Latest news with #Cupp
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Aurora man, orphaned and abandoned during Vietnam War, reflects on life-changing adoption
AURORA, Colo. (KDVR) — Fifty years ago, thousands of babies and young children were evacuated from the war zone in the final days of the Vietnam War. It was a herculean humanitarian effort dubbed 'Operation Babylift.' The children joined legions of other adoptees who'd been placed in loving homes all around the world over the course of the war. John Lê Cupp of Aurora was one of those children. Colorado nurse recalls 5 days in Vietnam that changed her life during Operation Babylift 50 years ago Cupp was born in Vietnam. He never knew his birth father, who was likely an American GI fighting the war. And he never knew his birth mother, a Vietnamese woman. According to the story Cupp's always been told, he was abandoned along the side of the road somewhere in Vietnam. 'Me, and I think two other kids that were a little older,' he said. Mercifully, while out on patrol, some American soldiers happened to find him and the two other kids on that roadside. 'And they took us to a nun that they knew had an orphanage,' Cupp told FOX31. Had they not found him, the chances of him finding a home and family in Vietnam weren't great. 'If my parents didn't adopt me, I probably wouldn't be here today,' Cupp said. During and after the Vietnam War, an estimated 100,000 so-called Amerasian children were born. They were babies born to Vietnamese mothers and American soldiers. The children were almost always left behind when U.S. troops returned home from war, and rejected in a country where they didn't look like everyone else. Colorado educator reconnects with her roots, 50 years after she left orphanage in Vietnam 'They had more trouble getting adopted and getting fed first. The orphanage was already limited on food, so if there was any food left, rice water, you know, then we were given, we were the last stages of actually being given food,' Cupp said. Thankfully, he wasn't in the orphanage for long. When Denver-based photojournalist David Cupp was on assignment in 1972, taking photographs of orphans in Vietnam, he decided one of the children belonged back home in Denver with his family. 'They really just said, hey, we'll take one of the babies that's, you know, in survival mode right now,' Cupp said. David Cupp, who was a photographer for the Denver Post and National Geographic, used his camera to photograph every stage of what turned out to be an idyllic childhood for his son John, in a new home in Denver's Park Hill neighborhood, a world away from the ravaged war zone where he was born. '(My dad) built a darkroom in his basement, so he's always had us in there helping him develop his films,' Cupp said. Cupp says his childhood experiences actually inspired him later in life. It was the story of those American soldiers who found him on the side of the road as a baby that motivated him to join the Army himself, where he spent more than two decades serving his country. He retired two years ago. Vietnam: 50 Years Later He was also inspired by his father, who died a couple of years ago, but whose photos will forever tell the story of a loving family brought together by, of all things, the Vietnam War. 'Yeah, I was a lucky kid,' Cupp said. To learn more of Cupp's story – and the stories of other Colorado adoptees and volunteers who were part of a daring evacuation from Vietnam 50 years ago, watch our special report 'The Vietnam War: Flight to a New Future,' airing Sunday, May 4 at 9 p.m. ET on NewsNation. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Arab News
28-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Arab News
REVIEW: ‘The Residence' — gloriously silly and wonderfully fun
LONDON: There's a common thread running through most of the year's best TV so far — one that looks sure to continue through the upcoming shows expected to dominate the next awards season: they have tended to be high-brow, high-production affairs shows with Very Serious subject matter and Very Serious performances. And they've been Very Good to watch, it's true. But sometimes you need something that's just a bit more… fun. Step forward 'The Residence,' the latest show in Netflix's megadeal with Shonda Rhimes' production company. This eight-part whodunnit is set in a fictionalized version of the White House and is a typically screwball murder mystery with an array of eccentric characters and a charismatic lead detective. But, more importantly, 'The Residence' is wonderfully, absurdly, stupendously fun. In an era of serious TV, it's a glorious palette cleanser, a rollicking, twist-riddled romp through the most famous house in history. During a state dinner for the visiting Australian prime minister, the US president receives the shocking news that a murder has been committed on the grounds. With hundreds of guests (including the odd cameo from real-world figures) and staff in attendance, the whole house is locked down so that legendary detective Cordelia Cupp can swoop in and solve the crime. The masterstroke here is casting Uzo Aduba ('Orange is the New Black') as Cupp — a character as brilliantly deductive as she is hilariously deadpan. The writing is snappy and concise, sure, but it's Aduba who brings it to life across a show that could have been, at eight episodes, a couple hours too long to sustain a sole mystery. Thankfully, with comic chops as accomplished as these — and a supporting cast that includes excellent turns from Giancarlo Esposito, Jason Lee and others — there's little sense of lag, even as audiences are treated to the umpteenth plot twist. And yes, all of the most obvious mystery tropes are shamelessly mined, and Cupp's abrasively, frustratingly brilliantly detective feels like an homage to many of those who have come before (even Benoit Blanc gets a namecheck), but when a show is this much fun, you won't care. Bingeworthy escapism at its finest.
