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    ‘Water for Elephants’ Musical to Arrive on Broadway Next Spring

    The show, with a group of circus artists as part of the cast, is adapted from Sara Gruen’s best-selling novel.“Water for Elephants,” Sara Gruen’s novel about a Depression-era veterinary student whose life is transformed when he joins a circus, became a surprise best seller after it was published in 2006. Five years later came a film adaptation, and next spring, a spectacle-rich stage musical version will open on Broadway.The musical, as befits a show set primarily at a circus, will feature seven circus performers, who make up about one-third of the onstage cast. As in the novel, the story is told through the recollections of the main character in his older years.“Most people think of the story as about this young man who jumps on a train and joins the circus, but I’m really compelled by his older self, looking back on the chapter that changed the course of his life forever,” said the musical’s director, Jessica Stone, who also directed “Kimberly Akimbo,” the winner of this year’s Tony for best musical. “The show is about the kind of person you are when you lose everything, and it’s also about chosen family, and the choices you make with the time that you have.”“Water for Elephants,” a big-budget musical that has been in development for about eight years, had an initial run in June and July at the Alliance Theater in Atlanta. After some reworking aimed at strengthening the storytelling, it is scheduled to begin previews on Feb. 24 and to open March 21 at the Imperial Theater.The musical is set largely in 1931; its book is by Rick Elice (“Jersey Boys,” “Peter and the Starcatcher”) and the score is by PigPen Theater Co. The circus design is by Shana Carroll, who is an artistic director of The 7 Fingers, a prestigious Montreal-based circus collective; Carroll is also collaborating on the choreography with Jesse Robb.The show is being capitalized for up to $25 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which could make it the biggest-budget production of the current Broadway season.The producing team is being led by Peter Schneider, a former Disney animation executive who played a key role in bringing “The Lion King” to Broadway, and Jennifer Costello, a former executive at the John Gore Organization, where Schneider is the chairman of the board. The other lead producers are Grove Entertainment, Frank Marshall, Isaac Robert Hurwitz and Seth A. Goldstein. More

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    Echoing Federal Theater Project, 18 Towns Plan Simultaneous Events

