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TOWIE star Amy Childs’ friends are worried about her relationship after she postponed her wedding to fiancé Billy Delbosq for the second time

Amy Childs has left friends and fans worried after calling off her wedding to fiancé Billy Delbosq for the second time, sparking rumours of relationship troubles among those who are close to her. The former beautician, who shot to fame on The Only Way Is Essex nearly 15 years ago, became a household name thanks to her larger-than-life personality — and introducing the public to the concept of ‘vajazzling’.

After a romantic past full of ups and downs, Amy, 34, seemed to have finally found lasting love with Billy, a fellow reality star who once appeared on Channel 4 ’s First Dates. The couple got engaged in 2023 after welcoming twins Billy River and Amelia Mae.

But last month she postponed their wedding again, after already delaying it last year over doubts about whether Billy was truly ready to tie the knot.

This latest cancellation has caused speculation that not all is well in their relationship. Friends close to the couple have voiced their fears, with one source telling the Daily Mail : “Billy has always been a player. He’s one of the biggest players in Essex…now there are fears that all is not well, that something could have happened between them.”

Fuel was added to the fire when Amy was spotted in Brentwood looking visibly thinner and not wearing her engagement ring. However, another source close to the couple insisted the pair are still going strong, and suggested she only removed the ring to work out.

In the paparazzi snaps that sparked concern, she was indeed dressed in gym gear. However, Amy and Billy were also seen at Stansted Airport on Thursday while en route to Spain for TOWIE filming, looking “preoccupied and unsmiling”. One pal admitted: “They usually seem so happy together. This time they looked really down in the dumps, neither particularly looked like they wanted to be there.”

Behind the scenes, Amy has been privately coping with a family crisis. She recently told The Mirror that her mum Julie, who has also made appearances on TOWIE, suffered from a heart attack in April and had to be rushed to hospital for emergency surgery.

She added: “It has been intensely stressful. None of us was expecting Mum to have a heart attack – it turned our world upside down.

“It was so frightening. She had a stent put in and was in hospital for six days. She’s now home but she’s being monitored daily and is on a lot of medication. It’s so tough for her – she sometimes struggles to walk upstairs.”

Amy and Billy made the difficult decision to postpone their September wedding at Cliveden House in Berkshire. The TOWIE star explained: “It’s upsetting, but I know we’ve made the right decision. Right now, we’re focused on looking after Mum.”

In response to the online abuse over her weight loss, Amy hit back, saying: “People don’t know what is going on behind closed doors…To be honest I do feel better when I’m a bit heavier than I am at the moment. There’s so much going on – it’s the result of pure stress.”

Despite facing these heart breaking family challenges, Amy is still hopeful that her and Billy will be able to get married abroad next year, and have planned for their kids to play a special role in the wedding. She concluded: “We just want it to be amazing, not rushed.”

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Grupo Firme was unable to show up for its previously planned June 1 set at Napa’s La Onda festival.

The Tijuana band announced the cancellation Friday afternoon on social media.

“Currently, the visas of Grupo Firme and the Music VIP [Entertainment] team are in an administrative process by the U.S. Embassy, a situation that makes it impossible for Grupo Firme’s performance at La Onda Fest to go on as planned,” the band wrote in a statement posted on its Instagram stories. “We are sorry for the inconvenience this may cause. Thank you for your understanding and, above all else, the love from our U.S. fans.”

Grupo Firme is the latest international musical act facing visa issues since President Trump took office for his second presidential term. Many of these have been música Mexicana artists.

The group’s news came only a week after Mexican singer Julión Álvarez postponed his May 24 show at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, after he claimed his work visa had been revoked.

The 42-year-old musician alleged in a May 23 Instagram video that he had received the news of his work visa revocation that day, leaving him and his band unable to travel to Texas for their planned performance. He also claimed he didn’t have a full sense of clarity regarding the ongoing status of his visa and was limited in what he could dispel about the situation.

Also in May, Chicago’s Michelada Fest, a Spanish-language music festival that had programmed several Latin American acts was canceled due to concerns over artists’ visas.

“Due to the uncertainty surrounding artist visas and the rapidly changing political climate, we’re no longer able to guarantee the full experience we had dreamed up for you with all your favorite artists,” the festival’s organizers explained in a statement. “Although we tried to push through, it became clear that we wouldn’t be able to deliver the full lineup as planned.”

The organizers would go on to write that, as an independent outfit, Michelada Fest “can’t afford to take on a big risk with so much uncertainty ahead.”

Grupo Firme, Anitta, Danny Ocean, Tokischa and Luis R. Conriquez were scheduled to perform at the July festival.

In early April, the U.S. State Department canceled the work and tourist visas of the members of the Mexican corrido band Los Alegres del Barranco after the group displayed photos of drug lord Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes at its concert in Guadalajara, Mexico.

During their March 29 show at the University of Guadalajara, the band put an illustrated depiction of Cervantes — a key player in the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, or CJNG — on a mega-screen while playing their song “El Dueño del Palenque.” Videos of the incident were captured on social media.

“I’m pleased to announce that the State Department has revoked the band members’ work and tourism visas. In the Trump Administration, we take seriously our responsibility over foreigners’ access to our country,” said Christopher Landau, the U.S. deputy Secretary of State in April. “The last thing we need is a welcome mat for people who extol criminals and terrorists.”

Outside of the world of Latino artists, British singer FKA twigs announced in April on Instagram that she had to cancel series of concerts for the month in North America — including a slot at Coachella 2025 — due to “ongoing visa issues.”

“Mountainhead,” a satirical skewering of tech oligarchs from “Succession” showrunner Jesse Armstrong, arrived this weekend, dropping on the final day of this year’s Emmy eligibility window.

I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times and host of The Envelope newsletter. While we’re pondering the timeline to upload a human consciousness, let’s consider “Mountainhead” and its Emmy chances.

Another year, another late-breaking HBO movie

Early on in “Mountainhead,” tech bro and Elon Musk stand-in Venis Parish (Cory Michael Smith) uses film history to put the glitches of his company’s latest AI rollout into perspective.

“The first time people saw a movie, everybody ran screaming because they thought they were gonna get hit by a train,” Venis relates, shouting out the Lumiere brothers’ 1895 film, “Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station.” “The answer to that was not stop the movies. The answer was: Show more movies. We’re gonna show users as much s— as possible, until everyone realizes nothing’s that f— serious. Nothing means anything, and everything’s funny and cool.”

In the meantime, though, Venis’ social media platform has given users the tools to create deepfakes so realistic they can’t be identified as bogus. Immediately, people all over the world are uploading videos of their enemies committing atrocities, inflaming centuries-old animosities. Reality has collapsed and, with it, global stability.

But for “Mountainhead’s” quartet of tech magnates, played by Smith, Steve Carell, Ramy Youssef and Jason Schwartzman, everything is just fine. As venture capitalist Randall Garrett (Carell) notes, “We have plenty of calories stockpiled. Western countries have strategic commodity reserves, canola oil, lard, frozen orange juice.”

Later, Randall asks: “Are we the Bolsheviks of a new techno world order that starts tonight?”

“Mountainhead” is in many ways scarier than the zombie apocalypse of “The Last of Us” because it feels like its premise is lurking right around the corner. Armstrong came up with the idea for the two-hour movie in November, after immersing himself in podcasts and books about Silicon Valley. He shot it in March, edited it in April and delivered it in May. It captures the DOGE era, specifically in the casual cruelty expressed by its entitled characters.

“Do you believe in other people?” Venis asks Randall. “Eight billion people as real as us?”

Randall’s reply: “Well, obviously not.”

Cory Michael Smith, left, and Steve Carell in “Mountainhead.”

(Macall Polay / HBO)

“Mountainhead” aspires more directly to comedy, but because we don’t have a history with these four deplorable men, it’s often difficult to find the humor. “Like ‘Fountainhead’ Mountainhead?” Youssef jokes to Schwartzman about the estate’s title. “Was your interior decorator Ayn Bland?” There’s a procession of put-downs like that. When they’re not roasting each other, they’re trying to boost their own agendas — in the case of the cancer-stricken Randall, it’s the quest to live forever as a disembodied consciousness.

For all its Shakespearean drama, “Succession” was wildly entertaining, more of a comedy than, yes, “The Bear.” Kendall Roy performing the rap “L to the OG” at a party honoring his father’s half-century running Waystar Royco will be the funniest two minutes of television probably forever. But half the fun came from the characters’ reactions to this transcendent moment of cringe. We were deeply invested in this world.

For all their money and power, the “Mountainhead” moguls are, like the Roy children in “Succession,” not serious people. But beyond that, “Mountainhead” doesn’t have much of anything novel to say about its subjects. As good as Smith is at channeling Musk’s alien, empathy-deficient otherness, you can come away with the same level of insight — and entertainment — by spending a few minutes watching Mike Myers on “Saturday Night Live.” I don’t need to watch a movie to know that a guy sitting on a gold toilet isn’t prioritizing anyone’s interests but his own.

“Mountainhead,” as mentioned, arrives on the last day of 2024-25 Emmy eligibility, less by design than from necessity. The paint’s still wet on this film. But this does mark the third straight season that HBO has dropped a TV movie right before the deadline. Last year, it was “The Great Lillian Hall,” starring Jessica Lange as fading Broadway legend. Two years ago, it was the excellent whistleblower thriller “Reality,” featuring a star turn from Sydney Sweeney. Both movies were blanked at the Emmys, though Kathy Bates did manage a Screen Actors Guild Awards nod for “Lillian Hall.”

Did the movies land too late for enough people see them? Perhaps. The late arrival time should mean they’d be fresh in voters’ minds when they fill out their ballots. But you have to be aware of them for that to happen.

Awareness shouldn’t be an issue with “Mountainhead.” Enough people will want to watch the new offering from the creator of “Succession,” and there’s not much else on television vying for attention right now. “Mountainhead” should score a nomination for television movie, even with the category being stronger than usual this year with audience favorites “Rebel Ridge,” the latest “Bridget Jones” movie and Scott Derrickson’s enjoyable, genre-bending “The Gorge” competing.

But actors in these TV movies are at competitive disadvantage as the Emmys lump them together with their counterparts in limited series, performers who are onscreen for a much longer time. This decade, only two TV movie actors have been nominated — Hugh Jackman (“Bad Education”) and Daniel Radcliffe (“Weird: The Al Yankovic Story”). The lead actress category, meanwhile, has been completely dominated by limited series.

Not that there are any women starring in “Mountainhead” because … tech bros. As for the men, Carell, Schwartzman, Smith and Youssef are very good at conveying delusional arrogance. I despised each and every one of their characters. If hate-voting were a thing, they’d all be nominated.

Former England bowler Stuart Broad will work with South Africa in the build-up to the World Test Championship final against Australia later this month.

Broad, 38, will work for one day as a consultant at training on 9 June – his first role in coaching since retiring at the end of the 2023 Ashes.

Broad took 604 wickets in 167 Tests, putting him second on England’s all-time list behind long-time team-mate James Anderson.

He took 153 of those wickets against Australia – the most by any player in Test history.

Since retiring he has worked as a TV pundit but will help South Africa prepare for the World Test Championship final begins at Lord’s on 11 June.

The Proteas begin a warm-up match against Zimbabwe at Arundel Castle Cricket Ground in Sussex on Tuesday.

Australia are defending champions, having beaten India at The Oval in 2023.

The sculptor Robert Therrien had a deep connection with the Broad museum. He was among the first L.A. artists that founders Eli and Edythe Broad began collecting almost half a century ago, and the museum holds 18 of his works in its collection. Those pieces, along with more than 100 others, will go on view at the Broad beginning in November in “Robert Therrien: This Is a Story,” the largest-ever solo museum show of the artist’s work.

Therrien, who died of complications from cancer in 2019, is best-known for his monumental sculptures of everyday objects. His sculpture of a giant table and chairs, “Under the Table,” is among the Broad’s most photographed — and Instagrammed — pieces. Intimate work — drawings of birds, snowmen and chapels — will be on view, as will a reconstruction of Therrien’s downtown L.A. studio.

