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      ‘And Just Like That …’ Recap, Episodes 1 and 2: Big Love

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      Samantha’s gone. The girls are back. And Carrie seems to have finally gotten it all. Can her happiness with Mr. Big last?Season 1, Episodes 1 and 2: ‘Hello It’s Me’ and ‘Little Black Dress’Ding dong, Big is dead. That is sad, but not for the obvious reason.Make no mistake, a wide swath of longtime “Sex and the City” fans have longed for the day that John James Preston, a.k.a. Mr. Big (Chris Noth) would be out of the picture. After many seasons of bad guy behavior, the fact that he and Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) ended up together at the end of the original series left a significant portion of fans dismayed. That Carrie took him back after he left her at the altar in the first movie sequel, and that she compromised herself to fit his marital ideal in the second, did little to assuage disappointment.Then “And Just Like That …,” the 10-part HBO Max follow-up series to “Sex and the City,” was announced, and rumors quickly swirled that Big was going to be killed off. By the end of the premiere episode, which dropped Thursday with Episode 2, the deed was already done.As much as I wanted him gone, I wasn’t rooting for that. I had hoped that after years of heartache and accommodation forced upon her by this man she simultaneously won over and settled for, Carrie would instead finally realize she had always deserved better, and she would walk her sky-high stilettos out the door. She didn’t, and that’s the sad part.Indeed, the premiere episode of “And Just Like That …” leads us to believe (at least for now) that Big had been tamed at long last — that he and Carrie were sincerely happy and had found their soft landing in love. And maybe they had. He and Carrie share a dreamy-eyed slow dance in the kitchen while searing salmon (Carrie cooks now?), and it looks like the picture-perfect marriage a 30-something Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) might have painted. They’re comfortable and committed, but they still have that spark. Who could hope for more?And so, the series chose to have it both ways. Allowing that development to stand, however briefly, allows us to witness Carrie’s apparent success — all hail the conquering hero! But allowing it to stand much longer might have served as a perpetual reminder of what made their relationship so controversial: Carrie’s constant self-debasement through the better part of six seasons and two movies, as she convinced herself that if she only worked hard enough, waited long enough and acquiesced enough, she could change Big. It was that persistent delusion that frustrated so many fans for so long. And centering that narrative today might have sent a toxic and somewhat unconvincing message.So in a tear-jerking scene in which Carrie inexplicably doesn’t call 911 upon finding her husband nearly dead on their bathroom floor, the two share frantic kisses and hugs before Big finally leaves her for good.The ‘Sex and the City’ UniverseThe sprawling franchise revolutionized how women were portrayed on the screen. And the show isn’t over yet. A New Series: Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte return for another strut down the premium cable runway in “And Just Like That,” streaming on HBO. Off Broadway: Candace Bushnell, whose writing gave birth to the “Sex and the City” universe, stars in her one-woman show based on her life. In Carrie’s Footsteps: “Sex and the City” painted a seductive vision of Manhattan, inspiring many young women to move to the city. The Origins: For the show’s 20th anniversary in 2018, Bushnell shared how a collection of essays turned into a pathbreaking series.But more on that later.When Episode 1 opens, we find a trio of familiar faces — Carrie, Charlotte York Goldenblatt and Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) — living in a vaguely idealized, maskless, carefree-ish post-pandemic New York.Of course there’s a glaring absence: Samantha Jones, played in previous installments by Kim Cattrall, who left the franchise amid a very public feud with Parker. The series gets right to addressing the missing “fourth musketeer,” in a way that may vaguely allude to the apparent real-life drama. A rift between Carrie and Samantha has emerged. In Carrie’s words, she fired Samantha as her publicist, and then Samantha fired Carrie, along with Charlotte and Miranda, as friends.At first pass, this seems like a grave overreaction on Samantha’s part. She crossed an ocean and won’t answer texts just because her pride was bruised? Maybe. Or maybe she was just sick of third-wheeling with her boring married friends and needed to move on, and the overseas job thing is just a pretext. We’ll never know.What we do know, however, is that in some respect, the story mirrors reality. Much of what has been reported about the relationships among the series’s core four actors is hearsay and speculation. But we know that there was friction between Cattrall and her castmates and that Cattrall, like Samantha, removed herself.Regardless of the reasons for Samantha’s departure, it is relatable. As decades pass, some friendships wither, and this plot point is a reminder that, like romantic relationships, sometimes friendships aren’t happily ever after.With that out of the way, the episode moves at a rapid pace, making little room for subtlety or nuance when it comes to situating the characters in this new stage of life. Everyone is older. (In case the passing of time wasn’t obvious, you’ll be made aware of it by the many self-deprecating “old” jokes woven into the dialogue.) The women have gray