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    ViacomCBS renames itself as it plays catch-up with Paramount+, its streaming service.

    On Tuesday, Shari Redstone staged her second hourslong investor presentation in two years. Both events were designed for the same purpose — to reposition her old-line media company, ViacomCBS, as a streaming giant in the making, one capable of competing head-on with Netflix, HBO Max, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video, despite a late start.This time, there was less snickering.“Some of you thought we were on an impossible mission,” Robert M. Bakish, the chief executive of ViacomCBS, said during the presentation on Tuesday. “It’s not only possible. It’s happening.”To highlight the importance of its fast-growing Paramount+ streaming service, Ms. Redstone, the company’s chair, announced that ViacomCBS would rename itself Paramount Global.Paramount+ had 32.8 million subscribers worldwide at the end of its most recent quarter, up from fewer than 19 million a year earlier. In the three months that ended on Dec. 31, Paramount+ added 7.3 million customers, the result of offerings like “1883,” the prequel to “Yellowstone”; “Clifford the Big Red Dog”; and National Football League games. (A year earlier, ViacomCBS was adding about a million streaming subscribers a quarter.)The company’s streaming portfolio (Paramount+ and niche services from Showtime, BET and Nickelodeon) now has about 56 million subscribers. Mr. Bakish said that number would grow to 100 million by 2024, more than the roughly 70 million the company had previously forecast. The company also raised its 2024 streaming revenue goal to $9 billion, from $6 billion.Streaming brought in about $4.2 billion last year, including advertising sales from the free Pluto TV service.Paramount+ unveiled a barrage of additional programming to fuel continued growth. The expanded lineup will include fresh content from franchises including “Yellowstone,” “Beavis and Butt-Head,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” “Real World,” “Dora the Explorer,” “NCIS,” “SpongeBob SquarePants,” “Transformers” and “South Park.” Paramount+ will be the exclusive first stop after theatrical distribution for all Paramount Pictures movies beginning in 2024. (Many previously went to Epix, a premium cable channel.)Starting this summer in the United States, Paramount+ subscribers will be able to upgrade to receive Showtime content, including the new hit drama “Yellowjackets” and older series like “Billions.”ViacomCBS shares declined about 6 percent in after-hours trading. Richard Greenfield, a founder of the research firm LightShed Partners, cited investor concern about Mr. Bakish’s “meaningfully stepping up spending” on content.It may be growing quickly, but Paramount+ continues to lag behind competitors like Disney+, which added 11.8 million subscribers worldwide in its most recent quarter to reach 129.8 million. Netflix has about 222 million. More

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    Kathryn Kates, Actress of ‘Seinfeld’ Babka Fame, Dies at 73