The Broad’s founding director Joanne Heyler once told The Times that Therrien’s studio was among the most fascinating she had ever visited. In an email shortly after Therrien’s death, she described the ground floor as “the ultimate tinkerer’s den, with endless tools, parts and found objects awaiting their role in his work, while upstairs were these perfectly composed galleries, every surface painted a warm, creamy white, including the floor, which charged the sculptures, paintings and drawings he’d install there with a dreamy, floating, hallucinogenic effect. That studio was his dreamland.”

An L.A. story

Like his studio, Therrien’s work exists in a liminal space — where memory fades into time. Standing beneath one of his giant tables evokes vague recollections of what it feels like to be a very small child in a world of legs and muffled adult activity above. A ruminative melancholy arises when viewing a precarious stack of white enamel plates. Therrien’s artistic voice is at once singular and universal — and specific to art history in L.A.

Robert Therrien, no title, (stacked plates, white), 1993.

(The Broad Art Foundation)

Exhibition curator Ed Schad summed up Therrien’s importance to this city in an email.

“Los Angeles is one of the most dynamic places in the world to make sculpture, and for 40 years, Robert Therrien was vital to that story while also hiding in plain sight,” Schad wrote. “From the spirit of experimentation and freedom in the 1970s, to the rise of fabrication and the expansion of scale in the 1980s and 1990, to Los Angeles’s ascendant presence on the global stage of contemporary art in recent decades, Therrien’s work has not only mirrored every shift but also has maintained a singular, unmistakable voice. This exhibition aims to show both the Therrien people know and love — his outsize sculptures, tables and chairs, and pots and pans, rooted in memory — and the Therrien that is less often seen: the brilliant draftsman, photographer, and thinker, whose work in these quieter forms is just as enchanting.”

I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt, remembering the time I spent an entire meal hiding under a table in Nogales, Ariz., when I was five. Or was that a dream? Here’s this weekend’s arts headlines.

Here come the Tony Awards

Director Michael Arden photographed in New York.

(The Tyler Twins / For The Times)

Times theater critic Charles McNulty sat down in New York City with the directing powerhouse Michael Arden, 42. In a wide-ranging profile, McNulty discusses Arden’s path to becoming among the most sought-after directors on Broadway — and why his latest Tony-nominated musical, “Maybe Happy Ending,” is the season’s “most surprising and heartwarming.” He also writes about Arden’s new company, At Rise Creative, which he founded with scenic designer Dane Laffrey. Their production of “Parade” begins performances at the Ahmanson Theatre on June 17.

McNulty also checks in with L.A. Theatre Works, which celebrated its 50th anniversary and has found fresh opportunities for its radio plays through the rise of podcasts and on-demand streaming. “Currently, LATW’s program airs weekly on KPFK 90.7 in Southern California and on station affiliates serving over 50 markets nationwide. But the heart and soul of the operation is the archive of play recordings,” writes McNulty. This archive has almost 600 titles that can be accessed via a recently launched monthly subscription service.

The SoCal scene

Times art critic Christopher Knight examines the curious case of the art museum that wasn’t. Despite having a social media presence and a webpage, the Joshua Tree Art Museum has not manifested as an actual space for art. This is because, writes Knight, “the charitable foundation sponsoring the project was issued a cease and desist order two years ago by the California attorney general’s office. All charitable activity was halted, a prohibition that has not been lifted.”

“Forest Therapy Class” led by therapist Debra Wilbur at the Huntington.

(Yuri Hasegawa / For The Times)

Along with other organizations across the country, the Huntington recently lost its National Endowment for the Humanities grants. The money funded the Huntington’s research programs, and the institution is nonetheless determined to honor its awards to this year’s recipients. The Huntington will welcome more than 150 scholars from around the world this year and next, granting nearly $1.8 million in fellowships — a notable achievement in a climate of shrinking opportunity for research and innovation. “Supporting humanities scholars is central to the Huntington’s research mission. Here, scholars find the time, space, and resources to pursue ambitious questions across disciplines. The work that begins here continues to shape conversations in classrooms, publications, and public discourse for years to come,” Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence said in a statement.

Skirball Cultural Center has announced its 2025 season of Sunset Concerts. The popular series began in 1997 and takes place at the Skirball’s Taper Courtyard. This summer will feature two acts each night, including Brazilian singer-songwriter Rodrigo Amarante, the Colombia-based all-female trio La Perla and the Dominican band MULA. Click here for the full lineup and schedule.

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles announced that it has acquired Cynthia Daignault’s “Twenty-Six Seconds.” The artwork is a series of frame-by-frame paintings based on Abraham Zapruder’s famous 26-second 8mm color film capturing the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Through 486 painted frames, Daignault’s work further interrogates the tragedy, imbuing it with modern context.

And last but not least

This past weekend I took my daughter to the Summer Corgi Nationals at Santa Anita Park. It was more adorable and more ridiculous than you could imagine — with the short-legged dogs racing for the finish line in a chaotic competition that sometimes found contenders chasing one another back to the starting line.

Gaza has been under total blockade by Israel for nearly three months.

Aid agencies have been stopped from delivering the most basic of supplies, leaving 2.3 million people starving.

Now, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is delivering food packages, but it is backed by Israel and the US. Its first attempt turned into chaos.

The foundation has also faced strong criticism from the UN and other aid agencies. They say it does not follow humanitarian principles and appears to be “weaponising” aid.

So why has Israel decided to let in some aid, yet only under an agency it backs?

Presenter:

Folly Bah Thibault

Guests:

Chris Gunness – Former director of communications for UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees

Amjad Shawa – Director of the Palestinian NGOs Network

Eyal Weizman – Director of the research agency Forensic Architecture at Goldsmiths at the University of London; author of The Least of All Possible Evils: Humanitarian Violence from Arendt to Gaza

DI Alistair Banks’ sick exploitation gang has finally been exposed and the corrupt copper has seemingly met a grisly end in Hollyoaks but fans think he’s not the only one

Hollyoaks fans have all said the same thing after the latest “insane” episode.

During Wednesday’s (May 28) dramatic episode, which is available to watch on Channel 4’s website, corrupt copper DI Alistair Banks (Drew Cain) put the lives of Vicky Grant (Anya Lawrence), Dillon Ray (Nathaniel Dass) and Frankie Osborne (Isabelle Smith) in more jeopardy.

Rex Gallagher (Jonny Labey) told Dodger Savage (Danny Mac) about a private auction site he’s sure DI Banks will be using to sell the teens.

At The Loft, DI Banks started the bidding with Vicky and Rex and Dodger tried to be the highest bidders but to no avail. However, Dillon assured Frankie that he had a plan and tried to create a distraction.

Dodger figured out their location and called for back up and an oblivious DI Banks called his mysterious wife to inform her that they’ll be on the move with their money soon.

Ste Hay (Kieron Richardson) was horrified to find his boyfriend Rex bidding on Dillon and demanded answers and Rex finally told Ste thetruth that he was part of the gang and begged for forgiveness but Ste cut all ties with him, labelling him a predator.

The lights got cut off at The Loft and an armed DI Banks went to search the area. He caught Dodger in the act and passed him onto his cronies to deal with him.

Dillon, Frankie and Vicky found weapons and hid from Banks. Vicky made a distraction as Frankie attempted to unlock the door but DI Banks caught her. All the teens fired their guns and DI Banks collapsed to the floor.

Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, after watching the dramatic episode, one fan penned: “Insane episode omg. #Hollyoaks” Another added: “What an episode!!! #hollyoaks.”

A third persons said: “I have never been so nervous for an episode before omfg!! it was so dark and intense and that ending?? just wow!! amazing episode.”

With DS Banks believed to be dead, fans have been left concerned for hero Dodger. One social media user wrote: “I fear we all got distracted by the everything to realise we don’t know Dodgers fate and now I’m scared they killed Dodger.”

Another added: “Please tell me they didn’t kill Dodger off. #Hollyoaks.” A third wrote: “Im sad now please no Dodger! i need to know what happened to him! #hollyoaks.”

Hollyoaks airs Monday to Wednesday on E4 at 7pm and first look episodes can be streamed Channel 4 from 7am

The Getty Villa Museum will reopen to the public on a limited basis beginning June 27 after a nearly six-month closure forced by the devastating Palisades fire.

On the night of Jan. 7, reports swirled that the wind-driven conflagration had reached the outskirts of the Villa. A Getty team stayed through the night, putting out spot fires with fire extinguishers and ensuring that the galleries were safely sealed off, while updating a command team at Getty Center that included Getty President and Chief Executive Katherine Fleming.

A few days later, Fleming told The Times that the teams were confident that their thorough preparation — including extensive brush clearing — would keep the museum from burning. The galleries and other buildings did remain safe, but the glittering fountain pools went dark with ash. Extensive work on the property, including intensive cleaning and testing of indoor and outdoor spaces for toxic residue, is nearing completion. The water system has been flushed, and air and water filters have been replaced. More than 1,300 fire-damaged trees were removed.

A burned hillside above the Getty Villa, where the Palisades fire burned around the educational center and art museum.

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

“The site may look different to visitors,” the museum warned in an announcement this week, “with less vegetation and some burn damage to the outer grounds.”

The limited visitor hours will be 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday through Monday. The goal will be to help limit traffic on Pacific Coast Highway, which is the only way to reach the campus. (The Villa is not yet accessible via Sunset Boulevard.) Reservations are limited to 500 visitors daily, and free, timed-entry reservations can be booked online. Parking is $25.

Unfortunately, the exhibition on view when the fire erupted, “Ancient Thrace and the Classical World: Treasures From Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece,” had to close, but the Getty created a virtual tour. Times art critic Christopher Knight had great things to say about it when he viewed the exhibition in person just before the fire.

The exhibition for the reopening is “The Kingdom of Pylos: Warrior-Princes of Ancient Greece,” which will be on view from June 27 through Jan. 12. It will feature more than 230 works of art and artifacts from Messenia, a region in Greece where the Mycenaean civilization flourished during the Late Bronze Age.

Theater fans can breathe a sigh of relief. The outdoor classical theater will return in the fall with “Oedipus the King, Mama!” co-produced by Troubadour Theater Company.

I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt, looking forward to reading a book in the shade by a Villa fountain. Here’s your weekend arts roundup.

The SoCal scene

Omar Ebrahim as Schoenberg and conductor Neal Stulberg in Tod Machover’s “Schoenberg in Hollywood” at UCLA Nimoy Theater.

(Taso Papadakis / UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music)

Does Los Angeles have its own musical style? Times classical music critic Mark Swed answers the question after attending the Hear Now Music Festival and Tod Machover’s opera “Schoenberg in Hollywood.” “Los Angeles is the home of film music. The two most influential classical composers of the first half of the 20th century, Stravinsky and Schoenberg, lived here. … The composer with the most radical influence on the second half of the 20th century, John Cage, was born and grew up here. Ferreting out L.A.’s bearing on jazz and the many, many aspects of popular music, as well as world music, is a lifetime’s effort,” Swed writes.

“A Doll’s House, Part 2” at Pasadena Playhouse gets a mixed review from Times theater critic Charles McNulty, who praises Jason Butler Harner’s performance as Torvald, while noting that costumes and set design did not entirely come together. Lucas Hnath’s play picks up 15 years after the conclusion of Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 classic, when Nora famously walks out on her husband and children. Nora’s life is complicated. And so is McNulty’s reaction to the show.

Last week, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art laid off 15 full-time employees, accounting for 14% of its staff. Most were from the organization’s education and public programming team. Seven part-time, on-call employees were also let go, according to the museum. Sources described the morning of the layoffs as chaotic and shocking, with staff being summoned by human resources and being told they needed to be out of the building by 2 p.m. The museum said in a statement, “Education remains a central pillar of the Lucas Museum.”

Lauren Halsey, from left, Jane Fonda and Zoë Ryan attend the 20th Annual Hammer Museum Gala in the Garden on May 17.