hair, in various degrees and shades of dye. They’re not entirely comfortable with podcasts. They struggle with pronouns. They weren’t who they once were, and they’re not trying to be. Sort of. (As Charlotte, still a full brunette, argues: “Ruth Bader Ginsburg died her hair.”)Carrie is still in the media game, but she has parlayed her success from print columns and books into a steady podcast gig and healthy Instagram following. It’s all a bit uncomfy to her, though, especially when her younger, “queer, nonbinary, Mexican-Irish diva” boss, Che Diaz (Sara Ramirez), tells her she needs to be more explicit on the show.Charlotte is mostly still Charlotte, living a lovely life in a Park Avenue palace with her adoring husband and girls. While her oldest, Lily (Cathy Ang), who stuns the crowd at her piano recital with a virtuosic performance, seems to take after her mother in the pursuit of perfection, her youngest daughter, Rose (Alexa Swinton), is a punky skateboarder who won’t wear the floral Oscar de la Renta number her mom bought for her without an ironic T-shirt over top.Finally, Miranda has ditched corporate law to pursue a master’s in human rights — an endeavor she proclaims she doesn’t need to be a “spicy redhead” for. If Miranda’s gray hair and fine lines aren’t enough to alienate her from her Gen Z classmates, the racially insensitive rambling she spills onto her Black professor, Nya Wallace (Karen Pittman), certainly solidifies it. Watching Miranda struggle to walk back comments about her professor’s braids is almost as uncomfortable as watching Big masturbate.It has been well publicized that the franchise has made an effort to reckon with its original blinding whiteness, namely with the addition of new cast members of color. Reasonable people will disagree on whether or not the series is doing that successfully and sensitively. Still, Miranda’s word vomit scene suggests they’re at least being thoughtful about that process. Considering the original series is riddled with dated, problematic references, and that the second movie was slammed as, at worst, offensive, and at best, insensitive, the still largely white cast couldn’t burst into this series completely enlightened. Their learning curve is on display, particularly in Miranda’s cringey white savior moments with her incredibly patient professor, and that at least feels honest.In all other regards, the first episode is largely lighthearted until the very end, when Big suddenly drops his phone, has a heart attack and dies. That flows into the mostly melancholy Episode 2.Much as they did when Big no-showed his wedding to Carrie in the first movie, Carrie’s fiercely loyal friends, Miranda and Charlotte, are right by her side in this time of need, literally, sleeping next to her in shifts as she navigates her new role as a widow. Even Samantha makes a spectral appearance, sending a billowing coffin spray to the funeral.The funeral itself is as austere as the man was, by Carrie’s design. Knowing Big would have hated a stodgy old funeral home, she throws a modern if somewhat unfeeling affair to commemorate Big’s passing — an event through which she does almost no crying. “But is that good?” Miranda wonders aloud.Speaking of wondering aloud, let us all raise a glass to the cameo friend Susan Sharon (Molly Price) for taking a pause mid-memorial to ask the essential question: “Am I the only one that remembers what a [expletive] he was to her?” Amen.The steeliness of it all is broken by Charlotte, who does the bulk of the crying, in part out of sadness for Carrie’s loss, and in part out of guilt. Charlotte reasons that had she not forced Carrie to go to Lily’s recital instead of heading out to the Hamptons with Big, Carrie would have been with Big when he had his heart attack, and he might have lived (assuming Carrie had remembered to call for an ambulance). Late in the episode, as Charlotte pushes this theory once again, Carrie relieves her of her pain, saying she isn’t mad at Charlotte but at herself for not switching off the people-pleaser inside her and leaving with Big, as she wanted to.It would have been a great time for Susan Sharon to show up again and point out that Big still refused to go to events with Carrie and her friends, and that maybe, if he would have been a little more considerate, he might have come to the recital and not died alone.In any case, that’s the worst of it for Charlotte, at least in these first two episodes. Her only other pressing concern is whether she can turn the cool documentarian and fellow P.T.O. mom Lisa Todd Wexley (Nicole Ari Parker) — her allotted friend or colleague of color for the series — into her new BFF.Other characters are facing deeper issues. These early episodes hint at a possible drinking problem for Miranda, who sneaks wine into Lily’s recital, orders a midmorning Chablis at a dive bar and slams bourbon at the funeral before her speech.Meanwhile, marriage is not so blissful for Anthony Marentino (Mario Cantone) and Stanford Blatch (Willie Garson) who bicker at every turn, even on a “good night,” only to be reminded by Big’s passing that they’re lucky to have each other. Given that Garson died in September as the new series was still filming, it remains to be seen how long that will remain true.But of course it is Carrie whose world has been rocked the hardest. She is on her own again, asking herself, “What do I do now?”Will she gallivant through Manhattan sipping cosmos and serial dating? I hope not. Most of us aren’t here for Carrie ‘n’ friends to relive their glory days. They’re in a more mature, wisened up place, and that feels right.Still, despite her grief, it’s impossible not to feel a ripple of excitement that our single girl is back. More

