<!–> [–><!–> –><!–> [–><!–>In the space below, please list up to 10 titles that you consider to be the best films released since Jan. 1, 2000. Each movie should be feature length and released commercially. If you need a starting point, we have compiled our critics’ favorites from the last 25 years on one handy […] More
<!–> [!–> <!–> –><!–> –>and 73 more ballots from the over 500 voters who determined our list of the century’s best movies<!–> –> 100 Best Movies And more ballots from … actors Naomi Ackie, Uzo Aduba, Casey Affleck, Joel Kim Booster, Daniel Brühl, Jemaine Clement, Richard Gadd, Tony Hale, William Jackson Harper, Naomie Harris, Sally […] More
More than 500 influential directors, actors and other notable names in Hollywood and around the world voted on the best films released since Jan. 1, 2000. Here is how their ballots stacked up. More
Kristina Khorram, the mogul’s former chief of staff, was not charged in his indictment, but the government has identified her and other staff as co-conspirators.For years, anyone who wanted access to Sean Combs had to go through Kristina Khorram first.An employee at his company since 2013, becoming his chief of staff in 2020, Ms. Khorram was the mogul’s “right hand,” as he once called her. Before leaving her role in the last year, she commanded a rotating army of personal assistants for Mr. Combs and was the central go-between for his multifaceted business empire.While much of her work related to Mr. Combs’s businesses, she also made doctor’s appointments for his girlfriends. Made sure their rent was paid. Apprised them of the boss’s daily moods.“Don’t know how I’d function without her,” Mr. Combs wrote in a Facebook shout-out in 2021.The actions of Ms. Khorram and others who worked for Mr. Combs over the years are now being scrutinized in federal court, where prosecutors are trying to convince jurors that Mr. Combs is guilty of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy, asserting that he ran a “criminal enterprise.”Ms. Khorram, 38, has not been charged in the case, has not been called as a witness and has denied wrongdoing in the past. But her presence is woven through various accounts given at the trial of wrangling hotel logistics for the sex marathons that are at the heart of the case, or of arranging for drugs to be transported by plane to the music mogul.“Her duties as Mr. Combs’s chief of staff were extremely broad,” Meredith Foster, a prosecutor, told the judge this month. “They involved setting up hotel nights,” she added, “facilitating the transportation of narcotics, various items such as that.”During the trial, prosecutors have described the behavior of various bodyguards and staff at Mr. Combs’s companies, as well as Ms. Khorram, as they argue to the jury that the conduct of the employees was not just the work of dutiful assistants, but of racketeering co-conspirators.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
Barry Hansen, mostly known by his D.J. name, said he’d end his show’s run after 55 years of playing parody songs. His syndicated show was once heard on more than 150 radio stations.“Monster Mash.” “Another One Rides the Bus.” “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer.”The D.J. most responsible for lodging these earworms in listeners’ heads, Barry Hansen, better known as Dr. Demento, said last month that he would retire from the airwaves in October, on the 55th anniversary of his radio debut.Mr. Hansen, 84, started on KPPC-FM, a free form and progressive rock station in Pasadena, Calif., (now KROQ-FM) in 1970 and soon began focusing on what he called “funny music” because of listener requests for songs that made them laugh.After he played “Transfusion,” a song by Nervous Norvus, which had been banned on many radio stations in the 1950s, another D.J. at the station called Mr. Hansen demented.“Transfusion” — featuring the sound effects of vehicle crashes — is about a reckless driver who repeatedly gets seriously injured in car crashes by breaking traffic laws. In the lyrics, the driver gets a blood transfusion after each crash and vows to drive safely, before getting into another one.The novelty song struck a chord with Mr. Hansen, who would spin up similar parodies for his playlists for the next half century. The nickname Dr. Demento, which he adopted shortly afterward, also stuck.He referred to his fans as dementoids and dementites.“I have been doing this show for nearly 55 years, about two-thirds of my life,” Mr. Hansen said on his May 31 show, which broadcasts online. “It’s been a blast, but I have come to the decision that I need to hang up my top hat soon. The show you just heard is the last of my regular shows.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