(Charley Gallay / Getty Images for The Hammer Museum)

The Hammer Museum raised $2.4 million during its 20th annual Gala in the Garden last Saturday. The fete honored Jane Fonda and artist Lauren Halsey, and it featured a performance by the singer Griff. This marked the first gala for the museum’s new director, Zoë Ryan, who took over in January. Last year’s party marked a heartfelt send-off for longtime director Ann Philbin, who retired after 25 years at the helm of the institution. This year, per usual, plenty of celebrities were in attendance, including LeBron and Savannah James, Usher, Will Ferrell, Dustin Hoffman, Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen and Molly Shannon, as well as plenty of artists including Doug Aitken, Andrea Bowers, Diedrick Brackens, Catherine Opie, Ed Ruscha and Jonas Wood. Thelma Golden, the director of the Studio Museum in Harlem, paid tribute to Halsey; Danson and Steenburgen celebrated Fonda.

The Fowler Museum on Tuesday returned 11 objects to the Larrakia community of the Northern Territory in Australia. The items, which hold deep cultural and spiritual significance to the Larrakia people, consist of 10 glass spearheads and a kangaroo tooth headband worn by a Larrakia elder. Elders have worked closely with the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies and the museum over the last four years to identify and arrange the return of the objects. This particular return ceremony is the second time the Fowler has returned artifacts in partnership with AIATSIS. Last July, the museum repatriated 20 items to the Warumungu community of Tennant Creek in northern Australia.

More culture news

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has announced its 2025-26 theater season — the first with President Donald Trump as chair. “Hamilton,” as previously reported, is out. Offerings include plenty of Trump-approved Broadway fare, including “Moulin Rouge,” “Chicago,” “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Back to the Future: The Musical” and “Monty Python’s Spamalot.”

Tony Award winner Charles Strouse, who composed the music for “Annie,” “Bye Bye Birdie” and “Applause,” has died. He was 96.

— Jessica Gelt

And last but not least

You can opt to be buried up to your neck in compost at this California spa. I love a good spa day, but this is a hard pass for me.

After reading about these California beaches, can you blame me for thinking about the south of France right about now? And, you know, the movies at Cannes this year were pretty good too. In fact, we might have another best picture Oscar winner from the festival.

I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times and host of The Envelope newsletter, which is back in your inbox after a springtime sabbatical. Today, I’m looking at the news out of the Cannes Film Festival, wondering if Neon’s publicity team will be getting any rest this coming awards season.

The Cannes-to-Oscars pipeline is flowing

Last year’s Cannes Film Festival gave us a Demi Moore comeback (“The Substance”), an overstuffed, ambitious movie musical that everyone loved until they didn’t (“Emilia Pérez”) and a freewheeling Cinderella story that became the actual Cinderella story of the 2024-25 awards season (“Anora”).

Sean Baker’s “Anora” became just the fourth film to take the festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or, and then go on to win the Oscar for best picture. But it had been only five years since Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite” pulled off that feat, so this would seem to be the direction that the academy is going. As the major Hollywood studios have doubled down on IP, indies like A24 and Neon have stepped up, delivering original, daring films that win the hearts of critics, awards voters and, sometimes, moviegoers.

Neon brought “Anora” to Cannes last year, confident that it would make an ideal launching pad. This year, the studio bought films at the festival — among them the taut, tart revenge thriller “It Was Just an Accident,” from dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, and the anarchic political thriller “The Secret Agent” from Brazil’s Kleber Mendonça Filho.

Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi holds the Palme d’Or after winning the Cannes Film Festival’s top prize for “It Was Just an Accident.”

(Sameer Al-Doumy / AFP/Getty Images)

“It Was Just an Accident” won the Palme, making it the sixth consecutive time Neon has won the award. Despite being one of the world’s most celebrated and influential filmmakers for movies like “No Bears” and “The White Balloon,” Panahi has never received any recognition at the Oscars. That will change this coming year.

Another movie that might deliver the goods is a title Neon announced at Cannes last year, “Sentimental Value,” an intense family drama that earned a 15-minute standing ovation.

Or was it 17? Or 19? The audience at the Grand Théâtre Lumière might still be standing and applauding; who knows with these Cannes festivalgoers. I’d be long gone, heading to the nearest wine bar. The point is: People love this movie. It won the Grand Prix, Cannes’ second-highest honor.

“Sentimental Value” is a dysfunctional family dramedy focusing on the relationship between a flawed father (the great Stellan Skarsgård) and his actor daughter (Renate Reinsve, extraordinary), two people who are better at their jobs than they are at grappling with their emotions. They’re both sad and lonely, and the film circles a reconciliation, one that’s only possible through their artistic endeavors.

Norwegian director Joachim Trier directed and co-wrote “Sentimental Value,” and it’s his third collaboration with Reinsve, following her debut in the 2011 historical drama “Oslo, August 31st” and the brilliant “The Worst Person in the World,” for which she won Cannes’ best actress prize in 2021. Reinsve somehow failed to make the cut at the Oscars that year, an oversight that will likely be corrected several months from now.

Jennifer Lawrence in Lynne Ramsay’s “Die, My Love.”

(Festival de Cannes)

But it’s not just about the prix

Reinsve could well be joined in the category by a past Oscar winner, Jennifer Lawrence, who elicited rave reviews for her turn as a new mother coping with a raft of feelings after giving birth in Lynne Ramsay’s Cannes competition title “Die, My Love.” Critics have mostly been kind to the film, which Mubi bought at the festival for $24 million.

Just don’t label it a postpartum-depression drama, for which Ramsay pointedly chastised reviewers.

“This whole postpartum thing is just bull—,” she told film critic Elvis Mitchell. “It’s not about that. It’s about a relationship breaking down, it’s about love breaking down, and sex breaking down after having a baby. And it’s also about a creative block.”

However you want to read it, “Die, My Love” looks like a comeback for Lawrence, last seen onscreen two years ago, showing her comic chops in the sweetly raunchy “No Hard Feelings.” Lawrence won the lead actress Oscar for the 2012 film “Silver Linings Playbook” and has been nominated three other times — for “Winter’s Bone,” “American Hustle” and “Joy.”

With Ramsay’s movie, which co-stars Robert Pattinson as her husband, Lawrence may well have printed her return ticket to the ceremony, which would be welcome. The Oscars are always more fun when she’s in the room.

More coverage from the festival

This Memorial Day weekend marks the five-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death. Floyd’s murder under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer sparked a protest movement that reached the streets of cities across the nation.

In Minneapolis, residents, activists and artists painted murals and messages on plywood boards used to protect storefront windows during the unrest. More than 1,000 of those pieces of art have been collected and preserved by the organization Memorialize the Movement. The Minnesota Star Tribune recently ran a fascinating profile by Dee DePass and Alicia Eler of MTM’s founder and executive director, Leesa Kelly, along with two other community activists, Kenda Zellner-Smith, who created the group Save the Boards, and Jeanelle Austin, who started George Floyd Global Memorial, now called Rise and Remember.

Together, the three women have dedicated themselves to ensuring the Floyd protest art remains visible and accessible to the public. A large portion of their time is spent on fundraising to pay for the costly storage of the boards.

According to the Star Tribune, the rent on Memorialize the Movement’s warehouse is $3,500 a month, and the group spends another $1,500 on utilities and staff. Fundraising for this kind of work may become more challenging with the Trump administration’s ban on diversity, equity and inclusion — not to mention the possible elimination of the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities.

These headwinds have not dimmed the spirits of the women, who regularly stage exhibitions of the protest murals in places such as Minnesota’s Carleton College, Normandale Community College, Franconia Sculpture Park and Roseville Lutheran Church, as well as Watermill Center in upstate New York,

For more information on Memorialize the Movement, click here.

I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt taking a moment to reflect and remember. Read on for this week’s arts news.

Best bets: Holiday edition

Haven’t yet made plans for Memorial Day? Go to a museum! Here’s a quick sampling of places that are open on the holiday:

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. See the new NHM Commons and the dinosaur Gnatalie. The NHM’s sister operation at the La Brea Tar Pits & Museum also is open, same hours. nhm.org

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in L.A. will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. You can take in the new exhibition “Director’s Inspiration: Bong Joon Ho,” centered on the filmmaker behind “Parasite,” “Mickey 17” and “Snowpiercer.” Make a day of it and walk over to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which will be open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena will be open its usual Monday hours, noon to 5 p.m. Times critic Christiopher Knight offers this exceptionally helpful guide to the collection.

Unless it’s Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year’s Day, the California Science Center in Exposition Park is always opens, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with free admission to the galleries. Bring kids to the just-opened interactive exhibition “Game On! Science, Sports & Play” or the return of “Dogs! A Science Tale.”

The Huntington in San Marino will be open. “Don Bachardy: A Life in Portraits” (read Knight’s praise for the show) and the Betye Saar site-specific installation “Drifting Toward Twilight” are on view, and temperatures in those fabulous gardens should be lovely.

Culture news and the SoCal scene

Sadie Sink in “John Proctor Is the Villain.”

(Julieta Cervantes)

Times theater critic Charles McNulty spent time in New York talking with Kimberly Belflower about her Tony-nominated play, “John Proctor Is the Villain,” starring Sadie Sink from the Netflix hit “Stranger Things.” The play, about students in Georgia reading Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible,” “casts a mysterious spell that I’m still processing a month later,” McNulty writes.

Meanwhile, back in L.A., McNulty praises a lovely revival of playwright Terrance McNally’s musical adaptation of the 1994 film “A Man of No Importance.” The film starred Albert Finney as a Dublin bus conductor obsessed with Oscar Wilde and amateur theater. The musical team behind “Ragtime” — Stephen Flaherty (music) and Lynn Ahrens (lyrics) — adds whimsical dimensions to the story. Of particular note, McNulty writes, is the “graceful direction of the company’s producing artistic director, Julia Rodriguez-Elliott,” who “finds freedom in Wilde’s iconoclastic example.”

Arnold Schoenberg arrived in L.A. after fleeing Nazi Germany in the mid-1930s, and the composer eventually found himself in a meeting with MGM producer Irving Thalberg about scoring “The Good Earth.” This encounter provided the genesis for Tod Machover’s opera, “Schoenberg in Hollywood,” which staged its West Coast premiere at UCLA’s Nimoy Theater. Times classical music critic Mark Swed was present and wrote this review, noting at the end that despite all of his contributions to the city’s cultural ecosystem, Schoenberg does not have his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at a news conference in Sacramento on Feb. 27.

(Associated Press)

The Theatre Producers of Southern California, a trade group representing nonprofit theaters, is raising alarms about Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed $11.5-million cut to the Performing Arts Equitable Payroll Fund, which was only recently instituted after years of efforts by struggling arts organizations. “We understand that the state faces a challenging budget deficit and are prepared to support you in making difficult decisions,” board vice president Beatrice Casagran said in a statement. “However, the proposed clawback of 100% of the state’s entire investment in the Payroll Fund will eradicate six years of bipartisan legislative efforts to address cascading negative impacts that have led to dire economic instability for workers in the live arts.”

The Actors Equity Assn., under its president, Brooke Shields, also opposes the proposed cuts. “At a time when the arts are under attack in Washington, D.C., it’s deeply disappointing to also be fighting funding cuts again in Sacramento. California, which now ranks 35th in the nation in arts funding, cannot be a leader in the arts if it continues to cut arts funding year after year,” Shields said in a statement.

Concerned voters can ask their senators to sign on to the letter opposing the cuts by state Sen. Ben Allen to the Senate Budget Committee. They also can ask their assemblymembers to sign onto the letter by Assemblyman Matt Haney to the Assembly Budget Committee.

Los Angeles Opera is staging a costume shop sale for the first time in more than a decade, and the public is invited. Expect handmade outfits from shows such as “Carmen,” “The Magic Flute” and “Macbeth.” A news release about the event describes the offerings: “From 16th-century finery to fantastical creations, this sale includes complete costumes in all sizes, along with wigs, accessories, shoes, jewelry, masks, headpieces and more, each piece a work of art designed by visionaries such as Julie Taymor, Constance Hoffman, Gerald Scarfe and Martin Pakledinaz.” The fun gets going in the lobby of Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at 9:30 a.m. on June 21 and lasts until 3 p.m.