    The theme “No Place Like Home” will drive shows and festivals in both large cities and rural locales of this country on July 27, 2024.One night in the fall of 1936, with Fascism rising in Europe, theaters in 18 cities and towns across the United States staged productions of the dystopian play, “It Can’t Happen Here,” under the auspices of the Federal Theater Project, which was created to provide Depression-era artists with work.Now, inspired by that moment, organizations in 18 American cities and towns are planning a contemporary version of that endeavor: On a single day next summer, they will each present a participatory arts project responding to a more hopeful prompt, “No Place Like Home,” from the “Wizard of Oz.”Given the atomization of American culture, the communities will not present a single show — in fact, many of them are not staging shows at all — but they will each come up with ways to express something that connects notions of home with culture and with health on July 27, 2024. In Chicago, the city will establish artist apprenticeships at mental health clinics; in Tucson, Ariz., Borderlands Theater will create a “theatrical showcase” including a play about mental health and healing.The initiative is the brainchild of Lear deBessonet, a New York-based director who created Public Works, a program of the nonprofit Public Theater that develops musical adaptations of classic works and stages them with a combination of professional and amateur actors. The Public Works model has been adopted by theaters in other American cities, and in London.“Art, by necessity, must look different in every place, to reflect its own community,” deBessonet said. “Our projects are not exclusively theater, or even predominantly theater, but really are reflecting the unique voice and character of the people in each of these places — they are making things that only they could make because they’re making them in direct relation with the people of their place.”DeBessonet, who is now the artistic director of the Encores! program at City Center, is working with Nataki Garrett, who just wrapped up a fraught run as artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Clyde Valentin, who previously led Ignite/Arts Dallas at Meadows School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University. They are the artistic directors for a program called One Nation/One Project, and are calling the initiative “Arts for EveryBody.”“How do we solve these problems that are happening within these large-scale organizational structures that are not moving in the direction that we need them to move in?” Garrett asked. “One way that you do that is, you go meet the people at their source — you go where they are and you engage with them in the way that they have been engaging outside of our museums and theaters and other spaces.”The endeavor, which is inspired by a “Wizard of Oz”-based prompt, has been designed with a belief that participating in the arts can improve health outcomes.Silver Screen Collection/Getty ImagesThe program has set a goal of a $14 million budget. Unlike the Federal Theater Project, which was government-sponsored, as part of the Works Progress Administration, the current initiative is being supported primarily by contributions from foundations and individuals and is sponsored by the Tides Center, a nonprofit philanthropic organization that supports social change. Many of the projects are collaborations between arts groups, local governments and community health centers.The endeavor, working with the Center for Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida, has been designed in the belief that participation in the arts can improve health outcomes, and the organizers have commissioned studies to research that connection.The 18 communities chosen to take part are a mix of urban and rural, large and small, from Honolulu to the South Bronx; the National League of Cities helped with site selection and project design. Valentin said one priority was to “not have it be something that’s just in the coastal elite cities — geographically we think there’s profound diversity.”Three cities — Chicago, New York and Seattle — that were in the 1936 project are taking part. Some of the communities are planning work that will call attention to local challenges: Phillips County, Ark., will highlight issues with the local water supply; Oakland, Calif., will focus on housing costs; and Utica, Miss. is seeking to generate conversation about food insecurity associated with the lack of a local grocery store.“I think this is a much needed departure from the divisiveness we see,” said Carlton Turner, a co-founder of the Mississippi Center for Cultural Production, which will be organizing a food and wellness festival, with lots of music, in the rural community of Utica. He added, “This opportunity to bring these 18 communities together is a way to heighten our commonalities, versus homing in on the things we disagree about.” More

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    Sam Heughan’s 5 Favorite Places in Glasgow

