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‘Mamma Mia!' star reveals the ‘special' advice Norman Lear gave him before his death
‘Mamma Mia!' star reveals the ‘special' advice Norman Lear gave him before his death

New York Post

timea day ago

  • Entertainment
  • New York Post

‘Mamma Mia!' star reveals the ‘special' advice Norman Lear gave him before his death

Sometimes, the right words come at exactly the right time. The 'Mamma Mia!' star Juan Pablo Di Pace is revealing the advice Norman Lear gave him before the late screenwriter's death in 2023 at age 101. Lear is credited as an executive producer on Di Pace's upcoming film 'Before We Forget.' In addition to starring in the movie, Di Pace also co-wrote and co-directed it. 7 Di Pace stars in, wrote and directed the upcoming film 'Before We Forget.' Getty Images 7 Lear is credited as an executive producer on Di Pace's 'Before We Forget.' AP 'In the process of editing, I remember there were all these opinions flying around,' Di Pace, 45, exclusively told The Post. 'He point-blank said to me, 'Listen, Juan Pablo, you and Andrés [Pepe Estrada] should do the film you want to make. Don't listen to anyone. Because at the end of the day, it's your legacy, and it's your film.' Pepe Estrada, editor of the 2022 Oscar-nominated international feature 'Argentina, 1985,' wrote and directed the flick alongside Di Pace. The 'Fuller House' actor explained that he and Pepe Estrada were introduced to Lear through Brent Miller, another executive producer on 'Before We Forget.' 7 Di Pace plays the older version of Matias in 'Before We Forget.' Act III Productions 'It was an incredible thing to be walking alongside Andrés with the blessing of Norman Lear,' Di Pace said. He added that Lear was a 'really wonderful presence' and said the advice the 'All in the Family' creator gave him 'changed [his] whole perspective of the process.' 'That might be a simple thing to hear, but coming from him — and especially when you are doing a piece that is so personal and that you want it to have your voice — for a debut, first-time director, it was very special to hear it from him,' Di Pace concluded. 7 Di Pace is known for his roles in 'Fuller House,' 'Mamma Mia!' and 'A.D.: The Bible Continues.' Di Pace is known for his role as Fernando, Kimmy Gibbler's on-again, off-again lover, in 'Fuller House.' He also portrayed Jesus in NBC's 'A.D.: The Bible Continues,' Petros in the first 'Mamma Mia!' film, and he finished fifth on Season 27 of 'Dancing with the Stars.' The actor-turned-director makes his feature debut with 'Before We Forget,' a nostalgic, years-spanning story of queer first love. 7 Di Pace played Fernando, Kimmy Gibbler's on-again, off-again love, in 'Fuller House.' ©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection 7 Di Pace portrayed Jesus in NBC's 'A.D.: The Bible Continues.' Joe Alblas/LightWorkers Media/NB Di Pace plays the older version of Matias, a filmmaker struggling to complete a movie inspired by his first love, Alexander, a Swedish boy he met at boarding school. Lear was lauded for his contributions to LGBTQ+ storytelling during the inaugural Pride LIVE! Hollywood festival last month. During a tribute panel featuring several of his former collaborators, 'Clean Slate' co-creator Dan Ewen described Lear as 'that rare magic that happens when a great humanist is also in charge of some s–t.' 7 Lear was recently celebrated for his contributions to LGBTQ+ storytelling. Getty Images 'What Norman never lost was the purest curiosity about mankind I've ever come across. 'What's next for mankind? What are the conversations mankind needs to have?'' Ewen said. 'And when someone like that is in a situation to have those conversations and convey those conversations in aggregate to a wonderful number of people, that's where magic happens.' 'Before We Forget' is set for theatrical release in New York on July 11, Los Angeles on July 18 and additional markets on July 25.

