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San Francisco Chronicle
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Clint Eastwood accuses Austrian newspaper of fabricating interview
Clint Eastwood has denied making comments to an Austrian newspaper that quoted him as criticizing filmmakers for lacking originality. The viral interview was published just before the director's milestone birthday. 'A couple of items about me have recently shown up in the news,' the San Francisco-born actor said in a statement to Deadline published Monday, June 2. 'I thought I would set the record straight. I can confirm I've turned 95. I can also confirm that I never gave an interview to an Austrian publication called Kurier, or any other writer in recent weeks, and that the interview is entirely phony.' Kurier, a German language newspaper, falsely quoted Eastwood as slamming Hollywood for failing to generate original ideas in a story published Friday, May 30. The fabricated interview quoted the ' Dirty Harry ' star remarking that he believes one should 'do something new or stay at home' with regard to the modern state of the industry. While the Vienna-based publication has a circulation of about 100,000, these remarks were quickly picked up by American outlets. Kurier addressed the allegations on Tuesday, June 3, in German, explaining that it followed up with freelance writer Elisabeth Sereda, who wrote the article, following Eastwood's statement. 'Foreign journalists often conduct interviews with stars in groups, so everyone can then use the conversation as an interview for their own publication or even sell it to multiple media outlets,' explained journalist Martin Gebhart, who penned the statement. 'As she convincingly explained to the Kurier, Sereda spoke with Eastwood a total of 18 times at roundtables. Foreign journalists receive transcripts of these conversations, which are free to use.' The publication notes that Sereda wrote Friday's article 'based on these conversations,' and thus, 'no quote is fabricated, the interviews are documented, and the allegation of falsification can be refuted.' However, it admits that the piece was 'formatted as an interview, not a portrait' to uphold the illusion that it was a new interview, which wasn't the case. The outlet intends to sever ties from Sereda moving forward. Editor's note: The Chronicle referred to the interview Clint Eastwood ostensibly gave Kurier in an earlier story, which has since been corrected.
Hindustan Times
5 days ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Who is Jermaine Thomas? Texas man born on US army base to American soldier deported to Jamaica
A man born on a US Army base in Germany to a military family has been deported to Jamaica, a country he has never visited in, as reported by Austin Chronicle. Jermaine Thomas was born in 1986 while his father, a Jamaican immigrant who later became a US citizen, was serving in the military.(No Jumper/ Facebook) Jermaine Thomas was born in 1986 while his father, a Jamaican immigrant who later became a US citizen, was serving in the military. His mother, a Kenyan citizen at the time, and his father raised him while moving between bases. After his parents divorced, Thomas moved to Florida at age 11 to live with his father, who had retired. His father died in 2010 from kidney failure, not long after Thomas arrived. Following his father's death, Thomas struggled. He spent years in Texas, sometimes homeless and often in jail, according to The Chronicle. Also Read: Zohran Mamdani 'needs to be deported': Republicans over NYC mayoral candidate's anti-ICE stance The exact date of his deportation order is unclear. However, court records from 2015 show that his case reached the US Supreme Court. The Justice Department argued that being born on a US Army base in Germany did not automatically make him a citizen. The Court sided with the DOJ, agreeing with a lower court's decision and denying Thomas's request to review the deportation order. It ruled that 'his father did not meet the physical presence requirement of the statute in force at the time of Thomas's birth.' The court also cited Thomas's criminal history, including a domestic violence conviction and two 'crimes involving moral turpitude.' Thomas, who held no official citizenship from the US, Germany, or Jamaica, was considered stateless. He continued living in the US, most recently in Killeen, Texas. Jermaine Thomas deportation process began… According to The Chronicle, the deportation process began after he was evicted from his apartment. While moving out, he was arrested for trespassing, a misdemeanor in Texas. A court-appointed lawyer told him he could spend nearly a year in jail waiting for trial. Having lost his job, Thomas agreed to a release deal. Instead of being freed, he was transferred to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility near Houston, where he was held for two and a half months. Now in Kingston, Thomas is living in a hotel. He told The Chronicle he doesn't know who is paying for the room — the US government or Jamaican authorities — or how long he will be allowed to stay. He also said he is uncertain whether he's legally permitted to work or remain in Jamaica. 'If you're in the U.S. Army, and the Army deploys you somewhere, and you've got to have your child over there, and your child makes a mistake after you pass away, and you put your life on the line for this country, are you going to be okay with them just kicking your child out of the country?' Thomas told The Chronicle.