    “The part of ‘Outlander’ that I love the most is the history: the clan culture, the folklore and back stories (and consequences) of the Jacobite Rising,” said Sam Heughan, 42, who has played the heartthrob Highland warrior Jamie Fraser in the time-travel series since 2014.The Scottish actor Sam Heughan has portrayed Jamie Fraser in the time-travel series “Outlander” since 2014. Charlie GrayThis love of history feeds his passion for the ancient city of Glasgow. A typical day for Mr. Heughan involves meandering past medieval cathedrals, Victorian cobbled lanes, Georgian architecture constructed when the city was a major tobacco and sugar hub, and 19th-century tenements built during the Industrial Revolution, when steel and ships were mass-produced here. “Glasgow has got beautiful parts and grit. The combination, plus incredibly good-natured people, are the city’s charm,” he said.Beyond the long-running series, Mr. Heughan just completed shooting a television show called “The Couple Next Door” for Starz and Britain’s Channel 4, and is launching a “wild Scottish” gin under the Sassenach label, a whisky-focused spirits brand that he founded in 2020. (The name means “a foreigner” in Gaelic, and is also Jamie Fraser’s term of endearment for Claire, his wife, played by Caitríona Mary Balfe.)When he does have free time, Mr. Heughan is out and about. “I love walking and running along the River Clyde to Glasgow Green with a possible stop at the microbrewery Drygate for a beer,” he said. Hiking is another pastime (Mr. Heughan’s recent memoir, “Waypoints: My Scottish Journey,” chronicles his experience tackling the 96-mile West Highland Way hike). “A wee walk, or stravaigin in old Scots speak, is good for mental health,” he said.He is also a fan of Citizens Theatre in the working-class Gorbals area, which puts on avant-garde productions and is involved in community engagement. “I came here as a child, performed here as a student and did my first professional show here called ‘Outlying Islands.’ It holds a lot of memories,” he said. (The theater is currently closed for refurbishment. )On the topic of the kilt, yes, Mr. Heughan does sport one in real life. “Kilts are about a feeling. They make you stand taller, and walk stronger. Scots wear them for any excuse. If you go to a pub in one, you’ll be getting a free drink at some point in the evening.”Here are five of his favorite places in Glasgow.1. The Ben Nevis BarThe Ben Nevis bar is a Glasgow institution, the actor Sam Heughan said he has visited for years. Robert Ormerod for The New York TimesA tiny whisky bar tucked into the Finnieston area, a hipster pocket of the West End, is deemed “a Glasgow institution” by Mr. Heughan. “I went there as a student” — he studied drama at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland — “and I go there now. People speak Gaelic, and there is live traditional Scottish music, sometimes planned, sometimes impromptu. It’s a special place.”A whisky tasting in the Ben Nevis bar, which also offers live music.Robert Ormerod for The New York TimesA bartender reaches for one of the many bottles behind the bar at Ben Nevis, which is named for the highest mountain in Scotland.Robert Ormerod for The New York Times2. Kelvingrove ParkKelvingrove Bridge is part of the 85-acre Kelvingrove Park in Glasgow’s West End. Robert Ormerod for The New York TimesIn the West End, bisected by the River Kelvin, this 85-acre park dappled with Victorian fountains, grand stairwells and an arched stone bridge with carved balustrades is where locals come to hang out during the warmer months.“You can have a picnic, walk under the bridges and visit both Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, as well as the University of Glasgow, which is just up the hill,” Mr. Heughan said. For a craft ale pick-me-up nearby, he recommends a “secret” bar called Inn Deep just under the Kelvingrove Bridge.Glaswegians come to the park to picnic and enjoy drinks in the sun.Robert Ormerod for The New York TimesInn Deep is a “secret” bar under the Kelvingrove Bridge.Robert Ormerod for The New York Times3. The Dakota HotelThe Dakota Grill specializes in grass-fed Scotch beef. Robert Ormerod for The New York TimesHe may not stay overnight, but Mr. Heughan dines at the restaurant inside this modernist, Scottish-founded hotel in the city center close to the West End. The Dakota Grill specializes in grass-fed Scotch beef simply grilled over coals, and is also known for ethically sourced seafood and contemporary takes on venison and lamb. “The interior is dark and sexy, and I like their cocktail menu (whisky sour, naturally) and simply grilled Scottish steak.”The bar at the Dakota Hotel, where Mr. Heughan likes the cocktail menu. Robert Ormerod for The New York Times4. I.J. MellisI.J. Mellis is an old-world-style cheese shop on Great Western Road.Robert Ormerod for The New York TimesThis old-world style shop on Great Western Road is Mr. Heughan’s go-to for locally sourced cheeses and accompaniments (quince paste, cornichons, olives, chutneys, oatcakes). “I’m not a dessert guy, but at the end of a meal, I can damage a cheese board, especially one with Orkney and Isle of Mull Cheddars,” he said. The shop also offers tastings led by cheese mongers on Thursday evenings.I.J. Mellis is Sam Heughan’s shop for cheeses and the accompaniments needed for a cheese board. Robert Ormerod for The New York Times5. Crabshakk FinniestonThe seafood platter at the Crabshakk Finnieston, is packed with langoustines, mussels, scallops and more. Robert Ormerod for The New York TimesSince 2009, this hot spot in Finnieston been serving up stellar seafood in a buzzy atmosphere. Mr. Heughan sits at the counter facing the open kitchen and orders the seafood platter with langoustines and scallops and some champagne. “The food tastes like a celebration of Scotland, which has the best seafood in the world,” he said.Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2023. More

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    Drew Barrymore’s Show Is Picketed as It Resumes Amid Writers’ Strike