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      Late Night Is Tired of Tucker Carlson’s ‘Foaming’ at the News

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      The Fox News host joined his network in insisting the company’s burned-down Christmas tree is proof of the war on Christmas.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.Fired UpOn Thursday, Fox News hosts continued their insistence that the Christmas tree outside its headquarters had been burned down as part of the war on Christmas.Jimmy Kimmel said the network must not have had anything else to talk about this week, “because they really went to town on this ‘We have been victimized’ jag, and no one did more phony foaming at the mouth than the little dumber boy,” referring to Tucker Carlson.“According to Tucker Carlson, this is not an isolated incident of some disturbed rando lighting their tree on fire,” Stephen Colbert said, even though the police have said the suspect was a homeless man, and that drugs or mental illness could have been a factor in the torching.Seth Meyers imitated Carlson during one of his monologues.“[imitating Carlson] When will it end? Will every new variant mean new powers for our political class? Will they be able to test you, trace you, come to your house and inject you with a microchip hidden in a vaccine that tracks your movements? And will that tracking microchip allow them to see that you went to the anime convention, in secret, of course, because you didn’t want your friends at Fox News to know you’re into that kind of thing. And will they find out about the time you asked Sean Hannity what he thought of ‘Dragon Ball Z,’ and he looked at you like you were crazy, and that hurt your feelings so much that you ran into the bathroom to cry, only to realize you had run into the women’s bathroom and you were so worried that someone would see you run out that you instead removed a ceiling panel and climbed into a heating duct for the purposes of shimmying back to your office, not knowing that the duct wouldn’t be strong enough to support your weight, causing you to, mid-shimmy, collapse through the ceiling, where you landed on top of Rupert Murdoch’s desk while he was sitting at it, causing him to look up from his soup and yell ‘Crikey!’ Will that happen to you? Well, I can tell you it will because it happened to me.” — SETH MEYERSThe Punchiest Punchlines (Hillary’s MasterClass Edition)“Oof, that is brutal! And the way she’s sitting like that, and she’s reading it to us, it’s like the world’s most depressing fairy tale: ‘Once upon a time, an ogre crushed the dreams of a princess, and nobody lived happily ever after. The end.’” — TREVOR NOAH“But, yes, Hillary Clinton is giving a master class on resiliency that’s now available everywhere —except in Wisconsin, for some reason.” — TREVOR NOAH“And in it, she reads the victory speech she never got to deliver. And I really love how she’s like, ‘I’ve never shared this speech with anybody before. it was too painful. You’re paying me how much? Oh, well, I guess I could read a few pages.’” — TREVOR NOAH“Wait, why? We don’t want to hear that. You know when we wanted to hear that? After the election in 2016.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“What is this? What is she doing? Is this a Christmas present for Donald Trump?” — JIMMY KIMMEL“It’s like she made him a cameo video for his birthday.” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Bits Worth WatchingOn their Thursday night episode, Desus and Mero tried to convince the actress Sandra Bullock to reboot “Miss Congeniality.”Also, Check This OutClockwise from top left: Norah Jones, Bryson Tiller, Kelly Clarkson and She & Him are entering (and in some cases, returning to) the holiday music scene this year.Kelly Clarkson and Bryson Tiller are just two artists with holiday albums redefining the genre. More