The Hill
5 days ago
- The Hill
US soldier's son, born on Army base in Germany, is deported to Jamaica
(KTLA) — A man born to an active-duty member of the United States military on an Army base in Germany in 1986 before coming to the states as a child was deported last week to Jamaica, a country he's never been to, according to a report by The Austin Chronicle. Jermaine Thomas, whose Jamaican-born dad became a U.S. citizen during his 18-year military career, spent much of his early life moving from base to base with his father and mother, the latter a citizen of Kenya at the time of his birth. At 11 years old, after his parents' divorce and his mother's second marriage to another soldier, he went to live with his father, who had since retired, in Florida. Unfortunately, his father passed away in 2010 from kidney failure shortly after Thomas had arrived. Much of his life after that, The Chronicle reported, was spent in Texas, homeless and in and out of jail. It's unclear when exactly Thomas was first ordered to leave the country, but court records from 2015 show a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court, in which the U.S. Department of Justice argued that he was not a citizen simply because he was born on a U.S. Army base in Germany. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the DOJ, upholding the U.S. Court of Appeals decision and denied Thomas' petition for a review of the deportation order, saying in part that 'his father did not meet the physical presence requirement of the statute in force at the time of Thomas's birth.' The court also noted Thomas' prior criminal convictions, one for domestic violence and two 'crimes involving moral turpitude.' Without U.S., German or Jamaican citizenship, Thomas was stateless, though he remained in the states, most recently living in Killeen, a city about an hour north of Austin. He told The Chronicle that deportation to Jamaica started with an eviction from his apartment. While moving his belongings out of the apartment, he was arrested by local police on suspicion of trespassing, a misdemeanor in Texas. Told by a court-appointed lawyer that he'd likely stay in jail for the better part of a year while waiting for a trial, Thomas, who had lost his job while in lockup, signed a release agreement with certain conditions, but instead of being released from Bell County Jail, he was transferred to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention camp just north of Houston, where he was detained for two and a half months. Now in Kingston, he told The Chronicle he's living in a hotel, though he's unsure who is paying for it, the U.S. or Jamaican government, and does not know how long he'll be able to stay there. Unsure how to get a job or if he's even allowed, Thomas added that he's unsure if it's even legal for him to be in the country at all. 'If you're in the U.S. Army, and the Army deploys you somewhere, and you've got to have your child over there, and your child makes a mistake after you pass away, and you put your life on the line for this country, are you going to be okay with them just kicking your child out of the country?' Thomas said in a phone call with the outlet's reporter. Neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security responded to The Chronicle's request for comment.
San Francisco Chronicle
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Lalo Schifrin, composer behind ‘Bullitt' and ‘Dirty Harry,' dies at 93
Lalo Schifrin, the trailblazing composer whose music helped define the sound of 1970s action cinema and turned San Francisco into a sonic landmark for filmgoers around the world, died Thursday of complications from pneumonia. He was 93. Schifrin's jazz-inflected, rhythmically daring scores for Steve McQueen's 'Bullitt' (1968) and Clint Eastwood's 'Dirty Harry' (1971) helped establish the musical identities of two of the most iconic films ever set in the Bay Area. He was also hand-picked by Bruce Lee to score his final film, 'Enter the Dragon' (1973). With a deft mix of suspense, funk and atmospheric cool, Schifrin's work elevated car chases down Potrero Hill and showdowns at Aquatic Park into unforgettable cinematic moments. 'Everybody tells me how great the music for the chase in 'Bullitt' is,' Schifrin told The Chronicle in a 2003 interview. 'I didn't do any music for the chase. Four minutes before the chase, where there is a foot chase in the hospital, I build and build the suspense and the tension. And finally, when Steve McQueen finds a way to get to the freeway, at that moment the music stops suddenly. I told the director it would be a mistake to continue the music on the chase. The audience should hear the sounds of the cars, so they know whether the villain or 'Bullitt' is coming. You know what? It worked.' Born Boris Claudio Schifrin in Buenos Aires in 1932, he trained in classical composition at the Paris Conservatory under Olivier Messiaen while moonlighting in jazz clubs. He emigrated to the U.S. after a serendipitous encounter with Dizzy Gillespie, eventually becoming his pianist and arranger. That genre-crossing instinct became the hallmark of his scoring career. In Hollywood, Schifrin's fusion of jazz, Latin rhythms and experimental time signatures made him one of the most distinctive composers of the late 20th century. Schifrin received six Academy Award nominations over his career, including Best Original Score nods for 'Cool Hand Luke' (1967), 'The Fox' (1968), 'Voyage of the Damned' (1976), 'The Amityville Horror' (1979) and 'The Sting II' (1983). He also earned a nomination for Best Original Song for 'People Alone' from 'The Competition' (1980). 'He really was such a genius at combining rhythm, texture, instrumentation and melody in such a powerful and unique way,' Daniel Pemberton, an English composer who wrote the score for the film 'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,' wrote on X. His theme for the 'Mission: Impossible' television show — composed in 5/4 time and famously written in just three minutes — became a pop culture staple, earning him Grammy Awards and renewed fame with the Tom Cruise film franchise that launched in 1996. Schifrin applauded you artists who sampled his work, most notably Portishead, who sampled the main riff from 'Danube Incident' for its 1994 hit 'Sour Times.' 'These young people are rediscovering my music and using it in their own way,' he told The Chronicle. 'It's almost like a bridge to a younger generation. It rejuvenates me. The same thing happens with the fact that the two 'Mission: Impossible' movies made people rediscover that theme. That is a very positive sign. I'm not a purist. I'm very far from being a purist.'