The Guardian
20-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The Residence review – this joyful murder mystery is eight hours of gorgeous, gleeful escapism
Like a locked-room mystery, do you? How about a 132-locked-rooms mystery, with more than 150 murder suspects? Settle in for some uber-Christie with comic knobs on, courtesy of Shondaland's latest production: The Residence, a bonkers whodunnit written by Paul William Davies (who worked with Shonda Rhimes on her most famous creation, Scandal) and starring the magnificently inimitable Uzo Aduba, who appears to be having almost as much fun as her audience. The Residence is a very happy experience all round – moreish, bingeable, a complete tonic. Aduba, known for her portrayal of Crazy Eyes in Orange Is the New Black, is more than capable of inducing emotional devastation in the viewer, but she is also funny to her marrow, as we see here. She plays Cordelia Cupp, a brilliant detective (and keen birdwatcher and, er, sardine-eater) called in to investigate the death of the White House's chief usher, AB Wynter (Giancarlo Esposito). His body is found in the private quarters of the presidential building while a state dinner designed to repair fracturing relations with Australia unfolds below. (The Australian prime minister is played by Nip/Tuck's Julian McMahon, who is the son of the country's 20th PM, Sir William McMahon. How about that, fact fans?) Enter the president's advisers, the director of the FBI and Secret Service agents ('Jesus,' sighs Cupp at one point, 'how many dudes do you need?'). They assume, from their confidence in the security procedures, that it must have been suicide. Cupp takes one look at the body – after a brief stop outside to see if she can spot any of the birds in the White House grounds that fellow birding enthusiast Teddy Roosevelt noted over his years in residence – and knows that it is murder. The dudes are furious … and that is before she informs them they are going to have to tell everyone at dinner they cannot leave until the case is solved. Off we go on a wild yet perfectly controlled caper, which incorporates Cupp's genius deduction skills and cartoonish cutaway visions of the first family's home, interrupted by interviews with an array of fabulously idiosyncratic characters, who provide clues, possible motives and suspects for the murder. An assistant usher, Jasmine Haney (Susan Kelechi Watson), explains the them-and-us divide between the domestic and political staff – then reveals that she was due to take over as chief usher before Wynter's mysterious decision that day not to retire as he had planned. The president's friend Harry Hollinger (Ken Marino) is found secretly searching the victim's study for 'important papers'. The permanently drunk butler Sheila Cannon (Edwina Findley) has left a potentially incriminating cigarette butt near the garden shed from which a fateful call to Wynter was placed. And does the pastry chef's resentment over Wynter's relegation of his annual Christmas gingerbread masterpiece to a lesser showroom make him a suspect, too, or just a heartbroken but harmless patissier? There is also a cameo from Kylie Minogue (who has been bribed to perform with the promise of an overnight stay in the Lincoln bedroom); a spot of outdoor sex between the Australian foreign minister (Brett Tucker) and a White House chef (Mary Wiseman), before Cupp trains her binoculars on him and discovers, thanks to her knowledge of Australian and American tailoring, that he is wearing the dead man's shirt; and much, much else besides. It's all executed with absurd audacity and panache. The Residence is a gorgeous, gleeful romp that allows not just Aduba but all of the many players in the cast to shine. A spirit of uplifting generosity and joy infuses the whole thing. The investigation is cleverly structured as a flashback, delivered between scenes of them all – or almost all, and therein lies a growing secondary mystery – giving testimony before a congressional committee full of bickering senators, but ostensibly designed to lay rumours to rest and counter the misinformation distributed to the public since the death became public. Although there is an ensemble vibe, it remains Aduba's show, and rightfully so. She is a magnetic presence and The Residence takes full advantage of that. This is not television that is going to change the world, but it is going to give you eight hours of fantastic escape. Enjoy. The Residence is on Netflix now
Los Angeles Times
19-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Uzo Aduba dons a detective's cape in ‘The Residence'
