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      ‘S.N.L.’: Trump Celebrates 100 Years (Oops! Days) in Office

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      The Sharpie that never runs dry takes aim at interracial couples in commercials and a declaration normalizing May-December romances.In the first 100 days of his second term, President Trump has already signed more executive orders than any other modern president, and this weekend, “Saturday Night Live” offered its suggestions for even more.This broadcast, hosted by Quinta Brunson and featuring the musical guest Benson Boone, started with a rousing voice-over proclaiming that Trump’s first 100 days “have been the most dynamic since F.D.R.”During that same interval in the 1930s, the voice-over said, President Franklin D. Roosevelt “created vital government departments, forged new alliances and established our nation’s social safety net.”President Trump, the voice-over added, “did the same thing, only in reverse.”Enter James Austin Johnson, in his recurring role as Trump, congratulating himself for these accomplishments.“It’s me, your favorite president and perhaps your next pope,” he said. “Conclave! Well, it’s been 100 years since I became president. Excuse me, days. Wow, feels longer.”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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      Melissa Gorga Talks Sprinkle Cookies and ‘Real Housewives’ Ending

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      The feud between Melissa Gorga and Teresa Giudice, her “Real Housewives of New Jersey” castmate and sister-in-law, has been simmering for more than a decade.Giudice takes pains to point out Gorga’s perceived transgressions, citing rumors of infidelity, gold-digging and a past life as a stripper (all of which Gorga has denied) in fights that became recurring story lines for the show and that divided fans into Team Teresa and Team Melissa.A dispute in Season 3 (shot in 2011) came to summarize the innocuous events that could set off accusations of bad taste when Giudice complained to family and friends that Gorga brought a subpar choice of cookie to her holiday gathering. “She came to my house Christmas Day, and she brought me sprinkle cookies,” Giudice said, specifying that she preferred pignoli cookies, before adding: “Melissa. No one touched the cookies you brought. I threw them in the garbage!”Gorga used the dis as a springboard for Let’s Sprinkle by MG, a direct-to-consumer line of upscale butter cookies with sprinkles — running $29.99 for a box of a dozen — that she says has brought in over half a million dollars in revenue since its December launch. Beyond being a recurring reference on the show, the sprinkle cookies are also an offscreen calling card for audience members firmly on Team Melissa.The sprinkle cookies have become a calling card for audience members firmly on Team Melissa.Yael Malka for The New York TimesGorga and Giudice are no longer talking after a bitter last season that divided the cast so deeply that they could not gather to film the all-important reunion show. It’s uncertain who will return to the series, and there are whispers that the cast will be overhauled, as has happened with the New York and Atlanta franchises.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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      Did a TV Show Hurt You? ‘Fix-Its’ Offer Justice

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      This article includes spoilers for “Daredevil: Born Again,” “Severance,” “The Last of Us” and “The White Lotus.”As a longtime player of the Last of Us video game series, Sam Gaitan knew the death was coming. Still, the brutal murder of Joel in a recent episode of the HBO adaptation hit her hard. It was already midnight when she went on Tumblr to read fan reactions. Then, in a fit of inspiration, she started writing.“I was a wreck, and I needed to get those strong emotions out,” Gaitan, a tattooist and artist, said in a recent phone interview. By 5 a.m., she had written 3,761 words featuring Joel and Red, an original character Gaitan had previously created, and an alternative scenario that spares Joel from his onscreen fate.Writing under the alias oh_persephone, she posted the story on AO3, an online repository for fan fiction and other fan-created art, and crashed until her dogs woke her up the next morning.“It probably wasn’t the most coherent thing I’ve written,” she said, laughing. “But I figured other people could use it as much as I did.”In this alternative plot to “The Last of Us,” Joel, the beloved male lead played by Pedro Pascal, avoids being detained and murdered by a rival group.He is saved by Red, an invented heroine who convinces the gunmen that Joel is already dead and sends them off.“Joel’s eyes were on her, watching, a breath away from being up and ready to fight if needed,” oh_persephone writes. “They were both tightly wound coils, waiting to explode.”