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      Jussie Smollett Found Guilty of Reporting a Fake Hate Crime

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      Mr. Smollett was convicted of filing a false police report in 2019 claiming he had been the victim of a racist and homophobic attack. The jury deliberated for more than nine hours.A jury in Chicago found the actor Jussie Smollett guilty on Thursday of falsely reporting to the police that he had been the victim of a racist and homophobic assault in 2019, an attack that investigators concluded was a hoax directed by the actor himself.With its finding, after more than nine hours of deliberation, the 12-person jury indicated it had chosen to believe the accounts of two brothers who testified that Mr. Smollett had asked them to mildly injure him as part of a publicity stunt.Mr. Smollett, wearing a dark gray suit and a blue shirt, sat upright in his chair, hands clasped, staring directly at the jury just after the verdict was read.Daniel K. Webb, the special prosecutor who handled the case, said afterward that Mr. Smollett only made matters worse by continuing to stand by his account at trial.“This jury worked so hard,” Mr. Webb said, “and for Mr. Smollett to come up before them and lie for hours and hours and hours — that really compounded his misconduct.”Jussie Smollett, an actor in the Fox music-industry drama “Empire,” was found guilty of filing a false police report after staging a hate crime against himself.Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated PressThe case dated back to the frigid early hours of Jan. 29, 2019, when Mr. Smollett — known then for his role in the Fox music-industry drama “Empire” — told the police he had been the victim of a hate crime near his apartment building in Chicago. Mr. Smollett said one of his attackers had even yelled, “This is MAGA country.”His account captured the attention of a politically polarized nation concerned with rising hate crime reports and the persistent threat of racism. But public support for Mr. Smollett quickly evaporated when investigators came to the conclusion three weeks later that he had staged the attack on himself.Chicago officials, upset at the amount of police work that was spent on the case, have sued Mr. Smollett to recoup some of the city’s costs. They were similarly critical in 2019 when the office of the city’s top prosecutor, Kim Foxx, who early on had recused herself from the case, citing a potential conflict, quietly dropped the charges in exchange for Mr. Smollett’s agreement to forfeit his $10,000 bond and perform community service.The case was later revived by Mr. Webb, who reviewed that decision and ultimately announced that a grand jury had charged Mr. Smollett with six counts of felony disorderly conduct. Mr. Smollett was convicted on five counts on Thursday, relating to conversations he had with the police just after the attack. He was acquitted on the sixth count, which related to a follow-up conversation with an investigator two weeks later.The actor faces up to three years in prison. The judge did not set a sentencing date and released him on bond.His defense team said Mr. Smollett would appeal.“We remain confident that we’re going to come back and he’s going to be vindicated,” said Nenye Uche, one of the actor’s lawyers.Prosecutors argued in court that Mr. Smollett had instructed two brothers, Abimbola Osundairo and Olabinjo Osundairo, on all of the details of the attack, specifying that they should punch him only hard enough to create a bruise, pour bleach on his clothing and place a rope around his neck like a noose. The prosecutors faulted Mr. Smollett for not cooperating adequately with the investigation by balking at turning over evidence like his cellphone.“Mr. Smollett didn’t want the crime solved,” Mr. Webb said during his closing argument on Wednesday. “He wanted to report it as a hate crime; he wanted media exposure; but he didn’t want the brothers apprehended.”Mr. Webb told the jury that Mr. Smollett staged the attack because he had received a death threat in the mail and was upset by the muted response of the producers behind “Empire,” the television show on which he starred.The defense came forward with a sharply different account of Mr. Smollett’s attitudes and behaviors. The actor had not been upset by the TV studio’s response to the letter, his lawyers said, and had, in fact, turned down its offer to have security drive Mr. Smollett to and from the set. They said the Osundairo brothers were liars who had attacked Mr. Smollett to scare him into hiring them as bodyguards, and who concocted a story to avoid prosecution themselves.Mr. Smollett’s lawyer Mr. Uche argued that prosecutors had not established that the actor had a clear motive for any scheme, and that, in fact, his client had every reason not to have faked an attack.“His lack of motive is pretty obvious: Media attention, he doesn’t like it,” Mr. Uche said. What is more, he said, Mr. Smollett had a music video shoot coming up and could not afford his face getting bruised.Mr. Smollett, 39, took the stand and testified for more than seven hours in an effort to counter the narrative of the brothers, who had detailed how Mr. Smollett planned the attack. He said his interactions with the brothers in the days and hours leading up to the attack had been harmless. A “dry run” in his car that the brothers had described to the jury as a planning exercise two days before the attack was really an aimless drive through Chicago smoking marijuana.But the jury chose to believe the brothers. Abimbola Osundairo, 28, a fitness aficionado who had appeared on “Empire” in minor roles, testified that the planning began when Mr. Smollett, whom he was helping train for the music video, texted him for help with something “on the low.”“He said he wanted me to beat him up,” Mr. Osundairo said of their meeting. “I looked puzzled, and then he explained he wanted me to fake beat him up.”Mr. Osundairo said he agreed to the plan because he felt “indebted” to Mr. Smollett for getting him a role as a stand-in on “Empire.” Olabinjo Osundairo, 30, who had also appeared on “Empire” in minor roles, said he participated to “curry favor” with Mr. Smollett.Understand the Jussie Smollett TrialCard 1 of 5A staged hate crime? More

