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    Late Night Finds Democrats Still Ridin’ for Biden

    “People waited all day for white smoke to emerge from the capital, signaling a new leader,” Jimmy Fallon joked after Congressional Democrats met in Washington on Tuesday.Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.Blowing SmokeCongressional Democrats met in Washington on Tuesday to discuss their concerns about President Biden’s re-election campaign.“People waited all day for white smoke to emerge from the Capitol, signaling a new leader,” Jimmy Fallon said.“So today, Congressional Democrats gathered behind closed doors to talk about Biden’s future in what one of them called a ‘come-to-Jesus meeting.’ No, no! Do not let Joe come anywhere near Jesus until Nov. 6. Walk away from the light, Joe. Get away!” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Some described the meeting as very positive, while others said the room was filled with sadness. So, basically, our government has the same plot as ‘Inside Out 2.’” — JIMMY FALLON“Reports say the mood of the meeting was very somber, with some members comparing it to a funeral, while another said that analogy was an insult to funerals. Hey, Democrats, keep it light.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Meanwhile, that big old flirt President Biden hosted world leaders at the NATO summit in Washington today. But only one of them will be the next Golden Bachelor.” — KATHRYN HAHN, guest host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live”“When Biden walked into the room with 31 world leaders, he wasn’t sure if it was a NATO summit or an intervention.” — JIMMY FALLONThe Punchiest Punchlines (America’s Next Top Vice President Edition)“With the convention starting on Monday, the question on a lot of people’s minds is who will Donald Trump pick as his running mate? And, as of this taping, the latest reports say that Trump has narrowed it down to three: Senators Marco Rubio, J.D. Vance and North Dakota’s governor, Doug Burgum, a.k.a. the cute one.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“It’s the perfect, perfect time for a reality show president to pick his running mate via reality show: [imitating Trump] ‘I see before me three beautiful candidates, but, sadly, only one can be America’s next top vice president.’” — STEPHEN COLBERT, on Trump wanting to announce his running mate at the Republican National Convention“Trump needs someone who is going to help him win, so right now the front-runner is Joe Biden.” — JIMMY FALLON“Trump’s campaign needs to win over women and minorities, which is why he’s narrowed it down to two white guys.” — JIMMY FALLONThe Bits Worth WatchingAasif Mandvi, a former correspondent of “The Daily Show,” returned to promote his new horror-comedy series, “Evil.”What We’re Excited About on Wednesday NightGovernor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan will discuss her new memoir, “True Gretch,” on Wednesday’s “Late Show.”Also, Check This OutClockwise from left: Jonathan Lethem; Roxane Gay; Stephen King; Sarah Jessica Parker; Marlon James; Min Jin LeeThe New York TimesStephen King, Roxane Gay, Sarah Jessica Parker and more shared their picks for the top 10 books of the 21st century. More

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    ‘Sunny’ Is a Dreamy Robot Dramedy

    This stylish sci-fi series, on Apple TV+, stars Rashida Jones as a grieving woman with an unexpected new companion.Rashida Jones stars as a grieving, alienated ex-pat in “Sunny,” a quirky new 10-episode dramedy that begins Wednesday on Apple TV+. Suzie is an American woman living in Japan, who is married to a Japanese man but has to rely on an in-ear translator when she is out and about on her own. After her husband and young son disappear in a commercial plane crash, she feels totally untethered, often clashing with her chilly mother-in-law, Noriko (Judy Ongg), and spilling her guts to a friendly bartender, Mixxy (Annie the Clumsy).Her husband’s colleague drops off a homebot for her — a chirpy humanoid named Sunny (voiced by Joanna Sotomura) with a noggin like the Las Vegas Sphere. Suzie’s husband, Masa (Hidetoshi Nishijima), designed and programmed the robot especially for her, the colleague says. How odd! Masa always told Suzie that his job at the big technology company was in the refrigerators division …. (She does indeed have a snazzy refrigerator: buttery yellow with a ridged porthole window on the freezer.)It is also odd because Suzie claims to hate robots. “A robot killed my mother,” she says dryly; it was a self-driving car, explains Noriko. But Suzie isn’t really in a position to turn down help and companionship, and Sunny is awfully persistent. “Robots are expressions of their creators,” the colleague tells her, and any lingering tidbits of her husband are of course quite precious. Especially because, now that you mention it, maybe Masa was lying about a lot of things, including his connections to organized crime. And — eek! They’re after us!Much of the story and plotting in “Sunny” is chasing its own tail, but gosh it’s a fun loop. At a time when many shows have ceded ground to second-screen viewing, “Sunny” has a distinctive visual style. Drab, gray swaths are punctuated by pops of yellow, and scenes of seedy nightlife and packed shopping kiosks burst with neon squiggles and candy-bright outfits. It’s all exceptionally evocative, and the show’s mood and vibe linger like a lover’s perfume.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

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    The Eleven Madison Park Hospitality Guru Who Worked on ‘The Bear’ Opens Up

