NEW YORK (AP) — Halloween has plenty of traditions, from candy to jack-o’-lanterns — and the annual spectacle of Heidi Klum’s costume.
The supermodel-turned-TV personality is fond of surprising her guests with her elaborate costumes, like in 2022, when she arrived at the event on the end of a fishing line, encased in a slithering worm costume.
“I just wanted to be something random,” she explained while lying on the floor for maximum worm-like effect. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone being a rain worm before.”
“A lot of planning goes into it, you know,” Klum said through her peacock beak, with husband Tom Kaulitz next to her, dressed as an egg. “Because first, you have to have an idea.”
At her 2008 party she dressed as Kali, the Hindu goddess of death and destruction — complete with multiple arms, dangling heads and a deep coat of blue body paint.
Klum told The Associated Press she would immediately be planning her look for the following year. “After tonight I’ll be thinking about what I’ll do next year. It’s always got to be different. Completely different,” she said.
Other notable Klum costumes over the years have included a giant Transformer, a clone (complete with several Klum-lookalikes) an elderly version of herself, and an alien experiment gone awry.
The star has also transformed into a terrifying butterfly, an ape, a cat, a crow — and cartoon characters including Jessica Rabbit and Fiona from “Shrek.”
Her tip to those still trying to decide what to wear this Halloween? Leave the store-bought masks at home.
“I personally don’t like it when people hide behind those full masks. I prefer when people get a little bit creative and they play with their face, when they put a lot of makeup on,” she told the AP in 2007. “I always love that the most on me, I really go scary on the face.”
A judge in Louisiana has temporarily blocked further efforts by state officials to clear homeless encampments in New Orleans — stalling a push that came ahead of three Taylor Swift concerts in the city this weekend.
The effort to relocate about 75 people living in tents beneath an overpass near the Superdome began in the days leading up to pop star’s shows, which could draw 150,000 visitors to the stadium.
Judge Lori Jupiter granted a temporary restraining order on Friday, directing state law enforcement officials to not “destroy or dispose of the property of unhoused people without judicial process” and to notify people in the “state sanctioned camp” that they are “free to leave.”
The order is in effect until Nov. 4.
The judge’s ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by homeless people who were subject to the sweep. In legal filings, they argued that state troopers violated their constitutional rights by illegally searching, seizing and destroying their property, disposing of their prized possessions and “forcibly herding” them away.
According to the lawsuit, a legal observer overheard state troopers saying “the governor wants you to move because of the Taylor Swift concert.”
State officials have said the residents were being moved to a new location about two blocks away, where unhoused people living in the tourist-heavy French Quarter neighborhood would also be moved.
A spokesperson for Gov. Jeff Landry has said that the effort was meant to address homelessness and safety issues, linking the push to the concerts and February’s Super Bowl, which will take place in the city.
“As we prepare for the city to host Taylor Swift and Super Bowl LIX, we are committed to ensuring New Orleans puts its best foot forward when on the world stage,” Landry’s communications director, Kate Kelly, said in a statement issued to local media.
Advocates argue the effort disrupted the work of local officials to connect homeless people with social services and help them find more permanent housing solutions.
Martha Kegel, executive director of Unity of Greater New Orleans, a nonprofit that seeks permanent housing for unsheltered people, said the sweep was a needless and harmful endeavor and that many of those in the camp have mental illnesses and are distrustful of authorities and those trying to help them.
“Some people were frightened and left, and that’s not good,” she said. “Because then all the work that we did to assess them and document their disabilities and, you know, work with them on their housing plan has now been wasted.”
Among those who made the move Wednesday was Terrence Cobbins. Taking a break from gathering his belongings, he said he was told to move because of the concerts.
“They ain’t never did it before for other people,” he said. “Why Taylor Swift?”
___ Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
NEW YORK (AP) — There are so many Hollywood stars on New York theater stages or on the way that you might want to level up your stargazing game. Why not play some bingo?
Sure, Robert Downey Jr., Daniel Dae Kim, Jim Parsons, Mia Farrow, and Katie Holmes are currently in New York, and George Clooney, Denzel Washington, Nick Jonas and Jake Gyllenhaal are on deck for spring.
But if you really want to impress, why not connect the stars, like playing bingo with the stars of “Frasier”? Catch Bebe Neuwirth (who played chilly Lilith) now in “Cabaret” on Broadway; Dan Butler (who played Bulldog on the TV show) in the off-Broadway play “Another Shot;” and then in a few months, see David Hyde Pierce (who played Niles) in “The Pirates of Penzance.”
This combination of photos shows actors, from left, Dan Butler, David Hyde Pierce and Bebe Neuwirth. (AP Photo)
“I love that it would bring people there, and you would just hope that they get bitten by that thing theater can do that no other medium can do,” he says. “Hopefully, it brings you in the doors again.”
Laura Stanczyk, a veteran casting director and producer who has cast dozens of Broadway, off-Broadway and international plays and musicals, knows many shows secure a bankable star to try to stand out.
“When you have actors like Robert Downey Jr. who are finally showing up and participating in the New York theater scene, it becomes even more important to have someone who has some kind of notoriety,” she says.
She is producing the play that Butler is starring in by Spike Manton and Harry Teinowitz, in which a deadpan Butler plays a radio DJ in recovery. “It’s sort of like Bulldog goes to rehab,” jokes the actor.
A wave of stars
Movie and TV celebrities have been part of Broadway’s DNA for decades — one recent big wave was in 2010 with the arrival of Robin Williams, Chris Rock, Kiefer Sutherland, Daniel Radcliffe, Pee-wee Herman, Vanessa Redgrave, Ben Stiller and Edie Falco — but their presence this season is particularly striking.
Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler are starring in “Romeo & Juliet,” Nicole Scherzinger has “Sunset Boulevard,” Peter Gallagher and Julianna Margulies are in “Left on Tenth” and Sean Astin is playing Santa in “Elf the Musical.”
Dan Butler appears on stage during a performance of the off-Broadway play “Another Shot,” in New York on Oct. 13, 2024. (Joan Marcus via AP)
Stanczyk says it’s not too surprising to see so much star wattage since many of the TV and movie stars have their roots in theater. Margulies studied stage, and that’s also where Connor and Zegler got their starts. Scherzinger studied musical theater at Wright State University.
“People forget that these great actors got a lot of their start in theater,” she says. “I do think some directors gravitate towards that because they know those folks — it’s in their bones and there’s a common language.”
The reason “Frasier” Bingo is possible is because so many associated with the show are theater veterans, starting with James Burrows, the director who helped craft the “Cheers” spinoff. Burrows started in the theater and is the son of the legendary playwright and director Abe Burrows, behind “Guys and Dolls” and “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.”
Butler — who was recently cheered on by Pierce during a visit to “Another Shot” — said “Frasier” often had a stage feel. “It sort of felt like doing a short play in front of a live audience every time we filmed,” he said.
Other TV shows — like “Law & Order,” “The Good Wife,” “The Gilded Age,” ”Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” and “Only Murders in the Building” — share that stage vibe since they also have leaned into casting from the theater.
So hot is New York that the stars are even coming off-Broadway, like Adam Driver in “Hold On to Me Darling,” Marisa Tomei in “Babe,” Kenneth Branagh in “King Lear,” T.R. Knight in “The Merchant of Venice” and Christian Slater and Calista Flockhart in “Curse of the Starving Class.”
The influx of Hollywood types aren’t squeezing out Broadway stars: Audra McDonald, Sutton Foster, Jonathan Groff, Patti LuPone, Megan Hilty, Jennifer Simard, Adrienne Warren and Darren Criss have all booked parts.