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      The jury has reached a verdict in the Jussie Smollett trial.

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      A jury in Chicago has reached a verdict in the trial over charges that the actor Jussie Smollett lied to the police about being the victim of a racist and homophobic hate crime in 2019.The New York Times has a reporter in the courtroom and will be filing updates on Thursday as soon as the jury returns to the courtroom to report its decision.The jury’s deliberations followed six days of testimony, which included Mr. Smollett taking the witness stand for more than seven hours on Monday and Tuesday. He decided to testify to counter a narrative put forward by two brothers who testified that Mr. Smollett directed them to mildly assault him as a publicity stunt.Mr. Smollett is charged with six counts of disorderly conduct related to what investigators said was his filing of a false police report.In January 2019, he told the police that he had been returning to his apartment at about 2 a.m. after a late-night run to Subway when he was attacked by two men who beat him up, yelled racist and homophobic slurs at him and put a rope around his neck like a noose.Less than a month after he made the report, Mr. Smollett himself became a suspect — and was accused of having staged the attack — but he has maintained his innocence throughout, accusing the police of a rush to judgment. More

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      Jussie Smollett Timeline: A Case With Twists and Turns

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      The case began in 2019 when the actor reported that he had been the victim of a racist and homophobic attack, and led to a trial in which he was accused of staging the attack himself.Nearly three years have passed since the actor Jussie Smollett reported that he had been the victim of a racist and homophobic attack in Chicago. The police initially investigated the incident as a possible hate crime, then accused Mr. Smollett of staging the attack himself. Charges were filed against Mr. Smollett, then dropped. A special prosecutor was appointed and charges were filed again, leading to his trial on charges of disorderly conduct for making a false report to the police.Here’s a timeline of how we got here.Jan. 29, 2019: Mr. Smollett, who is Black and gay, tells the police that at about 2 a.m., two masked men, one of whom he believed to be white, attacked him on the 300 block of East Lower North Water Street in downtown Chicago. The assailants, according to Mr. Smollett, hurled homophobic and racial slurs at him, put a rope around his neck and poured a chemical substance on him.Mr. Smollett says he went home and a close associate of his reported the incident to the police 40 minutes after it happened. Anthony Guglielmi, the chief spokesman for the Chicago Police Department, later told The Chicago Sun-Times that Mr. Smollett had been hesitant to call the police because of his status as a public figure.Law enforcement officials say they are treating the incident “as a possible hate crime.” At a follow-up visit by investigators, Mr. Smollett says the attackers mentioned “MAGA country,” a reference to the campaign slogan of former President Donald J. Trump.Celebrities, politicians and advocacy groups offer their support to Mr. Smollett. Fox, the network on which “Empire” airs, issues a statement saying the “entire studio, network and production stands united in the face of any despicable act of violence and hate.”Detectives comb through surveillance camera recordings but say they can’t find images of the attack.Jan. 30: Investigators announce the first possible break in the case: A surveillance image shows “potential persons of interest wanted for questioning” in connection to the case. The images are of two men with their backs to the camera.At this point, the F.B.I. is already investigating a threatening letter sent to Mr. Smollett at the “Empire” production offices in Chicago the week before.Jan. 31: Mr. Trump is asked about the incident in the Oval Office. He refers to it as “horrible” and added that it “doesn’t get worse.”The Smollett family releases a statement: “Jussie was the victim of a violent and unprovoked attack. We want to be clear, this was a racial and homophobic hate crime. Jussie has told the police everything from the very beginning. His story has never changed, and we are hopeful they will find these men and bring them to justice.”Feb. 1: Mr. Smollett releases his first public statement through his publicist. It says: “Let me start by saying that I’m OK. My body is strong but my soul is stronger. More