    She had a long screen career but may be best remembered as the counterwoman who tells Jerry and Elaine the bad news that her bakery was out of chocolate babkas.Kathryn Kates, who appeared as a counterwoman in two memorable scenes from “Seinfeld” involving baked goods in short supply — chocolate babkas and marble rye bread — and racked up numerous screen credits over nearly 50 years, died on Jan. 22 at her brother’s home in Lake Worth, Fla. She was 73.The cause was lung cancer, the brother, Josh Kates, said.Ms. Kates, who lived in Manhattan, had roles in dozens of television shows and movies, including the recent series “Shades of Blue” on NBC, “Friends From College” on Netflix and “The Good Fight” on CBS.She appeared in five episodes of “Law and Order” — a fixture on the résumé of most New York working actors — as Judge Marlene Simmons. She also had a recurring role in Netflix’s “Orange Is the New Black,” as the mother of Jason Biggs’s character, Larry Bloom. And she was cast as Angie DeCarlo, an Italian beauty shop owner, in “The Many Saints of Newark” (2021), the prequel movie to “The Sopranos.”But it was in two episodes of “Seinfeld” (1990-1998) that she made an indelible mark.Sporting a yellow apron and a New York attitude, Ms. Kates appeared in Season Five’s “The Dinner Party” as the bakery clerk who announces to Jerry and Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) that the store’s last treasured chocolate babka had been sold just ahead of them. Offered a cinnamon babka instead, Elaine calls it a “lesser” babka, to which Jerry objects, intoning, “Cinnamon takes a back seat to no babka.”The scene includes a memorable coughing fit by Ms. Kates’s character next to a wall of baked goods and her closing lines to a loitering Jerry and Elaine: “Can I get you anything else? How about a nice box of ‘scram’?”The episode also features Jerry’s exaltation of another New York bakery mainstay, the black and white cookie, as something of a model for better race relations. “Look to the cookie!” he declares.In an interview last year with “This Podcast Is Making Me Thirsty,” a podcast about “Seinfeld,” Ms. Kates recalled getting the part for which people would recognize her on Manhattan streets for decades.The whole writing staff, including Mr. Seinfeld and the show’s co-creator, Larry David, watched as she read her lines and delivered her cough in an audition. She had earlier auditioned for other small parts on “Seinfeld,” but the brassy counterwoman was her lucky break.Two seasons later, Ms. Kates, again in her yellow apron, reprised the role in the episode “The Rye.” This time she tells a crestfallen Jerry that the bakery’s last loaf of marble rye has been sold, complicating a plot to restore George into the good graces of his future in-laws.Ms. Kates devoted much of her time to running The Colony Theater in Burbank, Calif., of which she was a founding member. There, she and the actress Barbara Beckley were co-general managers from 1975 to 1981. She appeared in numerous Colony productions.“Kathy was New York through and through,” Ms Beckley said. “She did some wonderful roles with us.” But she added: “She was not a leading lady. She was much more of a young character actress, and not a Hollywood type at all.”Kathryn Jane Kates was born Jan. 29, 1948, in Queens. Her father, Louis Kates, was an electronics engineer. Her mother, Sylvia (Fagan) Kates, was an actress who, under the stage name Madelyn Cates, appeared on television in the hospital drama “St. Elsewhere” and the series “Fame” and played the eccentric concierge confronting Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel) and Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder) in the 1967 film version of “The Producers.”Ms. Kates grew up in Great Neck, N.Y., on Long Island, and graduated from Great Neck North Senior High. She studied acting at New York University.After graduating in 1971, she moved to Los Angeles in 1974 and focused on theater. Her early television credits included appearances on the legal drama “Matlock” in 1991 and other cameo roles in “Rachel Gunn, R.N.” and “Hudson Street.”In 1993, she married Joseph Pershes, an executive at a video distribution company. They divorced in 2006. In addition to her brother, she is survived by a sister, Mallory Kates.When asked in the podcast interview about appearing on “Seinfeld,” Ms. Kates responded that she was always grateful to have work. “I have loved every job I’ve ever had,” she said.And as for her babka preference? She favored chocolate. More

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    Stephen Colbert Sets the Mood for Valentine’s Day With His Viewers

    “Hey, don’t mind me, I’ll just be over here doing my thang — a long monologue,” Colbert joked.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.Bringing Sexy BackLate night celebrated Valentine’s Day by pointing to a new study reporting that Americans are having less sex than ever.Stephen Colbert said that his viewers were surely having a great holiday, joking, “It’s almost midnight and you’re doing the sexiest thing there is: You’re watching TV.”“I hope you’re having a sensual Valentine’s Day, which, if you’re watching this, you’re probably not.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“So, how’s it going out there? Looks like you’re having a great night. Just know I’m rooting for both of you — wait a second, all three of you.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Hey, don’t mind me, I’ll just be over here doing my thang — a long monologue. And maybe later, if we’re lucky, some Toyota commercials. And I’ve got 400 people in this room with me who just like to watch.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“And I’m happy to help, because America could use a little help in the seduction department right now. Because according to new research, Americans are at a 30-year low for sex. And again, no judgment: Whatever doesn’t float your boat. I’m not going to kink-shame the jigsaw puzzle/Breathe Right Strip/lights out by 9 p.m. lifestyle.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“The study says there are a number of possible reasons for it, including fewer people getting married, an aging population. But let’s be honest: We all know what the real reason is — unlimited porn. The same reason people at the Olive Garden are eating more breadsticks — it’s unlimited.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“I think it’s weird having Valentine’s the day after the Super Bowl. I was out past midnight last night flipping SUVs and setting mattresses on fire, now I’m supposed to be romantic? I don’t know, I’m all charged up!” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Punchiest Punchlines (The Day After Edition)“Yesterday, as I hope you know, was Super Bowl Sunday, also known as — a.k.a. ‘Cryptocurrency Awareness Day.’” — JIMMY KIMMEL“It’s all crypto now. Even the halftime show, bloods versus the cryptos.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“It was crypto and Peacock all day long. There were more ads for Peacock than there are living peacocks on the planet earth.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Dr. Dre, 50 Cent, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Anderson .Paak, and — it was supposed to be Mary J. Blige, but Snoop Dogg smoked all the j’s, so it was just Mary Blige.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“But it really was quite a game. The big hits, the long draws, and that was just Snoop right before the halftime show.” — JAMES CORDEN“This is a headline in The New York Post today: ‘Snoop Dogg smokes weed right before star-studded Super Bowl halftime show.’ Yeah, no kidding. He smokes weed right before everything.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“For Snoop, that’s a performance-enhancing drug.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Two legends of hardcore gangsta rap, or as the kids today call them: Martha Stewart’s friend and the headphones guy.” — STEPHEN COLBERT, on Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre“I was so excited and nervous my palms were sweaty, knees weak, arms were heavy. There was vomit on my sweater already, mom’s spaghetti.” — JAMES CORDENThe Bits Worth WatchingTrevor Noah dedicated Monday night’s “The Daily Show” to a conversation with musician India.Arie about Joe Rogan, unconscious racism and why she took her music off Spotify.What We’re Excited About on Tuesday NightJohn Oliver will sit down with Stephen Colbert on Tuesday’s “Late Show.”Also, Check This OutIvan Reitman in 2011. Matt Sayles/Associated PressFilmmaker Ivan Reitman, best known for “Ghostbusters,” “National Lampoon’s Animal House,” and “Stripes,” died on Saturday. More