More culture news

The Washington Post reports that former Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter is defending the finances of the organization prior to President Trump’s takeover. Rutter’s leadership has been under attack by the center’s new interim director, Ric Grenell, who accused her and other former executives of “fraud” during a speech at the White House last week. “I am deeply troubled by the false allegations regarding the management of the Kennedy Center being made by people without the context or expertise to understand the complexities involved in nonprofit and arts management, which has been my professional experience for 47 years,” Rutter said in a statement to the Post.

— Jessica Gelt

And last but not least

The headlines out of Cannes this year feel a bit subued, if not bleak. But leave it to Times film critic Amy Nicholson to open her latest Cannes diary with a Samoyed walking the red carpet in a ruffled gown. And because I love him and I miss him, I also point you to The Times’ former Pulitzer Prize-winning critic, Justin Chang, who has this stellar coverage.

A CONFUSED dad has been left stumped by his 10-year-old son’s maths homework with the internet dubbing it ‘absolutely bonkers.’

The father took to Reddit after being left puzzled by a multiple choice question given to his primary school-aged child.

1

While there are four different “answers” to choose from, the concerned dad noted there “must be missing something” from the equation – as none of the options appeared to be correct.

“This particular question was in my son’s math homework from the other day,” he wrote.

“They reviewed the answers in class today and apparently the answer was A.”

The question that has him, and everyone else, scratching their heads was this: Kayla has 18 bottles of bubbles. She wants to give two bottles to each of her six friends. How many bottles will she have left over?

Children then had the option of four expressions and were challenged to identify the one that “solves the problem”.

It read: A) (18 divide 2) divide 6, B) (18 divide 2) + 6, C) (18 x 2) – 6, or D) (18 x 2) + 6.

But as the dad – who said he was “curious how they came to this answer” – pointed out, “none of the options seemed right as I was expecting it to be 18 – (6 × 2)”.

Some people rushed to the comments section to try and work out the answer, but most agreed there was an issue with the options provided with describing it as ‘absolutely bonkers’.

“I think it’s more likely a typo or misprint. If they swapped the subtraction and multiplication sign and moved the parentheses on answer choice C, then: (18 x 2) – 6 could become 18 – (2 x 6),” one said.

“You’re correct, the teacher is wrong. If you simplify A, you get 1.5 which doesn’t make any sense in the context of the problem,” mused another.

While one simply said: “Seems that A is wrong to me too.”

Some tried to make it work, but struggled.

“Really twisting my brain here to make sense of A being correct, but here goes: if you divide 18 bottles by 2 you get 9 bottles in two separate piles. Now give one bottle from each pile to all 6 friends. The result would be 3 bottles leftover in two separate piles, or 6 leftover bottles total. Gymnastics,” declared one.

“A, if they are supposed to use Euclidean divisions (18/2 = she has 9 batches of 2, 9/6 => 1 and remainder is 3),” tried another.

While one described it as “bad logic”, but gave it a stab anyway.

“This is the only way I can get any of the answer choices (and it is A) – I’m not saying it’s correct, only wanted to explain their (wrong) logic:

“She’s splitting the 18 bottles into sets of 2, that’s 18 / 2. Then, she’s splitting those sets of 2 among her 6 friends.

“That’s why you divide by 6 next. That leaves you with A. But as everyone here has said, you and your son are correct. The worksheet is wrong.”

Eventually, the child decided to expose the issue with the question, writing: “None, 18 – (6 x 2).”

The father later returned to update everyone, stating “the worksheet is indeed wrong”.

“I did talk with the teacher and they went over it in class together. The teacher mentioned none of the answers were right and what my son came up with was correct,” he shared.

This article was originally published on News.com.au and has been republished here with permission.

If you are only going to be in one part of a movie, it’s best if it’s the most memorable part. For example, a thrilling set-piece that sets the template for an entire franchise.

So it was for actor Rolf Saxon, who appeared as a befuddled CIA analyst in the very first “Mission: Impossible” film. The sequence, in which Tom Cruise dangles from the ceiling of a stark white vault room to infiltrate the computer system overseen by Saxon’s character, is now the stuff of action-cinema history.

From a throwaway punchline in that 1996 film — exiling Saxon’s William Donloe to a remote radar station in Alaska — comes one of the most unexpected storylines in the new “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.” His part in the new film is substantially larger and provides the film with some of its emotional heft, making Saxon’s return as Donloe a triumph. (A rather memorable knife makes a comeback as well.)

For Saxon’s work in the first film, he was in the same physical space as Cruise but their two characters never interacted and had no dialogue together. So a moment late in the new film when Donloe makes a heartfelt expression to Cruise’s Ethan Hunt of what his life has been like all these years in Alaska provided relief for the character of Donloe — and for the actor portraying him too.

“It was something I was hoping for, and then it happened,” says Saxon, 70. “It’s a great scene. Working with one of the biggest movie stars in the world, that’s kind of cool too.”

Rolf Saxon in the first ‘Mission: Impossible’ from 1996.

(Paramount Pictures)

Finally sharing a proper scene with Cruise also gave Saxon some insight into the reason Cruise has been one of the world’s biggest movie stars for more than 40 years.

“There’s no question why he is,” Saxon says. “The energy that he personally brings into a room, I’ve never witnessed before. It’s focused, it’s practiced. I know this sounds like I’m supposed to say this about him, but it’s true. This guy’s unbelievable. And he does those effing stunts.”

Saxon is impressed, too, by the real-life mission Cruise is often vocal about. “His whole raison d’être is to enhance the industry that’s given him so much and bring people in, bring them back to theaters. And I just applaud that on my feet.”

Rolf Saxon as William Donloe in the movie “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.”

(Giles Keyte / Paramount Pictures)

Having had a steadily successful career between his two “Missions,” Saxon lives in the Sierra Foothills of Northern California but was recently on a Zoom call from New York City the day after attending the new film’s U.S. premiere there. It was Saxon’s second time seeing the movie, having also attended a premiere in London just a few days earlier.

Born in Virginia, Saxon studied acting in England, where he would land parts in numerous British TV series as well as assorted film and theater roles. Throughout his career he has also done voice-over work for video games, including the “Broken Sword” series, and was the narrator for the American edition of the popular children’s show “Teletubbies.”

According to Saxon, much of the business of what Donloe does onscreen in the first movie directed by Brian De Palma came from an unexpected interaction on set.

“I was given the script,” he recalls, “I read it and I thought, OK, there’s not a lot to do here. And then one day I was messing around on set, joking around, there was some downtime. And I got a tap on the shoulder from the first [A.D.], who said that Brian De Palma wanted to have a word with me. And I thought, ‘Uh-oh.’

“And I walked over and he had a very stern demeanor. Great guy, but he just always looked angry and he said, ‘You’re playing around on set.’ I said, ‘Yes, Mr. De Palma.’ He said, ‘Could you do that again?’ I said, “Sure, of course.” What am I going to say to say, no? He said, ‘OK, after lunch, we’re going to have you messing around onstage. We’ll film that.’” All of Donloe’s memorable physical mishaps — the vomiting, the double take — were Saxon improvs.

The vault sequence has become one of the signature set-pieces of the first film, seemingly lifting from both the silent heist in “Rififi” and the spacewalk of “2001: A Space Odyssey” and setting a stunts-centric guide for the franchise to come. To perform the scene, Cruise spent hours in a harness suspended from the ceiling.

“I mean, it was a long time,” says Saxon. “And they’d bring him down sometimes, but he’s that guy. He does what needs to be done. I was in the room a number of times with him, while he was filming it, but [our characters] never were supposed to meet.”

Saxon recalls that while shooting the first “Mission” film, he and Cruise shared a makeup room at the studio in England. One day the woman who did Cruise’s makeup wasn’t there because her son had an accident at his school. As soon as Cruise heard the news, he called his private on-call doctor and sent him to attend to the boy.

“And he hung up the phone, said, ‘Shut the door,’” remembers Saxon. “And he said, ‘This stays between us. If this comes out, it’s somebody in this room. I’m going to find out who it is and that’ll be your last day on the film.’ He wanted no publicity. He did it for this lady and her son. And the boy was fine, he was mildly concussed. When she came back the next day, there was a massive bouquet of flowers, saying ‘Welcome back.’ And then nothing was ever said of it again. That’s the kind of guy he is. And it took me two years before I would tell that story.”

Saxon had never had reason to encounter Cruise in the intervening years, because, as he says, “I’m an actor but I’m not a star.”

Director Christopher McQuarrie, standing, gives notes to the cast, including Saxon, on the set of “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.”

(Antonio Olmos / Paramount Pictures)

The call for the new film first came in January of 2022, and Saxon began shooting on the film in August of that year, finishing in July of 2024. (Saxon’s casting was announced via director Christopher McQuarrie’s Instagram in March 2023.) This time around, Donloe becomes a vital part of the team and is in the middle of the action at the film’s climax. In his years in Alaska he has even married an Inuit woman, Tapeesa (Lucy Tulugarjuk).

“The feeling on this set was one of warmth and inclusivity — welcoming,” says Saxon. “I was on it for almost three years, but people were on it for over five years. This schedule for the filming was very erratic, and [McQuarrie] kept very calm. McQ and Tom, they worked very much in tandem. I loved coming to work every day. Not that I didn’t with Brian’s stuff, but this was just a joy, and I was much more a part of it than I was in the first one. I was much more part of the team, the core group that was working.”

For “The Final Reckoning,” a sequence meant to take place in Alaska, with a team of agents arriving to the remote cabin occupied by Donloe and Tapeesa, was actually shot in Svalbard, an archipelago north of Norway.

“We were staying on a ship,” says Saxon. “We went to Longyearbyen, which is the furthest most populated area in the world. Then we took a six-hour ride north on the ship, parked on the glacier. And that’s where we lived for two weeks. Polar bears, walruses, reindeer and us. It was the most beautiful place I’ve ever been in my life.”

The cave sequence that is part of the movie’s action finale is set in South Africa but was shot in the Middleton mines in England’s East Midlands.

“This was in many ways a dream job,” says Saxon. “The people I’m working with, the thing I’m working on and the places I got to go to work. It’s just like, what would you really like to do? Here it is.”

Hayley Atwell, left, Simon Pegg, Tom Cruise, Rolf Saxon, Lucy Tulugarjuk, Greg Tarzan Davis and Pom Klementieff in “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.”

(Paramount Pictures)

From his initial conversations with McQuarrie, Saxon knew that his part would be significantly larger than in the first film. But even then it developed over the course of production. McQuarrie informed him that some scenes Saxon initially shot were no longer going to be used and due to rewrites, the actor would now be part of the climactic finale.

“He said, ‘We really like what you did, but we’ve had a story alteration, so we can’t use that. So we’re going to put you in in other ways,’” says Saxon. “And that was kind of like, ‘Oh, no’ and ‘Oh, yeah’ at the same time. Which is kind of the way this worked the whole way through.”

Among the actors in his scenes this time out, Saxon had previously worked with Simon Pegg on the 1999 British sitcom “Hippies.” He also discovered that he and Hayley Atwell had attended the same drama school in London, though some years apart. Also returning was Henry Czerny, whose character in the initial film sent Donloe to Alaska in the first place.

NEW YORK — MAY 19 2025: Actor Rolf Saxon for the movie “Mission: Impossible- The Final Reckoning” posing with the knife from the original Mission: Impossible film, photographed at the Museum of Moving Image

(Justin Jun Lee/For The Times)

As to whether he had ever imagined returning to the franchise, Saxon holds his arms out wide, saying, “Just a little dream.”

He adds, “I thought about writing Chris or Tom, ‘Dear Tom, here’s what I think we could do with Donloe.’ Or, ‘What about this with Donloe?’ And at one point, after listening to a friend, I drafted a letter to him. The next day I woke up and I thought” — he mimes wadding up a piece of paper and tossing it away — ‘That’s never going to happen.’ And then years later, bang, it did.”