A late-1960s throwback to the days of clean-cut teen idols — he called himself “the missing link” — he rode his gymnastic vocal range to a string of hits.Lou Christie, who with his heartthrob persona and piercing falsetto rode high on the mid-1960s pop charts with hits like “Lightnin’ Strikes” and “Two Faces Have I,” while transcending teen-idol status by helping to write his own material, died on Wednesday at his home in Pittsburgh. He was 82.His family announced the death on social media, saying only that he died “after a brief illness.”With his perky doo-wop-inflected melodies and his gymnastic vocal range, Mr. Christie was at times compared to Frankie Valli of the Four Seasons. Like Mr. Valli, Mr. Christie hit his stride as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the other guitar groups of the British Invasion were starting to shatter the handsome-teen-crooner archetype personified by the likes of Fabian and Frankie Avalon.“They started disappearing,” Mr. Christie once said of such singers in an interview with the site Classic Bands. “It was so interesting that I kept going. I hit the end of that whole era.“I’ve always been between the cracks of rock ‘n’ roll, I felt. The missing link.”Mr. Christie in performance in 2013 in Collingswood, N.J. He continued to tour as an oldies act and release music on small labels long after his hitmaking days were over.via Getty ImagesEven in changing times, he held his own, thanks in part to the songs he wrote with his songwriting partner, Twyla Herbert, who was two decades his senior. The songs they created together had more emotional complexity than the standard odes to puppy love.While his debut album, released in 1963, failed to make a splash, two of the singles featured on that album climbed the charts. “The Gypsy Cried” reached No. 24 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1963. “Two Faces Have I,” a showcase for Mr. Christie’s signature falsetto, climbed to No. 6 a few months later.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
The R&B star will not stand trial on assault charges until October 2026 and can continue touring, including playing U.S. dates.Chris Brown, the Grammy-winning R&B singer, appeared on Friday in a London courthouse and pleaded not guilty to assaulting a man in a nightclub in the city.Tony Baumgartner, the presiding judge, said that Mr. Brown would face a trial of between five and seven days, starting in October next year, on a charge of grievous bodily harm with intent.After a court hearing last month, Mr. Brown posted bail of 5 million pounds, about $6.7 million, allowing him to travel outside Britain and continue a world tour that takes in North American dates, including two nights in August at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. During Friday’s hearing, prosecutors did not ask for any changes to the bail conditions.In the courthouse, Mr. Brown sat in a plexiglass box wearing a blue suit and glasses, and listened to a court official describe a February 2023 encounter in which the singer is accused of attacking Abraham Diaw, a music producer, with a tequila bottle in a London nightclub. Mr. Brown then pleaded not guilty.Omololu Akinlolu, 38, an American rapper who performs under the name HoodyBaby and is Mr. Brown’s vocal coach, also pleaded not guilty in relation to the episode.Mr. Brown’s legal team requested a delay before he entered pleas on two further charges: assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and carrying an offensive weapon. Sallie Bennett-Jenkins, Mr. Brown’s lawyer, said that she needed time to assess evidence that the prosecution had only recently provided. The judge said the court would reconvene on July 11 to hear those pleas.Under British law, media outlets cannot report any details of a case that could prejudice a jury before trial.After the 28-minute hearing, Mr. Brown walked out of the courtroom while waving to around two dozen fans in the public gallery, several of whom shouted, “Love you, Chris!”The court appearance occurred in the middle of the European leg of the American singer’s world tour. At a concert in Manchester on Sunday, Mr. Brown thanked fans as well as the nearby jail where he stayed after his arrest last month. “It was really nice,” Mr. Brown said, according to a report by the BBC.Since releasing his debut single in 2005, Mr. Brown has been one of R&B’s best-known performers with 17 Billboard top 10 hits, the most recent of which was “Go Crazy” in 2020. More
Brendan Paul testified that his duties for Sean Combs involved getting drugs, setting up hotel rooms for sexual encounters and handling routine tasks.Brendan Paul, a former assistant to Sean Combs who was arrested last year amid federal raids, testified on Friday at the music mogul’s trial that he obtained drugs and prepared hotel rooms for nights of sex and partying as part of his job.While Mr. Paul was a low-level employee — his duties included packing bags and coordinating meals — he became one of the most prominent members of Mr. Combs’s entourage in March 2024, when he was charged with cocaine possession after Mr. Combs and his properties became the target of sweeping searches.On the day of the raids on two of Mr. Combs’s homes, Mr. Paul was at a Florida airport with the mogul, en route to a Combs family vacation in the Bahamas. Federal agents intercepted the group and found cocaine in a bag that Mr. Paul was carrying. Mr. Paul testified that he found the cocaine — amounting to 0.7 grams — in Mr. Combs’s room early that morning and had forgotten about it as he was packing for the trip.Mr. Paul, who had been working for Mr. Combs for about 18 months at the time, testified that he did not tell law enforcement that it was Mr. Combs’s cocaine.“Why not?” a prosecutor, Christy Slavik, asked Mr. Paul.“Loyalty,” he replied.The case against Mr. Paul was dropped last year after he completed a drug intervention program.Mr. Paul, who testified under an immunity deal with the government, is the only Combs aide known to have been arrested in connection with the federal investigation into Mr. Combs’s conduct.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