Uzo Aduba knows how to stare. First, there was her piercing fixation as Suzanne 'Crazy Eyes' Warren in 90 episodes of 'Orange Is the New Black.' Then, her room-commanding gaze as politician Shirley Chisholm in 'Mrs. America,' followed by her nuanced poker face as therapist Dr. Brooke Taylor on the fourth season of 'In Treatment.' Now, as Det. Cordelia Cupp on Netflix's Shondaland-produced screwball caper 'The Residence,' premiering Thursday, Aduba plays an extremely perceptive, bird-watching investigator whose unconventional methods and unblinking looks help solve a White House murder mystery. On her quest to figure out who killed the residence's chief usher, Aduba's Cupp revels in silence and dryly delivers her crime-scene observations. Some of the series' most captivating scenes involve Cupp simply staring at her various suspects as they squirm and voluntarily incriminate themselves. 'Uzo has this ability to have so much going on in complete moments of a deadpan silence,' said co-star Randall Park, who plays FBI agent Edwin Park. 'I was so inspired by that.' By the time the season finale of 'The Residence' comes around and Cupp gets to gleefully reveal how she solved the mystery, 'She feels almost like a buried powder keg or a kettle of water on the stovetop,' Aduba said in a video interview, 'slowly bubbling until it whistles at the end.' In real life, Aduba is constantly at a boil. The 44-year-old is an effusive storyteller who delights in the details as she grins broadly or furrows her brow in thought. As a listener, she's equally open, intermittently widening her eyes in concern or throwing her head back to laugh at full tilt. She seems to relish experiencing the full spectrum of human emotions, whether sitting in grief, sharing her trepidations about starting a new fitness routine on TikTok or simply making shrimp tacos while listening to Tracy Chapman. As Aduba's 'Mrs. America' co-star Cate Blanchett put it in a separate phone interview: 'When I think about her, I think about how much I want to be alive.' Moving into 'The Residence' In the long tradition of eccentric detectives onscreen — Inspector Clouseau, Miss Marple, Benoit Blanc, Sherlock Holmes, Jessica Fletcher, Hercule Poirot — they are almost always white and frequently men. In short, they don't usually look like Aduba. 'Revolution is taking someone like me and putting her in any role and genre they'd consider right for a white woman,' Aduba wrote in her 2024 memoir, 'The Road Is Good' (the title is a translation from Igbo to English of her full first name). Did she view playing Cordelia Cupp as revolutionary? 'Absolutely,' Aduba said. 'Even down to the costuming. What I found so satisfying and educational was when I'm in that tweed coat, and you see the vest and the collared shirt and the bag and the whole thing together, you see how exactly right it is that anybody, metaphorically, can don that cape.' Shondaland, the production company helmed by Shonda Rhimes and famed for series such as 'Scandal,' 'How to Get Away With Murder' and 'Bridgerton,' had kept Aduba on its radar for a while as it considered projects that might make sense for her to lead, said Shondaland executive Betsy Beers. 'She was born to be the lead of a show,' Beers said. 'She's the real deal, and she's the full package.' 'I have been a huge fan of Uzo for years, and I was thrilled when she signed on to do this show,' said Rhimes in an email. 'Watching her bring Det. Cupp to life, infusing the character with her own charm, humor and sincerity has been a true joy.' Still, few shows experience as much tumult and change in a single season as 'The Residence' did. First came the 2023 Hollywood actors' and writers' strikes, which halted production for several months after they'd filmed four of the show's eight episodes. Then, during that hiatus, Andre Braugher, who originally played the victim at the center of the mystery, died after a brief illness in December 2023. When production resumed in early 2024, Giancarlo Esposito took Braugher's place and reshot his scenes. Park said Aduba's 'bright spirit' served as the cast's 'guiding light' as they navigated that difficult time. Aduba, who had been pregnant while shooting the first batch of episodes, also gave birth during the pause and returned to set new mom to a daughter, Adaiba (with her husband, filmmaker Robert Sweeting). 'That was wild,' she said of transitioning to motherhood during the shoot, adding that the cast 'really clung to each other because we had experienced birth, we had experienced loss.' 'The Residence' creator and showrunner Paul William Davies credited Aduba's leadership with setting the tone for the rest of the cast and crew as they navigated the changes. 'I think everybody brought their best work because they could see the person that was No. 1 on the call sheet was working just as hard as any other person, if not more so, and treated everybody with kindness and respect,' Davies said. 