Today in History: FEMA established
Today in history:
On May 12, 1933, the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration established both the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, which provided federal funding to states for relief programs, and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, which provided economic support to farmers through agricultural surplus reductions.
Also on this date:
In 1780, the besieged city of Charleston, South Carolina, surrendered to British forces in one of the worst American defeats of the Revolutionary War.
In 1846, the pioneers of the Donner Party left Independence, Missouri, on the Oregon Trail, beginning their ill-fated attempt to migrate to California.
In 1932, the body of Charles Lindbergh Jr., the 20-month-old kidnapped son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh, was found in a wooded area near Hopewell, New Jersey.
In 1949, the Soviet Union lifted the Berlin Blockade, which the Western powers had succeeded in circumventing with their Berlin Airlift.
In 1975, members of the new Khmer Rouge-led Cambodian government seized an American merchant ship, the SS Mayaguez, in international waters, sparking a three-day battle that resulted in the deaths of 41 Americans.
In 1982, in Fatima, Portugal, security guards overpowered a Spanish priest armed with a bayonet who attacked Pope John Paul II. (In 2008, the pope's longtime private secretary revealed that the pontiff was slightly wounded in the assault.)
In 2008, a devastating 7.9 magnitude earthquake in China's Sichuan province left more than 87,000 people dead or missing.
Today's Birthdays: Hockey Hall of Famer Johnny Bucyk is 90. Musician Steve Winwood is 77. Actor Bruce Boxleitner is 75. Actor Gabriel Byrne is 75. Singer Billy Squier is 75. Basketball Hall of Fame coach George Karl is 74. Country musician Kix Brooks is 70. Actor Ving Rhames is 66. Actor-filmmaker Emilio Estevez is 63. Chef/TV personality Carla Hall is 61. Actor Stephen Baldwin is 59. Skateboarder Tony Hawk is 57. Actor Kim Fields is 56. Actor Rhea Seehorn is 53. Actor Malin Akerman is 47. Actor Jason Biggs is 47. Actor Rami Malek is 44.
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Los Angeles Times
17 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
In the sharp ‘Lurker,' Instagram stalking leads to the inner circle, but how do you keep others out?
'Lurker' is a teeth-grittingly great dramedy that insists there's more tension in the entourage of a mellow hipster than a king. At least imperial courtiers trust in strict codes about curtsies and proper titles. The rules of hanging out with British-born, L.A.-based emo-pop musician Oliver (Archie Madekwe) are vague and fraught. An impulsive, baby-faced charmer on the ascent from Instagram popularity to mainstream icon, Oliver isn't that rich or that famous (yet), but he's already surrounded by friends-slash-employees who ferociously guard his fiefdom and their access to it. Oliver thrives on vibes, bro, and these ones are cutthroat. First-time feature filmmaker Alex Russell brings us into this demi-star's orbit through a Melrose streetwear sales clerk named Matthew (Théodore Pellerin). The gawky kid is an Oliver obsessive. But he's clever enough to hide it, negging his hero into giving him a backstage pass. (Here, it's an insult to be called a fan.) Upon entering the green room, Matthew is hazed by Oliver's buddies Swett and Bowen (Zack Fox and Wale Onayemi, both inscrutable, funny and terrifying), who order the nervous outsider to pull down his pants as a tribute to their dead homie. He passes that test. There will be more to come. Russell sharpened his knives as a writer and producer on 'The Bear' and 'Beef.' He makes bleak comedies about strivers with shiv-like gags that make you wheeze in pain. Advised to make himself useful, Matthew quickly gets promoted from Oliver's unofficial dishwasher to his unofficial documentary director. Just as quickly, he makes enemies with Oliver's somewhat more official music video director, Noah (Daniel Zolghadri), who attempts to give Matthew the royal brush-off, as in 'We appreciate your help, but ...' and then patronizingly calls him his 'sous-chef.' As Matthew learns when his pal, Jamie (Sunny Suljic), finagles his own party invite, anyone who gets their claws in Oliver attacks their rivals. 'Lurker' is too passive a title for this story of competition. 'Clinger' or 'Leecher' would be more apropos. Oliver presents as all sunny, breezy love, sporting a trucker cap over a babushka over bleached pink hair. The costumer Megan Gray outfits the 6'5' Madekwe in floppy sweaters that exaggerate his eagerness to pull people in for a long-limbed hug. Flighty and magnetic, Oliver trills that his clique is 'one big happy family,' using his faux-obliviousness to shield himself from being the bad guy. That responsibility lands on everyone else, especially the observant and exhausted Shai (Havana Rose Liu), who might be called Oliver's manager if anyone had a formal job description. Madekwe played a more obviously cruel gatekeeper in 'Saltburn' as Jacob Elordi's snotty American cousin, but he still holds all the keys. In scenes where Madekwe shuts off his character's warmth, the movie gets 30 degrees colder (and his artificial pep more chilling). Meanwhile, Pellerin's flinchy smiles and forced guffaws prove how much effort it takes to act effortless. At his most nonchalant, he's doing an Oliver impression. 