Cruz

CRUZ Beckham has paid a sweet tribute to girlfriend Jackie Apostel to celebrate her milestone birthday.

The 20-year-old was performing with his band in Birmingham last night, where he paid tribute to his older partner.

Jackie, who’s just turned 30, was watching from the crowd as her friend filmed the adorable moment unfold.

Cruz has been doing secret sets all around the UK, including a gig wearing his dad David’s football shirt.

“Someone… very close to me. It’s her birthday. Erm, I wrote this song about them,” he said on stage on Saturday night.

As the camera pans to Jackie, she says, “I’m going to cry, that’s so…”

read more on the beckhams

HAPPY FAMILIES

Victoria Beckham calls Cruz’s girlfriend Jackie the ‘sweetest, kindest soul’

CLASSY CLAPBACK

Cruz Beckham’s girlfriend Jackie Apostel, 29, hits back at age gap abuse

The youngest Beckham boy also shared a gushing tribute on his Instagram, uploading happy snaps alongside Jackie.

“Happy birthday @jackieapostel. Another time around the globe, I love you baby,” he wrote alongside a childhood snap of his partner.

“@jackieapostel I love you to the moon and back.”

The festivities appeared to continue backstage, with Jackie sharing videos as Cruz put on a mini party for his girlfriend.

Surrounded by birthday balloons, she posed for a mirror selfie as Cruz is seen in the background organising a cake.

Another angle shows the giant chocolate tray surrounded by candles as the singer hand-delivered the sweet treat.

It comes after Cruz’s parents, Victoria and David Beckham, also shared birthday messages for Jackie’s special day.

Taking to her Instagram, Posh Spice wrote: “To the sweetest, kindest, most beautiful soul. We all love you soooo much.”

Tagging Jackie in the Story post, she uploaded a series of slides with pictures of them both at various glitzy events.

“Happy birthday, we hope you have an amazing day and can’t wait to celebrate with you,” she added alongside a snap of Jackie and Cruz.

Victoria added: “We all love you @jackie.apostel.”

David also uploaded a couple of pics of the pair on his Instagram.

“Happy birthday to a very special person inside and out,” he said.

“Thank you for making my son the best version of himself.”

The couple faced cruel trolling for their age gap. Cruz, who turns 21 next year, met Jackie at Glastonbury Festival and they began dating in June 2024.

The pair made their love Instagram official back in October that year, coming under fire for their near decade-long age gap.

SHOP TO IT

Shoppers race to grab kitchen set scanning for just £6 with huge £50 off

MURDER PROBE

‘Murdered’ businessman found dead inside his own home just weeks after wife

“Why is a 29-year-old dating a 20. That’s just weird. I’m talking about Jackie dating Cruz,” a troll penned on social media.

At the time, Jackie wrote back, “Because he’s kind, funny, smart, caring, driven, mature, talented, loyal, and also quite handsome.”

WASHINGTON — The indictment of former FBI Director James Comey is only two pages and alleges he falsely testified to Congress in 2020 about authorizing someone to be an anonymous source in news stories.

That brevity belies a convoluted and contentious backstory. The events at the heart of the disputed testimony are among the most heavily scrutinized in the bureau’s history, generating internal and congressional investigations that have produced thousands of pages of records and transcripts.

Those investigations were focused on how Comey and his agents conducted high-stakes inquiries into whether Russia had unlawfully colluded with Republican Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign against Democrat Hillary Clinton and her use of a private email server while she was Secretary of State.

Here are some things to know about that period and how they fit into Comey’s indictment:

What are the allegations?

The indictment alleges that Comey made a false statement in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The single quote from the indictment appears to be from an interaction with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

Prosecutors contend that Comey lied when he denied having authorized anyone at the FBI to be an anonymous source to the media, alleging he had done so by telling someone identified as “Person 3” in the indictment to speak to reporters.

“It’s such a bare-bones indictment,” said Solomon Wisenberg, a former federal prosecutor and now a defense attorney in private practice. “We do not know what the evidence is going to be” at trial, he said.