    Will Guidara, who has a co-producing and writing credit on Season 3, talks about the power of surprise and the calling of restaurant work.Until Season 3 of “The Bear,” only viewers who understood restaurant hospitality at its highest levels could spot the Will Guidara Effect.Mr. Guidara was the Paul McCartney to chef Daniel Humm’s John Lennon at Eleven Madison Park, the acclaimed New York City restaurant they once co-owned. During their 13 years together, the staff’s signature was delivering to diners small delights and outrageous surprises based on guest research and bits of overheard conversation. . He once made a quick run to buy a dirty-water dog that Mr. Humm cheffed up with quenelles of sauerkraut and relish and delivered it to a table of food-focused tourists who had mentioned they were leaving town without tasting a New York hot dog.Mr. Guidara’s book “Unreasonable Hospitality” first made a cameo in the show’s second season. The episode, called “Forks,” traces the evolution of the sweet but troubled Richie Jerimovich (played by Ebon Moss-Bachrach) who had been running the sinking Chicago sandwich shop that is at the center of the show. When it transforms into a fancy restaurant called the Bear, Richie finds his calling as a hospitality professional after he puts on a suit and spends a week learning service at a restaurant with three Michelin stars.While he’s training, a waiter overhears a family say they are bummed to leave Chicago without trying deep-dish pizza. Richie runs to Pequod’s pizza shop, brings back a pie and the chef, with a cookie cutter and some micro basil, turns it into a modernist dish that Richie delivers to the astonished guests. It’s pure Guidara.Richie learns from Mr. Guidara’s best-selling book “Unreasonable Hospitality.”FXThis season, Mr. Guidara was listed as a co-producer and given a story credit on an episode titled “Doors.” Sharp-eyed viewers noticed his “WG” initials when Richie texts someone about a restaurant closing, and he has a significant cameo in the season finale, delivering an impassioned speech about hospitality that begins, “There’s a nobility in this.”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

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    Late Night Mulls Biden’s Decision to Stay in the Race

    “He’s basically the guy doing 30 in the left lane, and he ain’t moving for anybody,” Jimmy Fallon said of President Biden on Monday.Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.Staying the CoursePresident Biden has doubled down on his decision to seek re-election, defying critics who want him to step aside after his poor showing in the first debate with Donald Trump.On Monday, Jimmy Fallon joked that if Biden refused to drop out, Democrats planned “to tie a bunch of balloons to the White House and hope he flies away like the old guy from ‘Up.’”“It’s either that or put a bunch of Werther’s on the ground and lure him out like E.T.” — JIMMY FALLON“He’s basically the guy doing 30 in the left lane, and he ain’t moving for anybody.” — JIMMY FALLON“Yeah, Biden’s brushing everyone off. He’s like, ‘Hey, people have been telling me not to run for president since 1988 — I think I know what I’m doing.’” — JIMMY FALLON“Democrats in Congress are reportedly trying to find the best way for Biden to ‘move forward,’ which is probably with one of those walkers with the tennis balls on the bottom of them.” — KATHRYN HAHN, guest host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live”“So, should he stay? Should he go? Who am I to recommend? I don’t know what’s going on in Joe Biden’s mind — something I apparently have in common with Joe Biden.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“The truth is, both candidates are very old. This might be the first presidential race where a slick bathtub could alter the course of history.” — KATHRYN HAHNThe Punchiest Punchlines (Sleepy Joe Edition)“Meanwhile, today, amid calls for him to drop out of the election, Biden sent a letter to Democrats addressing concern about his age and says that he’s firmly committed to staying in the race. Yeah, and nothing says ‘I’m young’ like writing a sternly worded letter.” — JIMMY FALLONWe 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

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    Russian Playwright and Theater Director Are Convicted of ‘Justifying Terrorism’

    A theater director and playwright were sentenced to prison, a stark indication of the increasing suppression of free speech since Russia’s attack on Ukraine, their lawyers and critics say.A Russian military court found a playwright and a theater director guilty of “justifying terrorism” on Monday, sentencing them to six years in prison each in a case that critics say is the latest chilling example of the crackdown on free speech since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.The playwright, Svetlana Petriychuk, 44, and the director, Yevgenia Berkovich, 39, are both acclaimed members of the Russian theater world and have been in custody since May 2023. In addition to the six-year sentences, exactly the time frame requested by prosecutors, both women will be banned from “administering websites” for three years following their release.The play Ms. Petriychuk wrote and Ms. Berkovich staged, “Finist the Brave Falcon,” is an adaptation of a classic fairy tale of the same name, interwoven with the stories of women baited online by men into joining the Islamic State. It is loosely based on the true stories of thousands of women from across Russia and the former Soviet Union who were recruited by ISIS terrorists. The main character of the play returns to Russia feeling betrayed and disappointed by the man who lured her there, only to be sentenced to prison as a terrorist herself.The prosecutor, Ekaterina Denisova, insisted that Ms. Petriychuk holds “extremely aggressive Islamic ideologies” and formed a “positive opinion” of ISIS, according to the Russian outlet RBK, and that Ms. Berkovich holds “ideological convictions related to the justification and propaganda of terrorism.”Both women and their lawyers said they were innocent, repeatedly insisting during the trial that the play had an explicitly antiterror message.“I absolutely do not understand what this set of words has to do with me,” said Ms. Berkovich, when she pleaded not guilty. “I have never partaken in any forms of Islam: neither radical nor any other. I have respect for the religion of Islam, and I feel nothing but condemnation and disgust toward terrorists.”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