importantly, I want to say thank you. The outpouring of love and support from my village has meant more than I will ever be able to truly put into words.”Acknowledging some skepticism about his story on social media, Mr. Smollett adds, “I am working with authorities and have been 100 percent factual and consistent on every level. Despite my frustrations and deep concern with certain inaccuracies and misrepresentations that have been spread, I still believe that justice will be served.”The Chicago police superintendent, Eddie T. Johnson, says in an interview with a local television station: “We have to remember, he’s a victim. You know, so we have to treat it like he’s a victim. We have no reason to think that he’s not being genuine with us.”Feb. 2: Mr. Smollett appears in public for the first time since he reported the attack, performing a concert in West Hollywood.“I have so many words on my heart that I want to say, but the most important thing I can say is, thank you so much, and that I’m OK,” Mr. Smollett tells the crowd.Feb. 4: The Chicago police say the people of interest have not been identified yet but they are continuing to follow up on leads.Feb. 11: The department reacts to phone records that Mr. Smollett turned over to investigators. The police had asked Mr. Smollett for access to his phone because he had been in conversation with his manager when the incident occurred. Mr. Smollett provides the police with redacted records that they say “do not meet the burden for a criminal investigation.”Feb. 13: Two brothers of Nigerian descent, Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo, are detained by the authorities after a flight back home to Chicago from Nigeria. Police officers raid their home and, according to CBS Chicago, remove items including an “Empire” script and two hats.Feb. 14: Mr. Smollett gives his first interview about the incident to “Good Morning America,” where he is adamant that he is telling the truth.“It feels like if I had said it was a Muslim, or a Mexican, or someone Black, I feel like the doubters would have supported me much more,” Mr. Smollett tells ABC’s Robin Roberts. “A lot more.”He also says he is convinced that the men in the surveillance images were his attackers.“Because I was there,” Mr. Smollett says. “For me, when that was released, I was like, ‘OK, we’re getting somewhere.’ I don’t have any doubt in my mind that that’s them. Never did.”The Chicago police reveal publicly that at least one of the men detained has appeared as an extra on “Empire.” The department also says they “are not yet suspects.” Their lawyer, Gloria Schmidt, tells CBS Chicago: “They’re really baffled why they are people of interest. They really don’t understand how they even got information that linked them to this horrific crime. But they’re not guilty of it. They know that the evidence is going to prove them innocent. They send their best to Jussie.”The local news media releases its first reports that investigators are beginning to look at the possibility that this is a hoax, something the Chicago police dispute publicly.Feb. 15: In a whirlwind day, the detained brothers are identified as potential suspects by police, but that night are released without being charged. Investigators announce they are no longer considered suspects but do not say why.Feb. 16: The police say they are seeking to speak with Mr. Smollett again. Media outlets, including CNN, report that the two men have told investigators they were paid to take part in a hoax. Mr. Guglielmi says in a statement, “We can confirm that the information received from the individuals questioned by police earlier in the ‘Empire’ case has in fact shifted the trajectory of the investigation.”Lawyers for Mr. Smollett release a statement saying, “As a victim of a hate crime who has cooperated with the police investigation, Jussie Smollett is angered and devastated by recent reports that the perpetrators are individuals he is familiar with.”It added: “One of these purported suspects was Jussie’s personal trainer who he hired to ready him physically for a music video. It is impossible to believe that this person could have played a role in the crime against Jussie or would falsely claim Jussie’s complicity.”The lawyers say that Mr. Smollett will “continue to cooperate” and that they “have no inclination to respond to ‘unnamed’ sources inside of the investigation.”Feb. 20: Fox releases a statement in support of Mr. Smollett amid reports that his role was being reduced on “Empire.” Later in the day, the Chicago police announce that they consider Mr. Smollett a suspect in the filing of a false report.Understand the Jussie Smollett TrialCard 1 of 5A staged hate crime? More