What did Comey say to Congress?

Wisenberg said the testimony in question appears to have come when Cruz was pressing Comey over the role that his deputy director at the time, Andrew McCabe, played in authorizing a leak to the Wall Street Journal for a story examining how the FBI handled an investigation into Clinton’s use of the private email server.

Cruz’s question was complicated, but it boiled down to pitting Comey against McCabe. The senator noted that Comey told Congress in 2017 he had not authorized anyone to speak to reporters. But Cruz asserted that McCabe had “publicly and repeatedly said he leaked information to the Wall Street Journal and that you were directly aware of it and that you directly authorized it.”

“Who’s telling the truth?” Cruz asked.

Comey answered: “I stand by the testimony you summarized that I gave in May of 2017.”

At that time, Comey had been put on the spot by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa). Comey was asked whether he had “ever authorized someone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports about the Trump investigation or the Clinton investigation.”

Comey answered, “No.”

The indictment says Comey falsely stated that he had not “authorized someone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports,” but Comey appears not to have used that phrasing during the 2020 hearing at issue, potentially complicating efforts to establish that he made a false statement.

What may have sparked the questions?

“Person 3” is not identified in the indictment, but appears to have been discussing an investigation related to Clinton, based on a clearer reference in a felony charge that grand jurors rejected. Comey figured in several inquiries into alleged leaks in the Clinton investigation, all of which generated extensive paper trails.

One involved McCabe and the Journal story. McCabe told the Justice Department’s inspector general that he had authorized a subordinate to talk to the Journal reporter and had told Comey about that interaction after the fact.

It’s unlikely the indictment is focused on that episode because McCabe never told investigators that Comey had authorized him to talk to the media, only that the FBI director was aware that McCabe had done so.

Two other leak investigations involved a friend of Comey’s who served for a time as a paid government advisor to the director. That advisor, Daniel Richman, has told investigators he spoke to the media to help shape perceptions of the embattled FBI chief.

Richman, a law professor at Columbia University, was interviewed by FBI agents in 2019 about leaks to the media that concerned the bureau’s investigation into Clinton. Richman said Comey had never authorized him to speak to the media about the Clinton investigation but he acknowledged Comey was aware that he sometimes engaged with reporters.

Comey has acknowledged using Richman as a conduit to the media in another matter. After Comey was fired by Trump in 2017, he gave Richman a memo that detailed his interactions with the president. Comey later testified to Congress that he had authorized Richman to disclose the contents of the memo to journalists with the hopes of spurring the appointment of a special counsel who might investigate Trump.

How did we get here?

Trump and Comey have been engaged in a long-running feud. Trump blames Comey for having started an investigation into Russia’s election meddling on behalf of Trump’s 2016 campaign that led to the appointment of special counsel Robert S. Mueller. Mueller spent the better part of two years investigating whether Trump’s campaign illegally colluded with the Kremlin.

In the end, Mueller uncovered no evidence that Trump or his associates criminally colluded with Russia, but found that they had welcomed Moscow’s assistance and that Trump had obstructed justice during the investigation. Those findings were largely adopted by bipartisan congressional reports on the matter.

Trump, who was convicted of felony fraud last year, has long vented about the “Russia hoax,” which shadowed and defined the early years of his first term. He has spent the ensuing years bashing Comey and saying he should be charged with treason.

Just days before the indictment, Trump publicly urged his attorney general, Pam Bondi, to act against Comey and two other perceived Trump enemies: “We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility,” Trump posted on social media last week. “JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW.”

Within hours of the indictment being returned, Trump turned again to social media to gloat: “JUSTICE IN AMERICA! One of the worst human beings this Country has ever been exposed to is James Comey.”

Comey has remained resolute in his defense, while criticizing Trump on a host of matters. In a 2018 memoir, “A Higher Loyalty,” Comey compared Trump to a mafia don and said he was unethical and “untethered to truth.”

Like Trump, Comey took to social media after his indictment.