Golden State Warriors jersey history - No. 16 - Hal Lear (1956-57)
Golden State Warriors jersey history - No. 16 - Hal Lear (1956-57)

USA Today

time3 days ago

  • Sport
  • USA Today

Golden State Warriors jersey history - No. 16 - Hal Lear (1956-57)

The Golden State Warriors have had over 600 players don the more than 60 jersey numbers used by their players over the more than 75 years of existence the team has enjoyed in its rich and storied history. Founded in 1946 during the Basketball Association of America (BAA -- a precursor league of the NBA) era, the team has called home the cities of Philadelphia, San Francisco, Oakland, and even San Diego. To commemorate the players who wore those numbers, Warriors Wire is covering the entire history of jersey numbers and the players who sported them since the founding of the team. For this article, we begin with the seventh of nine players who wore the No. 16 jersey for the Warriors. That player would be Golden State guard alum Hal Lear. After ending his college career at Temple, was picked up with the eighth overall selection of the 1956 NBA draft by the (then) Philadelphia (now, Golden State) Warriors. The Philadelphia, Pennsylvania native would play the sole season of his pro career with the Dubs, retiring from the league afterward as a player. During his time suiting up for the Warriors, Lear wore only jersey No. 16 and put up 1.3 points per game. All stats and data courtesy of Basketball Reference.

An Ode to the National Capital Region: Memories of Noida and Vaishali
An Ode to the National Capital Region: Memories of Noida and Vaishali

Time of India

time6 days ago

  • General
  • Time of India

An Ode to the National Capital Region: Memories of Noida and Vaishali

There are cities that arrive in the world fully formed, like Delhi, Mumbai, Varanasi, New York, and Rome. And then there are places like the National Capital Region (NCR) where cities are still building themselves, their grammar off, ever so slightly run-on, their punctuation strange, but somehow always readable. And here I am, a consummate Delhi-ite, penning a love letter to a geography that is suspended somewhere between the promise of tomorrow and the stubborn reality of today. Noida and Vaishali were not merely the backdrop to my youth, but the co-authors. We came of age together, and not always gracefully. I studied at one of those famous private schools in Noida which prided itself on high academic standards and higher egos. There was but a schizophrenic duality to school life from which most of us have never recovered. In school plays, we took great joy in enacting the agonies of Lear after he had been defrauded by Goneril. But, within the privacy of friend circles, we listened to the latest Himesh Reshammiya chartbuster, ate cheap food, wrote cheesy (but sincere) letters to crushes, and discoursed in the finest and roughest colloquialism ever known to man. We were always stuck between two personalities – one which we aspired to emulate, and the other that came naturally to us. Noida seemed to mirror our dilemma. It was a place that reinvented itself faster than its people could keep up. Sector 15A, cloistered in leafy affluence, wore its old-money aura with poise and elegance. Visiting a friend there felt like entering a different dimension, one where the air conditioning was constant and the internet connection was high-speed broadband and not MTNL's scattershot dial-up. The houses had names, not numbers, and the verandahs were impeccably potted with beautiful flowers. Contrast that with Sector 18 or the eponymous Atta Market. No one knows why it was named so; it simply was. Atta was a commercial fever dream – a sensory assault of crowds, bargaining, brands, and sweat. We learnt haggling as a survival skill and tasted our first Domino's garlic breadsticks. Life in Atta felt kinetic, for it was where the contradictions of desire and despair collided headlong and unapologetically. The mall culture in Noida represented another pole. The 'Mall' was where adolescence went to flirt with adulthood. You watched an English movie, window-shopped Converse sneakers, ate a Subway, saw a sports bar from the outside, and quietly bought into the illusion that life was upwardly mobile. Within the mall, we could pretend to be what we were not, much like Noida herself. But, if Noida was the performance of aspiration, Vaishali was its preface. For a brief period, I had the good fortune to live there. We used to call it Ghaziabad's quieter and more introspective cousin. Its apartment complexes – beige, unambitious high-rises named after rivers – always looked slightly bemused at the theatre of middle-class dreams that unfolded within them. The balconies were meant for non-verbal communiques with society friends, and the neighbourhood wore the look of a middle-class uncle, perfectly fine but ever so slightly out of shape. And the background was the ever-present soundscape of construction, a reminder that everything here was still, in some fundamental way, unfinished. However, what Vaishali lacked in polish, she made up for in personality. The local Mother Dairy booth was a place of whispered gossip while you bought the toned (or was it full cream?) milk and curd packets. Sabziwalas knew your name. In the evenings, parks would fill up with retirees and cricket-playing restless children, two groups of people equally suspicious of their future. And conversations revolved around property prices and the 'moral decline' of today's youth. There was a kind of lived intimacy that was not present in Noida or even Delhi. Living in Vaishali meant learning to love imperfection. The roads that promised to be finished next month and the power cuts that arrived with seasonal regularity taught a peculiar patience to the residents. We learnt to find humour in dysfunction and to create strong bonds of community despite the lack of infrastructure. Looking back today, what I carry with me from those years is not empty nostalgia for places that were perfect, but gratitude for places that were honest about their imperfections. Noida and Vaishali were hardly glamorous places. They did not belong in movies unless something went wrong. But, somewhere between the brash ambition of Noida and the calm lassitude of Vaishali, developed in me a personality, which continues to shape me even today. So here is to NCR. Not quite Delhi, but a region built on hard work and an ability to continuously move forward despite a strange incompleteness. And I will forever be grateful to have learnt the art of living a life which is perpetually a work-in-progress, yet fulfilling. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.