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    ‘Space Dogs’ Review: To Boldly Go Where No Dog Has Gone Before

    … Some never to return. This new Cold War musical about the Soviet-American space race pays tribute to the pups who preceded the cosmonauts.We’re in 1957, the height of the Cold War. The Soviets and Americans are racing to space, and the Soviets have pulled ahead by launching the first human-made object into the Earth’s orbit. The next goal on the horizon: sending a man into space. But before that, there was Laika, a stray dog from Moscow who was the sole living occupant of the spacecraft Sputnik 2, which orbited the Earth. Sputnik fell from space eventually, but Laika did not survive the trip.Now Laika has been resurrected as the subject of a vapid new musical, “Space Dogs,” an MCC Theater production that opened on Sunday and that stars its creators, Nick Blaemire and Van Hughes.Directed by Ellie Heyman, “Space Dogs” recounts the story of Laika, the best known of the dogs that Soviet scientists trained for space travel. In this retelling, a scientist known by the code name Chief Designer led that initiative.Parts of the show are told from Laika’s perspective, from doggie diary entries and songs (Laika is played by a plushie that is mostly handled and voiced by Blaemire). Other parts come from the perspective of the chief designer, played by Hughes. The rest of the scenes break the fourth wall, providing historical and political context. It’s informative, in a slipshod way, but also hopelessly cheesy, packed with dad jokes, puns, silly accents and even a doggie beauty contest. “Space Dogs” gives off the vibe of a B-grade educational children’s show — though one with the occasional vulgarity amid the bleak material.One oddly peppy song recounts how the chief designer, “driven by a void in the center of his chest,” to use a cliché from the show, was imprisoned in the gulag and tortured during the height of Stalin’s rule. And though no dogs were harmed in the making of this show, there are canine casualties and somber existential musings from the four-legged friends. Besides the Bowie-esque chorus and spoken word of “Fill the Void,” and the alternating soft acoustic chords and heavy strumming of “Blessed by Two Great Oceans,” most of the musical’s songs are pretty uniform stylistically and generically upbeat — bouncy yet forgettable numbers that contribute little to the story.“Space Dogs” also telegraphs Pixar-level heartbreak through mawkish tunes. “What if I die? What if I fall out of the sky?” Laika sings, and later croons from beyond the grave about her dashed hopes for a family and delicious steak. It’s emotionally manipulative, especially for tenderhearted animal-lovers in the audience. The show then must walk a difficult line between a celebration of Laika and her canine colleagues (“History was changed by dogs!” the two actors declare) and commentary on the ambitions of two countries on the brink of mutual annihilation.Laika the dog in the spotlight of the musical “Space Dogs,” an MCC Theater production.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesHughes and Blaemire attack their material with such enthusiasm; their earnestness is palpable, even taking into account the corniness of the book and their imperfect vocals (the songs they wrote accommodate their range and abilities).The rest of the production appears poised to overshadow the two stars and their story. Wilson Chin’s scenic design is compact and cluttered, full of drawers and speakers of different shapes and sizes stacked together Tetris-style alongside Soviet and American flags. Amanda Villalobos offers some fabulous puppet and prop design that, unfortunately, isn’t prominently showcased until the last third of the show.The lighting design (Mary Ellen Stebbins) is the boldest, full of neons and strobes. Projections, green screens and live cameras all figure prominently as well, and though the celestial lights and scenery are dazzling, all of these elements together offer a glut of visual information that is often overwhelming.What would my own dog think of such a show, I wondered as I left the theater. I’m betting he’d prefer to keep his paws on the ground.Space DogsThrough March 13 at MCC Theater, Manhattan; mcctheater.org. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. More