“My family and I have known for years there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump,” he said. “My heart is broken for the Department of Justice, but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system, and I’m innocent. So, let’s have a trial.”

Tau writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.

The US senator has labelled Carr’s comments ‘dangerous as hell’ and something ‘right out of Goodfellas’.

A prominent Republican senator has joined the Democrats in criticising threats made by the government of the United States against Disney and local broadcasters for airing Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Ted Cruz, who leads oversight of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), said on Friday that FCC chair Brendan Carr’s threat to take regulatory action against networks over the content of their shows sets a dangerous precedent.

Speaking on his podcast, Cruz labelled Carr’s comments “dangerous as hell” and something “right out of Goodfellas”, referring to Martin Scorsese’s iconic gangster movie.

“That’s right out of a mafioso coming into a bar going, ‘Nice bar you have here. It would be a shame if something happened to it’,” Cruz said.

Carr had threatened to fine broadcasters or pull the licences of those who aired Jimmy Kimmel Live on Wednesday, prompting television network ABC – which is owned by Disney – to suspend the late-night talk show.

The owners of dozens of local TV stations affiliated with ABC also said they would no longer air the show.

Carr’s threat came in response to the host’s opening monologue on Monday discussing the murder of Charlie Kirk – a friend and political ally of the president – which caused uproar among President Donald Trump’s supporters.

“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterise this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said, speaking of 22-year-old Tyler Robinson.

Cruz’s criticism of Carr marks a rare example of a prominent member of Trump’s own party publicly criticising his administration, highlighting deepening bipartisan concerns over attacks on free speech.

“We shouldn’t be threatening government power to force him off air,” Cruz said on his podcast. “It might feel good right now to threaten Jimmy Kimmel, but when it is used to silence every conservative in America, we will regret it,” he added.

Trump, however, said he disagreed with Cruz and called Carr “an incredible American patriot with courage”.

Trump has himself slammed Kimmel’s Kirk monologue, while he also suggested on Thursday that broadcasters critical of his administration should have their FCC-issued licences revoked.

“I’m a very strong person for free speech,” he told reporters at the Oval Office on Friday, when asked to clarify his earlier comments.

But he continued that broadcasters were so critical of him that they represent an extension of the Democratic Party, something he said was “really illegal”.

“That’s no longer free speech … That’s just cheating, and they cheat,” he said.

Prominent Democrats and civil rights groups have condemned the Trump administration’s pressure to punish Kimmel and networks that air his show.

Democrat and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Carr is “one of the single greatest threats to free speech America has ever known”, as he called for him to resign or for Trump to fire him.

Democratic lawmakers in the House of Representatives on Friday also asked the FCC’s inspector general to investigate Carr’s actions and comments.

The future of Jimmy Kimmel Live remains unclear and Kimmel is yet to publicly comment on his suspension.

Actor Raymond Cruz was held in custody for five hours on Monday after a sudsy spat with three women in his Los Angeles neighborhood.

Cruz — who portrayed the drug lord Tuco Salamanca on “Breaking Bad” — was washing his car on the street in front of his Silver Lake-area home when another car with three female occupants parked inches away from him, said Raphael Berko, his agent with Media Artists Group.

Cruz asked the women, who appeared to be in their 30s, to move their car at least a foot away so it wouldn’t get wet, according to Berko.

“The women were very rude to him and said no,” Berko said, adding that ample parking was available elsewhere on the street.

Instead, the women took out their phones and started to record Cruz, Berko said.

The actor, who also played detective Julio Sanchez in “The Closer” and its spin-off series “Major Crimes,” became uncomfortable and turned around, hose in hand, to tell them to “stop recording,” Berko said.

In doing so, Berko says some water may have inadvertently splashed on the women. But the women — one of whom was the daughter of a housekeeper on the block — said Cruz intentionally sprayed them, and they called the police to report an alleged assault.

Cruz was handcuffed by the Los Angeles Police Department and taken into custody for five hours, but Berko said he and his client expect the case will be dropped.

Berko characterized the incident as a misunderstanding, and said Cruz doesn’t have a criminal record.