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    At Avignon Festival, Theater’s World Gets Wider

    Under its new director, the event is shining a spotlight on countries and performers rarely represented on the biggest European stages.Who belongs onstage at an international theater festival? It’s a thorny question for programmers with limited spots to fill. Already-famous artists bring predictable box-office returns, yet the picture of “the world” they offer rarely extends beyond a small group of countries.The Avignon Festival, in France, is lucky to be able to go off the beaten track. Every summer, it pulls a large audience that comes to experience a city filled to the brim with theater, rather than individual productions. Artists in the official lineup typically play to sold-out crowds regardless of their reputation, and many Avignon directors have taken this as their cue to experiment.And this year’s edition, with the Portuguese theater-maker Tiago Rodrigues at the helm, seemed to go even further. Of the 38 artists in the lineup, over half were new to Avignon, and many were unknown in France. As the first week of the festival unfolded, the spotlight shone repeatedly on amateurs and artists from countries rarely represented on the biggest European stages.Some, like the former prison inmates from South America who star in Lola Arias’s “The Days Outside” (“Los Días Afuera”), performed at the Opéra Grand Avignon, directly expressed their disbelief at being there from the stage. One performer showed a tattoo of the Eiffel Tower on her body, explaining that it had been her dream to see France — and now, she said after a quiet pause during the show, she had.“The Days Outside” is part of this edition’s tribute to Spanish-language theater. Rodrigues is highlighting a different language each year, and after a timid emphasis on English in 2023, he is going much further this time, with 12 productions — roughly a third of the festival’s offering — performed in Spanish, from countries including Spain, Argentina, Uruguay and Peru.“The Days Outside” considers the lives of five women and one trans man as they prepare to leave prison.Christophe Raynaud de Lage/Festival d’AvignonWe 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

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    In ‘House of the Dragon,’ Ewan Mitchell Leads With His Chin

    As Aemond Targaryen, the young actor quickly became one of the “Game of Thrones” prequel’s most intriguing and fearsome characters.Like most people, Ewan Mitchell is accustomed to anonymity. So during a recent trip to Manhattan, he was surprised by what a hotel doorman asked when he arrived: “You haven’t packed your eye patch?”Mitchell does not normally wear an eye patch, but Aemond Targaryen, the one-eyed, dragon-riding warrior he plays in “House of the Dragon,” does. The actor is still getting used to strangers making the connection in public.“I wouldn’t think people would recognize me, but they do,” he said. “I think it’s because of my strong chin.”This was on an afternoon in May, and Mitchell, 27, was sipping a Coke at the hotel bar. He wore a black Alexander McQueen suit and was preparing to attend the premiere of the second season of “House of the Dragon,” HBO’s “Game of Thrones” prequel that follows two factions vying for the Iron Throne.When Mitchell made his debut in the latter half of Season 1, Aemond, the willful second son who grows to covet his brother’s throne, quickly became one of the show’s most intriguing and fearsome characters. Paired off with Vhagar, the realm’s largest, meanest dragon, and possessing the most chiseled chin in Westeros, Aemond radiated the quiet ferocity of a predator preparing to pounce.“When I’m dressed up as Aemond and catch myself in the mirror, he scares even me a little bit,” Mitchell said.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

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    The Five Women Who Started a Secret Theater Society

    It was their own secret society. Five women who worked together at the Public Theater, bonding over drinks and aspirations, sharing frustrations and ideas, commiserating and brainstorming and laughing.They gave their alliance a nickname: Women and Ambition — cheeky because, as they saw it, “ambitious” remained such a loaded adjective for young women. Their convergence at the Public in the mid-2010s would resonate as far more than happy memories: Now each of them has become a Woman With Power, in a beleaguered field in vital need of new inspiration.“These women have helped change the trajectory of my life,” said one of the women, Maria Goyanes, who is now the artistic director of Woolly Mammoth Theater in Washington.Lear deBessonet, who oversees the long-running Encores! series at New York City Center, recalled the prevailing spirit: “There was a sense of like, ‘I see you, girl. I see you. You’ve got to run things now.’”And now they do.Before deBessonet officially took over the Encores! series in 2021, she ran Public Works, the community-oriented program that stages a musical adaptation of a classic story each summer. Once at Encores!, which gives rarely revived shows short-running productions, she got off to a shaky start during the pandemic. But she’s since had a number of buzzy productions, including a starry “Into the Woods,” which went to Broadway. This summer, her acclaimed production of “Once Upon a Mattress,” with Sutton Foster, is Broadway-bound as well.Shanta Thake.Ye Fan for The New York TimesWe 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