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☆ The TV Show That Predicted America’s Lonely, Disorienting Digital Future
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-21 | by ( Maya Salam | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

He fell in love with a woman he’d met online. He and Rosa talked on the phone daily for months and exchanged reams of texts in Spanglish. “You’re so sexy, my love,” Danny replied. Though they’d never met, he was making big plans: marriage and family. When the red flags started to pile up, Danny contacted “Catfish,” on MTV, for help.

Persons: Danny, he’d, Rosa, “, ”, ” Danny, they’d, Jose Organizations: MTV, Puerto Locations: Spanglish, Puerto Rican

☆ Larry David Has Always Been the ‘Seinfeld’ Finale’s Biggest Defender
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-06 | by ( Maya Salam | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Larry David has long defended the “Seinfeld” finale. He’s often been its lone champion as critics, fans and the cast, including Jerry Seinfeld, have continued to lament the conclusion of one of television’s most successful, enduring sitcoms. And, if the signs are to be believed, the final episode may pay homage to the much-maligned “Seinfeld” send-off. A trial included a parade of character witnesses, many of them wronged by the defendants over nine seasons, attesting to their unethical behavior. Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer were found guilty of, as the prosecutor put it, “selfishness, self-absorption, immaturity and greed.”

Persons: Larry David, He’s, Jerry Seinfeld, David —, Seinfeld ”, Seinfeld, Jerry, George, Elaine, Kramer Organizations: HBO, Samaritan Locations: New York City, Massachusetts

Red carpet photographs are able to convey indelible moments of celebrity magnetism and spectacular glamour. But no step-and-repeat can bottle the crackling anticipation, the eruption of victory, the sting of loss or the quiet exchange between individuals amid a sea of superstars like these candid shots from the audience at Sunday night’s Oscars ceremony. Inside the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, our photographer captured moments viewers may not have caught otherwise. These images offer a peek at the year’s most celebrated actors and filmmakers interacting with one other, and not the camera, as we usually see them. Whether that be Florence Pugh looking intently at Christopher Nolan as she rests her hand gently on his arm; Messi the Border collie sitting poised and unfazed as a man, who is lying on the floor, claps faux paws in his face; Colman Domingo and Danielle Brooks leaning over a seated Da’Vine Joy Randolph with wowed expressions; or Lily Gladstone, Emma Stone and Ramy Youssef standing inches apart, gripping each other, their faces nearly touching.

Persons: Florence Pugh, Christopher Nolan, Messi, Colman Domingo, Danielle Brooks, Joy Randolph, Lily Gladstone, Emma Stone, Ramy Youssef Organizations: Theater Locations: Los Angeles

☆ Olivia Munn Had Double Mastectomy After Breast Cancer Diagnosis
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-13 | by ( Maya Salam | More About Maya Salam | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The actress Olivia Munn said on Wednesday that she had been given a diagnosis of an aggressive form of breast cancer last year and soon after had a double mastectomy as part of her treatment. She said she tested negative for all of them, including BRCA, the most well-known breast cancer gene. “We called each other and high-fived over the phone,” Munn wrote. Two months later, Munn learned she had luminal B, a type of breast cancer. A month after that, she had the double mastectomy.

Persons: Olivia Munn, Munn, ”, ” Munn Organizations: HBO

☆ Richard Lewis and Larry David, Best Frenemies Forever
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-29 | by ( Maya Salam | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

If ever a Hollywood friendship was destined to be, it might have been the one between the comics Larry David and Richard Lewis, who died from a heart attack on Tuesday at 76. That would set the tone that would define their friendship — and their onscreen relationship — for the rest of their lives. “I disliked him intensely,” Lewis told The Spectator last year, calling the young David cocky and arrogant. “We became instant best friends,” David said of Lewis during that 2002 interview, at the Paley Center for Media. In 2010, talking with Howard Stern, Lewis said, “When I became a comic, he loved my work, and I loved his work.”

Persons: Larry David, Richard Lewis, —, “, ” Lewis, David, Larry, I’m, ” David, Lewis, Howard Stern, ” Organizations: Paley Center for Media Locations: Brooklyn, York

☆ The Best True Crime to Stream: Viral Stories With a Twist
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-16 | by ( Maya Salam | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Caleb McGillvary, known as Kai, may have been among the first so-called milkshake ducks, a term for a noncelebrity who delights the internet, only to fall from grace. In 2013, he was interviewed for an on-the-scene news segment in which he recounted how he had intervened to stop a crime while hitchhiking in Fresno, Calif. The video, where he is referenced as “Kai, the Homeless Hitchhiker With a Hatchet” quickly went viral, and McGillvary — a goofy, charismatic, eccentric vagabond — was hailed as a hero.