Saxon said he has never been recognized by anyone for the part of Donloe. (That is likely about to change.) If pressed, his favorite of the “Mission: Impossible” films has remained the first one. Up to now.

“I suppose closure is one way of putting it,” says Saxon. “It’s been much more fun, this one. The other one, I did my job and I enjoyed doing it. But this one I got to really investigate. It’s like remounting a production onstage, or coming back to a project you did 20 years ago, 30 years ago and getting to redo it with what you know now, particularly with the excitement of a larger part. It’s fantastic. It’s another reason this is such a gift.”

In a room inside a North Hollywood warehouse, dozens of pets are ready for their owners to take them home.

Boots, a young black-and-white domestic shorthair cat, lies on his back, pawing playfully at the air. A trio of red, yellow and green parrots and cockatiels sit on wooden perches, oblivious to the piercing stare of a blue-eyed feline a few feet away. Princess, a senior Chihuahua, rests with her eyes closed and body curled into a tight cocoon, as a frenetic hamster named Ponby stands upright, his eyes bulging. There’s a naked guinea pig, a giant red macaw and an adorably chunky pit bull named Messy.

Eyes, such as those shown here on Messy the pit bull, are made of glass and closely match the animal’s original colors.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

All of these animals are loose, liberated from the confines of cages and leashes, and yet no havoc has ensued.

These animals are also all dead.

It’s an everyday scene at Bischoff’s the Animal Kingdom, a Los Angeles taxidermy business that has been preserving animals for 103 years. The business is multifold — Bischoff’s creates and rents out prop animals to film studios, museums and nature centers. Posters on the lobby walls boast the company’s work on shows like “American Horror Story” and “Westworld.” But in recent years, a bulk of its taxidermy requests now come from bereaved pet owners, those willing to shell out thousands of dollars for a tangible commemoration of their late “fur babies.”

Birds are commonly preserved at Bischoff’s, but the business has made mementos of more obscure pets, including chameleons, roosters and hairless guinea pigs.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

From full-body taxidermy to partial mementos — skulls, bronzed hearts or freeze-dried paws, for example — such services provide closure in ways that, clients say, traditional burials or urns cannot.

“It was honestly really comforting to have her back, and just be able to touch her and, in a sense, talk to her too,” said Bischoff’s customer Zoe Hays of the preservation of her Chihuahua-Yorkie mix Pixie. “She was a great little dog — also a menace to society, for sure — but she’s still with me, and she always will be.”

Bodily preservation, beyond the ashes or cemented paw prints offered by veterinarians and animal hospitals, has become a growing facet in the world of pet aftercare, with traditional taxidermists fulfilling many of the niche requests.

Redlands business Precious Creature initially only offered full-body taxidermy of pets until customers started suggesting other ideas, such as lockets containing patches of fur and cat-tail necklaces. (Most recently, owner Lauren Kane sewed a zippered pillowcase using the black-and-white fur of a rescue named G-Dog, or, as his owner fondly called him, “Fluffy Butt.”) In her documentary “Furever,” filmmaker Amy Finkel explores the lengths to which pet preservationists will go, asking, “Who decides what kind of grief is acceptable, or appropriate?”

Bischoff’s co-owner Ace Alexander had a songwriting career before transitioning to taxidermy.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Ace Alexander, 40, and Rey Macias, 55, the fourth owners in Bischoff’s long history, have steered the company to meet the new demand. Describing each other as “good friends,” the two men dress similarly in unofficial uniforms of black T-shirts and black pants, and they’re so in sync they sometimes finish each other’s thoughts. Since taking over the business, both have transitioned to primarily vegan diets.

“Bischoff’s used to be taxidermists to the stars in the trophy era, but now we’re taxidermists in the pet preservation era,” Alexander said. “People no longer hunt. Now they just love their pets.”

Hollywood needs supporting actors, even if they’re stuffed

Over the decades, Bischoff’s has preserved hundreds of animals. The Sumatran tiger has made many appearances in films and TV shows, including “Snowfall,” “Palm Royale” and “Welcome to Chippendales.”

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

In 1922, when Al Bischoff first opened the business on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, he’d stuff and plaster any animal brought to him. Most of the time, that meant trophies from hunting and safari trips, but it also included beloved pets owned by Hollywood elite. Roy Rogers used Bischoff’s to preserve his co-stars Trigger the horse and Bullet the dog. Buck — the dog from “Married with Children” — also got the Bischoff’s treatment.

Under Alexander and Macias’ tutelage, that’s still the case. They’ll preserve any animal you bring them — so long as it is not a protected species or an illegal pet. They’ll even make you a unicorn or a sasquatch or a wearable Velociraptor costume that roars and can open and close its jaws. The largest animal Alexander and Macias have preserved was an 11-foot-long buffalo, while the smallest, not including insects, was a hummingbird. Off the top of their heads, the only animal they haven’t preserved — yet — is the genetically rare white tiger.

Bischoff’s owners Ace Alexander, left, and Rey Macias show off a custom order of a pink peacock (sans tail) for a film.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

The majority of Bischoff’s clientele still comes from Hollywood. Due to federal and state laws, as well as industry regulators like the American Humane Association, it often makes more sense to use body doubles for animals when filming and is occasionally mandatory (such as scenes that involve roadkill or drowning incidents).

On a recent Wednesday, Alexander fielded calls from studios about the types of snake skins in stock, how to clean dirt off a rented coyote and the particular body poses of their turkeys.

“So what are you thinking?” Alexander said, talking on the phone. “Turkeys in flight? Perched? Or did you need a floppy version?”

As for the pet sector, which accounts for around 40% of their business, dogs and cats, unsurprisingly, make up the majority of the preservations, but the team has also worked on rabbits, rodents, chameleons and roosters. And although they will preserve your pet goldfish, they will strongly encourage you to consider having a synthetic version made of it due to the oils in the scales, which inevitably lead to deterioration.

Bischoff’s works on pets shipped from around the country as well as overseas. Dr. Xanya Sofra, who is based in Hong Kong, has had at least half a dozen of her papillons preserved by Bischoff’s. Another client, who was an avid hiker, had Bischoff’s preserve his golden retriever in an upright position so that he could carry it in his backpack on his treks.

Neither Alexander nor Macias had a background in taxidermy when they started working at Bischoff’s. They were both musicians, which is how they initially met. Macias also owned an auto shop and has been taking apart and fixing appliances from a young age.

Alexander picked up jobs at Bischoff’s when it was owned by the previous owner, Gary Robbins. The pay was good, the work interesting and he realized he had a knack for airbrushing and sculpting. In 2017, when Robbins was ready to retire, Alexander and Macias, who by then had also started working there, decided to buy the business.

Blending artistic skill with scientific knowledge

Each multi-level freeze-dryer can fit around a dozen pets at a time. Smaller pets need three to four months to dry out, while larger animals take nearly a year.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Bischoff’s specializes in a form of hybrid taxidermy, incorporating traditional techniques with the more new-fangled freeze-drying process. The results are not only more lifelike and long-lasting than the standard gut-and-stuff method, but it also allows for the bulk of the original animal to remain, including the skeletal structure, toenails, whiskers, eyelids, nose and teeth. The eyes, however, are made of glass.

The method leaves room for error. Water can be used to dampen and repose the body and paint can be removed or retouched.

“You can definitely backpedal,” Alexander said, making a note to check the texture of the preserved hearts on sticks in the next 24 hours.

Alexander credits this attention to detail to his predecessors, former owner Robbins and then-main taxidermist Larry Greissinger, who taught him the trade. Strict in their teachings, Robbins and Greissinger emphasized getting every bodily facet correct: from recreating the natural anatomy to sewing the perfect hidden stitch to making sure the eyes looked right.

“That’s where the emotion is,” Alexander said. “You can get the perfect body pose, but if the eyes aren’t sitting well or don’t carry any emotion, then the animal will never look alive.”

Bischoff’s has old and new taxidermy, including two polar bears from the 1940s and 1950s, a bull created in 2013 for the “Yellowstone” prequel “1923” and a buffalo that appeared in “The Lone Ranger.”

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

A few of Bischoff’s early taxidermy pieces are still on display, including a dog, which looks more like a cross between a wolf and a baboon, dating to the 1920s. Its plaster interior, an old taxidermy technique, gives it a stiff visage and makes it exceedingly heavy.

Bischoff’s prices reflect its modernized techniques, as well as the amount of time and attention to even the smallest of details required to make a dead pet come back to life. The cost for a fully preserved cat or a small dog like a Chihuahua starts at $2,640, with small birds, like a budgie, starting at $850.

A photo booth is set up in Bischoff’s warehouse, where images of the completed pets are taken.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Although most customers order full-body taxidermy, an “a la carte” menu has expanded over the years with jars of whiskers or fur, bundles of bones tied in a bow and, the most recent addition, freeze-dried hearts, which come mounted inside of a glass cloche. Bischoff’s also offers cloning services through its Texas-based affiliate Viagen Pets, to whom they send the pet’s skin tissues.

Pelts, paws and bronzed skulls are among the smaller items purchased by pet owners.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Bischoff’s in-house artist Laischa Ramirez creates hand-drawn portraits of pets for owners who request it.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Costly though their work is, Alexander and Macias see it as an investment. Pets, they point out, are friends you look at every day. You’re intimately aware of their nuances and quirks, like how their left ear might curl back more than the right one or the way their nose tilts ever-so-subtly upwards. Entrust their preservation to a novice or lower-cost taxidermist, and you risk losing some of the elements that made your pet who they were.

Bischoff’s has seen its share of people who’ve preserved their pets with budget taxidermists only to be disappointed. “It’s unfortunate because at that point, there’s not much we can do,” Alexander said. Such pets are cremated “because they just can’t stand to look at them.”

Bischoff’s key component? Compassion

Pets and pet hearts sit in a freeze-dryer at Bischoff’s.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

In the back of Bischoff’s warehouse is where the equipment resides and the smells of the oils running the machines permeates the space. The company has one aquamation machine that uses alkali solution, heat and pressure to break down the organic material into ashes. With interior chambers lined with perforated metal walls, the contraption somewhat resembles a fast-food restaurant’s deep fryer. Except, one taxidermist notes, when the process is done, instead of having golden fried potato strips in each basket, all that is left are bones.

Oftentimes at the ends of these processes, Bischoff’s workers will find inorganic remnants from the pets, such as microchips, metal plates or orthopedic screws. They give them to their owners as keepsakes.

Macias’ son, 29-year-old Chris Macias, works alongside his dad at Bischoff’s. He started helping out to make extra money while attending nursing school, but when business picked up, he decided to transition fully into the taxidermy business. He does a little bit of everything — recently, it was prepping a seal pelt for the San Pedro Marine Mammal Care Center — but tends to do pet pickups the most. Less technical though it may be, it is more emotionally taxing as he’s interfacing with grieving clients who might still be in shock or confused as to what exactly they want to do with their late pets.

Two calico cats were returned to Bischoff’s by the children of the woman who owned them after her death.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

“Everybody’s different, but I just try to be there for them,” Chris said. “Their pet was part of their family, so I totally understand. Because all of us here, we have our own pets as well. We get it.”

Though Alexander never imagined building a career out of preserving dead pets, he said, “We’ve found joy in this work and we just see preservation as another form of art.”

It’s that art that is helping keep the memories of beloved pets alive — for generations even. Hays, the owner of Chihuahua-Yorkie mix Pixie, already has a contingency plan in place for Pixie’s taxidermy upon her own death. It will be “adopted” by another family member. Her daughter has already called dibs.

And many of Bischoff’s pet preservation customers are repeat clients, which is something that Alexander and Macias take pride in. Two women picking up the taxidermy body of their late cat recently chatted with Alexander about their newest rescue, a diabetic stray cat burnt in the Altadena fires. They couldn’t help but comment on the “beautiful bone structure” of the feline, still very much alive.

“I was like, ‘Hmm, you’re definitely going on the altar some day,’” one of the women said.