    The star, who dropped out of an MTV awards show in May to demonstrate solidarity with striking writers, plans to bring her daytime talk show back without its unionized writers.When Drew Barrymore announced in May that she was stepping down as host of the MTV Movie & TV Awards to show solidarity with striking Hollywood writers, she received an outpouring of praise from fans and viewers who supported her stance.But the news that she would be bringing her daytime talk show back without its unionized writers was met with a very different response: A group of picketers demonstrated on Monday outside the CBS studios in Manhattan, where the show was taping the first episode of its fourth season, which is scheduled to be broadcast next week. One man held a sign that said, “Drew the right thing.”The network said “The Drew Barrymore Show,” a sunny, interview-oriented program that debuted in 2020, was returning without written material that is “covered by the W.G.A. strike” — similar to the approach taken by some other talk shows during the dual strikes by writers and actors that have shut down much of Hollywood. “The View,” the daytime juggernaut, began airing episodes from its new season this month.On Monday afternoon, as “The Drew Barrymore Show” prepared to tape its first episode since April, a couple of dozen picketers from both the Writers Guild of America and the union that represents actors, SAG-AFTRA, marched outside CBS Broadcast Center on West 57th Street, as audience members lined up along the sidewalk for the day’s taping.Barrymore, the actress turned host, defended the show’s decision to return in an Instagram post on Sunday, saying that the show, which begins airing new episodes on Sept. 18, would be “in compliance with not discussing or promoting film and television that is struck of any kind.”“I own this choice,” she said in the post, adding: “We launched live in a global pandemic. Our show was built for sensitive times and has only functioned through what the real world is going through in real time. I want to be there to provide what writers do so well, which is a way to bring us together or help us make sense of the human experience. I hope for a resolve for everyone as soon as possible.”The Writers Guild of America wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that the show was covered by its union and that “any writing on ‘The Drew Barrymore Show’ is in violation of WGA strike rules.”Other daytime television programs, including ABC’s “Tamron Hall” and “Live With Kelly and Mark” have aired new programming during the writers’ strike, which has lasted more than four months.Cristina Kinon, a co-head writer of “The Drew Barrymore Show” who carried a sign at the picket that said “Drew’s WGA crew,” said she was one of three striking union writers at the show, and that they learned the show would be returning when production put out a call for audience members.“I’m disappointed,” said Kinon, who has been with the show since its pilot. “I wish that everyone in the industry could stand in solidarity with the unions. But everyone has to make their own personal decision.”After two people wrote in social media posts that they had been removed from the audience at Monday’s taping for wearing Writers Guild pins that they had been given outside the studio, the show said in a statement that they had been not permitted to attend because of “heightened security concerns.” The show said it would offer them new tickets. Late-night shows, which are more reliant on writers, are still dark. During the last strike, which started in 2007, the hosts came back gradually after about two months while their writers continued to strike. None have opted to do so yet.Instead, five of the hosts — including Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and John Oliver — recently started a podcast, called “Strike Force Five,” with the proceeds going toward support for their shows’ staffs.Part of the backlash centers on Barrymore’s decision early on in the strike to bow out as host of the MTV Movie & TV Awards. At the time, Kinon said, the talk show had already gone on its summer hiatus, but she had been involved with writing Barrymore’s material for the awards show until the host decided to drop out.In her Instagram post, Barrymore said she had made the decision to step down from MTV hosting duties because the show “had a direct conflict with what the strike was dealing with which was studios, streamers, film, and television.”“I did what I thought was the appropriate thing at the time to stand in solidarity with the writers,” Barrymore said in the post. She added, “However, I am also making the choice to come back for the first time in this strike for our show, that may have my name on it but this is bigger than just me.” More

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    Do You Know These Film and Television Versions of Popular Y.A. Novels?