The lure of the stage
Louis McCartney, a rising screen star who will be bringing the play “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” from London to Broadway in spring 2025, didn’t train as a stage animal, but he’s mesmerized.
“It’s sort of this back and forth where you give yourself up,” he says. “You give your soul every single night. And I think that’s beautiful.”
If “Frasier” Bingo isn’t your speed, there’s always “Succession” Bingo: Jeremy Strong was on Broadway in a revival of “An Enemy of the People,” Kieran Culkin will be in a revival of “Glengarry Glen Ross” and Sarah Snook gets the stage all to herself as she plays all 26 parts in an adaptation of “The Picture of Dorian Gray” this spring. Or play a long game: With Clooney and Margulies, you can start on “ER” Bingo.
This combination of images shows the cast of HBO’s “Succession,” from left, Kieran Culkin, Sarah Snook, and Jeremy Strong. (AP Photo)
Stanczyk thinks Hollywood interest in the stage may be driven by the stars attempting to push themselves professionally and to capture that unique buzz that life theater can give.
“Every night you’re in the theater that thing that happens hasn’t happened before. It’s a unique exchange of energy,” she says. “There’s nothing else like it in the world.”
NEW YORK (AP) — Khatia Buniatishvili has been one of the most well-known classical musicians for more than a decade, but she prefers to keep the chatter about her celebrity buried beneath the crescendo of her music and charismatic performances.
“If I start to talk about my charisma, I think it might be the end. It’s like the peak of narcissism, right?” Buniatishvili said bashfully in a recent interview.
But it’s her command of the stage, combined with her expressive performance energy and glamourous exterior that has made her a household name in classical music. The pianist, born in the country of Georgia, along with a new generation of artists like Icelandic pop-jazz singer and celloist Laufey, French violinist Esther Abrami, Nigerian opera singer Babatunde Akinboboye and even pop superstar Lizzo, a classically trained flutist, are helping remove the elitist stigma often attached to the genre and are attracting millennial and Gen Z audiences.
“I’m the happiest person when I hear that … young people, it’s the movement of life,” said Buniatishvili, a two-time winner of Germany’s top award for classical performers, the Opus Klassik. “You can bring new life to them — to composers — thanks to these young people who are listening to it. I think it’s the major achievement you might have in life.”
The 37-year-old French-Georgian, who has collaborated with major mainstream artists like Coldplay and A$AP Rocky, released her sixth solo album Friday, “Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 20 & 23” with the Academy of St Martin In The Fields chamber orchestra.
Buniatishvili, who first performed with the Tbilisi Chamber Orchestra at just 6 years old, talked with The Associated Press about notoriety, Mozart, and creating a more level playing field in classical music. The answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.
AP: With as much fanfare that surrounds you, why do you shy away from talking about fame? You specifically mentioned narcissism.
BUNIATISHVILI: It’s very easy to become (narcissistic) if you don’t pay attention to it, I think, when you’re an artist because it might seem like everything is around one person, but actually, it’s much more than that. It’s not about one person. It’s about what you leave.
I think it’s a very important thing to give an example to the younger generation also that it’s nice to have a mirror and to have selfies — that’s very nice — but it’s very important not to miss life in those moments.
AP: How did you develop your lifelong connection with the piano?
BUNIATISHVILI: It was there from the very beginning. Like my parents and my sister, they were there when I was born, but also, the piano was there. … Even though I could do different things in life, this was there like my family, and it felt comforting.
Khatia Buniatishvili poses for a portrait on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Gary Gerard Hamilton)
AP: What was the recording process like for creating “Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 20 & 23?”
BUNIATISHVILI: What was special in this recording was that it was with the orchestra, a chamber orchestra, but without conductors — I was directing the orchestra. So, this was a very special feeling because you communicate with the orchestra and you have to be convincing for them because you are not a conductor. … You have to make them feel what they are actually: quite special and very unique and irreplaceable. And at the same time, you have to achieve your own interpretation.
AP: Why did you choose to create this album without a conductor?
BUNIATISHVILI: I wanted to do something as I felt it. And sometimes conductors, they can help with that. Sometimes they propose something different and you might like it or might not like it. … I really wanted to do it in my way.
Khatia Buniatishvili poses for a portrait on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Gary Gerard Hamilton)
AP: What are you most proud of professionally?
BUNIATISHVILI: I’m proud that I achieved — independently from conductors, from male powers or even female. Sometimes I was not invited by the best orchestras in the world. But I would think, “No problem, I’ll play alone.” … Actually, I achieved my career with my recitals being alone on stage because, often, I was not part of this great power or great systems.
We should work on the equality things because not everybody has this chance. And I guess that’s something we have to work on also in classical music because classical music can be very beautiful, but the system of it can be quite separating.
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Follow Associated Press entertainment journalist Gary Gerard Hamilton at @GaryGHamilton on all his social media platforms.
Less than two weeks before Election Day, The Washington Post said Friday it would not endorse a candidate for president in this year’s tightly contested race and would avoid doing so in the future — a decision immediately condemned by a former executive editor but one that the current publisher insisted was “consistent with the values the Post has always stood for.”
In an article posted on the front of its website, the Post — reporting on its own inner workings — also quoted unidentified sources within the publication as saying that an endorsement of Kamala Harris over Donald Trump had been written but not published. Those sources told the Post reporters that the company’s owner, billionaire Jeff Bezos, made the decision.
The Post’s publisher, Will Lewis, wrote in a column that the decision was actually a return to a tradition the paper had years ago of not endorsing candidates. He said it reflected the paper’s faith in “our readers’ ability to make up their own minds.”
“We recognize that this will be read in a range of ways, including as a tacit endorsement of one candidate, or as a condemnation of another, or as an abdication of responsibility. That is inevitable,” Lewis wrote. “We don’t see it that way. We see it as consistent with the values the Post has always stood for and what we hope for in a leader: character and courage in service to the American ethic, veneration for the rule of law, and respect for human freedom in all its aspects.”
There was no immediate reaction from either campaign.
The Post isn’t the only one going this route
Lewis cited the Post’s history in writing about the decision. According to him, the Post only started regularly endorsing candidates for president when it backed Jimmy Carter in 1976.
The Post said the decision had “roiled” many on the opinion staff, which operates independently from the Post’s newsroom staff — what is known commonly in the industry as a “church-state separation” between those who report the news and those who write opinion.
The Post’s move comes the same week that the Los Angeles Times announced a similar decision, which triggered the resignations of its editorial page editor and two other members of the editorial board. In that instance, the Times’ owner, Patrick Soon-Shiong, insisted he had not censored the editorial board, which had planned to endorse Harris.
“As an owner, I’m on the editorial board and I shared with our editors that maybe this year we have a column, a page, two pages, if we want, of all the pros and all the cons and let the readers decide,” Soon-Shiong said in an interview Thursday with Spectrum News. He said he feared endorsing a candidate would add to the country’s division.
In August, the newly rebranded Minnesota Star Tribune also announced it would no longer endorse candidates. The paper is owned by billionaire Glen Taylor, who also owns the Minnesota Timberwolves. Its publisher is Steve Grove, who was economic development commissioner in the administration of Gov. Tim Walz — Harris’ running mate.
Many American newspapers have been dropping editorial endorsements in recent years. That is in large part because at a time readership has been dwindling, they don’t want to give remaining subscribers and news consumers a reason to get mad and cancel their subscriptions.
Martin Baron, the Post’s executive editor from 2012 to 2021, was in charge of its newsroom in 2013 when Bezos bought the paper. Baron immediately condemned the decision on X Friday, saying it empowers Trump to further intimidate Bezos and others. “This is cowardice, with democracy as its casualty,” he wrote. “Disturbing spinelessness at an institution famed for courage.”