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    Isabel Torres, Actress Known for ‘Veneno’ on HBO Max, Dies at 52

    Ms. Torres was one of three transgender performers to play Cristina Ortiz Rodríguez, a beloved Spanish television personality, in the eight-part streaming series.Isabel Torres, the Spanish actress best known for playing the transgender singer and television personality Cristina Ortiz Rodríguez in the HBO Max series “Veneno,” died on Friday. She was 52.Ms. Torres’s family confirmed her death in a statement on her official Instagram account. The statement did not specify a cause or say where she died.In recent years, Ms. Torres had documented her treatments for lung cancer on Instagram. In November, she shared a video in which she said she had been told she had only about two months to live.“Let’s see if I get over it,” she said. “And if not,” she added, “what are we going to do? Life is like that.” She said the video would be her last, though she continued to post photographs for several weeks.Ms. Torres had acted sporadically since the mid-1990s before she found her largest audience in 2020 in “Veneno,” as one of three transgender performers who portrayed Ms. Rodríguez, a transgender singer and television personality. In the show, Ms. Rodríguez, who was known as “La Veneno” (“The Poison”), rises to fame after being interviewed by a television journalist in a park in Madrid where she had been working as a prostitute. She becomes a fixture on Spanish television and the most prominent transgender person in the country before her death in 2016 at 52.“Veneno” is based on the book “Listen! Not a Whore, Not a Saint: The Memories of La Veneno” by the journalist Valeria Vegas. Created and directed by Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo, the series debuted on the Spanish streaming platform Atresplayer Premium in 2020 and was then picked up by HBO Max.Ms. Torres was the oldest of the three actors who played Ms. Rodríguez in the eight-part series. In one Instagram post, Ms. Torres said it was the role of a lifetime, adding that she had gained weight to transform herself for it.For her performance, she won an Ondas Award for best actress in a television series.Ms. Torres was born on July 14, 1969, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands, according to imdb.com.In 1996, she became the first Canarian woman to have her gender legally changed on her identification, according to the Spanish news outlet Las Provincias.In 2005, she became the first transgender woman to be a candidate for the title of Las Palmas Carnival Queen, Las Provincias reported. Last year, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria honored her as its “favorite daughter.”Information about her survivors was not immediately available.In an interview with The Advocate last year, Ms. Torres said that she was surprised to discover how much she had in common with Ms. Rodríguez when she was cast in “Veneno,” and that she had seized on those similarities to shape her performance.“I think in it there was a lot of me, and in her there was a lot of all of us,” she said. “I never thought we would have a lot of similarities, and at the end, after seeing the character, learning her story, and learning to love her through her wounds, I understood that we share a lot in common.” More

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    Wanda Sykes, Amy Schumer and Regina Hall to Host the Oscars