    Welcome to Great Adaptations, the Book Review’s monthly quiz about books that have been made into television shows, movies, theatrical productions and more. This month’s challenge is about Y.A. novels that were adapted into films or streaming television shows within the past 10 years. Tap or click your answers to the five questions below.New literary quizzes appear on the Book Review page every week and you can find previous installments in the Book Review Quiz Bowl archive online. More

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    In ‘The Other Black Girl,’ the Call Is Coming From Inside the Cubicle

    This satirical workplace thriller tracks the plight of an assistant as she endures terrors both mysterious and banal.The loneliness, anxiety and discomfort that often comes with being the only Black person in a predominantly white space can turn any office into a mental and emotional minefield. But what if finally gaining a new Black co-worker only made matters worse?“The Other Black Girl,” a satirical workplace thriller premiering Wednesday on Hulu, poses just such a quandary. The 10-episode series, developed for the streamer by Onyx Collective, is based on Zakiya Dalila Harris’s best-selling 2021 novel of the same name and follows Nella Rogers (Sinclair Daniel), a put-upon editorial assistant, as the rat race leads her down unexpected paths.Nella spends her days wilting under an ever-critical white gaze, enduring performative wokeness and passive-aggressive supervisors at the literary publishing company where she works. Her joy at discovering that a newly hired assistant is also a Black woman is short-lived when that employee, Hazel-May McCall (Ashleigh Murray), quickly becomes her adversary.There is also a parallel plot tying Nella’s present-day woes to a mysterious incident between two Black women at the same company nearly four decades earlier, as well as increasingly sinister occurrences in the office: flickering lights, threatening notes, glitchy computers depicting unnerving scenes, shadowy figures darting down the halls.Sinclair Daniel, left, and Ashleigh Murray in “The Other Black Girl,” debuting Wednesday on Hulu.HuluThe show prompts viewers to wonder: What’s more chilling? The uncanny notion of a supernatural office-wide conspiracy? Or the very real knowledge that you can never know whom to trust because racism, either casual or systemic, could be lurking around the next cubicle corner?“We really wanted for it to be unclear what is the actual scary part,” Harris said in a late-August phone interview. “Obviously, there’s the twist that’s happening, but also, it’s being gaslit in your office!”A lifelong fan of true-crime and horror, the novelist was eager to make her first foray into TV writing (she co-wrote the pilot and wrote the penultimate episode) by channeling some of her eerie faves, including “The Twilight Zone” and “Black Mirror.” She and Rashida Jones — the pilot co-writer and an executive producer — also took cues from their mutual must-watch, “Severance.”“The way that they nailed office life — the mundane parts of it, but also the quirky parts of it — that was something that excited me,” Harris said of the Apple TV+ drama. She said she prefers creepiness that “starts off in a very everyday kind of place, but then slowly, it becomes more and more clear that there’s something off.”Harris, like her main character, hails from a mostly white Connecticut town and was the only Black woman in her department at Penguin Random House before quitting in 2019 to write full time. She said the show’s writers — most are Black women — bonded by sharing past experiences of being overstressed and undervalued as an “only.”“Having those conversations really early on allowed us as a room to start from this place of our own relationships with the material,” Harris said. She added, “I really felt like we were trust-falling, to where I got to feel comfortable giving my baby over. At that point, I was like, ‘This is so much bigger than me now.’”Nella is plagued by workplace microaggressions as well as flickering lights, threatening notes and other sinister occurrences in the office.HuluNella’s plight will feel familiar to any viewer who’s ever been blindsided by a tone-deaf “Heyyy, gurrrl!” in the office kitchen. You can practically see her ulcer forming as she fends off her wannabe ally co-worker, Sophie (Kate Owens), while contending with the canine commands — “Nella, come! Sit!” — of her boss, Vera (Bellamy Young).When she learns about the new hire, the perpetually uneasy Nella gets a visible serotonin boost from the chance to gab about natural hair care products and H.B.C.U. homecoming parties. But soon the effortlessly cool Hazel seems to have the higher-ups, particularly the company founder, Richard Wagner (Eric McCormack), eating out of one hand while she is holding Nella back with the other.Amid all the mind games and crabs-in-a-barrel machinations, the show also mocks modern “diversity matters” pageantry while suggesting with its earlier subplot that for all of the rhetoric, the 21st-century office environment isn’t too terribly different from that of the 1980s.