'It makes an enormous difference in how a show runs when you have somebody like that leading the effort.' A 'terrifying' leap Uzoamaka Aduba was always going to be a star. It just wasn't clear what kind of a star she would be. First, there was figure skating. Growing up in Medfield, Mass., a small, predominantly white town outside of Boston, Aduba idolized Surya Bonaly, the French skater known for landing backflips on the ice and one of the few prominent Black figure skaters at the time. By high school, Aduba was traveling hours to train and compete on her quest to make the U.S. national team. But skating was expensive, and the family's finances were stretched thin between Aduba and her four college-bound siblings. So she switched to track. Again, she excelled, and she earned a track scholarship to Boston University, where she honed her powerhouse vocals and love of theater as a voice major. After graduating in 2005, she moved to New York, scraping by waiting tables at a seafood restaurant near Times Square as she landed roles in off-Broadway and eventually Broadway productions, including a 2011 revival of 'Godspell.' By 2012, she had gotten to a place in her theater career where she could pay her rent and live comfortably without taking odd jobs on the side. But she longed for a new challenge. She told her agent to only put her forward for TV and film auditions and to turn down any theater offers that might come in. It was a bold strategy. Apart from a faceless shot briefly featured in a reenactment scene in a PBS slavery docuseries, Aduba had never acted on camera before. Theater had seemed to be an inclusive space 'like an island of misfit toys,' she said, but television was a medium she viewed as largely off-limits to her. 'Not just as a Black woman — as a dark-skinned, non-Western-conforming Black woman of African beauty, with a name that no one has ever heard or seen before, with a gap in my teeth, with my full lips, with my broad nose,' Aduba said. 'I had seen one woman, really, maybe a handful: Whoopi [Goldberg]. Alfre [Woodard]. Beah [Richards]. I think even that list feels too long. It didn't feel wide, the atmosphere.' Aduba spent that summer going on nearly 100 TV and film auditions and facing rejection after rejection, as her worst fears seemed to be confirmed. 'I was watching my bank account go down and down and down and the nos go up and up and up. I was terrified,' she said. 'If I'm being really, really honest — financially, it was terrifying, yes, but it was even scarier to try to risk going into this medium of television and film at that time, because I was confident there was no place for me. I was trying to go into something that I didn't think I was invited to, and I was hearing enough nos to feel like I wasn't invited.' Earning the industry's respect On a blistering summer day, Aduba quickly styled her hair in Bantu knots as she prepared to trudge to another round of back-to-back auditions, certain more nos were on the way. She had almost reached her breaking point. One audition was for a new streaming series called 'Orange Is the New Black,' a novelty concept in an age where Netflix still mailed DVDs. Casting director Jennifer Euston had seen Aduba perform in 'Godspell' on Broadway the previous fall and been wowed by her haunting solo, 'By My Side.' Because Aduba's agent mentioned that her client also ran track, Euston asked Aduba to audition for the part of Janae, a former track star who lands in Litchfield Penitentiary. Aduba nailed her audition, and Euston excitedly sent her tape to showrunner Jenji Kohan. 'I want her for Crazy Eyes,' Euston recalled Kohan telling her right away. Euston hadn't even begun casting that role, but they offered her the part without considering other actors or having her return to read for it. By Aduba's estimates, she began 'Orange Is the New Black' as No. 53 on a call sheet of 60 rotating ensemble cast members. Suzanne (a.k.a. Crazy Eyes) was originally slated to appear in only two or three episodes, but thanks to Aduba's performance, the character grew into a series regular and fan favorite that earned Aduba two Emmys. 'She's very grounded. She's very centered,' Euston said of Aduba.'That's what you needed to be able to pull off a role like Crazy Eyes in earnest, to really be believable.' When 'Orange Is the New Black' ended in 2019, Aduba followed it with the limited series 'Mrs. America,' in which she played Chisholm, the first Black candidate for a major party's presidential nomination. The FX show was executive produced by Blanchett, who also co-starred as conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly, and when they began the table read for the Chisholm-centric third episode, Aduba left the Oscar winner speechless. As Aduba ran through scenes in which Chisholm triumphantly campaigned or despaired at the obstacles to her success, 'You could hear a pin drop,' Blanchett said. 