    The comic actresses are in final talks for the job, which the producer Will Packer is adding back to the ceremony. The event had been hostless for the past three years.Wanda Sykes, left, Amy Schumer and Regina Hall are in final negotiations. Photographs by Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images; Jamie Mccarthy/Getty Images; Jerod Harris/Getty Images The Oscars, seeking cultural relevance again after last year’s ceremony hit record low ratings, have a host again. Three, in fact.Amy Schumer, Regina Hall and Wanda Sykes are in final negotiations to host the 94th Academy Awards next month, according to six sources with knowledge of the discussions. The three comic actresses come to the gig with varying levels of expertise, including stints hosting the MTV Movie Awards (Schumer in 2015) and the BET Awards (Hall in 2019). Sykes also had her own talk show, which ran from 2009 to 2010, and has hosted ceremonies including the GLAAD Media Awards. The news was reported earlier by Variety.Will Packer, who was hired in October to produce the Oscars telecast, explored several unconventional ideas for structuring the show, including the option to pair two hosts for each hour. Until this weekend, Packer was also in discussions to add the actor Jon Hamm as a fourth Oscars host, and invitations were also extended to previous hosts, including Chris Rock and Steve Martin. Martin was pursued for the role alongside his “Only Murders in the Building” co-stars Selena Gomez and Martin Short. But that plan was scuttled because of scheduling conflicts.Schumer, Hall and Sykes will be taking on one of the most high-profile jobs in town, and also one of the most scrutinized. Hosting the ceremony was once viewed as a feather in the cap by top comedians like Billy Crystal and Whoopi Goldberg. But the Oscars have gone hostless for the last three years, which began as a matter of expediency when Kevin Hart dropped out of the 2019 ceremony after refusing to apologize for jokes and tweets that were considered homophobic.Since then, the academy has instead asked stars simply to open the show, including the comic trio of Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph at the 2019 Oscars, as well as Regina King, who delivered an earnest monologue at the top of last year’s ceremony. Those kickoff positions have proved easier to book, since many stars are still leery about the time commitment and potential backlash that a solo hosting gig can bring. But without a host, there are fewer opportunities for the show to produce viral, talked-about moments like the star-packed selfie taken by the host Ellen DeGeneres in 2014.And in an era when television ratings are dwindling, the Oscars need all the buzz they can get: This year’s show is viewed as a make-or-break moment by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the group that votes on the Oscars and recently opened a pricey museum in Los Angeles. After last year’s edition pulled record-low ratings, the academy has sought new ways to draw eyeballs, including a contest letting viewers vote on their favorite film of the year. That winner, which will be announced on the telecast, provides a potential berth for blockbusters like “Spider-Man: No Way Home” that failed to make the best-picture race when the nominations were unveiled last week.The academy is set to officially announce the hosts Tuesday on “Good Morning America.” The 94th Academy Awards will be held on March 27.Brooks Barnes More

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    Anna Sorokin on ‘Inventing Anna’ and Life After Rikers