HBO documentary ‘Enigma' explores transgender identity and legacy
HBO documentary ‘Enigma' explores transgender identity and legacy

NBC News

time24-06-2025

  • Entertainment
  • NBC News

HBO documentary ‘Enigma' explores transgender identity and legacy

'Enigma,' a documentary coming to HBO Tuesday, details the glamorous, complex and at times tragic stories of two longtime icons of the transgender community — though one of them has denied being transgender. The film dives into the history of Le Carrousel, a Parisian nightclub that became a safe space for transgender women to perform in the 1950s and was frequented by famed artists and entertainers, including Salvador Dali and Edith Piaf. April Ashley and Peki d'Oslo were two of the club's popular performers and also among the first trans women to have gender reassignment surgery, which Ashley, who died in 2021, discussed in archival interview footage in the film. Their paths diverged after they left Le Carrousel. Ashley became a model for Vogue until she was outed as trans in 1961 and then went through a public and contentious divorce with her husband in 1970. The trial led a judge to legally declare her sex as male, setting a precedent that for decades defined trans people's sex in the United Kingdom as their birth sex. Ashley, who did many public interviews about the case and her identity, became widely known as a trans rights icon. Peki D'Oslo, on the other hand, didn't use that name after leaving Le Carrousel. Those who worked with her said her name off the stage was Amanda Tap and that she changed her last name to Lear upon marrying a British architect in the '60s. For decades, Lear has faced questions about her identity, but she has always denied the connection and the idea that she is transgender. She has also denied knowing Ashley, who said they were close friends. In interviews with 'Enigma' director Zackary Drucker, Lear, now 85, maintained that the photos of D'Oslo that look nearly identical to her as a young model are not her, that she never worked at Le Carrousel, didn't know Ashley and is not transgender. Drucker said she decided to show the women's two stories side by side because Ashley's 'story shed so much light on Amanda's.' 'You see the scale of the resistance that April experiences, and the way that she's forever treated as an oddity because of her being so clear about who she was,' Drucker said, describing Ashley as 'a beacon of not being compromised by a world determined to disempower you.' On the other hand, Drucker said, as a trans woman herself, she has felt beholden to the trans community, and Lear's story is interesting to her because 'there's something fascinating about somebody who's like, 'No, I'm just going to be me. I'm going to create who I am from the ground up, and I have no tethers, no allegiance, there's no feeling of responsibility to past friendships, to historical facts.'' Drucker added, 'It's just one of many survival strategies for people like us.' A representative for Lear did not immediately return a request for comment. Drucker said telling Lear's story sensitively was 'a dance.' 'It was totally creating something that there has been no precedent for,' Drucker said. 'Amanda has been asked these questions before, but not in a compassionate way, and not from somebody who loves her.' Drucker said Lear was her 'original archetype' when she was 18 years old and had a sense that she was trans. She went to the library and printed out a photo of Lear and put it on her wall, 'realizing that I could potentially be a beautiful woman one day.' The questions Lear often faced about her birth sex were exploitative, Drucker said, and yet Lear would use them to her advantage to generate more attention and press for herself. For example, her 1980 song 'Fabulous (Lover, Love Me)' features the playful lyrics 'Surgeon built me so well nobody could tell that I once was somebody else.' 'She's used it, and that in and of itself is a lesson in navigating publicity and media,' Drucker said. 'She's kind of a master class in self-invention.' The documentary shows how Lear became a successful disco singer in the '70s and '80s and also developed a relationship with Dali. Ashley went on to open a successful restaurant in London, and the legal precedent set by her divorce case was later overturned by the U.K.'s Gender Recognition Act of 2004, which allowed trans people to change their sex on their birth certificate. Ashley was able to change her legal gender in 2005, just before she turned 70. 'She established the pillars that we stand on, of being unashamed of who you are and standing in your truth against all odds, even if you're swimming upstream,' Drucker said. The documentary also features interviews with former Le Carrousel performers now in their 80s, Marie-Pierre Pruvot, known as Bambi, and Carla Follis, who also goes by her stage name, Dolly Van Doll. Additionally, the film showcases burlesque artist and advocate Allanah Starr, who described Bambi as a mother figure, and London-based trans historian and activist Morgan M. Page. Drucker said she learned several lessons from speaking with Lear, including that 'to know thyself is the work of a lifetime.' The film features interviews with trans women across generations, and, as a result, Drucker said it offers powerful perspectives for trans people today as conservative leaders in the U.S. have enacted a historic number of measures to restrict trans rights. 'This moment will pass,' Drucker said. 'These women survived decades of opposition and resistance and were publicly humiliated over and over again. These women are monuments of resilience.' She added, 'We will find solutions, and the more we can look through time, the sharper our tools become.' 'Enigma' debuts Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and will be available to stream on HBO Max.