What to know about the 2024 Election
It comes at a time when newspapers are struggling
The decisions come at a fraught time for American media, newspapers in particular. Local news is drying up in many places. And after being upended by the economics of the internet and drastically evolving reader habits, the top “legacy media” — including the Post, The New York Times and others — have been struggling to keep up with a changing landscape.
Nowhere is this more true, perhaps, than in the political arena. The candidates this year have been rejecting some mainstream interviews in favor of podcasts and other niche programming, and many news organizations are vigorously ramping up to combat misinformation in near-real time on Election Day, Nov. 5.
Trump, who for years called the media covering him “the enemy of the people,” has returned to such rhetoric in recent days. His vitriol in particular is aimed at CBS, whose broadcast license he has threatened to revoke.
On Thursday, at a rally in Arizona, he returned to the language explicitly once more.
“They’re the enemy of the people. They are,” Trump said to a jeering crowd. “I’ve been asked not to say that. I don’t want to say it. And some day they’re not going to be the enemy of the people, I hope.”
The Post endorsed Trump’s Democratic rivals in 2016 and 2020, and Trump has often denounced critical coverage by the paper. On Friday, after Trump spoke in Austin, he greeted executives from Blue Origin, Bezos’ space exploration company. Trump spoke briefly with Blue Origin’s CEO and vice president of government relations. Some critics have publicly speculated that Bezos wants to avoid antagonizing Trump.
For the Post, the decision is certain to generate debate beyond the news cycle. It seemed to acknowledge this with a note from the paper’s letters and community editor at the top of the comments section on the publisher’s column: “I know many of you will have strong feelings about this note from Mr. Lewis.”
Indeed, by midafternoon, the column had elicited more than 7,000 comments, many critical. Said one, riffing off the Post’s slogan, “Democracy Dies in Darkness”: “Time to change your slogan to `Democracy dies in broad daylight.’”
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Steve Karnowski in Minnesota and Jonathan J. Cooper in Arizona contributed to this report. Ted Anthony, director of new storytelling and newsroom innovation at the AP, can be followed at http://x.com/anthonyted
LONDON (AP) — The imagination of Tim Burton has produced ghosts and ghouls, Martians, monsters and misfits — all on display at an exhibition that is opening in London just in time for Halloween.
But you know what really scares him? Artificial intelligence.
Burton said Wednesday that seeing a website that had used AI to blend his drawings with Disney characters “really disturbed me.”
“It wasn’t an intellectual thought — it was just an internal, visceral feeling,” Burton told reporters during a preview of “The World of Tim Burton” exhibition at London’s Design Museum. “I looked at those things and I thought, ‘Some of these are pretty good.’ … (But) it gave me a weird sort of scary feeling inside.”
Burton said he thinks AI is unstoppable, because “once you can do it, people will do it.” But he scoffed when asked if he’d use the technology in this work.
“To take over the world?” he laughed.
The exhibition reveals Burton to be an analogue artist, who started off as a child in the 1960s experimenting with paints and colored pencils in his suburban Californian home.
“I wasn’t, early on, a very verbal person,” Burton said. “Drawing was a way of expressing myself.”
Decades later, after films including “Edward Scissorhands,” “Batman,” “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “Beetlejuice,” his ideas still begin with drawing. The exhibition includes 600 items from movie studio collections and Burton’s personal archive, and traces those ideas as they advance from sketches through collaboration with set, production and costume designers on the way to the big screen.
London is the exhibition’s final stop on a decade-long tour of 14 cities in 11 countries. It has been reconfigured and expanded with 90 new objects for its run in the British capital, where Burton has lived for a quarter century.
The show includes early drawings and oddities, including a competition-winning “crush litter” sign a teenage Burton designed for Burbank garbage trucks. There’s also a recreation of Burton’s studio, down to the trays of paints and “Curse of Frankenstein” mug full of pencils.
Alongside hundreds of drawings, there are props, puppets, set designs and iconic costumes, including Johnny Depp’s “Edward Scissorhands” talons and the black latex Catwoman costume worn by Michelle Pfeiffer in “Batman Returns.”
“We had very generous access to Tim’s archive in London, stuffed full of thousands of drawings, storyboards from stop-motion films, sketches, character notes, poems,” said exhibition curator Maria McLintock. “And how to synthesize such a wide ranging and meandering career within one exhibition was a fun challenge — but definitely a challenge.”
Seeing it has not been a wholly fun experience for Burton, who said he’s unable to look too closely at the items on display.
“It’s like seeing your dirty laundry put on the walls,” he said. “It’s quite amazing. It’s a bit overwhelming.”
Burton, whose long-awaited horror-comedy sequel “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” opened at the Venice Film Festival in August, is currently filming the second series of Netflix’ Addams Family-themed series “Wednesday.”
These days he is a major Hollywood director whose American gothic style has spawned an adjective — “Burtoneqsue.” But he still feels like an outsider.
“Once you feel that way, it never leaves you,” he said.
“Each film I did was a struggle,” he added, noting that early films like “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” from 1985 and “Beetlejuice” in 1988 received some negative reviews. “It seems like it was a pleasant, fine, easy journey, but each one leaves its emotional scars.”
McLintock said Burton “is a deeply emotional filmmaker.”
“I think that’s what drew me to his films as a child,” she said. “He really celebrates the misunderstood outcast, the benevolent monster. So it’s been quite a weird but fun experience spending so much time in his brain and his creative process.
“His films are often called dark,” she added. “I don’t agree with that. And if they are dark, there’s a very much a kind of hope in the darkness. You always want to hang out in the darkness in his films.”
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“The World of Tim Burton” opens Friday and runs until April 21, 2025.
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Associated Press journalist Kwiyeon Ha contributed to this story.
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This story has corrected that the Catwoman costume is from “Batman Returns,” not “Batman.”
NEW YORK (AP) — Fox News Channel on Friday denied Donald Trump’s assertion that any of its employees wrote jokes for him to deliver this week at a New York appearance.
The former president and current candidate said on “Fox & Friends” that “a couple of people from Fox” helped him prepare jokes for Thursday’s Al Smith dinner, a traditional event in the last weeks of a presidential campaigns where candidates usually appear.
“I shouldn’t say that,” Trump said. “But they wrote some jokes. For the most part, I didn’t like any of them.”
Candidates often turn to professional comedians for material when needed for such appearances; it would be eye-opening and ethically suspect if a news organization contributed.
But Fox, in a statement, said none of its employees or freelancers did so. Instead, Trump is believed to have received material from a comic who occasionally tries to sell jokes to the Fox show “Gutfeld.”
Trump was at the dinner, while opponent Kamala Harris sent in a taped routine.
Fox News anchor Bret Baier says he “made a mistake” during his interview with Kamala Harris in not airing video of a Donald Trump comment, something Harris pointed out to him in real time.
Baier made that admission on Thursday roughly 24 hours after his interview with the Democratic presidential candidate was aired. Just under 8 million people watched the session, Harris’ first sit-down with a Fox News Channel journalist during the campaign.
It wasn’t immediately clear, however, what Baier meant by saying he made a mistake.
Their exchange over the Trump video, one of the most contentious of the interview, came after Harris criticized her Republican opponent for saying that he might have to call out the National Guard or military to deal with “the enemy within,” whom he defined as “radical left lunatics.”
Baier then said his colleague, Harris Faulkner, had asked Trump about his “enemy within” comment earlier in the day, “and this is how he responded.” The clip showed Trump saying he wasn’t threatening anybody, and criticized “phony investigations” of him, cracking a joke his audience laughed at.