    In an interview ahead of the Netflix show’s release, Ms. Sorokin spoke about how her life has changed since the end of her Anna Delvey days.The release of “Inventing Anna,” a nine-part Netflix series created by Shonda Rhimes, has brought the case of Anna Sorokin back into the spotlight. Ms. Sorokin, 31, lived for several years in the 2010s as Anna Delvey, a wealthy German heiress of her own invention, convincing members of Manhattan’s elite to finance her fine dining and travel.Ms. Sorokin was arrested in 2017 after bilking banks and failing to pay hefty Manhattan hotel bills. I covered her trial for The New York Times in 2019; she was convicted on eight counts and sentenced to four to 12 years in prison.After moving through five correctional facilities, Ms. Sorokin was released in February 2021. Six weeks later, she was rearrested by immigration authorities for having overstayed her visa. She has spent the last year in ICE detention, where she is fighting deportation to Germany.Over several phone calls to the Orange County Correctional Facility in Goshen, N.Y., Ms. Sorokin spoke about the Netflix show (for which she was a paid consultant), life in detention and the looming question of remorse. The interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.Back in 2019, around the time of your trial, you told me: “The thing is, I’m not sorry” for the financial crimes you were accused of. The quote has followed you around ever since, and was even the first question brought up in your parole board hearing.I told the parole board that I felt like I was taken out of context. And I said you showed up as a surprise, and my feelings from that trial were really fresh. I did feel quite defiant. It was just really a couple of days after my guilty verdict. I was still processing.What would your answer be now?I feel sorry for the way my case is being perceived. And I feel sorry that I resorted to these actions that people think I’m glorifying now.I feel sorry for the choices I’ve made. Definitely, I don’t feel like the world would be a better place if people were just trying to be more like me.The Netflix series “Inventing Anna” is about a very specific point in time in your life — your mid-20s. You’re 31 now. Do you feel that you’ve changed?I feel like I changed immensely just due to the fact that I’ve been exposed to so many people and just seeing other people’s walks of life. Even though I thought I was so well traveled and I lived in Europe, lived in the States and lived in different countries, I was so sheltered. Having been to prison and having been through the criminal justice system, it just exposed me to a whole different kind of a person, and my problems before just seem ridiculous.Julia Garner as the fictional German heiress Anna Delvey in the Netflix series “Inventing Anna.”Nicole Rivelli/NetflixIf you could go back in time, would you go back and do things differently?With the benefit of hindsight, I would have changed lots of things, but this is just not how life works. So I am just building on my experiences and learning from them.Netflix paid you $320,000 for your life rights to the series, and you consulted on the project. [A Netflix spokeswoman would not confirm the figure but wrote that the payments were made to an escrow account monitored by New York State’s Office of Victim Services.]The Fake Heiress Who Conned New York’s WealthyAnna Sorokin, whose story is now revisited in Netflix’s “Inventing Anna,” was found guilty of theft of services and grand larceny in 2019.A Serial Scammer: Ms. Sorokin, a Russian immigrant, pretended to be a German heiress, swindling New York’s elite out of more than $200,000.She Is Not Sorry: In interviews with The Times, Ms. Sorokin was eager to explain her actions as the missteps of a naïve young woman. (Here is what interviewing her was like.)‘Inventing Anna’: The mini-series by Shonda Rhimes works as a clichéd morality tale but stumbles as a piece of storytelling, writes our critic.Fiction vs. Reality: A reporter who covered Ms. Sorokin’s trial in 2019 for The Times explains what the series gets right (and wrong).Yes, and that’s why, to reference that BBC interview where I was asked “Does crime pay?”, I could not honestly say “no,” in my situation, because I did get paid. For me to say “no” would just be denying the obvious. I didn’t say that crime pays in general.How has that money been used?I paid $198,000-something for restitution, which I have paid off in its entirety and right away, and the rest of it to my legal fees. Your social media presence has also played a part in your remaining detention. You made quite the hyperbolic statements there while you were out last year.I always saw my social media as satire. It was never meant to be serious. Part of me throwing my story around and using my voice is to put more public awareness on the nonsensical things inmates have to go through every day.Julia Fox read an article you wrote for Business Insider and shared it to her Instagram story. She called you “my dear sis” and said you’re “killing it from behind bars.” How do you know Julia?We have some mutual friends — she is a girl about town. We actually connected on Instagram when I was out, and we DM’d a bit, and then she jumped on my Clubhouse, which was really random. I was answering people’s questions about my experience, and she made the forum so much better. She asked all the right questions. We have a similar sense of humor. She was never judgmental, and we’ve stayed in touch ever since.She has lots of interesting creative projects going on, and I feel like the media is not doing her justice talking about her dating life. We are actually working on a little something together.Do tell.Really soon.Let’s talk more about your ICE detention. You were released from serving your sentence and then rearrested six weeks later based on overstaying your visa.ICE came to see me three times, starting in December 2020, and the final time they just let me know: We’re not interested in you.So I was in shock when I was arrested. I knew it was a possibility, but nothing had changed in my circumstances from six weeks before. So it’s flabbergasting. Why not arrest me straight out of prison? It’s not like I fell through the cracks. [A spokesperson for ICE would not comment on the specifics of Ms. Sorokin’s ICE detention.]I don’t think this is such a controversial or radical thought: that prison is really a waste of time and it’s not efficient. Between my arrest and my release, the first officials who asked me any questions about my crime were the parole board.There are programs for people with drug addiction and people who are sexual offenders and programs for violent inmates. But there’s absolutely nothing for financial crimes. I took a program for culinary arts. That has to say something about this system.Many of the people inside ICE do not speak English. You’ve spent some time trying to help non-English speakers without lawyers push through the system, but it’s been a struggle for you and for them.It’s just really hard to find what your options are. There’s no way to do your own research here whatsoever. The books are from like 20 years ago. I’ve yet to find any immigration cases that even resemble mine.I have a lawyer, but some people here don’t, because you cannot be a burden to the government while defending your immigration case. You either have to find some charity that will help you or represent yourself.I have not heard of a single success story of someone being arrested and finding a good free immigration lawyer while in jail. The system is predatory: You’re set up for failure.What do you have with you in your cell?My cell is pretty depressing. I have a whole bin of just legal paperwork. I have lots of books — mainly books. And some trail mix to snack on. It is as austere as it can get.What are you reading now?I just actually started “Super Pumped,” by Mike Isaac — it’s the Uber story. [Mr. Isaac is a technology reporter for The Times.] So I’m reading that for nonfiction, and for fiction I’m reading “We Need to Talk About Kevin.”I just got through all of a Jonathan Franzen book. I wouldn’t say I binged, but I read “The Corrections,” which I never would have gotten through on the outside, and I read “Purity” as well. I have not read “Crossroads” — the new one — because last time I asked it was not available in softcover, and I cannot have hardcovers.Do you have any friends at Goshen?There are people I’ve been friendly with, but they’ve all left. I’m just kind of doing my thing and I’m writing. I do have a lot going on and just kind of trying to manage my projects.The Netflix show is a fictionalized version of one set time in your life. Beyond the series, what would you like viewers to know about you?There is definitely a lot more to my story that I’d like to share. With that in mind, I’m working on multiple projects. I’m working on a documentary project with Bunim Murray Productions in Los Angeles. I’m also working on a book about my time in jail and working on a podcast as well.I’m not trying to encourage people to commit crimes. I’m just trying to shed light on how I made the best out of my situation, without trying to glorify it. This is what I’m creating out of that story. More