“I felt like every Black woman I know could identify with some aspect of the book,” said Jordan Reddout, who is the series’s showrunner along with her longtime creative partner, Gus Hickey. Reddout said she “made every woman in my family read it — my dad, too.”“I am a Black woman who was a very serious classical musician for a long time and then went to Harvard and then went into sitcom writing,” she said. “So I really identified with Nella’s journey of being ‘the only one.’”(The phone interview with Reddout and Hickey was coordinated through their personal representation, not Hulu. The Writers Guild strike rules prohibit members from promoting shows at the behest of the studios and their subsidiaries.)For Nella, the arrival of Hazel is first a source of relief, then concern.HuluFrom Hickey’s perspective, there’s also a “universality to the story in terms of posing this question of: How much of yourself are you willing to sacrifice to succeed in a competitive environment?”“And for marginalized people,” he continued, “it’s in a competitive environment that is set up for people who don’t look like you to win.”The duo leaned on their sitcom background (“Mixed-ish,” “Grown-ish”) in order to inject some levity into their cultural critique. (Having written for “Will & Grace,” this is their second time working with McCormack.)“Our style has always been: The world is sad enough as it is, you have to laugh at it or you will not survive,” Hickey said. “I think with this show, as serious a subject matter as it has, it almost necessitates having a point of view that has some humor. So we were really conscious of that with Nella; we wanted her to be a funny audience surrogate who could see how ridiculous both the reality and the fantasy of this world was.”Reddout said they stayed true to the spirit of the novel and even pulled certain scenes directly from the page. “I think the places where we do stray from the book are only deepening the characters and rounding out their stories,” she said.Harris supports that approach. She admitted the Nella-Hazel dynamic could have been more nuanced in her novel. For the series, she was keen to flesh out the book’s antagonist and chip away at the “good vs. bad” dichotomy between the two women.“We really wanted for it to be unclear what is the actual scary part,” Harris said of the series.Mark Elzey for The New York Times“It’s more rounded out in the show than it was in the book, to be honest,” she said. “With Hazel, writing her in the book, I just thought of her as more of a robot that’s been conditioned by the world to be this way but not necessarily still holding onto humanity. In the show Hazel has a soul, and Ashleigh had a huge hand in shaping what that soul would look and feel like.”Another key difference between the series and the book is their divergent endings — without giving them away, each leaves you wondering what happens next, though for very different reasons. Neither the author nor the showrunners would speculate on the likelihood of a second season, though all three acknowledged that enough unexplored original material and potential new story lines exist to sustain one.In the meantime, Harris is busy writing her second book, which she says is not a sequel but is “still horror, still Black people.” She believes the genre is well-suited to telling Black stories, so much so that she used a quote from the author and horror noir expert Tananarive Due as the epigraph for “The Other Black Girl”: “Black history is Black horror.” But her attraction to the otherworldly runs deeper than just that.“I joke that I’ve always been drawn to horror because I’ve always been the kind of person who imagines all the ways things can go wrong,” she said. “For me, watching and writing horror is the perfect place to put my own personal anxieties and insecurities.” More