“Bret, I’m sorry, and with all due respect, that clip was not what he has been saying about the enemy within … that’s not what you just showed,” Harris said.
Speaking a day later, Baier said that when he asked his staff for video to play during the interview, he was expecting to get two clips — one that showed Trump making the “enemy within” comment to Fox’s Maria Bartiromo, and the one from Faulkner’s town hall that was played during the Harris interview.
“Take a listen to what I meant to roll,” Baier said on Thursday. He then aired both clips back to back.
Yet during the interview, Baier had given no indication that he meant to air the “enemy within” comment at all, even after Harris had pointed it out. For that reason, his explanation of a mistake met with some skepticism online.
“Newsflash: When wrong clips run (which happens) hosts can easily say `Sorry that was the wrong clip,’” former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson wrote on “X.” “He or his producers would have know it was the wrong one right then.”
There was no immediate comment from a Fox representative on Friday to clarify what Baier meant.
Liam Payne’s voice is the first one heard in the culture-shifting boy band One Direction’s debut single: “What Makes You Beautiful” launches into a bouncy guitar riff, a cheeky and borderline gratuitous cowbell and then, Payne.
LIAM PAYNE The former One Direction singer died Wednesday at age 31 after falling from a hotel balcony in Argentina. What to know:
“You’re insecure, don’t know what for / You’re turning heads when you walk through the door,” he sings, in a few words assuring a cross-section of generations that he’s got your back, girl, and you should like yourself a little bit more.
Payne, who died Wednesday after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, at just 31, was also the last solo voice on the band’s final single, “History” — effectively opening and closing the monolithic run of one of the biggest boy bands of all time.
While the exact circumstances of his death remain unclear — Buenos Aires police said in a statement that Payne “had jumped from the balcony of his room,” although they didn’t offer details on how they established that or whether it was intentional — in life, Payne was a critical part of the internet’s first boy band, one that secured an indelible place in the hearts of millennial and Gen Z fans.
How One Direction became the internet’s first boy band
Before One Direction became One Direction, its members auditioned for the U.K.’s “The X Factor” separately. The judges decided to put five promising, but not yet excellent, boys into a group. They were Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik and Payne, who together finished third in the 2010 competition.
As Rolling Stone contributing editor Rob Sheffield points out, it was an “unprecedented” way for a boy band to get their start.
A fan of former One Direction singer Liam places a photo of him on a tree outside the hotel where he was found dead after falling from a balcony the previous day in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
FILE – One Direction members, from left, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Liam Payne perform on NBC’s “Today” show, Nov. 13, 2012 in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)
FILE – One Direction’s Niall Horan, from left, Harry Styles , Simon Cowell, Louis Tomlinson and Liam Payne present the Music Industry Trust Award to Simon Cowell at the Music Industry Trusts Award (MITS) in aid of charities Nordon Robbins and Brit Trust at the Grosvenor House Hotel, in London, Nov. 2, 2015. (Dominic Lipinski/PA via AP)
“They were sort of assigned to be together. And you don’t expect longevity out of that situation. Honestly, you don’t even expect one good pop record to come out of that situation,” he says. And yet, not only did it work, but One Direction essentially created “a new template for pop stardom, really.”
The show allowed Day 1 fans to follow their career before their official 2011 launch with “What Makes You Beautiful.” Nascent fans could use rising social media platforms like Twitter and Tumblr to find community, draw attention to the group and, in the earliest days, speak directly to the members.
“I honestly made a Twitter so that I could keep up with One Direction, and that’s how I made so many different friends,” says Gabrielle Kopera, 28, a fan from California who remembers the band hosting livestreams and chats. “Sometimes they would say something back and it was so much fun. I feel like that fan interaction doesn’t even happen anymore.”
That feeling of accessibility reinforced the group’s personality and relationship with fans, says Maura Johnston, a freelance music writer and Boston College adjunct instructor.
“The fact that they came up on this British TV show and they became this worldwide phenomenon, I don’t think that would have happened as acutely and as quickly and as immersive without social media, without Twitter or without people being able to mobilize around the globe,” she says.
One Direction and their fans
Millennial and Gen Z audiences practically grew up with One Direction, but the band was truly ubiquitous. That, Johnston says, is at least partially attributable to arriving in a very different media environment from today’s.
“It was a lot more focused,” she says of the early 2010s. “Algorithmic sorting of stuff hadn’t really taken hold. So, there was this broader, mass approach. … They were one of the last gasps of that mass phenomenon, that anyone of any age, even if they weren’t a fan, had to take notice to.”
But it takes more than omnipresence to cultivate a loyal fanbase. And there were myriad reasons why listeners were attracted to One Direction.
“They were five very different musical personalities, along with five very different personalities,” says Sheffield.
A girl reacts next to a makeshift althar for the deceased singer Liam Payne is pictured at Forum in Copenhagen, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (Emil Nicolai Helms/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
They broke the rules associated with traditional boy bands, too: “They co-wrote many of their songs. They didn’t do, you know, corny, choreographed steps on stage,” he said.
After the news of Payne’s death, Kopera says she “got so many messages from people I haven’t talked to in years reaching out because I think everyone kind of realized that it does feel like we just lost a family member.”
That sentiment was mirrored in the masses of fans who gathered Wednesday outside Buenos Aires’ Casa Sur Hotel, feeding a burgeoning makeshift memorial of flowers, candles and notes as police stood guard.
“I’ve always loved One Direction since I was little,” said Juana Relh, 18, outside Payne’s hotel. “To see that he died and that there will never be another reunion of the boys is unbelievable, it kills me.”
Liam Payne’s place in the band, and its legacy
Payne was a “brooding” older brother-type in One Direction, says Johnston. He also co-wrote many songs, especially in their later career — like the Fleetwood Mac-channeling “What A Feeling” and “Fireproof.”
“He was this grounding force in the band,” Johnston says.
In an Instagram tribute, Tomlinson called Payne “the most vital part of One Direction.”
“His experience from a young age, his perfect pitch, his stage presence, his gift for writing. The list goes on. Thank you for shaping us Liam,” he wrote.
“I always remember that he was the responsible and the sensible one of the group, and I feel like he wore his heart on his sleeve,” Kopera says.
Payne had recently been vocal about struggling with alcoholism, posting a YouTube video in July 2023 where he said he had been sober for six months after receiving treatment. Buenos Aires police said they found clonazepam — a central nervous system depressant — and other over-the-counter drugs in Payne’s hotel room, along with a whiskey bottle in the courtyard where he was found.
A memorial service for the deceased singer Liam Payne is pictured at Forum in Copenhagen, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (Emil Nicolai Helms/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
“Looking at what happened to Liam, it just makes you feel even more sad, that it just feels like he needed help,” Kopera says. “And it’s so scary to think about how the entertainment industry can just, like, eat up artists.”
After One Direction disbanded in 2016, Payne’s solo career — a single R&B-pop album in 2019, “LP1,” and a number of singles here and there — never took off the same way as some of his bandmates. He was “the least successful,” Sheffield says. “It’s safe to say that on the terms that he was going for, he didn’t really find what he wanted to do.”
“It’s hard, transitioning from being a boy bander to be a pop star,” Johnston says.
At Payne’s solo shows, Sheffield explains, “He would show a little montage of One Direction performing, which is the kind of thing you don’t do when you’re starting out as a solo artist. But fans took that in the spirit it was offered, which is a very generous statement that he’s like, ‘Yep, you’re here because of this history that we share, and I’m here because of that same history.’”
Despite Payne’s struggles and the tragedy of his death, Kopera is confident “his legacy is going to always point back to One Direction.”
For fans, the same is true.