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    In Chinese Version of ‘Friends,’ Ross’s Lesbian Ex-Wife Goes Missing

    The popular show has become the latest target of China’s censorship campaign. The awkward cuts have not been missed by fans of the show in the country.HONG KONG — The wildly popular sitcom “Friends” is back on China’s best-known streaming services, but with some big changes to the script.In the latest Chinese version, when Ross tells his parents he has split from his wife, he doesn’t explain the reason: She is a lesbian living with another woman, is now pregnant and plans to raise the baby with her partner. Instead, the scene simply cuts to his parents’ stunned faces, and the plotline ends there.There are other, more subtle changes to the show, too.Joey’s suggestion of a trip to a strip club is translated in Chinese subtitles as “going out to have fun.” When Paul the Wine Guy tells Monica, “I haven’t been able to, uh, perform sexually,” the subtitle says that he has been in “low spirits.” A lament by Rachel that she is more “turned on” by a gravy boat than her fiancé is translated as Rachel being more “happy to see” tableware.The changes have prompted biting commentary on social media from the show’s many Chinese superfans, who mocked the prudishness of censors and said the alterations reinforced gender stereotypes.“Friends” is the latest example of foreign entertainment being rewritten in China, as the country embraces more traditional gender roles under its leader, Xi Jinping. Officials have gone so far as to ban portrayals of effeminate men on television.Even before the regulations went into effect in September, Chinese censors had already been hard at work. In the Chinese version of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the Queen biopic, a crucial scene in which Freddie Mercury, the band’s lead singer, tells his fiancée that he is gay was removed.The Communist Party wields enormous power over the entertainment business, bending it to produce the narratives it wants to promote. In January, censors changed the end of the movie “Fight Club,” replacing a scene in which a series of buildings were destroyed with a message saying the effort had been thwarted by police, although the original version was soon restored after a massive outcry. That move came after a much anticipated “Friends” reunion episode last year was missing cameos from Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and BTS when it aired in China because those celebrities had at some point offended the country’s leaders.“Friends” is hugely popular in China, where at one point many major cities had look-alikes of Central Perk, the cafe that was a gathering point for the show’s characters. Viewers in China had been able watch the show in an uncensored format over the past decade, but fans of the show are now limited to an officially edited version that is streamed on multiple platforms.Superfans have been quick to point out omissions or changes in censored episodes and debated the reasons for the cuts.The hashtag #FriendsDeleted was viewed more than 54 million times on the Chinese social media site Weibo over the weekend, according to a CNN report. By Monday, it had been removed.“Mostly they don’t want the women in their own country to be awakened,” one person wrote on Chinese social media. “They don’t want them to know women can love women. Otherwise who will help the men to carry on the family line.”Another commentator pointed out that the writers of “Friends” helped to normalize the L.G.B.T.Q. community with the episode. “And this is something that ‘Friends’ managed to do in 1994,” they wrote, questioning why homosexuality was being censored in China decades later.Only the first season of “Friends” was made available through online streaming platforms in China earlier this month, and many viewers in the country were already joking about what other scenes would be removed as future episodes become available.One person wondered how the censors would handle the season in which Phoebe becomes a surrogate mother to her brother. Another quipped that they were willing to bet the equivalent of $15 that the episode in which Monica, Chandler and Rachel discuss seven parts of a woman’s body for pleasure would be deleted.“I bet 100 yuan,” the person wrote on Weibo, the Chinese social media platform. “That ‘Seven Seven Seven’ is absolutely deleted.”Cao Li More