“I can’t trust my brain right now,” says our hero, Ella, deep into James L. Brooks’ bafflingly disjointed, uneven, unfunny and illogical “Ella McCay.” And finally, nearly two hours into a perplexing muddle of a storyline, we have some clarity of thought. No, dear, we want to tell Ella, played by the lovely Emma Mackey,…
In what figures to be a score for refined palates, the famous 1976 wine tasting in which California selections stunningly triumphed over older French vineyards will be portrayed in the opera “The Judgment of Paris” by composer Jake Heggie. A rare comedy by Heggie, known best for turning Sister Helen Prejean’s “Dead Man Walking” and…
Charli XCX is making a trip to the Sundance Film Festival in January. The pop singer-songwriter appears in three films premiering at the 2026 festival, including a mockumentary that she produced and stars in. Programmers on Wednesday unveiled a lineup of 90 feature films set for the festival’s last hurrah in Park City, Utah. The…
NEW YORK — Melanie Moore, who runs the Ohio-based Cincy Book Bus, is one of hundreds of booksellers who received a pleasant surprise for the holidays: a check for $500 from author James Patterson. “I’ve never taken a salary. All profits from the bookstore go to buy books for kids in need,” Moore said in…
Sophie Kinsella, who has died at age 55, had a special talent for characters who persevered through the most embarrassing mishaps — often of their own making. Here are five novels that helped keep readers laughing, and relating, over the past 30 years. Fellow writers could only envy Kinsella’s success, how early it came and…
TOKYO — The American playwright and actor Jeremy O. Harris has been released from detention in Japan three weeks after he was taken into custody on suspicion of smuggling the psychedelic drug ecstasy. The 36-year-old Harris, known for his Tony-nominated “ Slave Play,” was freed from police custody Monday, the Tomishiro police department told The…
PARIS — Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy described the prison where he spent 20 days as a noisy, harsh “all-grey” world of “inhuman violence” in a book released Wednesday that also offered political advice about how his conservative party should appeal to far-right voters. In “Diary of a Prisoner,” the 70-year-old says his own tough-on-crime…
NEW YORK — Raul Malo, the soulful tenor and frontman of the genre-defying, Grammy-winning band The Mavericks, has died. He was 60. Malo died Monday night, his wife, Betty Malo, posted on his Facebook page. He had been battling cancer. The frontman of The Mavericks had documented his health journey on social media since he…
The Golden Globes nominees have been announced — as always, an eclectic and high-powered group of the biggest names from film and television. In the lead was Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” with nine nominations, adding to the Oscar favorite’s momentum and handing Warner Bros. a victory amid Netflix’s acquisition deal. In close…
Eric Dane, known for his roles in “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Euphoria,” has announced a memoir titled “Book of Days.” NEW YORK — A memoir by Eric Dane, the “Grey’s Anatomy” and “ Euphoria” actor who has been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, will be published next year. Dane’s “Book of Days: A Memoir in Moments”…