HIS leg twitching as he described to me his savage crimes, violent paedophile Rafael Josef admitted a nine-year-old girl was “terrified” when he raped her.

Then, he calmly revealed that after being released from prison for that act of barbarism, he’d bludgeoned and forced himself on an older woman who later died.

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It was utterly stomach-churning to listen to this depraved monster, who was seemingly beyond redemption.

Yet, Josef’s doctor was convinced he wouldn’t reoffend when he walked free from the secure psychiatric unit where he was being held in the Czech Republic.

That’s because the former labourer – like dozens of the central European nation’s most dangerous sex offenders – had been castrated.

In a 30-minute operation, he had part of his testicles removed to repress his paedophilic urges.

Josef had even volunteered for the operation himself – and advised offenders in Britain to undergo the same process.

Speaking through a translator, he told me: “I wish I had been castrated years ago and would advise other repeat violent sex offenders to have the operation.

“It was painful but afterwards I felt calmer, more balanced. I was able to think more about my life and how sorry I am for my crimes.”

Despite the self-confessed violent paedophile choosing to undergo the op, human rights advocates have labelled the procedure “degrading” for the prisoner.

Never mind the rights of the nine-year-old who was raped or future victims that an uncastrated Josef might have later attacked.

Expect a similar outcry from liberal lobbying groups as Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood ponders mandatory castration for the most serious sex offenders in Britain.

A chemical – rather than physical – castration method will be used here. Some will undoubtedly believe that the worst of the worst deserve to go under the knife.

Making the procedure compulsory would be deeply controversial with the British medical profession, where consent is a long-standing principle of treatment with any procedure.

But chemical castration is mandatory for some men in several US states, including California.

‘Dangerous deviants’

Locked inside the Havlickuv Brod psychiatric clinic, 60 miles south-east of Prague, I was met with the beady-eyed glare of other paedophiles and rapists who had also volunteered to be castrated.

The Czech Republic is the only country in Europe to surgically castrate sex offenders. Dr Zelmira Herrova had overseen around 40 operations at the time of my 2009 visit.

The medic revealed: “Surgical castration is only carried out on dangerous deviants who have to request it themselves.

“They find castration a relief. The rate of re-offending among my patients is zero.”

Yet when the Council of Europe anti-torture Committee (CPT) visited the Czech Republic last year, it called for an end to physical castration.

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Its report said: “The number of approved applications for surgical castration continues to be relatively low, in comparison with the number of interventions actually carried out some two decades ago.

“However, that in itself cannot remove the Committee’s fundamental objection to surgical castration, which could easily be considered as amounting to degrading treatment.

“The CPT once again urges the Czech authorities to put a definitive end to surgical castration as a means of treatment of sex offenders.”

For too long, we have turned a blind eye to the threat sex offenders pose, considering the solutions too difficult or unpalatable

Government source

In Britain, a voluntary chemical castration pilot scheme in the South West will be expanded to 20 prisons in England and Wales ahead of a planned roll-out nationwide.

Drugs are used to inhibit the action of the sex hormone testosterone, which aims to lower sex drive.

Studies have shown using drugs to dull sex urges can slash offending by up to 60 per cent.

A government source said: “For too long, we have turned a blind eye to the threat sex offenders pose, considering the solutions too difficult or unpalatable.

“Shabana isn’t squeamish about doing what it takes to protect the public.

“As always, she will grab this problem by the proverbials.”

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With a vast and notable lists of credits under her hat from over the years of her career, Dame Patricia Hodge opens up about her newest TV stint starring in BBC1’s newest drama Death Valley

Murder is no laughing matter for Patricia Hodge, who will be playing the role of Helena in the new BBC1 Saturday night drama Death Valley, starring Timothy Spall.

A veteran of long-running shows including Poirot, Miss Marple, Waking the Dead and Inspector Morse, she says of Death Valley: “It is sort of that new genre of humorous murder mysteries, which is quite a difficult thing to get your head around, because I don’t think there is anything funny about murder. But it’s a new popular thing.

“It was lovely working with Tim Spall, who is a darling. Anyway, I am interested to see how it pans out. I am not the new Vera, though!”

READ MORE: BBC TV star opens up on neurodiversity battle as she admits ‘I have ADHD’

Patricia, 78, filmed around Cardiff for the show, which follows eccentric retired actor John Chapel (Spall) and detective sergeant Janie Mallowan (Gwyneth Keyworth) as they form an unlikely, and often comedic, crime-solving partnership working in and around the Welsh valleys.

Specific details of Patricia’s role are being closely guarded, but she is one of a number of guest stars and, with her vast experience of crime drama, she is sure to add to the intrigue.

Despite being close to 80, the star of A Very English Scandal is also busy working on another BBC murder mystery series, The Marble Hall Murders, based on the Anthony Horowitz books.

Patricia, whose movie credits include Four Weddings and a Funeral and The Elephant Man, clearly loves working. “Work is what we are,” she says. “I sort of like being challenged. I don’t want to sit on the back foot. I want to sit on the front foot.

“I am filming this new Anthony Horowitz thing at the moment, The Marble Hall Murders, and I have been filming in Dublin and Greece, and I have never been to Greece, so that has been lovely. I am very lucky to work. Work engages me.”

She is also acclimatising to life without her husband, music publisher Peter Owen, who died aged 85 in 2016, after suffering from dementia. Downton Abbey star Patricia cared for him until his death and has helped raise awareness of dementia.

Speaking movingly in the past about her feelings of guilt over not being able to prevent her husband’s memory loss, which eventually meant he couldn’t recognise her, Patricia is not interested in finding anyone else.

She says of her loss: “It is always a big adjustment, isn’t it? We had over 40 years together, and it is now coming up to nine years (without Peter). I am not looking (for anyone new). It is not on my radar at all. I don’t know what I feel, really. I have wonderful friends. I am very lucky to work.”

Besides acting, Patricia has been committed to supporting Historic Royal Palaces – the charity which oversees the restoration of ageing ancient palaces, held in trust for the nation by King Charles and the Royal Collection. She enjoys seeing new life being breathed into these impressive sites, for the nation to enjoy.

Patricia, who lives in Barnes, south west London, continues: “I was on the development board of the Historic Royal Palaces when it came out of the public purse and was given charity status. It suddenly made all these palaces belong to the nation again. And they gave them public ownership.

“I am no longer working on it, but it was amazing to be involved, and I would like to be involved again. I guess we only have so many hours in a day. During my time, we oversaw the opening of Kew Palace, which was so amazing because nobody had seen it before, and the things they uncovered, they did it so beautifully. I live in Barnes, so I am not far from it.”

Avid history lover Patricia was also keen to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day. She says: “I stood on Hammersmith Bridge for the VE Day flypast and I watched the bombers come over. I was hit in the gut to think of what our parents went through. What they put up with and how they came through.”

Turning to more fickle matters, Patricia is keen to pay tribute to the man behind her meticulously well-groomed appearance. She says: “I have very enduring relationships. All my friendships go way back, so I have had the same hairdresser for years, since 1981. It is a man called Hugh Green.”

Immensely stylish, Patricia has an enviably ageless image. But she insists: “I have never, never lied about my age. I don’t think there’s any point, because people can find it out very easily.

“I think, better to rejoice in what you are rather than try and stifle it. And if people find out and they know you’ve been lying, then what else are you lying about? You know, far better to live and embrace the truth.”

Made an OBE in 2017 in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for her services to drama, despite being widely regarded as acting royalty, Patricia likes to be known simply as “Hodge.”She says: ” The diminutives in Patricia are a nightmare. For the first 10 years of my life, I was called Patricia.

“Then I went to a school where, from day one, the teacher introduced me as Pat, without asking or anything. That was an automatic thing, that if you were called Patricia, you were called Pat.

“And then I got a bit tired of it, because actually Pat Hodge is not a great combo. When I went to drama school, I was called Trish or Trisha.

“There are a lot of people who just call me Hodge, and I think there’s only about two, if not three of us (Hodges) in the whole of equity. So now, when I answer the phone, I go, ‘Hodge.’”

Whether Hodge, Pat, Trisha, or Trish, asked if Dame Patricia Hodge has a certain ring to it, it becomes clear that if she gets another call from the Palace, this grande dame of British acting will take it in her stride.

She says: I don’t think about it. We should not get prizes for just doing a job. I am an OBE. Do you know what? If it happens, it happens.”

• The new series of Death Valley begins on BBC1 on Sunday, at 8.15pm.

READ MORE: 72-year-old shares delight at ‘plump and glowy’ skin after using £10 overnight cream for 2 weeks

A popular Center Parcs resort is undergoing a huge £67 million expansion, which will see 200 new lodges added to the site. However, guests have been warned the upgrade may cause some disruption

Center Parcs has warned customers over potential disruption, as it ploughs ahead with a huge expansion. Whether you’re a sucker for the Subtropical Swimming Paradise and wave machine, or love to stroll through the forest after splurging out at the Pancake House – a trip to Centre Parcs is like no other.

The holiday complex, which first came to the UK back in 1987, aims to bring ‘people and nature together’. Its site, which tend to be set amongst vast stretches of woodlands, feature all your typical holiday camp facilities – such as an indoor swimming pools, water slides, arcades, restaurants, shops and a spa. But, guests can also work up a sweat thanks to the numerous activities on offer – spanning from badminton and tennis to archery and yoga.

Originating in the Netherlands, Center Parcs now has 28 resorts across Europe, including six in the UK. Over in Ireland, the resort’s Longford Forest is a popular choice – and is currently undergoing a huge €80 million (around £76 million) refurb.

READ MORE: UK seaside town abandoned by Butlin’s where rows of houses and fields now sit

The huge investment, which was first announced back in 2021, include the addition of 200 new lodges, including four of the brand’s iconic treehouses. These premium accommodation types sleep up to eight people, and come with a games den, outdoor hot tub, private parking and dedicated ‘Treehouse Host’.

Alongside new lodges, Center Parcs also has plans to extend its existing leisure facilities, restaurants, cafés, as well as the Subtropical Swimming Paradise and Aqua Sana Spa. In a 2021 press release, Center Parcs said the investment would create 250 permanent jobs, as well as a further 300 jobs during construction.

“As part of our ongoing development, we are currently constructing new lodges and facilities at Center Parcs Longford Forest,” the resort states on its website. “During your stay, you may notice increased construction traffic around the village and hear some noise from the works taking place.”

Center Parcs confirmed that the works will not impact the village facilities, which will remain open as normal. “We will work hard to keep disruption to a minimum,” it added. “Thank you for bearing with us during this time.”

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If you’re wanting to visit a Center Parcs lodge a bit closer to home, you can choose from Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire; Woburn Forest, Bedfordshire; Elveden Forest, Suffolk; Whinfell Forest, Cumbria, or Longleat Forest, Wiltshire. May half-term breaks start from £799.

Prices include entry to the Subtropical Swimming Paradise, but do not include activities such as tennis, badminton, bowling, or access to the spa. You can book these ahead of your visit on the Center Parcs app.

*Prices based on Center Parcs listings at the time of writing.

Do you have a story to share? Email us at [email protected] for a chance to be featured.

Ahmaud Arbery. His name is just one that we’ve come to associate with senseless racial violence in America. On the afternoon of Feb. 23, 2020, in Georgia’s Glynn County, Arbery, 25, was out running when three white men chased him down and shot him. His death ricocheted across the nation just three months before the murder of George Floyd by a white Minneapolis police officer.

Now, five years later, the Grammy-winning choral ensemble Tonality is dedicating a show to Arbery at the Wallis in Beverly Hills. The May 24 program, “Put Your Guns Down,” includes the world premiere of founding Artistic Director Alexander Lloyd Blake’s piece “Running From, Running To: A Musical Reflection on Ahmaud Arbery.”

Tonality choral ensemble during a performance.

(Dorian Bonner)

Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, will attend the concert and has already heard Blake’s 30-minute work for choir, orchestra and soloists. She took time while traveling to answer questions via email about experiencing the music.