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      Ken Jennings and Mayim Bialik to Share ‘Jeopardy!’ Hosting Duties

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      The long-running quiz show decided to keep the hosts into its 38th season in 2022, putting an end, at least for now, to speculation and drama around the job.The quiz show “Jeopardy!” announced on Wednesday that Ken Jennings and Mayim Bialik would continue to share hosting duties into 2022, putting an end, at least for now, to months of speculation and drama around who would permanently succeed Alex Trebek, the host of more than 36 years.For months after Trebek’s death last year, producers of the game show struggled to decide who would replace him. For weeks, they cycled through a series of guest hosts, including Jennings, a former champion of the show who won a record 74 consecutive games, and Bialik, an actor known for her roles in the sitcoms “The Big Bang Theory” and “Blossom.”Other guest hosts included well-known television personalities such as Anderson Cooper, Katie Couric and LeVar Burton.On Aug. 11, Sony announced that it had named Mike Richards, an executive producer on the show, as the permanent host of “Jeopardy!” At the time, Bialik was also named as the host of primetime specials and spinoff series.But on Aug. 20, Richards abruptly quit the hosting job, after a report by The Ringer revealed offensive and sexist comments he had made on a podcast several years ago, the latest in a series of scandals that affected his brief tenure.In his place, Bialik and then Jennings became guest hosts of the regular program, splitting duties through the end of 2021.Both Jennings and Bialik have faced criticism for past remarks. Jennings apologized last year over insensitive tweets he made, including about people who use wheelchairs. Bialik has drawn controversy over several issues, including a “brain health supplement” she endorsed for a company that faced a lawsuit accusing it of false advertising, and for writing in a 2012 book about making an “informed decision not to vaccinate our children.”She clarified last year that her children would be vaccinated against the coronavirus.In its announcement on Wednesday, “Jeopardy!” said the executive producer Michael Davies would remain in that role. Davies, a veteran game-show producer who developed the original American version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” had replaced Richards as an executive producer at “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune.”Despite the controversies around who would host “Jeopardy!,” the show, which first aired in 1964, has continued to be a TV institution, drawing a weekly audience of more than 20 million. More

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      Late Night Has Some Ideas on Who Set the Fox Christmas Tree Ablaze

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      “The fire is believed to have started after Fox News’ pants caught on fire,” Jimmy Kimmel said.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.We Didn’t Start the FireA 50-foot tree in front of Fox News’s New York City headquarters was set on fire early Wednesday.“The fire is believed to have started after Fox News’ pants caught on fire,” Jimmy Kimmel joked.“The fire is believed to have started because Judge Jeanine Pirro ate one too many rum balls and breathed on a cigarette.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“I’ve seen trees — this is not one of them. That is a hollow structure that sort of resembles a tree, in the same way Tucker Carlson is a hollow structure that sort of resembles a human.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“And Fox News tried to warn us this was coming. Every time a store clerk says, ‘Happy holidays,’ a Christmas tree bursts into flames.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Authorities arrested a suspect last night, and police say that they believe he is homeless and mental illness may have played a factor. Homeless and mentally ill? Oh, my God — the fire was set by Bill O’Reilly!” — STEPHEN COLBERT“[To the tune of ‘It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas’] It’s beginning to look a lot like arson, everywhere you go. Take a look at the tree and then, the flames are roaring once again. Doocy, stop, drop, roll.” — STEPHEN COLBERTThe Punchiest Punchlines (Fired Up Edition)“Even though lighting trees on fire is very much in line with Fox’s position on climate change, the hosts of their morning show were very upset today.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“And it is not clear how this happened. It could be an accident. It could be arson. It could be Santifa.” — TREVOR NOAH“Now, I know what you’re thinking, but the ghost of Hugo Chavez has an alibi.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Of course, this never would have happened if the tree had a gun.” — STEPHEN COLBERTThe Bits Worth WatchingSamantha Bee got a tattoo to commemorate her 200th episode of “Full Frontal.”What We’re Excited About on Thursday NightMichael B. Jordan will sit down with Stephen Colbert on Thursday’s “Late Night.”Also, Check This OutAlexa VisciusThe “Hacks” star Meg Stalter loves Dolly Parton, Instagram Live and private karaoke. More