The actor has a court hearing scheduled for Oct. 1, but online records do not show any charges as of Tuesday afternoon.

Jax Taylor will not be returning to “The Valley” for Season 3.

The 46-year-old reality star’s departure follows a fraught second season on the “Vanderpump Rules” spinoff, which chronicled the end of his marriage to Brittany Cartwright and time in a mental health treatment facility. Before the season premiered in April, Taylor also opened up about his on-and-off cocaine addiction for the past two decades.

“After an incredibly challenging year and many honest conversations with my team and producers, I’ll be stepping away from the next season of ‘The Valley,’” he said in a statement. “Right now, my focus needs to be on my sobriety, my mental health and coparenting. Taking this time is necessary for me to become the best version of myself — especially for our son, Cruz.”

Taylor’s unraveling marriage and struggles with sobriety were at the center of Season 2. Just before production began in July 2024, Taylor allegedly flipped a coffee table and bruised Cartwright’s knee, his estranged wife said on the show. Even while in the mental health facility, he continued to watch Cartwright on their home cameras and send her angry text messages, which were shown on the reality series.

“You took my job away from me … I’ve worked so hard for two years for this and you took it from me,” read one text.

“Now do the work as a single mom. I am watching the cameras and [you’re] not there,” he said in another.

Cartwright filed for divorce in August 2024, citing irreconcilable differences. Taylor was served divorce papers on camera, shown in Episode 10. He has since agreed to give Cartwright full custody of their 4-year-old son, Cruz, according to People.

“The Valley” Season 2 finale will air July 22, followed by three reunion episodes. Taylor will appear at the reunion, which was filmed in May, Bravo confirmed.

NEW YORK — Martin Cruz Smith, the best-selling mystery novelist who engaged readers for decades with “Gorky Park” and other thrillers featuring Moscow investigator Arkady Renko, has died at age 82.

Smith died Friday at a senior living community in San Rafael, “surrounded by those he loved,” according to his publisher, Simon & Schuster. Smith revealed a decade ago that he had Parkinson’s disease, and he gave the same condition to his protagonist. His 11th Renko book, “Hotel Ukraine,” was published July 8 and billed as his last.

“My longevity is linked to Arkady’s,” he told Strand Magazine in 2023. “As long as he remains intelligent, humorous, and romantic, so shall I.”

Smith was often praised for his storytelling and for his insights into modern Russia; he would speak of being interrogated at length by customs officials during his many trips there. The Associated Press called “Hotel Ukraine” a “gem” that “upholds Smith’s reputation as a great craftsman of modern detective fiction with his sharply drawn, complex characters and a compelling plot.”

Smith’s honors included being named a “grand master” by the Mystery Writers of America, winning the Hammett Prize for “Havana Bay” and a Gold Dagger award for “Gorky Park.”

Born Martin William Smith in Reading, Pa. , he studied creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania and started out as a journalist, including a brief stint at the AP and at the Philadelphia Daily News. Success as an author arrived slowly. He had been a published novelist for more than a decade before he broke through in the early 1980s with “Gorky Park.” His novel came out when the Soviet Union and the Cold War were still very much alive and centered on Renko’s investigation into the murders of three people whose bodies were found in the Moscow park that Smith used for the book’s title.

“Gorky Park,” cited by the New York Times as a reminder of “just how satisfying a smoothly turned thriller can be,” topped the Times’ fiction bestseller list and was later made into a movie starring William Hurt.

“Russia is a character in my Renko stories, always,” Smith told Publishers Weekly in 2013. “‘Gorky Park’ may have been one of the first books to take a backdrop and make it into a character. It took me forever to write because of my need to get things right. You’ve got to knock down the issue of ‘Does this guy know what he’s talking about or not?’”

Smith’s other books include science fiction (“The Indians Won”), the Westerns “North to Dakota” and “Ride for Revenge,” and the “Roman Grey” mystery series. Besides “Martin Cruz Smith” — Cruz was his maternal grandmother’s name — he also wrote under the pen names “Nick Carter” and “Simon Quinn.”