“When I first heard the composition, I was overwhelmed. It’s beautiful. I wish I could play it over and over again,” Cooper-Jones wrote. “The fact that someone took the time to honor Ahmaud in this way — it means more than I can put into words. One of the movements is called ‘Running Free,’ and when I heard that, I told Alex that it was like we were made to make a connection.”

After Arbery’s death, Cooper-Jones channeled her grief into creating the Ahmaud Arbery Foundation, which champions mental health awareness and provides scholarships and youth development camps for young Black men.

“One of my favorite quotes from Ahmaud is, ‘When life gets hard, you gotta get hard with it,’” Cooper-Jones wrote. “I hear his voice saying that all the time, especially when I get to the point where I want to give up. Starting the Ahmaud Arbery Foundation hasn’t been easy. It’s hard work. But those words keep me going.”

Arbery, Cooper-Jones explained, inspired everything she does.

“He had a way of leaving every person with ‘I love you,’ no matter who they were. Since losing him, I try to do the same, letting people know I love them, just in case I leave here tomorrow,” she said. “Through the foundation, I’m working to be the change for young Black men like Ahmaud who may be facing mental health challenges or simply struggling to find their place in the world. If they choose running as their outlet, I want them to be able to run free, without fear. That’s what this work is about, honoring Ahmaud’s legacy by fighting for freedom, for justice, and for love.”

Tonality’s Blake also wants to honor Arbery’s life with his music.

“I remember reading about Ahmaud Arbery’s story in 2020 and feeling a deep frustration at how little attention it received. That frustration led me to create a project in 2020 with 60 Black musicians to honor the countless Black lives lost without consequence,” Blake wrote in an email. “‘Running From, Running To’ is my way of ensuring his story is not forgotten — a reflection of our need to remember, to heal, and to strive toward justice that has yet to be fully realized.”

Tonality founding Artistic Director Alexander Lloyd Blake.

(Dorian Bonner)

“Put Your Guns Down,” begins at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets can be purchased at thewallis.org.

I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt, grateful for Cooper-Jones’ reflections on the power of love. Here’s a rundown of this week’s other arts news.

Best bets: On our radar this week

‘Califas Trilogy’

Playwright and actor Roger Q. Mason made waves with their play “Lavendar Men,” which reimagined Abraham Lincoln’s life through a queer lens. Now Mason has launched the “Califas Trilogy,” plays exploring the California dream at various points in the past, present and future. Times contributor Amanda L. Andrei sat down with Mason to discuss the works, two of which are up and running. Check them out and dive into Mason’s story.
“California Story” runs through June 3 at Caminito Theatre of Los Angeles City College “Hide and Hide” runs through May 29 at Skylight Theatre in L.A.; “Juana Maria” runs May 25-June 1 at Caminito Theatre. www.califastrilogy.com

‘Schoenberg in Hollywood’

Tod Machover’s opera “Schoenberg in Hollywood” is based on a remarkable incident from 1935: In the office of legendary Hollywood producer Irving Thalberg, composer Arnold Schoenberg asks for more than an astronomical fee to score the MGM feature film adaptation of Pearl S. Buck’s “The Good Earth.” He also asks for full control of the movie’s sound — and wants the actors to recite their lines to his musical rhythms. Three more performances of “Schoenberg in Hollywood” by the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music are scheduled this week at the Nimoy Theater in Westwood. Until then, you can read music critic Mark Swed’s take on Schoenberg and his contribution to the L.A. sound.
7:30 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Nimoy Theater, 1262 Westwood Blvd., L.A. schoolofmusic.ucla.edu

Culture news and the SoCal scene

Elizabeth Reaser and Jason Butler Harner, who star as Nora and Torvald in “A Doll’s House, Part 2,” at the Pasadena Playhouse on Friday, May 2, 2025.

(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

Since Henrik Ibsen’s classic play “A Doll’s House” premiered in 1879, one thing has not changed: It’s still shocking for a woman to walk out on her child. Which is where playwright Lucas Hnath’s starts his 2017 play, “A Doll’s House, Part 2”: 15 years after Ibsen’s female protagonist, Nora, left her husband and daughter to find her own way in life. In a new production at Pasadena Playhouse, screen actors Elizabeth Reaser and Jason Butler Harner play Nora and husband Torvald, coming up with their own answers about what these two former life partners may now think and feel about each other. Read all about the show here.

Times theater critic Charles McNulty, a part-time professor at CalArts, enjoyed reading playwright Sarah Ruhl’s new book, “Lessons From My Teachers.” Ruhl is a playwriting instructor at Yale who finds plenty to learn from her students. “Even in the classroom, with its necessary hierarchies and rigorously observed boundaries, teaching isn’t a one-way street,” McNulty writes in review of the book. “Authority is enriched, not undermined, by intellectual challenge. The most thrilling moments in my years of teaching drama have come when in the dialectical heat of class discussion, a new way of understanding a scene or a character’s psychology emerges from conflicting perspectives.”

Maestro Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Pierre-Laurent Aimard at piano at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

(David Swanson/For The Times)

The classical music world is abuzz with the thought that conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen might return to lead the Los Angeles Philharmonic after Music and Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel leaves at the end of next season to take over the New York Philharmonic. Times critic Swed ruminates on the possibility of Salonen playing a transitional role for a couple years while the search continues for a permanent successor.

Joe Ngo, Abraham Kim, Kelsey Angel Baehrens, Jane Lui and Tim Liu in “Cambodian Rock Band” at East West Players.

(Teolindo)

Massive cutbacks to the National Endowment for the Arts continue to send shock waves through L.A.’s arts community. East West Players announced that it lost a $20,000 grant meant to support the creative team behind the world premiere of Prince Gomolvilas’ “Paranormal Inside,” scheduled for the fall. “The loss of this funding represents more than a financial setback; it is a symbolic blow to our mission and to the creatives who rely on institutional support to tell vital, underrepresented stories,” the theater wrote in an email to supporters. The loss, which represents 10% of the budget for the project, couldn’t come at a worse time for the company, which in April was forced to layoff five full-time staff members. The theater is calling on members of the community to help fundraise and to contact their local representatives to protest the Trump administration’s proposed elimination of the NEA.

A massive art installation created by transgender and nonbinary artists in support of visibility and acceptance for their community was unveiled Saturday in Washington, D.C. The “Freedom to Be” project was spearheaded by the American Civil Liberties Union and helped kick off World Pride in the capital by displaying hundreds of quilts meant to build on the legacy of the 1987 AIDS Memorial Quilt.

The Getty has announced the lineup for its free outdoor summer concert series, “Off the 405.” This year’s performers include Bartees Strange, Cate Le Bon, Helado Negro, Alabaster DePlume and Moses Sumney. Check out the full schedule here.

And last but not least

Times travel writer Christopher Reynolds, who may have the best job at the paper, just released this list of “the 34 coolest, kitschiest, most fascinating motels in California,” which appeals to just about every aspect of my personality and taste. Now I just need a few months off — and a lottery win — to stay at each and every one.

L.A. has long been a beacon for the arts. So it’s only fitting that “Forever,” the Netflix series that showrunner Mara Brock Akil envisioned as “a love story within a love letter to Los Angeles,” celebrates local artists.

The Midcentury Modern home of Justin Edwards, one half of the couple whose love story informs the show — an adaptation of Judy Blume’s 1975 novel — is flooded with work from Black Angelenos.

“Local Los Angeles artists were important for me to put into the sets, and the Edwards family home, specifically, being collectors of Los Angeles art,” Akil, an L.A. native, told The Times.

Production designer Suzuki Ingerslev and set decorator Ron Franco are also Angelenos, which they said contributed to the cultural competency of their work on “Forever.” Although the writers’ strike made elements of their jobs difficult, both agreed that their experience on “Forever” was uniquely positive, in large part because of their curation of the art in the Edwards’ home.

“Sometimes art can really make a space and it makes a statement and it tells you who the character is,” said Ingerslev. “In this case, you really knew who the Edwards were — they curated art and they cared about where they live — and I thought that really made a big difference through the art and through the furnishings as well.”

Franco agreed, saying he had fun sourcing artwork from Black artists that matched Ingerslev’s color palette and also contained themes pertinent to the show.

“A lot of times the shows that you see now are just headshots and everything that we put up becomes a background piece that’s kind of blurred,” he said. “We are very lucky in that this camera really opened up, and you follow everybody through both of the [permanent] sets and you really feel a lot.”

Audiences noticed their effort, said Ingerslev, who’s been bombarded with questions about the artworks in “Forever,” which was just renewed for a second season.

Here are five local Black artists whose work are featured in the show.

Noah Humes, 31

Humes cites a book about artist and writer Romare Bearden that he received from Akil when he was 6 years old as the foundation for his worldview as an artist. (Humes’ mother was a casting director on “Girlfriends,” the 2000s TV series created by Akil, whom Humes calls “Auntie Mara.”)

“I look back [and] that’s what helped form and shape my energy with how I approach the canvas, wanting to tell the story of my community and different things that I see — social moments, political moments, historical remnants,” said the figurative painter.

Humes is drawn to bright colors that capture the vibrancy of his hometown of L.A. “Her” and “Mid City,” which feature prominently in the Edwards family’s media room in “Forever,” depict solitary figures against yellow backgrounds. The foliage in “Her” grows in Humes’ mother’s frontyard. “Mid City,” the neighborhood where Humes was raised, features the red-crowned parrots that wake him up every morning.

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1. “Her” (Noah Humes) 2. “Mid City” (Noah Humes)

“I felt inclined to represent and show a certain subtlety of ‘We’re here, we’re centered, we’re always a focal point of unfortunate times, but also we can overcome things and become stronger than we have been,’” Humes said of the twin paintings, which he completed in 2020 after George Floyd’s murder and the national racial reckoning that followed.

Humes also credits his neighbors in L.A., a “system of Black excellence,” for positively influencing his artistry. Animator Lyndon Barrois (“Happy Feet,” “Alvin and the Chipmunks”) is his mentor, and members of the hip-hop collective Odd Future, including siblings Syd and Travis “Taco” Bennett, as well as Thebe Kgositsile — who uses the stage name Earl Sweatshirt — are his childhood friends.

Francis ‘Tommy’ Mitchell, 41

(Francis “Tommy” Mitchell)

Mitchell has been drawing for as long as he can remember, but it was a high school classmate pointing out the permanent nature of a ballpoint pen that led to his aha moment.

“You can erase graphite, you can paint over acrylic and oil,” said the Baltimore- and L.A.-based artist. “Ink is one of those things that I just think of, no pun intended here, it’s forever.”

Mitchell’s portraits feature individuals shaded with ink set against monochromatic acyrlic background. Because it is extremely time-consuming, most artists working in ink compose smaller, more intimate images, said Mitchell. In contrast, his portraits are huge. If the work were hung on the walls of a museum, the viewer may never notice the figure’s skin was drawn in ink and not paint.

“Going to museums or galleries as a kid, I would see these amazing European paintings, and I’m like, ‘Wow, these are amazing,’ but there’s no one that looks like me,” he said, of his desire to focus on portraiture.

“Francis R. of City College”

(Francis “Tommy” Mitchell)

The subject of “Francis R. of City College,” Mitchell’s painting featured in the Edwards’ dining room in “Forever,” is modeled after his father. For Mitchell, the work represents a young man with his whole life ahead of him. Making the painting in his Baltimore studio less than a mile away from City College, where his father attended high school, felt like a full-circle moment.

Seeing the work on television only adds to the significance.

“One of my goals is to always promote those who work in ink because it’s not a traditional medium,” he said, pointing to tattoo artists Jun Cha and Mister Cartoon as inspirations. “So for it to be seen on television, it lends credence to, ‘Hey, we’re doing something special as well.’”

Edwin Marcelin, 50

Marcelin’s first job as a teenager was at Stüssy, a Laguna Beach streetwear brand founded in the early 1980s. Minimalist graphic design, a trademark of Stüssy as well as brands Supreme and Undefeated, has always informed his art.