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    What’s on TV This Week: ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ and the MTV Video Music Awards

    The documentary series about a soccer club owned by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney returns for a second season. And the annual award show airs live.Between network, cable and streaming, the modern television landscape is a vast one. Here are some of the shows, specials and movies coming to TV this week, Sept. 11-17. Details and times are subject to change.MondayTHE PARENT TRAP (1998) 5:45 p.m. on Freeform. If you grew up in the ’90s, like I did, there is a good chance that you know by heart the quite intricate handshake made famous by this movie, which stars Lindsay Lohan as identical twin sisters separated at birth who accidentally meet at summer camp. They decide to switch places and hatch a plan to get their parents back together. Obviously, shenanigans ensue.TuesdayOlivia Rodrigo is set to perform at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards.Chona Kasinger for The New York TimesMTV VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS 8 p.m. on MTV. Starbucks has released their pumpkin-themed menu, influencers and celebrities have flocked to New York for Fashion Week and people are saying it’s fall even though temperatures are dangerously approaching 100 degrees. All of this can only mean one thing: It’s time for the annual MTV VMAs. Airing live from the Prudential Center in New Jersey, Olivia Rodrigo, Demi Lovato, Lil Wayne and many others will perform, and Shakira and Sean “Diddy” Combs will be among the awardees.WednesdayStill from “Donyale Luna: Supermodel.”William Claxton/HBODONYALE LUNA: SUPERMODEL 9 p.m. on HBO. The supermodel Donyale Luna died in 1979 at just 33 years in old. But in those 33 years, she gained the reputation of breaking barriers in the fashion industry, becoming the first Black model to grace the cover of both Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue. Now, this documentary is taking viewers behind the scenes of Luna’s modest upbringing to her life in the spotlight.WELCOME TO WREXHAM 10 p.m. on FX. In 2020 Rob McElhenney (of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” fame) and Ryan Reynolds (of “Deadpool” fame) bought the third oldest soccer club in the world, which resides in Wrexham in North Wales, with the goal of bringing it back to glory. Now, the second season begins as the team, McElhenney and Reynolds prep for a visit from King Charles III.ThursdayJIMI HENDRIX: ELECTRIC CHURCH 8:30 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). On July 4, 1970, Jimi Hendrix drew a crowd of almost 500,000 people to his performance at the Atlanta International Pop Festival. Because of the 16-mm footage taken at the show, we can relive this concert, featuring performances of “Electric Church,” “Purple Haze,” “Hey Joe,” and others, over and over again.BUDDY GAMES 9 p.m. on CBS. Josh Duhamel directed and starred in a 2020 movie about six best friends who compete in silly physical and mental challenges in an attempt to win $150,000. Now Duhamel is hosting a reality game show with a similar premise: six teams of friends join him at a lake house to compete in challenges to win the championship title and some prize money.FridayStephen Amell and Alison Luff in “Heels.”StarzHEELS 10 p.m. on Starz. Football has “Friday Night Lights,” soccer has “Ted Lasso” and wrestling has “Heels.” This show, about two brothers, Ace and Jack, carrying on their father’s legacy through the Duffy Wrestling League, is wrapping up its second season, which gave us a few deep dives into the characters’ emotional sides.Saturday48 HOURS: THE GILGO BEACH SERIAL KILLINGS and THE NIGHT OF THE IDAHO STUDENT MURDERS starting at 9 p.m. on CBS. If you’re catching up on your true-crime news, “48 Hours” has you covered with these back-to-back episodes. First up is the Gilgo Beach serial killings: Between the years of 1996 and 2011, the remains of 10 bodies were found on a stretch of a Long Island beach; earlier this year, Rex Heuermann was charged with killing three of the people. In November 2022, four college students were found murdered in Moscow, Idaho. Now, Bryan Kohberger, a Ph.D. student in criminology at a nearby university, has been charged with four counts of murder.SundayCHRISTMAS IN JULY (1940) 8 p.m. on TCM. This movie, directed by Preston Sturges, is about a prank that simultaneously goes very right and very wrong. Jimmy is trying to win a slogan competition so he can buy a ring to propose to his girlfriend. When the winner still hasn’t been announced, Jimmy’s co-workers write a fake telegram and leave it on his desk so he thinks he won. Shticks, fake outs and confusion quickly follow.WINNING TIME 9 p.m. on HBO. Based on the book “Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s” by Jeff Pearlman, this fictionalized account of the NBA team is wrapping up its second season, which has focused on Magic Johnson (Quincy Isaiah) after his knee injury and tension with the team. It seems important to note that some of the Lakers stars that are fictionalized in this series are not at all happy with their portrayal. More