“When I look back on One Direction, I’m like, that was my girlhood. One Direction was the soundtrack to growing up, and I’m so thankful for it,” she says. “They really were just a group of normal boys.”
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AP journalist Brooke Lefferts contributed to this report.
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — The ex-husband of “Real Housewives of New Jersey” cast member Dina Manzo was sentenced Tuesday to seven years in prison for hiring a reputed mobster to assault her boyfriend in exchange for the defendant hosting a lavish wedding reception for the attacker.
Thomas Manzo, 59, of Franklin Lakes, will also have to serve three years of supervised release once he’s freed under the sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton. A federal jury in June convicted him of conspiracy, falsifying and concealing documents, and committing a violent crime in aid of racketeering activity.
According to federal prosecutors, Manzo hired John Perna, whom they described as a soldier in the Lucchese crime family, to commit the July 2015 attack in which the boyfriend was beaten with a weapon. Perna’s wedding reception was held the following month at a restaurant in Paterson that Thomas Manzo partly owned, prosecutors said.
Perna pleaded guilty in December 2020 to committing a violent crime in aid of racketeering activity and received a 2½-year sentence. He was freed in August 2023. Dina Manzo’s boyfriend is now her husband.
NEW YORK (AP) — Hunter Biden has revived a lawsuit that accuses Fox News of illegally publishing explicit images of him as part of a streaming series.
The president’s son first sued Fox in New York in July over images used in the Fox Nation series “The Trial of Hunter Biden,” a “mock trial” of Hunter Biden on charges he has not faced. He dropped the suit without explanation three weeks later, the same day President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race.
On Tuesday, Hunter Biden filed a largely identical suit in state court in Manhattan, again arguing that the dissemination of intimate images without his consent violates New York’s so-called revenge porn law. The new suit adds one current Fox executive one former executive as named defendants.
Biden’s attorney, Tina Glandian, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on why the suit was revived.
In a filing Tuesday, Fox asked that the case be moved to federal court. The company issued a statement describing the second suit as “once again devoid of any merit.”
“The core complaint stems from a 2022 streaming program that Mr. Biden did not complain about until sending a letter in late April 2024,” the statement said. “The program was removed within days of that letter, in an abundance of caution, but Hunter Biden is a public figure who has been the subject of multiple investigations and is now a convicted felon.”
Biden was convicted in July of three felony firearms charges related to the purchase of a revolver in 2018. The six-part Fox Nation series depicted a dramatized court proceeding on different, fictional charges.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A family in South Carolina pleaded for help Wednesday in finding Broadway dancer Zelig Williams, whose disappearance nearly two weeks ago has also drawn the concern of the broader theater community, including Hugh Jackman.
Williams, who danced in New York productions of “Hamilton” and “MJ The Musical,” was last seen Oct. 3 in Columbia, when he left his home. Friends said they got an automatic emergency notification from his iPhone minutes later, Williams’ family said.
They reached out but did not hear back. Williams’ empty car was found undamaged in an isolated parking lot for the Palmetto Trail a day after deputies determined he was driving at the nearby Congaree National Park about 15 miles (24 kilometers) from downtown Columbia, according to the Richland County Sheriff’s Department.
Williams’ family said at a news conference that they think he stopped taking his medication just before he disappeared and are worried he might be behaving erratically or even could appear in a trance-like state to people looking to help him.
Tips from the community are likely going to be critical to finding Williams, Sheriff Leon Lott said at a news conference at the department’s headquarters, joined by family members of the dancer.
Deputies said nothing, including foul play, has been ruled out in the case.
“We have used every means of manpower and technology that is available,” Lott said.
They also are asking churches to pay special attention to anyone new, because Williams was visiting in an effort to find a place to worship. Williams, 28, had moved back to his hometown of Columbia a few months earlier.
Williams is the light for his family, cousin Mieoki Corbett-Jacobs said Wednesday. His two sisters died in a car crash 20 years ago and inspired him to start dancing, she said.
Williams’ mother “is having some serious pain in her heart missing her son in this moment,” Corbett-Jacobs said. “That’s why it is so special when you see him perform. He is dancing with his sisters in his heart.”
The family’s remarks ended with Williams’ mother, Kathy, who started sobbing as she spoke.
“I just want Zelig to come home. He’s all I got. He’s all I got. He’s all I got,” she said. The sheriff and Corbett-Jacobs helped her out of the room.
Williams’ colleagues on Broadway are also asking for help. Jackman, who worked with Williams in “The Greatest Showman” tour, posted Williams’ picture on his Instagram feed this month.
“Zelig we love you and are praying for your safe return,” Jackman wrote.
Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline co-starring in “Disclaimer,” a psychological thriller from writer-director Alfonso Cuarón, and Jelly Roll releasing “Beautifully Broken,” a follow-up to his breakout album “Whitsitt Chapel,” are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you.
Also among the streaming offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: Sean Wang’s semi-autobiographical feature debut “Dìdi,” Hulu’s first Spanish-language series “La Máquina” and Charli XCX’s deluxe, remixed, double-album version of her culture-shifting album “Brat.”
NEW MOVIES TO STREAM OCT. 7-13
— “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” was No. 1 at the box office as recently as two weeks ago, but beginning Tuesday, Tim Burton’s popular sequel will be available, for a price. You can buy it digitally for $25 on Prime Video, Apple TV and other video-on-demand platforms. In it, the Deetz family returns to Winter River after a family tragedy. There, Lydia (Winona Ryder), still haunted by Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton), is forced into another afterlife odyssey when her teenage daughter (Jenna Ortega) discovers a portal. In her review, AP’s Jocelyn Noveck called it “a joyously rendered sequel that sometimes makes sense, and sometimes doesn’t, but just keeps rollicking.”
— Sue Kim’s documentary “The Last of the Sea Women,” streaming Friday, Oct. 11 on Apple TV+, captures the lives and livelihood of the Haenyeo, the community of South Korean fisherwoman who for generations have free dived for seafood off the coast of Korea’s Jeju Island. Threats abound for the Haenyeo, who are mostly in their 60s and 70s. Thy ply their trade in a warming ocean contaminated by sea garbage and the Fukushima nuclear accident.
— One of the indie highlights of the summer, Sean Wang’s “Dìdi,” is now streaming on Peacock. Wang’s semi-autobiographical feature debut, a coming of age story set in the Bay Area in 2008, is about a 13-year-old Taiwanese-American boy (Izaac Wang) struggling with where he fits in. That includes with his family (Joan Chen plays his mother) and fellow skater kids whom he begins making videos with. The film, funny and tender, is a breakthrough for the emerging filmmaker Wang, whose short “Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó, ” was Oscar nominated earlier this year.
— Brat summer came and went, but the hedonistic ideologies behind Charli XCX’s feel-good album endure. On Friday, Oct. 11, she will release “Brat and It’s Completely Different but Also Still Brat,” a deluxe, remixed, double-album version of her culture-shifting album “Brat,” this time featuring A-listers like Billie Eilish, Lorde, her tour mate Troye Sivan, her forever-hero Robyn, and more. Just don’t confuse this one with her other Brat re-release, “Brat and It’s the Same but There’s Three More Songs So It’s Not.”
— He’s the not-so-new name on everyone’s lips: Jelly Roll will release a follow-up to his breakout album, 2023’s “Whitsitt Chapel” on Friday, Oct. 11. Little is known about the 22-track “Beautifully Broken” beyond its previously released tracks “I Am Not Okay,” “Get By,” “Liar” and “Winning Streak” — the latter of which he debuted during the premiere of Saturday Night Live’s 50th season, joined by a choir. That one was inspired by an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, and the album will no doubt center on the kind of stories he’s become known for: Soulful country-rock on adversity, addiction, pain, suffering, and ultimately, chasing safety.