Persons: Caleb McGillvary, Kai, “ Kai, McGillvary, — Organizations: Homeless Locations: Fresno, Calif

☆ Henry Kissinger, as Seen, and Skewered, by Comics
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-30 | by ( Maya Salam | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In a November 1976 episode of “Saturday Night Live,” Gilda Radner, in her recurring impression of Barbara Walters — a.k.a. Baba Wawa — interviews Henry Kissinger, played by John Belushi. After inquiring about his “silly, silly” accent, which she says “really, really irritates” her, Radner asks Belushi to repeat after her: “I am a really, really fat, roly poly diplomat.” He does. In a 1987 episode of “S.N.L.,” his religion comes up again in a sketch called “The Assimilated Jew’s Hanukkah.” In it, Al Franken imitates Kissinger, who is selling an album of Jewish Christmas songs. I told him that if it hadn’t been for the Xmas bombing, he’d have the tickets.”

Persons: Gilda Radner, Barbara Walters — a.k.a, Henry Kissinger, John Belushi, “, Radner, Belushi, roly, ”, Al Franken, Kissinger, Franken, “ Kissinger Organizations: Baba Wawa, SNL, he’d Locations: Baba, North Vietnam

☆ The Best True Crime to Stream: Family Matters
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-20 | by ( Maya Salam | More About Maya Salam | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The series incorporates interviews with friends, employees and acquaintances of the Murdaughs as well as with police, and incorporates a lot of home video footage of the family. Prepare to be stunned by how brazenly they move through their community, and the shamelessness with which they wield their power. But perhaps it is technology’s undeniable influence on the outcome of Alex Murdaugh’s trial that is the most jaw-dropping — for now. PodcastWhat “American Scandal,” from Wondery, does best is to give every story it tackles the time it needs for a full telling with the required context. And members of the tremendously influential Hearst family are found everywhere, starting with their influence on Patty, who moved to strike out on her own after growing disillusioned with their wealth and lifestyle, to the family’s public negotiations with her captors.

Persons: Mallory Beach, Paul, Stephen Smith, Gloria Satterfield, Alex Murdaugh’s, I’d, Patty Hearst —, William Randolph Hearst, Symbionese Liberation Army —, It’s, Hearst, Patty Organizations: Symbionese Liberation Army Locations: Mallory, Wondery

☆ Flashback TV Quiz: The One About Chandler
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-30 | by ( Maya Salam | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Flashback TV Quiz: The One About ChandlerBy Maya Salam · October 31, 2023Can you place 8 memorable moments from “Friends” in order? Start the quiz →

Persons: Maya Salam Organizations: Chandler

☆ Martin and Francesca Scorsese, TikTok’s Dynamic Duo
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-27 | by ( Maya Salam | More About Maya Salam | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

“Omg love seeing this side of him,” wrote another. When GQ asked him about his own mortality in September, Scorsese said that he thought about it all the time. “I was a great collector, a great obsessive glutton for cinema and books, and now they all have to go away,” he said. While Martin Scorsese first dipped a toe into social media on Instagram, it was the introduction of TikTok that has allowed Francesca to give the world another perspective on her father, she said. “People love seeing that side of him.”

Persons: “, ”, Scorsese, Martin Scorsese, There’s, Helen Morris, ” Francesca, Francesca, he’s Organizations: GQ

☆ The Best True Crime to Stream: Stories That Are Very Scary, and Real
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-25 | by ( Maya Salam | More About Maya Salam | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The term “killer clown” would normally send me running for the hills. But I was curious about this 2021 six-episode Peacock docuseries, which is a comprehensive exploration of the crimes committed by the serial killer John Wayne Gacy, who preyed on boys and men and was sentenced on 33 counts of homicide in 1980. profiler Robert Ressler, who is credited with creating the term “serial killer.” (For “Mindhunter” fans, Ressler inspired the character of Special Agent Bill Tench.) While serial killers like him have often been too heavily glorified, there is value in not forgetting the systemic failures that allowed such horrors to continue unchecked. Much as they did with the crimes of Jeffrey Dahmer, the police ignored warnings and pushed aside clues, including pleas from a victim who’d survived, because of entrenched homophobia.

Persons: Peacock, John Wayne Gacy, Gacy, Pogo, Gacy’s, Robert Ressler, Mindhunter, Ressler, Bill Tench, Jeffrey Dahmer, who’d Locations: Chicago, Illinois

☆ ‘The Persian Version’ Director Has Always Lived in the In-Between
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-20 | by ( Maya Salam | More About Maya Salam | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Why is it important for you to elevate the stories of those who exist in that very particular space between cultures? But more than anything, when you’re from two different places, you’re a bit of an outsider of both. And you do see the absurdity of both sides in some ways, and you understand it probably more than others would. Even Leila being a lesbian who gets pregnant by a man, as you did, plays in that in-between space. It was very important for me just to be adamant about our political rights as a community.