'Lurker' has a casual malevolence, Russell sidling up to his targets before he attacks. He stress-tests our icky, grubby pity for Matthew and, beyond that, the flimsiness of modern fame culture and its fake-it-till-you-make-it inspirational platitudes. In a hilarious bit, one of Matthew's own fans stops him on the street to gush, 'I wanna be like you — but what do you do?' What Russell really seems to be wondering is what separates a real artist from a fake? If 'Lurker' had been made a generation ago, it would have drawn a line along the boundary of authenticity: Is Oliver sincere about his vulnerable anthems? Today, that question is passé. We now recognize the pressure to forge a brand, even if said brand is a pretense of not caring about one's image. At this point in his career, Oliver likes framing himself as giddy, low-fi and spontaneous. He loves videos of himself crashing his bike into a trash can, frolicking on a beach, prancing around a field with a retro camcorder strapped to a sheep. 'Am I tripping or is this sick?' Oliver asks about the farm footage. Since his posse won't admit the truth, I will: It sucks. Oliver's charisma is its own trap. A crib of yes-men limits how big he can grow. The film's image-first focus doesn't give it much runway to explore what motivates Oliver as an artist. There are several performance scenes that showcase Madekwe's ability to croon in a convincing limber lilt but little engagement with his actual music. You sense that Russell is more confident dissecting the qualities of a good steak sandwich than a good song. My impression of the tunes is that Kenny Beats (who had a hand in all of them and also the brilliantly anxious electronic score) has written the bulk to be decent but not dynamite. How a singer vaults up in quality is as mysterious as trying to define cool itself. Only toward the end of the film does Russell tease the question that we, too, have forgotten to ask: Does anyone care whether Oliver is a genuine talent? Despite its thorny psychology, 'Lurker' strips its characters of everything but a scrap of backstory. We're aware that Matthew lives with his grandmother, but we don't know why and we don't even know her name. That starkness gives the movie the in-the-moment immediacy of a nature doc about a shark and a swarm of remoras. Russell insists we make our own diagnosis about what drives Matthew and Oliver's hunger for applause — and if their symbiotic dynamic has echoes throughout the entire music industry. Twice, Russell cues up the R&B classic 'I'm Your Puppet,' which is once too many for my taste. We're already concentrating on who's pulling the strings. Elsewhere, there are moments when I wish Russell himself didn't play things quite so casually. He's so smart about noting the details — tiny glances, awkward smiles — that it's head-scrambling when he obscures a major plot point under hasty editing and cryptic dialogue. It's a key sequence in the script, yet we can't get a grip on whether it's horrific luck or a game of six-dimensional chess. The distinction matters. Still, Russell has captured us with this tale of a pawn trying to capture a king. We feel for them both. And we understand why castles have moats.
18 minutes ago
'Emily in Paris' season 5 gets release date: See 1st-look photos
Emily Cooper has her sights set on Italy in season 5 of "Emily in Paris." Netflix has released a first look at season 5 of the highly anticipated season. The streamer also announced the fifth season of the show will be released Dec. 18. This time around, Emily (Lily Collins) will be exploring not only France but also Italy, just as she did at the end of season 4. She will spend time in Rome once again and also take a visit to Venice for the first time. 'Emily in Paris' cast talks season 4's romance, drama and 'twists and turns' "This season is a tale of two cities. Rome and Paris," the show's creator, Darren Star, told Netflix. "Straddling both, Emily takes love and life to the next level." The first-look photos find Emily exploring these cities as she travels with her new beau, Marcello (Eugenio Franceschini), and her best friend Mindy (Ashley Park). Also returning for season 5 are Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu as Sylvie, Lucas Bravo as Gabriel, Samuel Arnold as Julien, Bruno Gouery as Luc, William Abadie as Antoine, Lucien Laviscount as Alfie and Thalia Besson as Genevieve. Returning cast members Paul Forman and Arnaud Binard will also appear in the season, playing Nico and Laurent G, respectively. New cast members for season 5 include Bryan Greenberg, who plays Jake, an American living in Paris; Michèle Laroque, who plays Yvette, an old friend of Sylvie; and Minnie Driver, who plays Princess Jane, another of Sylvie's friends, who has married into a royal family. "From Parisian rooftops to Roman ruins, we can't wait to share where Emily's next chapter takes us," Star said.