— A decade removed from “Shower,” the viral, bubblegum pop song that launched her career, and Mexican American singer Becky G has found her in lane in Spanish-language, hybrid-genre releases, crossing language barriers and cultural borders. “Encuentros,” out Friday, Oct. 10, is her latest — a follow-up to 2023’s “Esquinas” — and continuation of her work in regional Mexicana styles made all her own, from the single “Mercedes,” which features corrido star Oscar Maydon’s deep tenor, and beyond.
— On Friday, Oct. 11, Duran Duran will release “Danse Macabre – De Luxe,” a deluxe reissue of their celebrated 2023 LP of the same name – a mix of covers and gothic originals. Surprises abound, even for the most dedicated Duran Duran fan: Like in their cover of ELO’s “Evil Woman,” or on the song “New Moon (Dark Phase),” a reimagination of “New Moon On a Monday,” featuring former member Andy Taylor.
— Friends and frequent collaborators Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal team up on Hulu’s first Spanish-language series called “La Máquina.” Bernal plays an aging boxer named Esteban Osuna. His longtime manager (Luna) secures him one last fight to go out a champ but there are major obstacles. The boxer has taken a lot of hits to the head over the years and his mind seems to be slipping and a criminal organization wants him to throw the fight or else. Eiza González also stars as Osuna’s ex-wife, a reporter investigating fixed boxing matches in Mexico. “La Máquina” debuts Wednesday.
— The first spinoff of the 2023 Prime Video spy series “Citadel,” which starred Priyanka Chopra and Richard Madden, debuts Thursday on the streamer. “Citadel: Diana” stars Matilda De Angelis takes place in Italy. An India-based version called “Citadel: Honey Bunny” stars Varun Dhawan and Samantha Ruth Prabhu, and premieres in November.
— Netflix’s favorite sun-drenched, treasure-hunting teens of North Carolina, known as the Pogues, are back for more adventures in “Outer Banks.” Season four, premiering Thursday, is divided into two parts. The show stars Chase Stokes and Madelyn Cline.
— Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline co-star in “Disclaimer,” a psychological thriller, on Apple TV+ from writer, director Alfonso Cuarón that premiered at last month’s Venice Film Festival. Blanchett plays a respected documentarian who recognizes she’s the inspiration for a character in a new novel that threatens to expose her secrets. The limited-series also features Kodi Smit McPhee, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jung Ho-yeon and Lesley Manville and premieres Friday, Oct. 11.
— Atlus/Sega’s absorbing Persona series has grown over the years from a cult hit to a genuine blockbuster, but it’s been seven years since the last chapter. Meanwhile, several of its creators have branched off to form their own Studio Zero, and they’re about to launch their debut title, Metaphor: ReFantazio. Instead of Persona’s Tokyo-set teen drama, Metaphor presents a power struggle in a pseudo-medieval kingdom. The combat, however, evokes Persona’s zippy blend of turn-based and real-time action, and when you aren’t fighting you’ll need to spend time building relationships with the locals. If you’ve been craving a chance to explore a new world for dozens of hours, this one opens up Friday, Oct. 11, on PlayStation 5/4, Xbox X/S and PC.
NEW YORK (AP) — CBS News, hosting vice presidential candidates JD Vance and Tim Walz for the general election campaign’s third debate next week, says it will be up to the politicians — not the moderators — to check the facts of their opponents.
The 90-minute debate, scheduled for 9 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday in a Manhattan studio that once hosted the children’s program “Captain Kangaroo,” will be moderated by the outgoing “CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell and “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan.
Tim Walz and JD Vance meet for their first vice presidential debate:
During ABC’s debate between presidential contenders Kamala Harris and Donald Trump earlier this month, network moderators on four occasions pointed out inaccurate statements by Trump, and none by Harris. That infuriated the former president and his supporters, who complained it was unfair.
Last spring, CNN moderators did not question any facts presented by Trump and President Joe Biden in the debate where Biden’s poor performance eventually led to him dropping out of the race.
On Friday, CBS said the onus will be on Vance and Walz to point out misstatements by the other, and that “the moderators will facilitate those opportunities” during rebuttal time. The network said its own misinformation unit, CBS News Confirmed, will provide real-time fact-checking during the debate on its live blog and on social media, and on the air during post-debate analysis.
With its plans, CBS News is clearly indicating it wants to take a step back from the heat generated by calling attention to misleading statements by candidates. Some argue that offstage fact-checking is too little, too late and not seen by many people who watch the event.
It’s not the first time
Angie Drobnic Holan, director of the international fact-checking network at the Poynter Institute, said she has seen examples of moderators who have successfully encouraged candidates to keep their opponents honest.
“I’ll be interested in seeing how this works in practice,” she said. “Having said that, you’re basically off-loading one of your journalistic responsibilities onto the candidates themselves, so I don’t think that it’s ideal. It takes journalistic courage to be willing to fact-check the candidates, because the candidates are absolutely going to complain about it. I don’t think the moderators’ first goal is to avoid controversy.”
During the ABC debate, moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis corrected Trump statements on abortion, the 2020 election, crime statistics and reports that immigrants in Ohio were eating pets.
Unlike the two presidential debates, the two sides agreed that the vice presidential candidates’ microphones will not be turned off while their opponent is speaking, increasing the chance for genuine back-and-forth exchanges and the risk that the two men will talk over each other. CBS says it reserves the right to shut off a “hot mic” when necessary. Each candidate will have two minutes for a closing statement, with Vance winning a virtual coin toss and choosing to get the last word.
The stakes are high for CBS News
It’s a big moment for CBS News, long mired in third place in the evening news ratings. O’Donnell just announced she was stepping down from the role. Brennan is considered a rising star.
Like with the presidential debates, CBS is making its feed available for other networks to televise, and many are expected to take advantage of the opportunity.
There will be no audience when Vance and Walz meet at a West Side studio that, in its past, has hosted editions of “60 Minutes,” “CBS Sunday Morning,” “Inside the NFL,” “Geraldo” and “Captain Kangaroo.”
It’s not known whether there will be other opportunities to see Trump and Harris together on the same stage before the Nov. 5 election. Harris has accepted an invitation from CNN for another debate on Oct. 23, but Trump has rejected it. In a poll taken by Quinnipiac University and released earlier this week, likely voters said by roughly a two-to-one margin that they’d like them face off again.
CBS’ “60 Minutes” is looking to land both Harris and Trump for back-to-back interviews that will air on Oct. 7, but neither candidate has committed to it yet.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Missy Mazzoli received an Opera Philadelphia composing commission around the time Donald Trump first was running for president, inspiring her to settle on a sect with faithful followers as a starting point with her librettist, Royce Vavrek.
“The role of a charismatic leader in our society, the need to feel like you’re part of a tribe, part of community,” she said. “And just the idea of turning an opera chorus into a cult seemed really juicy.”
Mazzoli and Vavrek created “The Listeners,” a two-hour expose of psychological manipulation given its U.S. premiere on Wednesday night at the Academy of Music, two years after its first performances at the Norwegian National Opera. Their work portrays a school teacher who hears an unknown low-pitched hum, is alienated from her husband and daughter and finds a group of similar people that become enthralled with a leader named Paul Devon (baritone Paul Cook).
“It just opened my eyes to how people are so interested in joining cults and feeling that sense of relationship with other people and connection and how sad, how lonely people are out there,” said soprano Nicole Heaston, who sings the starring role of Claire Devon. “They need that one person to say, ‘I’m going to make this OK for you.‘”
Bringing in new opera audiences
In the opening of general director Anthony Roth Costanzo’s first season as Opera Philadelphia’s “pick your price” initiative that lowered tickets to $11, the company said the crowd of 1,862 included 58% new attendees.