“Everything usually is about engagement, confrontation or affection,” said Marcelin. “Those are things that I tend to generate towards by using very minimal strokes.”

During his time at the California College of the Arts — then called the California College of Arts and Crafts — Marcelin was drawn to Bauhaus, a German school of art that melds functionality and design. Marcelin applies those abstract Bauhaus fundamentals and adds the element of movement.

“If it ain’t moving, it ain’t me,” said the L.A.-born-and-raised artist.

Marcelin said his emphasis on motion lends itself well to the screen — his piece “Clarity,” a dynamic painting of Michael Jordan taking flight, hangs in basketball-loving Justin’s bedroom in “Forever.”

“I think Black folks in Los Angeles are dynamic, so I try to keep dynamic images, people doing things, not standing there, and I think that translates to film very well,” said Marcelin.

“Clarity” is part of a 23-painting series titled “Black Jesus.” Each image in the series, which took Marcelin about five months to complete in its entirety, references Jordan, who Marcelin said is disappearing visually from pop culture. Case in point: He said his 19- and 16-year-old sons may recognize the Jumpman logo, but they wouldn’t instantly recognize an image of Jordan himself.

“There’ll be more basketball players, but I wanted to do something that was completely abstract representing him because he has so many moments that are fantastically beautiful,” said Marcelin.

Corey Pemberton, 34

With a background in collage, glassblowing and painting, Pemberton’s large mixed-media works — of a man singing into his toothbrush in the bathroom, a naked woman smoking marijuana in bed, a man devouring a plate of his mother’s food — are both intimate and mundane.

“At a certain point, I turned an interest to those who had been marginalized by society in some way, whether it was because of the color of their skin or their gender expression or their socioeconomic status, and developed an interest in depicting those people in a way that both celebrated them but also gave them some space to just exist,” he said.

Such themes of ownership and viewership are etched into Pemberton’s work. For example, he depicts the space and objects around his figures in vivid detail. Objects are important, he said, because they carry memories of “the people who created them or gave them to us or lived with them before us.”

Similarly, his painting “The Collector” celebrates “a young black person who’s making a concerted effort to own and conserve our culture, which is so often falling into the hands of people who don’t care about us on a deeper level.” And in many of Pemberton’s pieces, miniature renderings of his previous works can be found on the walls of his subjects’ homes.

“I think when you see a work presented that way, it sort of brings a heightened level of importance,” said Pemberton.

“I Used to Cook More”

(Corey Pemberton)

So it’s doubly significant that Pemberton’s work is on display in the wealthy Edwards’ home in “Forever.” The art in question, “I Used to Cook More,” can be found in the family’s kitchen and depicts Pemberton’s friend and fellow collector Jared Culp eating out of a white takeout container.

“We were talking about all of the takeout that we now consume as busy young Black creatives in L.A. trying to claw our way to the top of something,” said Pemberton.

But success in the art world has been easier to come by in L.A., where he relocated to after six years in rural North Carolina, said Pemberton.

“When I moved to Los Angeles, not only was I selling work but I was selling work to people with shared experience,” he said. “I was getting feedback that not only were these works that people wanted to live with, but they were works that people saw themselves reflected in, and that I was doing something important or meaningful to more people than just myself.”

Charles A. Bibbs, 77

Bibbs worked in corporate America for 25 years before becoming an artist full time. For Bibbs, art — in a crosshatching style, in his case — is all about communicating universal ideas.

“I mix that crosshatching with different colors and paint, and it’s just one layer on top of another until you get your desired effect,” Bibbs said of his “spontaneous” way of creating that’s “almost like magic sometimes.”

Like many Black artists, Bibbs chose his subject matter out of necessity. As a young man, he encountered few Black artists, yet innately understood the power of positive images of the Black experience, especially in the home.

“It’s a very honorable occupation because you’re giving people a part of you that is changing their lives in an aesthetic way,” he said. “All of those things play into people proud to be who they are.”

“Daddy’s Love”

(Charles A. Bibbs)

In “Forever,” viewers may catch a glimpse of “Daddy’s Love,” a drawing of Bibbs’ father and Bibbs and his sister as children, on the wall outside Justin’s bedroom. But this isn’t the first time his work has made it to the screen. Bibbs is credited with the Black Madonna artwork on the honey jar central to the plot of the 2008 film “The Secret Life of Bees.” He said the experience underscored the importance of art, which he said touches the “subconscious mind.”

“[My work] was part of the presentation of the movie and in some way or another may have helped them understand what that movie was really all about.”

I was unreasonably elated to discover that the Pasadena Playhouse is test-driving a program that offers Saturday childcare during the May 24 matinee of “A Dolls House, Part 2,” starring Jason Butler Harner and Elizabeth Reaser.

The program is open to kids 5 to 12 and offers theater-based activities inspired by the play and led by Playhouse teaching artists. The cost is $20 per child — far less than what a parent would pay for a sitter for the afternoon — and the group fun takes place on site while parents watch the show.

Here’s hoping more theaters develop similar programs. For so many parents, childcare is the No. 1 barrier to attending live shows and cultural events. A good sitter will set you back $15 to $25 per hour, plus tip. Add the cost of tickets, parking and even a modest dinner out, and a night on the town easily soars past $300.

Pasadena Playhouse is suited to hold such a program since it already runs youth theater classes and has a wonderful group of artists who regularly teach children. (Full disclosure: My daughter attends these classes.) But I can imagine a world in which other theaters, classical music groups and dance troupes begin offering similar programs. They would pay dividends in ticket sales and patron loyalty. There is no more grateful a human than a parent given a much-needed break.

I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt. I came for the childcare and stayed for the show. Here’s this week’s roundup of arts news.

‘Jeffrey Gibson: the space in which to place me’

(Matthew Cavanaugh/For The Times)

With opening-weekend crowds behind us, now is an excellent time to experience Jeffrey Gibson’s show at the Broad museum, which Times contributor David Pagel noted in his recent profile has the Gibson artworks that wowed visitors at the 2024 Venice Biennale: “a giant, stylized bird, festooned with thousands of glistening beads; a laser-sharp painting, composed of up to 290 supersaturated colors; an array of lavishly patterned flags, from places no one has ever visited; or an evocative phrase, lifted from a novel, a pop song, a poem or a document, such as the U.S. Constitution.” Note that the museum, usually free, is staging this as a special exhibition with admission of $15.

Through Sept. 28, closed Mondays. The Broad, 221 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. thebroad.org

‘Cooley High’

Writer Susan King started a 2019 L.A. Times article with this great lede:

Robert Townsend, the acclaimed director of such films as 1987’s “Hollywood Shuffle” and 1991’s “The Five Heartbeats,” got his start in the biz as a teenager with a one-line role in the 1975 African American teen dramedy “Cooley High.”

“The movie changed my life,” recalled Townsend in a recent interview. “I remember after I made the movie and it finally premiered in the theater in downtown Chicago, I started to cry. It was like this is my life. … [Director] Michael Schultz really changed the landscape of cinema for people of color. He was the first one to paint with that brush of truly being human. We had never seen a movie where there was a young Black man talking about that he wanted to be a writer.”

On Monday, you’ll have the chance to see “Cooley High” on the big screen. The event at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood includes a Q&A with Schultz and actors Glynn Turman and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, moderated by Townsend.

7:30 p.m. Monday, Egyptian, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., L.A. www.egyptiantheatre.com

L.A. Art Book Fair

The nonprofit Printed Matter returns with the eighth installment of its fair, which has drawn tens of thousands of fans with booths selling limited-edition prints, handcrafted artist books and obscure titles by small presses. (For a visual sampler, check out Carolina A. Miranda’s amusing photo tour from years ago.) The celebration, formerly held at the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Geffen Contemporary, this year moves to ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena. Although the location is different, much of the programming will be the same, including live music performances and the discussion series “The Classroom.”

6-9 p.m. Thursday, 1-7 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday (first two hours Sunday is a mask-required period). ArtCenter South Campus, 870 and 950 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena. laabf2025.printedmatterartbookfairs.org

Culture news and the SoCal scene

Remnants of the old Japanese American fishing village on Terminal Island that may be demolished to make way for Port of Los Angeles expansion projects.

(Al Seib / For The Times)

America’s most endangered historic places

The only two surviving buildings from Terminal Island’s days as a thriving Japanese American fishing village in the early 1900s have been placed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 2025 list of America’s 11 most endangered historic places. The buildings are in danger of being razed by the Port of Los Angeles, and the hope is that the visibility afforded by the list will help preservation efforts. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Terminal Island was the first place from which Japanese Americans were uprooted and sent to government camps such as Manzanar in the Owens Valley.

NEA grants canceled

The Trump administration is attempting to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts in its latest budget proposal, and the NEA recently sent a wave of letters to arts organizations across the country canceling grants. Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA, South Coast Repertory, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Industry and L.A. Theatre Works are just some of SoCal nonprofits that got the bad news last week. The loss of this longstanding funding has left many organizations scrambling.

Participatory theater

Features columnist Todd Martens participated in the fourth Immersive Invitational, an interactive theater experience that gives participating companies 48 hours to create a 10-minute production and perform it multiple times on the event’s final day. “With the limited time frame, participating theater crews have to quickly establish a place and a sense of purpose, lending the audience, which must immediately contort to their role as actors, a call to action,” writes Martens of the fast-paced and joyful proceedings.

Jackie Castillo

Terracotta tiles in Jackie Castillo’s installation evoke the used building materials tossed from a roof, their value and history destined for a dumpster.

(Jeff McLane / ICA LA)

The latest show at Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, is from an artist who has long been compelled by the visible and invisible labor of immigrant communities. Times contributor Tara Anne Dalbow notes how Castillo’s work draws attention to the workers responsible for building construction, maintenance and repair. “Beneath the facade of every home, school, business and community center lie layers of material meaning and memory that bear forth records of the minds and hands that envisioned and assembled them,” Dalbow writes.

Wednesdays-Sundays through Aug. 31. ICA LA, 1717 E. 7th St., L.A. theicala.org

South Coast Rep’s upcoming season

South Coast Repertory announced a 2025-26 season lineup that includes Edward Albee‘s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” and Yasmina’s Reza‘s “God of Carnage,” running from late January to March in rotating repertory.

The season opens this September with the jukebox musical “Million Dollar Quartet,” featuring the music of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins. That’s followed by the Lloyd Suh play “The Heart Sellers,” about the chance connection between two immigrant women, one Filipino and one Korean, preparing a Thanksgiving meal. Also on the schedule: SCR’s “A Christmas Carol” tradition, carried on for the 45th year; the Karen Zacarias musical “Cinderella: A Salsa Fairy Tale,” part of the Theatre for Young Audiences and Families programming; two world premieres opening in April, “Fremont Ave.” by Reggie D. White and a second title to be announced later; and “Hershey Felder, Beethoven,” in June 2026, and the one-night-only “Hershey Felder’s Great American Songbook Sing-Along,” on June 14, 2026. More details and production dates are at scr.org.

A few more news bits

Los Angeles Youth Orchestra is holding auditions for new members on Saturday and Sunday at First Presbyterian Church, 4963 Balboa Blvd., Encino. Applicants must have had at least two years of private instruction on their instrument. LAYO has more than 100 student musicians from more 50 schools in the region.

The National Children’s Chorus under Artistic Director Luke McEndarfer has partnered with Compton Unified School District in establishing scholarship-funded vocal training classes at Compton High School. The classes, which began this semester, take place three times per week and include ensemble singing, vocal technique, music theory, sight-singing and performance practice.

Leave it to Baltimore to stage the absurdly fun Kinetic Sculpture Race, hosted by the American Visionary Art Museum. This year’s 25th anniversary event featured a massive pink dog sculpture, “Fifi,” that was part of a group of wild creations to be pushed, biked and otherwise maneuvered on a 15-mile long race track.

— Jessica Gelt

And last but not least

The president and director of the Art Institute of Chicago is taking time off while the museum investigates a news report that he began stripping off his clothes on a flight from Chicago to Munich after drinking alcohol and taking prescription meds.