Smith’s Renko books were inspired in part by his own travels and he would trace the region’s history over the past 40 years, whether it be the Soviet Union’s collapse (“Red Square”), the rise of Russian oligarchs (“The Siberian Dilemma”) or, in the novel “Wolves Eats Dogs,” the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

By the time he began working on his last novel, Russia had invaded Ukraine. The AP noted in its review of “Hotel Ukraine” that Smith had devised a backstory “pulled straight from recent headlines,” referencing such world leaders as Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin of Russia and former President Joe Biden of the U.S.

Smith is survived by his brother, Jack Smith; his wife, Emily Smith; three children and five grandchildren.

Italie writes for the Associated Press.

Unlike generations of Mexican children before and after him, actor Pablo Cruz Guerrero didn’t grow up watching the hugely popular sitcoms created by Roberto Gómez Bolaños, the late writer, producer and performer better known as “Chespirito” or “Little Shakespeare.”

It’s a wonder, considering that at peak, Gómez Bolaños’ family-friendly programs were watched by over 300 million people worldwide, and they remain pop culture pillars across Latin America — even in Portuguese-speaking Brazil — 50 years after they first aired.

The programs’ influence also extends to the U.S. among diasporic communities, enduring through reruns that periodically introduce his characters to new viewers. The catchphrases Gómez Bolaños penned have also become ingrained in the vernacular of many countries.

His most popular creation, “El Chavo del Ocho,” centers on an orphan boy (which he played) living in a courtyard apartment complex filled with peculiar neighbors. Then there’s “El Chapulín Colorado,” a satirical take on tights-wearing superheroes, where Gómez Bolaños plays an inept though goodhearted paladin (chapulín means grasshopper in Mexico).

That Cruz Guerrero, 41, wasn’t familiar with these landmark shows or characters is all the more shocking because he’s now embodied Gómez Bolaños in the new bioseries “Chespirito: Not Really on Purpose” (“Chespirito: Sin querer queriendo”), streaming on Max starting Thursday with new episodes weekly.

Pablo Cruz Guerrero stars as Mexican comedic writer, producer and performer Roberto Gómez Bolaños in Max’s “Chespirito: Not Really on Purpose.”

(Max)

The actor’s lack of nostalgic attachment for the universe of physical comedy, wordplay and social commentary that Chespirito created gave him a leg up when auditioning, he believes.

“I want to convince myself that this was the one thing that allowed me to gain objectivity about the story,” he says in Spanish during a recent video call from Mexico City. “Had I been a fan, I would have been ridden with nerves when approaching the character.”

It was casting director Isabel Cortázar who first saw Cruz Guerrero’s potential, and in mid-2023, asked him to audition for the part. “Before receiving her call, I would have never seen myself as Chespirito,” he says. “No one had ever told me before that I looked like him.”

Cruz Guerrero has been consistently acting for over 20 years in films (“El Estudiante,” “From Prada to Nada”) and TV. More recently, he played a memorable antagonist in the second and third seasons of Netflix’s “Luis Miguel: The Series,” another bioseries about the famed Mexican singer played by Diego Boneta.

As to why he didn’t watch Chespirito’s work during his childhood, Cruz Guerrero hypothesizes that because his parents lived in Los Angeles for three years before he and his siblings were born, they were more interested in culture produced outside of Mexico. Instead, they took them to the cinema, to outdoor concerts and museum exhibits.

Ironically, Cruz Guerrero has appeared on several Televisa productions over the years, the same storied network that produced Chespirito’s work.

“In middle school, I had a social and comedic disadvantage because many of my friends knew all of Chespirito’s jokes and imitated the characters’ voices, and I couldn’t follow along,” Cruz Guerrero says.

When offered a chance to vie for the role, he consumed as much Chespirito content as he could find online, whether it was of Gómez Bolaños playing his characters or interviews he gave.

