York Public Library” (2017) and “City Hall” (2020). The varied body of work earned three Emmy Awards and an honorary Academy Award. Wiseman was also awarded Guggenheim and MacArthur Prize fellowships.
Beyond documentaries, the director also made three fiction films, “Seraphita’s Diary” (1982), “The Last Letter” (2002) and “A Couple” (2022). In reviewing the last, Chang wrote, “I suspect [Wiseman] is no more likely to impose himself on one of his fictions than he would on one of his documentaries, which ‘A Couple’ may resemble more than it appears. Wiseman has spent a career probing the complex inner workings and painfully human errors of America’s establishments, but in marriage itself, he may have found the most fraught, mysterious and unreformable institution of all.”
Nathalie Boutefeu in the movie “A Couple.”
(Film Forum)
Frederick Wiseman was born Jan. 1, 1930, in Boston. He graduated from Willams College and Yale Law School before embarking on a filmmaking career in the mid-1960s. He remained staunchly independent, establishing Zipporah Films, named for his wife, in 1971, in order to maintain control over distribution of his work.
In addition to his filmmaking career, Wiseman worked as a theater director and actor, including a recent appearance in Rebecca Zlotowski’s 2025 film “A Private Life,” starring Jodie Foster.
Wiseman’s wife of 65 years, Zipporah Batshaw Wiseman, died 2021. He is survived by his two sons, David (Jennifer) and Eric (Kristen Stowell), and three grandchildren, Benjamin, Charlie and Tess, as well as his friend and collaborator Karen Konicek, with whom he worked for 45 years.
Brooklyn Beckham has promised to “forever protect” his wife Nicola Peltz in a gushing post amid the ongoing family feudCredit: InstagramBrooklyn made a bombshell statement where he accused his parents trying endlessly to ruin his relationship with NicolaCredit: Getty
Brooklyn took to Instagram and posted a black and white image which showed the couple sharing a tender kiss.
Brooklyn was seen shirtless which showed off his tattoos and Nicola was dressed in a crop top and jeans.
He captioned the sweet snap: “Happy Valentine’s Day baby, I am the luckiest person in the world to be able to call you my Valentine’s every year.
“I love you more than you know and I will forever protect and love you.”
In anexclusive interview with The Sunthis week, Gordon revealed that, despite being close mates with David Beckham, he had maintained contact with Brooklyn after his family fallout alongside wife, Nicola Peltz.
Gordon praised his “incredible heart” but warned that his eagerness to “forge his own path” had him in danger of forgetting “where he came from”.
However, within hours of the interview being published, Brooklyn added his former mentor to the list of people he’s now unfollowed on Instagram.
At the time of writing, Gordon is still following Brooklyn, meaning that he’s not been blocked by the 26-year-old.
“It’s a very difficult situation,” he explained. “Victoria is upset, and I know 24/7, seven days a week, just how much David loves Brooklyn.
“Brooklyn and I have messaged a little bit, our relationship is solid. I love him – his heart is incredible – but it’s hard, isn’t it, when you’re infatuated?
“Love is blind. It’s easy to get up on that rollercoaster, and get carried away. But it will come back.”
The Beckham family have continued to make small gestures in a bid to reach out to Brooklyn – despite his public six-page statement cutting all ties from the family.
His little sister Harper made a post sending a “Happy Valentines to the best big brothers in the world”, sharing a throwback snap of her as a young child with Brooklyn, as well as brothers Romeo and Cruz.
Brooklyn claimed his mum danced “inappropriately” on him at his lavish wedding in 2022Credit: AFPBrooklyn said he was the luckiest person in the world to be able to call Nicola his Valentine’s every yearCredit: GettyThe Beckham family have continued to make small gestures in a bid to reach out to BrooklynCredit: Getty – ContributorGordon Ramsay has insisted his friend David Beckham will end the ongoing feud with his sonCredit: Getty