San Francisco Chronicle
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Why ‘Materialists' director Celine Song thinks love is a marketplace
In Celine Song's latest movie 'Materialists,' a New York City matchmaker navigates the politics of love. 'You're not ugly — you just don't have money,' says Lucy, portrayed by Dakota Johnson, exhaling cigarette smoke into the New York City air from a fire escape. More Information 'Materialists' (R) is in theaters Friday, June 13. Song's debut film, 2023's 'Past Lives,' rocked audiences with its soft yet devastating spotlight on what it's like to love your husband and your childhood sweetheart the way you love adjoining parts of your own soul. But her follow-up feature takes on a whole new love triangle, one plagued by questions of vanity, class and self-worth. Now for the second time in a row, the writer-director delivers on the wounding nuances of modern love. Like Johnson's Lucy, Song worked for a matchmaking agency in New York. Her clientele was more honest with her about what they wanted in a partner than with their own friends and therapists, she said. And their priorities — height, money and a low body mass index — are the ugly truths central to 'Materialists.' The Chronicle met with Song at the Langham hotel in Manhattan the day after the 'Materialists' premiere to discuss love, commodification and where the two meet. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity. Q: A big theme in this movie is value. Where does the idea derive from in your own life? A: If somebody says, 'I really need to date somebody who's above 6 feet tall,' it all comes down to, 'Because that makes me feel valuable — that makes me feel like I am worthy of love from somebody who everybody considers valuable.' It comes down to that: 'I don't want to walk into a party with somebody who is 5-foot-6.' So I think that's why the conversation about value really showed up. I worked as a matchmaker for six months, and I learned so much about how people describe the person they want to be partnered with for the rest of their life. It's amazing, because it's all numbers: height, weight, income. Q: How would you describe the characters' relationship with self-love, self-worth? A: I think that all three of them are struggling with self-worth, which is common in modern life and modern dating. Another part of the problem is this objectification and commodification of the self and of each other. In 'Pride and Prejudice' or in Victorian romance, this marriage market used to happen in salons or garden parties, where people talk about everybody's value: their worth in silver, their property. That kind of marketplace has existed forever. But now, this objectification and commodification has become so accessible and global. (Song gestures to her phone screen.) Q: I recently saw photos of Kris Jenner's new face — not sure if you saw too. I'm curious what you think about the access to plastic surgery and how it bears weight on dating and love. A: It's terrifying. I feel like there is a really insidious language around taking care of yourself or 'self-improvement.' But this language is really about increasing your value in the marketplace. To me, what's really scary is how cheap Botox is getting. And what's insidious is that it's like, well, everybody is doing it. Those are your competitors in the dating market, and they're doing it. So aren't you doing it? Q: Two characters in 'Materialists' have had plastic surgery and struggle with self-worth, but they're also trying to find love. Do you think you have to have self-love before you find a partner, or are you someone who believes 'We can figure this out together'? A: I met my husband when I was 24, so we were too young to really get to this world of value. I don't know if anybody is that secure when you're in your 20s. But what's amazing is that when you ask somebody who loves you why they love you, their answer will never have anything to do with your market value. It's never going to have anything to do with height or weight. It will always be like, 'I just do.' It's just simple. So in that way, I already know that the marketplace is not real. But now you have access to the global dating market on Instagram, so the problem is that now you're going to start evaluating and objectifying yourself in relation to everybody else, which is really common. Q: So much of this movie is about the math of dating and the failure of that math. What do you think ultimately brings people together? A: It's completely mysterious to me why one person feels something for another person. All you can hope for is that you do, and part of that is being open to that person. It's much easier to be cynical, isn't it? But the truth is that it's a very brave thing to say, 'No, I want love. I believe in it. It might be right around the corner.' And the truth is that it might be right around the corner. That's actually true. Q: Both of your movies, 'Materialists' and 'Past Lives,' explore love triangles that can't last, so you set up a portion of your audience for disappointment. Do you like doing that? A: I want it to be a revelation for the audience members themselves. It usually speaks more about who you are as a person watching it than it does about the characters. Many people might walk away from the film being like, 'I would have made that decision differently.' But the truth is, Lucy is not you. You're you. Q: What hope is there for single people? A: Well, there's advice in the film. … When love happens and is offered to you, you just need the bravery to be able to say yes. I think that's the only thing we can hope for.