Persons: you’re, Leila, That’s, I’ve, “ You’ve, ”, I’ll Locations: America

☆ The Best True Crime to Stream: Leaving the United States
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-28 | by ( Maya Salam | More About Maya Salam | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

In this podcast, one of Pakistan’s first in the true crime realm, we travel to Karachi in the late 1960s and early ’70s, when the city’s lust-fueled nightlife and high-society scandals would rival the most sensational eras of Hollywood or New York. The show’s hosts, Tooba Masood and Saba Imtiaz, Pakistan-based journalists, have been researching the circumstances surrounding Zaidi’s death for years. Over two seasons, they share their findings in great detail, attempt to apply logic to the gossip of that time and debate the legitimacy of the possible scenarios. Now, its leader, Sanjoy Sachdev, is facing allegations of extortion. As Warner puts it, “Escape is far from the same thing as freedom.”

Persons: Mustafa Zaidi, Shahnaz Gul, Tooba Masood, Saba, ’, —, Gregory Warner, Mansi, Lauren Frayer, Sanjoy, ” Organizations: Commandos, Warner Locations: Karachi, New York, Saba Imtiaz, Pakistan, India, Delhi

☆ ‘Big Brother’ Contestant Is Expelled for Using Racial Slur
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-11 | by ( Maya Salam | More About Maya Salam | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

After Valentine, an illustrator from Florida, used the slur, he immediately apologized to the three other men in the room and tried to backtrack. Jared Fields, who is Black, mostly stayed quiet but responded to Valentine by saying that the slur can make white people more uncomfortable than Black people. On an Instagram account that is followed by verified accounts of other “Big Brother” contestants, Valentine posted an apology to his story, along with a photo of himself and a prayer hands emoji. “YEARS of problematic behavior and language in the Big Brother house going unpunished led to fans and former houseguests speaking up,” Herren posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. Aaryn Gries, a Season 15 contestant, was questioned by Chen Moonves after being filmed making racist and homophobic remarks.

Persons: Valentine, Jared Fields, ” Valentine, Fields, ”, “ Luke, “, ” Andy Herren, ” Herren, Jackson Michie, Aaryn, Chen Moonves Organizations: CBS, Big, Twitter Locations: Florida

☆ The Best True Crime to Stream: Serial Killers, With Less Glorification
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-31 | by ( Maya Salam | More About Maya Salam | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Decades before true crime crept in from the margins and inundated pop culture, I found a humble paperback buried in the stacks of my parents’ bookshelf about America’s most notorious serial killers. Though I was already aware that terrible things happened in general, this was different: specific, personal and intimately chilling. This shift was reflected to some degree in July when a man was arrested in the Gilgo Beach serial killings. This is the first in a series of streaming lists about true crime films, shows and podcasts. Here are picks across television, documentary and podcast that offer more than the usual glorification of madness.

Persons: Ed Gein, John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy

The two-time Oscar winner Kevin Spacey said last month that he was ready to return to acting after years in the wilderness following sexual assault allegations. “I know that there are people right now who are ready to hire me the moment I am cleared of these charges in London,” Mr. Spacey told a German magazine, referring to accusations that he had assaulted four men. “The second that happens, they’re ready to move forward.”Mr. Spacey was right in several ways: A British jury found him not guilty of nine counts of sexual assault this week, nearly a year after a federal jury in Manhattan cleared him of battery in a civil case filed by the actor Anthony Rapp. And he has two small projects awaiting release, with directors who could not be more publicly supportive. But the starry Hollywood roles, like Spacey’s conniving politician in “House of Cards” and droll advertising executive in “American Beauty,” may not come back anytime soon, if at all.

Persons: Kevin Spacey, “, ” Mr, Spacey, Anthony Rapp Locations: London, Manhattan, “

☆ Elton John Warns of ‘Growing Swell of Anger and Homophobia’ in U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Maya Salam | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The British pop superstar Elton John lamented the “growing swell of anger and homophobia” in the United States and described several laws recently passed in Florida that curtail L.G.B.T.Q. rights as “disgraceful.”“It’s all going pear-shaped in America,” John, a longtime leader for gay rights and visibility, said in an interview published Tuesday in Radio Times, in which he pointed to a rise in violent incidents and recent legislation curtailing rights. “We seem to be going backwards. “I don’t like it at all,” John said, referring to the increasingly hostile climate. “It’s a growing swell of anger and homophobia that’s around America.”

Persons: Elton John, ” John, ” Organizations: Radio Times, Human Rights Locations: British, United States, Florida, America

☆ Padma Lakshmi Is Leaving ‘Top Chef’ After Its 20th Season
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Maya Salam | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“Many of the cast and crew are like family to me, and I will miss working alongside them dearly,” she continued. “I feel it’s time to move on and need to make space for ‘Taste the Nation,’ my books and other creative pursuits. I am deeply thankful to all of you for so many years of love and support.”Lakshmi did not immediately responded to a request for comment on Friday. In an interview with The New York Times earlier this year, she discussed why she had decided to go on the show in the early days of reality television. “It wasn’t about the cat fights and lowest common denominator.”

Persons: Padma Lakshmi, ”, ” Lakshmi, “ Organizations: Bravo, The New York Times

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