“In middle school, I had a social and comedic disadvantage because many of my friends knew all of Chespirito’s jokes and imitated the characters’ voices, and I couldn’t follow along,” Pablo Cruz Guerrero says.

(Carlos Alvarez-Montero / For The Times)

The arduous audition process required Cruz Guerrero to appear every Tuesday for about seven weeks for a variety of tests. Beyond doing scenes from the episodes of “Chespirito,” each meeting would add more elements that got him closer to Gómez Bolaños: He tried on the costumes, interacted with the actors who would play his children, he shaved his beard and tried on the prosthetic nose, contact lenses and receding hairline required for the role.

And even then, as the weeks dragged on, Cruz Guerrero wasn’t certain he’d be picked, especially after sharing with the family of Gómez Bolaños, who are involved in the production, his neophyte status on everything Chespirito.

“I could read on their faces they were thinking, ‘Are we making the right decision with someone who doesn’t genuinely love our father’s legacy already?’” the actor recalls.

Ultimately, Cruz Guerrero won them over because he was able to closely replicate the mannerisms and voice of the real Chespirito. Gómez Bolaños’ physicality called to mind silent film era icons such as Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.

“I felt like if I tried to play around with my feet and knees when I walked, not only did I lose a little bit of height to get closer to Roberto’s height, but it also put me in a position to feel a little more playful with my body,” says Cruz Guerrero while wiggling his arms.

Roberto Gómez Fernandez, Chespirito’s son, admits he initially had doubts about Cruz Guerrero. The show had been in the works for about four years at that point, two of which had been spent searching for the right actors to recreate Gómez Bolaños’ world.

Slowly, as Cruz Guerrero refined his performance and the makeup got him closer to Chespirito’s image, Gómez Fernandez became convinced they had found their man.

“I saw my father in him,” says Gómez Fernandez on a recent Zoom chat, “during complex situations in a scene and in a little wink or a glance that Pablo did.”

The family’s approval fueled him. “They would say to me, ‘I just heard my dad through you. I just had a conversation with my dad. I just shook his hand and gave him a hug,” says Cruz Guerrero, who recalls being deeply moved. “That empowered me to feel more in his skin and not feel self-doubt because of my previous distance.”

Once he officially landed the role, Cruz Guerrero immersed himself in Gómez Bolaños’ personal and professional life via his autobiography, “Sin querer queriendo,” which lends the series its title. It functioned as a link between the actor and the creator, who died in 2014.

“I was trying to establish a metaphysical dialogue through the words he had written and edited himself in the book,” Cruz Guerrero says. “I asked him questions, and I feel like we had very beautiful conversations thanks to the book.”

Many of the pointed questions that Cruz Guerrero sought answers to in the text revolved around fatherhood, namely the elusive notion of work-life balance.

“In our careers, there are moments of beautiful enlightenment where you’re creating and having a great time,” he says. “However, you’re also aware that you’re fulfilling a contract, and chasing financial compensation. This means that you’re investing time and energy and you often prioritize the professional instead of being at home and you miss your family.”

That struggle became rather personal for the actor during this process.

“I found out I was going to be a father for the first time the same week I found out I was going to play Roberto,” recalls Cruz Guerrero. “I wanted to absorb knowledge from him about his experience as a father and the experiences I was about to embark on playing him.”

While the series features moments where Cruz Guerrero dons the emblematic attire of Chavo del Ocho and Chapulín Colorado, the focus is on the real man behind them.

Andrea Noli, left, Miguel Islas, Paola Montes de Oca and Pablo Cruz Guerrero in a scene from “Chespirito.” The series is less about the characters Roberto Gómez Bolaños was famous for and more about the real man behind them.

(Max)

The book also served as the foundation for Gómez Fernandez and his sister Paulina to write the episodes’ screenplays. The two are also producers and were involved in every decision about the project.

For Roberto Gómez Fernandez, the challenge was for the series not to become a solemn, saintly tribute to the larger-than-life figure their father was.

“I had to remember that I wasn’t thinking about my dad, but about the character of Roberto Gómez Bolaños,” he says. “They weren’t real-life people because you have to transform them into characters, and sometimes you have to pull some strings to make the dramatic dynamics more effective.”