'It's like she had already imbibed the spirit of Chisholm, and that was a really remarkable moment for all of us. Everyone left the read and we couldn't speak. It was jaw-dropping.' Aduba's work on 'Mrs. America' earned her a third Emmy, but it was also a period filled with deep sadness. While filming, Aduba had been grappling with her mother's pancreatic cancer diagnosis. 'She's somebody who carries an understanding that to be fully alive, you have to embrace grief, and that's something that I really appreciate with her,' Blanchett said. 'She doesn't get bogged down in that grief, but she carries it with her, with grace and dignity.' And when Aduba began working on her memoir soon after, she shifted focus from writing about her own Hollywood tales to delving into her parents' early lives in Nigeria, their immigration journey to the U.S. and how her mother had raised Aduba to take on the world. 'It just felt like, without her really saying it, she knew this [book] was probably the lasting account of her life, and that became a priority to me, the story of our lives together,' Aduba said of her mother, Nonyem, who died in 2020. 'She made me believe I could do anything, and I foolishly believed her.' Aduba is hoping to inspire her now 16-month-old daughter in a similar manner. She recently filmed the crime-drama movie 'Roofman' opposite Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst, an experience she called 'very freeing' and one that gave her 'the chance to do things I've never done onscreen.' As of publication, Netflix has not confirmed a second season of 'The Residence.' However, the streamer submitted the show as a comedy rather than a limited series for Emmys consideration, hinting at a renewal. Showrunner Davies also said he would 'love to be able to tell more Cordelia stories, and I have plenty to tell.' The actor isn't sure what career frontiers she'd like to chart next. Perhaps a movie musical or a return to the stage, but she's keeping her options open. 'That's the job of the artist, right? It's to not live in the safe space. It's to always challenge yourself, to do the hard thing, to take the risky shot,' Aduba said. 'I don't know what's next. I know I don't want to be comfortable. I do know that. So, whatever form that takes, I'm interested.'
Yahoo
15-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
CNN commentator says 'Democrats are a mess,' need to 'get it together' to fight Trump
CNN commentator S.E. Cupp said Friday Democrats are disorganized and need to "get it together." "It is shocking how Democrats have not figured out what is coming down the pike," Cupp said. "It is March. You know the spending fight is coming and you know Republicans have a majority. I don't understand, for all the chaos on the right, Democrats are a mess." "We've got the AOCs saying, 'Why are we going for this?' You've got the Fettermans saying, 'We need to pass this. Let's be grownups,'" Cupp said. Claire Mccaskill Hints Democrats Could Be Responsible For A Government Shutdown Several Democrats have made news in recent days for criticizing the leaders of their own party. On Monday, MSNBC analyst and former Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill said that if there is a government shutdown, Democrats could be the party at fault. Read On The Fox News App On Thursday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., blasted Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for saying that he would vote for the funding bill passed by the House to keep the government from shutting down, saying on CNN's "The Lead with Jake Tapper," "I believe that's a tremendous mistake." "It is clear that some of us understand the present danger & some don't!" Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, declared on X. "I stand by the NO vote on the blank check for Trump & Elon… I've got no explanation nor agreement with Senate Dems being complicit in Trump's Tyranny." Aoc Slams Schumer For 'Tremendous Mistake' Of Caving To Gop To Avoid Government Shutdown Radio host Charlamagne tha God shredded Democratic leaders, telling them to step down. "What reason do I have to continue to support the party of inaction?" he asked. "That narrative will not change for Democrats until the people in the Democratic Party are changed." Cupp said that beyond the government shutdown battle, Democrats still don't know how to oppose President Donald Trump. "They haven't figured out — it's not how they're going to fight Donald Trump yet," Cupp said. "They haven't even figured out if they're going to fight Donald Trump's agenda. They've got to get it together and get on the same page and figure out a roadmap going forward, because the chaos is going to be daily. There's going to be incoming for months, and they are not — they are not on the same page at all. That's clear."Original article source: CNN commentator says 'Democrats are a mess,' need to 'get it together' to fight Trump