Man says 'it's just a joke' after video shows Jeep speeding around National Mall grass
Man says 'it's just a joke' after video shows Jeep speeding around National Mall grass

USA Today

time23-06-2025

  • USA Today

Man says 'it's just a joke' after video shows Jeep speeding around National Mall grass

A rogue driver sent passersby scattering on Saturday, June 21 after he tore through the lawn on Washington, D.C.'s National Mall. A black Jeep was caught on camera on Saturday evening, June 21 speeding over the manicured grass and dirt walkways of the national park area, a landscaped grass lawn stretching from the U.S. Capitol Building to the Washington Monument Grounds. In a video of the incident, the car can be seen kicking up dust as it revs down a path, races across the lawn, does a U-turn and then speeds back down another dirt roadway. Later, police reports described the driver as "doing donuts" across the grass and zig-zaging between pedestrians who had to make "fast movements" to avoid being hit. Red and blue lights flash in the background alongside groups of onlookers as police motorcycles follow the vehicle. See video of car speeding across National Mall The man eventually drove off the Mall onto another street and was arrested, the National Park Service (NPS) told USA TODAY. Though the area was crowded at the time due to warm weather and summer events like the Smithsonian's Solstice Saturday and the Giant National Capital BBQ Battle, no one was hurt in the incident, according to authorities. Police declined to release the man's identity or charges until his appearance in D.C. Superior Court on Monday, June 23. 'It's just a joke,' driver reportedly told authorities According to court documents reviewed by USA TODAY, Curtis Lear, 30, is facing a slew of charges, including destruction of federal property, assault with a dangerous weapon, disorderly conduct, fleeing from law enforcement in a motor vehicle, reckless driving, operating a vehicle off-road in a way that damaged protected land, aggravated reckless driving, failing to maintain control of a motor vehicle to avoid danger to people, property, or wildlife, and using a vehicle in a manner that endangered public safety. Lear initially was able to flee from the scene, where witnesses had reported seeing his car doing "donuts" on the Mall and "weaving through pedestrians at a high rate of speed." Police tracked the license plate back to his Southeast D.C. apartment, where he was arrested. He reportedly rolled down his window and told authorities, "It's just a joke" when they initially tried to stop him on the scene. When questioned later, he told police he wasn't "really sure" if he had driven in the area that day and then claimed he didn't even know where the National Mall was. Lear appeared in D.C. Superior Court on Monday, June 23 and will remain in police custody without bond until his next scheduled hearing on June 26.

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