Latest news with #SanFrancisco-born
San Francisco Chronicle
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
‘I was enraged': Former Paramount CEO slams George Lucas over ‘Indiana Jones' dispute
Former Paramount Pictures CEO Barry Diller is opening up about his bitter argument with George Lucas during the development of the 'Indiana Jones' franchise in the 1980s. The San Francisco-born businessman explained in his recent memoir, 'Who Knew,' that Lucas betrayed his trust by demanding more money for the series' second film despite previously agreeing to no new negotiations. 'I hadn't expected to find that the Hollywood-bashing, take-the-high-ground George Lucas was actually a sanctimonious, though supremely talented … hypocrite,' he wrote in the book, which was released Tuesday, March 20. Financial concerns began when Diller contemplated greenlighting the franchise's first film, 'Raiders of the Lost Ark,' which Lucas co-wrote and executive produced. Despite loving the script, Diller was worried about steep production costs. So, he came up with a compromise. 'I insisted we had the right to make sequels on the same terms as ('Raiders of the Lost Ark'), given that the terms on the (movie) were so much higher than anyone else had ever received. I wanted to retch once, and then not have to regurgitate in a new negotiation if the film was a success,' he wrote. 'I wanted it in the clearest, most unambiguous language that all the parties agreed to and understood; there would be no new negotiating if George Lucas wanted to do a sequel.' He was particularly careful to lay out the terms to avoid being in the same situation as 20th Century Fox, which gave Lucas ' Star Wars ' merchandising and sequel rights when they had negotiated the deal for 'A New Hope' (1977). After the 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' became a massive hit upon its release in 1981, Diller and Lucas regrouped to plan out the sequel, 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.' By then, Lucas was on the heels of 1980's 'The Empire Strikes Back,' the second installment of his 'Star Wars' franchise, and seemed to have a new idea of his worth as a filmmaker. 'I was enraged,' Diller wrote. 'We had made such a big deal out of never having to be put in this position, and yet that was exactly what was happening. I couldn't believe it.' Speculating that the push for more money could have come from lawyers egging Lucas on to renegotiate for their own benefit, he wrote that he decided to call the filmmaker. The Modesto native 'responded with cold clarity,' according to Diller, and stated that the current terms were not 'worth it.' 'But you made a legal and moral commitment to honor these sequel terms. Here you are, someone who doesn't live in Hollywood because you loudly decry the amoral atmosphere of the company town, and then you blithely renege on an agreement made in good faith,' Diller responded. Standing his ground, Lucas reiterated that the project wouldn't be worth it for him unless he received more money. Diller eventually gave in and renegotiated the film, but he has clearly not forgotten the dispute.
San Francisco Chronicle
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Ali Wong celebrates Golden State Valkyries' WNBA debut
Ali Wong showed up to Ballhalla as the Golden State Valkyries made their official WNBA franchise debut, and the crowd went wild. The San Francisco-born comedian was shown on the jumbotron at Chase Center during the Valkyries' 84-67 loss to the Los Angeles Sparks on Friday, May 16. She later reposted a 20-second clip to her Instagram story that showed her waving, blowing kisses and forming a heart with her hands as the sold-out crowd of 18,064 screamed throughout the arena. 'Congrats to @valkyries on your inaugural season opener game!!!' Wong wrote in an Instagram story she posted after the game. The accompanying photo shows her from the back wearing a No. 19 Valkyries jersey with her last name on it (no player on the roster wears that number). The Valkyries official Instagram account also shared photos of Wong sporting her jersey and posing for pictures. Wong has long touted her love of the Bay Area, and recently was seen in the city dining with her boyfriend, comedian and actor Bill Hader, in the Financial District at Vietnamese restaurant Turtle Tower. This time around, she shared a photo of Holy Prawns, a shrimp dish from Gao Viet Kitchen & Bar in the Outer Sunset. The 'Beef' and 'Always Be My Maybe' star has credited the city and the Punch Line Comedy Club for the beginnings of her success during her speech at January's Golden Globes, where she won for best stand up comedy performance for her fourth Netflix comedy special ' Single Lady.' She was back at the Punch Line in March for a string of 'Ali Wong: Work in Progress' shows. Other celebs spotted at Chase Center on Friday night were mostly from the sports world. Golden State Warriors and Valkyries co-owners Joe Lacob and Peter Gruber sat courtside, as did Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, and several Warriors players, including Jonathan Kuminga, Brandin Podziemski, Kevon Looney and Buddy Hield, who brought his children. Stephen Curry had planned to come, but reportedly couldn't make it 'due to a last-minute personal matter.' Also flying in for the game was Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers, who employed Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase as an assistant coach when he was head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers.