A production filled with profane language and sexual situations sparked noticeable audience engagement that included laughter, guffaws for projected online commentary and applause for arias and duets. The reaction in Norway was more subdued.
“In Oslo it was this really kind of fascinating anthropological visit of America,” director Lileana Blain-Cruz said. “We were working with a lot of Norwegians. It was: What is America? What is Americana? What is the Southwest to people who’ve never been there, who’ve only kind of experienced America for television? How do you display the kind of angst and loneliness that is particularly American? And it’s funny that being in Philadelphia, there’s an immediate recognition that was like: All right. We get this. This is us.”
How ‘The Listeners’ was created
Mazzoli, who turns 44 next month, was born in the Philadelphia suburb of Lansdale, received degrees from Boston University’s College of Fine Arts and the Yale School of Music, and was Opera Philadelphia’s composer in residence from 2012-15.
She met Vavrek at Carnegie Hall in 2009 when they were at a workshop of David T. Little’s “Dog Days,” for which Vavrek wrote the libretto. Mazzoli gave him a flier for a workshop of her “Song from the Uproar: The Lives and Deaths of Isabelle Eberhardt” He wound up collaborating on the 2012 work they also teamed on “Breaking the Waves” (2016) and “Proving Up” (2018).
Vavrek, a 41-year-old from Alberta who like Mazzoli lives in Brooklyn, invited Canadian author Jordan Tannahill to watch the 2015 Oscars at his apartment and later asked Tannahill to sketch out some ideas for a cult opera. Vavrek and Mazzoli picked two of the five, and Tannahill followed up with a four-to-seven page treatment that led to Vavrek’s libretto. Tannahill also wrote a novel version of “The Listeners” that was published in 2021 and is the basis for a BBC television series to be televised this fall, starring Rebecca Hall.
Mazzoli was inspired for a character based on Ma Anand Sheela, an assistant to Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh featured in the Netflix 2018 documentary “Wild Wild Country.” She also watched “Holy Hell” about the Buddhafield cult, “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief” and “Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult.”
There are surround speakers to create the hum and a large cast of 22 singers plus the chorus. During rehearsals in Oslo two years ago, Mazzoli and Vavrek added two video confessional moments for Claire and Angela Devon, scenes given a larger-than-life impact by projections.
“Through the research I myself became more much more sympathetic to people who were just looking for a community,” Mazzoli said. “Cults are made up of people whose parents kicked them out because they’re gay or who are super shy and never found a community of people, friends in college. It could be anything — or who feel trapped in a marriage or feel trapped in a dead end job.”
“What was striking was that all of these cults followed the same pattern,” she added. “There’s a sort of predictable series of events involving manipulation, lying and then someone sort of taking up the card from the bottom of the house of cards and the whole thing falls very quickly.”
Next steps for ‘The Listeners’
“The Listeners” also will be repeated in Philadelphia on Friday and Sunday, and there will be additional performances at the Aalto Music Theatre in Essen, Germany (Jan. 25 to March 22) and the Lyric Opera of Chicago (March 30 to April 11).
Mazzoli and Vavrek also are working on “Lincoln in the Bardo,” based on George Saunders’ novel, which premieres at the Los Angeles Opera in February 2026 and goes to New York’s Metropolitan Opera that October. “The Galloping Cure,” about the opioid crisis, debuts in Scotland in August 2026.
“It’s a very internalized space when you’re being creative,” Vavrek said. “There’s something really beautiful about the actual sharing of something that you’ve been imagining for so long.”
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Actors Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan have reached a settlement to finalize their divorce and avoid a forthcoming trial, six years after she first filed to end their marriage and years after both entered other long-term relationships.
The couple stipulated to the terms in a court filing Wednesday. It means that Tatum and Dewan will avoid a trial, scheduled to begin in December, over the splitting of assets and custody of their 13-year-old daughter, Everly. The proceedings may have made many of their private details public.
Details of the settlement were kept confidential under the agreement, which must still be approved by a judge.
Both have long been in other relationships, Tatum with actor and director Zoë Kravitz and Dewan with actor Steve Kazee, with whom she has had two children.
Both Dewan and Tatum began their careers as dancers in music videos. They met as co-stars of the 2006 dance movie “Step Up.” They married in July 2009.
They announced their split in April 2018, saying jointly on social media that they had decided to “lovingly separate as a couple” but remained best friends.
She filed for divorce six months later, and in November of 2019, a judge declared them divorced and single. But a yearslong fight over finances and custody continued and appeared to be growing more heated as the trial approached.
Before the settlement, Dewan had been arguing for two separate trials, one over custody and one over finances. Tatum had objected.
Tatum starred in the “Magic Mike” movies and “21 Jump Street.” He has an extended cameo in “Deadpool & Wolverine” and recently appeared as the lead in the Kravitz-directed “Blink Twice,” but Tatum acted very little in the years immediately after the split.
“Time just kind of got away,” Tatum told The Associated Press in 2022. “Really, being a dad sort of just swept me away for almost four years. I kind of got lost in doing that.”
Dewan appeared in several other dance films after “Step It Up” and is now a regular on the ABC series “The Rookie.”
The eight-day festival is set to return to Kings County on Oct. 17 with a frightening slate of films and events, all hosted at Nitehawk Cinema’s theaters in Williamsburg and Prospect Park.
The festival is bookended with a pair of chilling new movies. Indie comedy-horror “Dead Mail” will make its New York debut on opening night, and “The Rule of Jenny Pen,” starring period drama favorites John Lithgow and Geoffrey Rush, will close the festival out.
But the thrills will continue all week long. The lineup is packed with new films like Tiago Teixeira’s “Custom,” Sasha Rainbow’s “Grafted,” and Phillip Escott and Sarah Appleton’s new documentary “Generation Terror,” all making their North American debuts.
Comedy-horror ‘Dead Mail’ makes its New York premiere on opening night. Photo courtesy of the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival
Another three horror flicks will make their world premieres at Brooklyn Horror Film Festival: “House of Ashes,” the first feature by director Izzy Lee; “Lilly Lives Alone,” an atmospheric ghost story; “Psychonaut,” a queer science fiction romp.
What’s old is new again as the festival celebrates an old scary movie favorite: vampires. The 1970s vampire classics “Vampyres” and “The Blood Spattered Bride” will be screened in 35mm, but perhaps the highlight of vampire programming is the Spanish version of “Dracula” with a live score by The Flushing Remonstrance. Stepping away from film, The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies will present a lecture by Dr. Leah Richards titled “Queer Vampires, Queer Liberation, Queer Futurity.”
Other festival highlights include the Turkish revenge flick “Sayara,” a screening of several episodes from the new horror anthology series “Tales from the Void,” and and a special presentation of prolific horror director Larry Fessenden’s 1995 vampire film “Habit,” followed by the presentation of the festival’s Leviathan Award and a Q&A with Fessenden and Jenn Wexler.
The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival runs from Oct. 17-24 in Williamsburg and South Slope. The full lineup and schedule of events is available online.
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanese novelist Elias Khoury who dedicated much of his writings to the Palestinian cause and taught at universities around the world, making him one of Lebanon’s most prominent intellectuals, has died. He was 76.
Khoury, a leading voice of Arab literature, had been ill for months and admitted and discharged from hospital several times over the past year until his death early Sunday, Al-Quds Al-Arabi daily that he worked for said.
The Lebanese writer, born and raised in Beirut, was outspoken in defense of freedom of speech and harsh criticism of dictatorships in the Middle East.