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    Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis Explain Their Letters in Danny Masterson Rape Case

    The letters to a judge ahead of Masterson’s sentencing described their friendship with him and spoke glowingly of his character.Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher on Saturday spoke about letters they had written seeking leniency in the prison sentence of Danny Masterson, the actor best known for his role in the sitcom “That ’70s Show” who was found guilty of raping two women more than 20 years ago.Masterson was sentenced to the maximum, 30 years to life, on Thursday.The letters to the judge in the case, Charlaine F. Olmedo of Los Angeles Superior Court, which were published on Friday on Substacks of journalists who had covered the trial, described the couple’s friendship with Masterson.“I do not believe he is an ongoing harm to society,” Kutcher, who is married to Kunis, wrote of Masterson in a letter dated July 27, adding that “having his daughter raised without a present father” would be “a tertiary injustice in and of itself.”In her letter, Kunis vouched for Masterson’s “exceptional character and the tremendous positive influence he has had on me and the people around him.”Masterson, 47, co-starred on “That ’70s Show” with Kutcher and Kunis from 1998 to 2006. Debra Jo Rupp and Kurtwood Smith, two other co-stars from the show, also wrote letters to the judge in support of Masterson, praising their interactions with him while working together.Kunis and Kutcher defended their letters in support of Masterson in a recorded statement posted to Instagram on Saturday, saying they “were not written to question the legitimacy of the judicial system or the validity of the jury’s ruling.”“They were intended for the judge to read,” Kutcher said. “And not to undermine the testimony of the victims or re-traumatize them in any way. We would never want to do that and we’re sorry if that has taken place.”Comments were closed on the Instagram post addressing the letters, but other recent posts on the account were flooded with outrage and criticism, with many noting Kutcher’s longtime philanthropic efforts to combat sex trafficking.The letters from Kutcher and Kunis sought to portray Masterson as someone who was critical of drug use. Kutcher said he attributed “not falling into the typical Hollywood life of drugs directly to Danny.” Kunis said that “Danny played a pivotal role in guiding me away from such destructive paths.”Those statements appeared to be responding to specific allegations in the case.Prosecutors had accused Masterson of drugging and then raping three women at his home in the Hollywood Hills section of Los Angeles between 2001 and 2003. (The jury deadlocked on the charge that Masterson had raped a third woman.)In the video statement, Kutcher said that he and Kunis were “aware of the pain that has been caused” by the letters. Kunis added, “Our heart goes out to every single person who’s ever been a victim of sexual assault, sexual abuse or rape.”The couple said in the video on Instagram that Masterson’s family had asked them to write the letters “to represent the person that we knew for 25 years, so that the judge could take that into full consideration relative to the sentencing.”Tony Ortega, one of the journalists who published the letters on his Substack, “The Underground Bunker,” wrote that “these letter writers were probably aware that Judge Olmedo could really only choose between 15 to life and 30 to life.”“They knew they were not trying to convince her to let Danny walk out of prison,” he added. Another Substack, “Legal Affairs and Trials with Meghann Cuniff,” also published the letters.The case against Masterson drew widespread attention, in part because of accusations that the Church of Scientology, to which Masterson belonged, had pressured his accusers to keep quiet. The church denied that it pressured the victims.Kutcher and Kunis in their letters described deep connections to Masterson, with Kutcher saying that Masterson had been his friend and role model for 25 years.“We’ve traveled around the world together, raised our daughters together and shared countless family moments,” Kutcher said, adding “he is among few people that I would trust to be alone with my son and daughter.”Kunis added that Masterson’s “unwavering commitment to being an exceptional older brother figure to me has had a transformative impact on my life.”Masterson will be eligible for parole in 20 years, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. More