San Francisco Chronicle
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Bay Area play, local artists get Tony Award nominations
Berkeley's not just on Broadway — it's now the toast of Broadway. 'Eureka Day,' about a mumps outbreak caused by undervaccination at an elite Berkeley private school, received a Tony Award nomination for best revival of a play. Written by Oakland playwright Jonathan Spector, it marks the first time in recent memory that a play about the Bay Area, written by a current Bay Area resident, has received a nod from the nation's highest honors for commercial theater, which are overseen by the American Theatre Wing and the Broadway League. 'Eureka Day' premiered at Berkeley's Aurora Theatre in 2018, under the direction of Josh Costello. 'I feel amazing. It's surreal,' Spector told the Chronicle just after 6 a.m. Thursday, May 1, when the nominations were announced by actors Sarah Paulson and Wendell Pierce on the Tony Awards' YouTube Channel. 'I never could have imagined when this play started its life seven years ago at Aurora that this little Berkeley play made with Berkeley people would one day be on Broadway and have a Tony nomination,' Spector continued. 'It was not on my bingo card.' Spector isn't the only artist with Bay Area ties among this year's nominees. San Francisco-born Darren Criss and Hayward native James Monroe Iglehart both received nods for the best performance by a leading actor in a musical award. Criss got recognized for 'Maybe Happy Ending,' in which he plays a robot seeking connection, while Iglehart was nominated for 'A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical,' in which he played the title role. San Francisco's own Francis Jue also took home an acting nod, for best performance by an actor in a featured role in a play, for his work in 'Yellow Face.' Additionally, 'Dead Outlaw,' with a book by Berkeley native Itamar Moses, got seven nominations, including best musical, best book of a musical and best original score. (Moses has won previously, for 'The Band's Visit.') 'Eureka Day' begins with an executive committee meeting among parents and a headmaster, with dialogue that nails the Bay Area's particular breed of progressive affluence: a stay-at-home dad in an open marriage and a babysitter he met at Burning Man; the mom who, embarrassed of her privilege, calls her kid's private school 'more of a community school.' There's lots of concern about 'holding space' and 'feeling seen' — all as the group debates something as trifling as adding an option to a drop-down menu on the school's admission application. But soon the mumps outbreak splinters people accustomed to agreeing politically and governing by consensus. It all detonates in an uproarious scene in which the executive committee tries to livestream a meeting about the surge of the viral infection to all the school's parents, only to get outtalked and overrun by increasingly beastly commenters (whose individual posts ping in real time, displayed via projection). For all its comedy, the show also achieves the trickiest of balances: It doesn't render vaccine skeptics as cardboard cut-outs, but it doesn't validate their points of view either. Rather, it reveals how on certain polarized issues, political common ground, and the idea we can somehow eke it out through productive debate, are mirages. The show's Tony nod comes as outbreaks of measles — declared eradicated in the U.S. in 2000 — have popped up in Texas, Indiana, Kansas, New Mexico, Ohio and Oklahoma this year, all while Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continues to disseminate mixed messages about vaccines, drawing ire from health officials for an uncoordinated response. In the livestream scene of 'Eureka Day,' Spector said, 'There's a comment that I was really on the fence about cutting, because I felt like it was too extreme, where somebody says, 'These vaccines are all made from the cells of dead fetuses.' And then RFK Jr. said that yesterday about the measles vaccine in a press conference.' He added, 'It's maybe the monkey's paw of playwright gifts to have an eye towards things — but only bad things coming true.' The Tony nod isn't the only time 'Eureka Day' has been part of national news this year. In February, the show was part of the spate of cancellations at the Kennedy Center following Trump's self-appointment as chair of the flagship Washington, D.C., performing arts organization. 'I … struggled with whether having work there in these circumstances would be an act of resistance or an act of complicity. There's compelling arguments both ways,' Spector told the Chronicle in March. As time has passed, he added on the morning of the Tony nomination, his feelings have shifted more and more to relief. In any event, the show has a slew of other productions currently running or planned across the country — Boston, Denver, Houston, Pittsburgh and Sacramento — and the globe, including in Nottingham, England; Sydney and Vienna. Past Tony Award winners with connections to the Bay Area include Menlo Park native Will Brill (for 'Stereophonic,' which tours to BroadwaySF's Curran Theatre in the fall); San Francisco native Lena Hall (for 'Hedwig and the Angry Inch'); and Pickle Family Circus co-founder Bill Irwin (for 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'); Irwin also starred in 'Eureka Day' on Broadway, alongside Jessica Hecht, whose performance earned her a Tony nomination for best performance by an actress in a featured role in a play. Spector's other notable local world premieres include 'This Much I Know' at Aurora Theatre and 'Best Available' at Shotgun Players. His 'Birthright,' about American Jews on a Birthright trip to Israel, premiered in April at Miami New Drama in Florida.
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
CA, 18 other states' AGs celebrate injunction against Trump's citizenship order
LOS ANGELES (KTLA)—California Attorney General Rob Bonta and 18 other state attorneys general have issued a statement after another judge blocked President Donald Trump's executive order seeking to terminate birthright citizenship. 'President Trump may believe that he is above the law, but today's preliminary injunction sends a clear message: He is not a king, and he cannot rewrite the Constitution with the stroke of a pen,' the statement said in part. U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin, who sits on the federal district court in Massachusetts, said that 19 states, the District of Columbia and two nonprofit organizations are likely to prevail on the merits of their claims. New lawsuit alleges University of California illegally considers race in admissions In January, California joined a lawsuit against Trump's executive order. Bonta pointed to the case of Wong Kim Ark, a San Francisco-born son of Chinese immigrants, who sued all the way to the Supreme Court in 1898 when his citizenship was challenged when he tried to return home from a trip abroad. That case set a precedent for establishing birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment. In his opinion, Sorokin noted that the administration could revisit the case but that would be a matter for the Supreme Court. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