In addition to his novels, Khoury wrote articles in different Arab media outlets over the past five decades making him well known throughout the Arab world.
Two days after the Israel-Hamas war broke out on Oct. 7, Khoury wrote an article in Al-Quds A-Arab daily titled “It’s Palestine.” Khoury wrote then that “the biggest open-air prison, the besieged Ghetto of Gaza, has launched a war against Israel, occupied settlements and forced settlers to flee.”
Born in Beirut on July 12, 1948, Khoury had been known for his political stances from his support of Palestinians to his harsh criticism of Israel and what he called its “brutal” settling policy in Palestinian territories. He studied at the Lebanese University and later at the University of Paris, where he received a PhD in social history.
“The Catastrophe began in 1948 and it is still going on,” he once wrote referring to Israel’s settlement policies in occupied Palestinian territories. The “nakba,” or “catastrophe” is a term used by many Arabs to describe the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians when Israel was created in 1948.
Khoury was an outspoken supporter of Arab uprisings that broke out in the region starting in 2011 and toppled several governments.
“The question is not why the Arab revolts broke out,” Khoury wrote after uprisings that toppled long-serving leaders such as Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Tunisia’s Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. “The question is not how people tore down the wall of fear but how fear built Arab kingdoms of silence for five decades.”
Khoury, who belonged to a Greek Orthodox Christian family, took part in Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war and was wounded in one of the battles.
From 1992 until 2009, Khoury was the editor of the cultural section of Lebanon’s leading An-Nahar newspaper. Until his death, he was the editor-in-chief of the Palestine Studies magazine, a bulletin issued by the Beirut-based Institute for Palestine Studies.
His first novel was published in 1975, but his second, Little Mountain, which he released in 1977 and was about Lebanon’s devastating civil war was very successful.
Bab al-Shams, or Gate of the Sun, released in 2000, was about Palestinian refugees in Lebanon since 1948. A movie about the novel was made in Egypt.
His novels were translated to several languages including Hebrew.
Khoury also taught at different universities including New York University, Columbia, Princeton and Houston, as well as the University of London.
LONDON (AP) — Former BBC news anchor Huw Edwards, once one of the most prominent media figures in Britain, was given a suspended prison sentence Monday for images of child sexual abuse on his phone.
Edwards, 63, pleaded guilty in Westminster Magistrates’ Court in July to three counts of making indecent images of children, a charge related to photos sent to him on the WhatsApp messaging service by a man convicted of distributing images of child sex abuse.
Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring sentenced Edwards to a six-month prison term suspended for two years. He will be listed on a sex offenders register for seven years.
“It is not an exaggeration to say your long-earned reputation is in tatters,” Goldspring said.
Edwards’ fall from grace over the past year has caused turmoil for the BBC after it was revealed the publicly funded broadcaster paid him about 200,000 pounds ($263,000) for five months of his salary after he had been arrested in November while on leave. The BBC has asked him to pay it back.
“We are appalled by his crimes,” the BBC said in a statement after the sentencing. “He has betrayed not just the BBC, but audiences who put their trust in him.”
Edwards had been one of the BBC’s top earners when he was suspended in July 2023 over separate claims made last year involving a teenager he allegedly paid for sexually explicit photos. Police investigated and decided not to bring charges.
Although Edwards was not publicly named at the time those allegations surfaced, his wife later revealed he was the news presenter investigated and said he was hospitalized for serious mental health issues.
He never returned to the air but the BBC kept him on the payroll until he resigned in April for health reasons.
Edwards began his BBC career in Wales four decades ago. He went on to become lead anchor on the nighttime news for two decades and led the coverage of the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022 as well as election coverage.
The BBC said at the time of his guilty plea that it was shocked to hear the details of the charges against him.
More than 375 sexual images were sent to him on WhatsApp between December 2020 and August 2021. More than 40 were indecent images of children, including seven classified as “category A” — the most indecent — with children estimated to be between 13 and 15. One child was aged between 7 and 9.
In chats with Alex Williams, who was later convicted of distributing child sex abuse images, Edwards was asked if he wanted sexual images of a person whose “age could be discerned as being between 14 and 16,” and Edwards replied, “yes xxx,” prosecutor Ian Hope said.
“From that chat in December 2020, Alex Williams said that he had ‘a file of vids and pics for you of someone special,’” Hope said.
Edwards asked who the subject and was then sent three images that appeared to be the same person who appeared to be aged 14 to 16, Hope said.
Williams later sent Edwards a video in February 2021 that involved two children, one possibly as young as seven and the other no older than 13, involving penetration, Hope said.
Edwards did not respond, but when asked by Williams if the material was too young, he said, “don’t send underage.” He also said he didn’t want him to send anything illegal.
Defense lawyer Philip Evans said Edwards was “truly sorry” for the offenses and the damage he had done to his family.
“He apologizes sincerely and he makes it clear that he has the utmost regret and he recognizes that he has betrayed the priceless trust and faith of so many people,” Evans said.
Evans said Williams had reached out to Edwards on Instagram at a time when he was mentally vulnerable and began sending him images. He said Edwards never received gratification from the images and hadn’t saved them or sent them to anyone.
Hope said Edwards paid Williams “not insignificant sums of money,” as gifts that Williams used while studying at a university.
At one point, Williams asked for a “Christmas gift after all the hot videos” he had sent. Edwards remarked that some of the images were “amazing,” Hope said.
Williams, 25, was given a suspended 1-year sentence in March for possessing and distributing indecent images as well as possessing prohibited images of children.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The 76th annual Emmy Awards were handed out Sunday at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles.
“Shogun” set a single season record for most wins with 18. “Shogun” won best drama series, and Hiroyuki Sanada and Anna Sawai won acting awards for their roles.
“Hacks’’ won the award for best comedy series. ”Baby Reindeer” and “The Bear’’ won four awards apiece.
Early winners included Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Jeremy Allen White and Liza Colón-Zayas, who won awards for their work in the comedy series “The Bear.”
Stars presenting Emmys to their peers included: Billy Crystal, Viola Davis, Selena Gomez, Steve Martin, Maya Rudolph and Martin Sheen.
Several actors and shows, including Rudolph, won last week. Rudolph won her sixth Emmy Award at last weekend’s Creative Arts Emmys for her voice work on “Big Mouth.” Jamie Lee Curtis also picked up a supporting actress Emmy last weekend for her appearance on “The Bear.”
Here’s a list of winners at Sunday’s Emmys:
Drama series
“Shogun”
Comedy series
“Hacks”
Limited, anthology series, movie
“Baby Reindeer”
Actor in a drama series
Hiroyuki Sanada, “Shogun”
Actress in a drama series
Anna Sawai, “Shogun”
Supporting actor in a drama series
Billy Crudup, “The Morning Show”
Supporting actress in a drama series
Elizabeth Debicki, “The Crown”
Actor in a comedy series
Jeremy Allen White, “The Bear”
Actress in a comedy series
Jean Smart, “Hacks”
Supporting actress in a comedy series
Liza Colón-Zayas, “The Bear”
Supporting actor in a comedy series
Ebon Moss-Bachrach, “The Bear”
Actor in a limited, anthology series or movie
Richard Gadd, “Baby Reindeer”
Actress in a limited, anthology series or movie
Jodie Foster, “True Detective: Night Country”
Supporting actress limited, anthology series or movie
Jessica Gunning, “Baby Reindeer”
Supporting actor in a limited, anthology series or movie
Lamorne Morris, “Fargo”
Reality competition program
“The Traitors,” Peacock
Scripted variety series
“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”
Talk series
“The Daily Show”
Writing for a variety special
Alex Edelman, “Just for Us”
Writing for a comedy series
Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs and Jen Statsky, “Hacks”