UPI
an hour ago
- UPI
Sharon Horgan: A mother's love is central to 'Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox'
1 of 4 | Sharon Horgan's "The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox" premieres on Wednesday. Photo courtesy of Hulu NEW YORK, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- Catastrophe and Bad Sisters creator and actress Sharon Horgan says she wanted to star in Hulu's The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox because it is a nuanced family drama as opposed to a salacious true-crime saga. "It is looking at the story from a new perspective and sort of giving it a wider lens and not just focusing on the courtroom drama of it, but on Amanda's journey," Horgan, 55, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview "A lot of what led up to it and and happened after involved her family and impacted her family and, as someone who plays her mother, I realized how much of the the story was about their relationship and what you do for the people you love." The actual Knox was a producer on the fact-based miniseries, which premieres Wednesday. Horgan plays Edda Mellas, a German-born Seattle math teacher who is shocked to learn her daughter Amanda (Grace Van Patten) has been wrongfully imprisoned for the sexual assault and murder of her British flatmate while they were studying abroad in Italy in 2007. As a real-life parent herself, Horgan couldn't help but envision how hard she would fight to protect her own daughter if she ended up at the center of such a painful ordeal half a world away. "I'm a mama," she said. "I've got a 21-year-old girl and a 17-year-old girl, so, I, unfortunately, found it very easy to imagine either of my girls finding themselves in a terrifying situation [like this]." Knox's trial, conviction, retrial and eventual acquittal made news headlines around the world for more than a decade. "There was sort of a feeding of the public's obsession with it," Horgan said of the non-stop media coverage of the case, which led to countless documentaries and TV news-magazine specials. "It's an absolutely tragic, terrible story involving two young women, so I understand why it got under people's skin so much." Horgan was happy to spend time with the real Mellas and Knox when they visited the show's set. "When I was researching for the role, I was watching anything I could find of her online and there wasn't really that much. There were a few interviews and [some footage of Mellas] dealing with the media, dealing with the press and I was always struck by her composure ... and how calmly she dealt with the whole circus of it," Horgan said. "When I met her in real life, she's just a lovely, fun, young-for-her-age woman and I liked her very much and I think it's a testament to her strength of personality and her character that she's managed to pull together as normal a life as possible. I don't know if I'd have been able to manage that." The real Knox was involved in the project from the very first Zoom call Horgan took with the filmmakers. "It was Amanda and how she spoke about her mom, actually, how she spoke about what her mom went through while she was in prison, that made me want to do it, if I'm honest," Horgan said. "She's incredibly smart, a very emotionally intelligent, very warm, friendly mother," Horgan said of Knox, who now has two children of her own. "She's someone who had a real curiosity about the film and TV making process, as well. She's very open about being so new to that and I really enjoyed having them around. Edda came down for a couple of days, as well." Horgan said it was easy to bond with Van Patten (Tell Me Lies, Nine Perfect Strangers) and make that mother-daughter connection seem authentic. "I just felt incredibly motherly towards her. I was away from my girls at the time and I did not love that," Horgan laughed, noting that Van Patten's sister Anna played Amanda's sister Deanna, so she also looked out for her. "The two of them are adorable, sweet, kind girls and we hung out a bit. We did a bit of wall climbing together. We went for a few drinks," she added. "But, really, it was something that happened very quickly and, then, after that you're on set for so long. You have these long, long days, especially for the courtroom scenes. You really are sitting around for hours and days and, so, you do really just get to know each other." Horgan described the production as having a relaxed, collaborative atmosphere in which everyone involved understood the responsibility they had to get this story right after years of misinformation, misunderstandings and bias obscured the truth. "There's nothing about the team that made you feel anything other than protected," she said about the cast and crew. "You were in good company and everyone was there to take care of the story and tell it to the best of their ability. That was a good feeling. You felt like everyone was very aware of the story that they were telling and being careful with that." Amanda Knox returns to the U.S. Amanda Knox, left, follows her attorney Michael Nifong as they attend a news conference held at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport near Seattle, Washington on October 4, 2011. After spending four years in an Italian prison Knox arrived in the United States after departing Rome's Leonardo da Vinci airport. Knox's life turned around dramatically Monday when an Italian appeals court threw out her conviction in the sexual assault and fatal stabbing of her British roommate. UPI/Jim Bryant | License Photo