And yet, despite having fictionalized aspects, Gómez Fernandez believes that the series offers truthfulness about his father’s essence as a person.

“I think we achieved it, but along the way, we had to undress the character’s successes and failures, many of which had consequences in his life,” Gómez Fernandez says. “Some things turned out alright for him, but others went wrong, and he also hurt people.”

It’s not lost on Cruz Guerrero that someone like him, who didn’t previously revere Chespirito’s genius, wound up taking on the task of bringing his story to the screen.

“In moments of fear, insecurity and doubt, I would ask myself, ‘Oh, man, how did I end up here?’ And then it was all resolved with laughter because in front of me I would read the title of the show, ‘Not Really on Purpose,’” he says with a knowing smile.

After more than two decades mostly appearing in supporting roles, Cruz Guerrero is basking in what’s undoubtedly the most important credit of his career so far.

“I’m especially grateful to the family, who chose me to play this beloved character, who is obviously part of their personal story,” Cruz Guerrero says. “I live this moment with great gratitude, so thank you to Roberto Gómez Bolaños.”

Sitting in the Birmingham High bleachers wearing headphones before running the 400 meters at the City Section track and field prelims, 17-year-old senior Nathan Santa Cruz looks like a teenager comfortable and confident. Teammates gravitate to him. Maybe it’s his smile. Or maybe they want to be near someone enjoying each and every day.

A traumatic experience changed his outlook on life in the fall of 2022 when he suffered a brain injury in the opening football game for Venice High and underwent emergency surgery to stop bleeding.

“We don’t know if he’s going to make it,” his mother, Crystal Clark, remembers being told at the hospital.

Nathan Santa Cruz, who survived a brain injury in 2022, goes for a City Section title at 400 meters.

(Craig Weston)

Santa Cruz recovered so well that he played two more years of football, but his real love was using his speed in track. Last season he finished second in the City Section 400. This year, he ran a career-best time of 47.74 seconds at the Arcadia Invitational.

On Thursday, he’ll have a rematch against Justin Hart of Granada Hills in the 400 final. They ran one-two last season.

“I think it’s going to be a real competitive race,” Santa Cruz said. “I’m going to try to come out on top.”

If he doesn’t finish first, he’s already won. He has a track scholarship waiting for him at Cal Poly Pomona, where he plans to study business or criminology. And he has grown up fast because of what happened to him. He’s no normal teenager when you listen to what he believes.

“At the end of the day, it’s God giving you another chance to wake up,” he said. “Make sure I’m better than yesterday. That’s what I do.”

Granada Hills’ Justin Hart, the son of former NBA player Jason Hart, is favored in the City 400 and 200.

(Craig Weston)

His competitor, Hart, has his own story to tell. He’s the son of Kentucky basketball assistant coach Jason Hart, who spent 10 years in the NBA. An older brother, Jason II, also played basketball but Justin was different.

Justin played lots of sports, including basketball, but when he was 7, he told his father, “I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t want you to waste your money.”

He wanted to run.

“I didn’t want to be in my dad’s shadow. I wanted to create my own identity in my own sport,” he said.

He won the 400 and was second in the 200 at last year’s City final. He’s going for a sweep on Thursday and is just getting started.

“I think the ceiling is really high,” Granada Hills coach Johnny Wiley said.

He’ll welcome his father and mother in the bleachers cheering loudly.

There really won’t be any losers when Hart and Santa Cruz square off. They come from great families and have learned lessons that will help them succeed for years to come.

Santa Cruz makes it clear he runs to make his mother proud because he’ll never forget a memory from his hospital experience.

“Seeing her cry at the hospital, I knew I had to go make an impact in her life, make it so she didn’t have to pay for her kid to go to college,” he said. “Seeing her smile, that’s why I do it.”

And when days don’t go as well as he might like, Santa Cruz said he has learned, “It’s just the way life goes. I think God gives his toughest battles to his strongest soldiers.”