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      Jury in Jussie Smollett Trial Begins Deliberations

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      After closing arguments on Wednesday, the panel began considering whether the actor had staged a hate crime against himself, as the two men who attacked him have testified.The jury tasked with deciding whether Jussie Smollett falsely told the police that he had been the victim of a racist and homophobic assault began deliberations on Wednesday and started to grapple with the two differing narratives of what happened on a freezing Chicago night in 2019.Prosecutors have accused Mr. Smollett of orchestrating the attack himself by instructing two brothers, Abimbola Osundairo and Olabinjo Osundairo, to punch him just hard enough to create bruises, pour bleach on his clothing and place a rope around his neck like a noose while yelling racist and homophobic slurs.But the defense, which relied on more than seven hours of testimony by Mr. Smollett himself, has argued he was the victim of a real attack, perpetrated by the brothers, who then lied to investigators to avoid being prosecuted themselves.After six days of testimony, and a full day of closing arguments by both sides, the 12-person jury began considering the disorderly conduct charges late on Wednesday afternoon. But Judge James B. Linn agreed to suspend deliberations just after 5 p.m. because one of the jurors had reported to the court that he had made a prior commitment to attend a concert in which his child was participating.Earlier in the trial, the special prosecutor in the case, Daniel K. Webb, told the jury that Mr. Smollett had staged the attack because he was upset that the producers behind the television show on which he starred, “Empire,” had had a muted response to a death threat the actor had received in the mail.Mr. Webb argued on Wednesday that Mr. Smollett’s own account of what had occurred did not make sense. If the attack had not been planned, he said, the Osundairo brothers would not have known when and where Mr. Smollett would pass in those early morning hours when he was assaulted as he carried home a tuna sandwich from Subway.Mr. Smollett, he pointed out, initially reported that one of his attackers had been white even though Abimbola Osundairo, whom he knows well, is Black and is someone whose voice he has heard many times. Similarly, he cited Mr. Smollett’s refusal to turn over his phone and other potential evidence to the police as indications that the actor sought to impede the investigation.“Mr. Smollett didn’t want the crime solved,” Mr. Webb said in his closing. “He wanted to report it as a hate crime; he wanted media exposure; but he didn’t want the brothers apprehended.”Mr. Webb also said evidence indicated that Mr. Smollett “tampered” with the rope on his neck to make it look like it was fitted more tightly than when Olabinjo Osundairo put it over Mr. Smollett’s head. The prosecutor showed the jury an image of surveillance footage taken shortly after the attack and compared it with an image of Mr. Smollett when the police came, with the rope appearing tighter in the second image.On Monday, Mr. Smollett had denied tampering with the rope. He testified that when he returned to his apartment after the attack, he had taken the rope off, but his creative director, Frank Gatson, told him to put it back on so the police could see what had happened.“I was trying not to mess up the evidence,” Mr. Smollett said.Daniel K. Webb, center, the special prosecutor handling the Smollett case, arrives at court on Wednesday. Kamil Krzaczynski/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesIn the defense’s closing argument, Mr. Smollett’s lead lawyer, Nenye Uche, said that prosecutors had not established a clear motive, and that, in fact, his client had every reason not to have faked an attack.“His lack of motive is pretty obvious: Media attention, he doesn’t like it,” Mr. Uche said. What is more, he said, Mr. Smollett had a music video shoot coming up and could not afford his face getting bruised.Understand the Jussie Smollett TrialCard 1 of 5A staged hate crime? More