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      ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Wants to End With a Message of Hope

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      In interviews, Elisabeth Moss and other stars and creators of the groundbreaking drama discuss its impending conclusion and ongoing connection to American politics.Though it was conceived in the Obama era, “The Handmaid’s Tale” arrived on Hulu in the early months of the first Trump presidency. Eight years later, it is concluding at the dawn of the second as an enduring, if initially accidental symbol of feminist resistance.Like the 1985 Margaret Atwood novel it is based upon, “The Handmaid’s Tale” focuses on the violence inflicted on women in Gilead, a place plagued by low birthrates and environmental disasters that divides women, based on age and fertility, into Wives, Handmaids, Marthas, Aunts, Econowives and Unwomen.From the beginning, the show has invited interpretation as a running commentary on real-world gender politics — female activists nationwide wore the Handmaid’s uniform of red cloaks and stark white bonnets in protests, and “The Handmaid’s Tale” made history as the first streaming series to win the Emmy for best drama, in 2017. And its dystopian conceit of a nation claiming complete control over women’s reproductive rights became only more ominous as more U.S. state legislatures passed abortion restrictions, culminating in the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022.“The Handmaid’s Tale” debuted in 2017 and became a symbol of feminist resistance.George Kraychyk/Hulu“The Handmaid’s Tale” will end on May 27. (A spinoff series called “The Testaments” is currently in production.) The sixth and final season is focusing on the power of collective action, including unanticipated collaboration between the former enemies June Osborne (Elisabeth Moss) and Serena Joy (Yvonne Strahovski) in attempting to destroy Gilead and restore American democracy. (As a former Handmaid, June was routinely sexually assaulted by Serena’s husband, a high-ranking official.)Multiple members of the creative team talked about “The Handmaid’s Tale” in recent video interviews, including Strahovski and Moss, who is also a producer and director on the series; Bruce Miller, the creator; Warren Littlefield, a producer; and Yahlin Chang and Eric Tuchman, the Season 6 showrunners (both were writers in earlier seasons).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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      Ruth Buzzi, Purse-Wielding Gladys of ‘Laugh-In,’ Is Dead at 88

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      Ruth Buzzi, whose wary spinster wielding a vicious pocketbook to fend off male advances both real and imagined was among the most memorable characters on “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In,” the TV comedy grab bag of a show of the psychedelic era, died on Thursday at her ranch near Fort Worth. She was 88.Her agent, Michael Eisenstadt, said the cause was complications of Alzheimer’s disease, which was diagnosed 10 years ago.With an elastic, expressive face and a gift, both vocal and physical, for caricature, Ms. Buzzi had a long performing career. She played myriad roles onstage in summer stock; appeared on Broadway once, with a tripartite credit (as the Good Fairy/Woman With Hat/Receptionist) in the 1966 musical “Sweet Charity”; performed in TV variety shows; showed up as a guest star in a host of sitcoms; and had minor parts in movies, including “Freaky Friday,” the 1976 identity-swap comedy, and “The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again,” a loopy 1979 Disney western.Nothing in her career, however, had the enduring appeal of her determinedly unappealing “Laugh-In” character Gladys Ormphby, a combination schoolmarm, delicate codgerette and battle-ax clad in a drab brown cardigan, long skirt, saggy stockings and a hairnet with a knot in the middle of her forehead.Gladys’s regular appearances on the show — an NBC prime-time fixture from 1968 to 1973 — were generally in skits involving Tyrone, the quintessential dirty old man (Arte Johnson), who would get a little too close, breathe a little too heavily and make a little too suggestive a comment, provoking Gladys to wallop him with her purse.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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      As Jane Austen’s Sister, Keeley Hawes Keeps a Controlled Burn

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      Being cast in the mini-series “Miss Austen” began Keeley Hawes’s first venture into the Jane Austen-verse. Hawes has a résumé thick with period pieces but, perhaps surprisingly, she had never done a screen adaptation of Austen’s work — a veritable cottage industry in Britain since the late 1930s.“Of course, my husband played Mr. Darcy, so I feel like we’ve been in that world,” Hawes said, referring to the “Succession” star Matthew Macfadyen, who appeared in the 2005 film version of the classic Regency-era novel “Pride and Prejudice.”“I was delighted to join in the Austen world, and especially to do it like this because it’s not one that has been done,” she continued. “But it feels like part of the canon.”Indeed, Hawes is sneaking in through a side door: In the four-part “Miss Austen,” which premieres on Sunday as part of the PBS series “Masterpiece,” she plays a fictionalized version of Cassandra, Jane’s older sister and a somewhat controversial figure because she burned most of the writer’s letters.Like the historical novel by Gill Hornby on which it is based, the show, adapted by Andrea Gibb, speculates on what led Cassandra to her fateful act and features some very Austen-like romantic subplots. A key development cleverly brings together a friend of Cassandra’s played by Rose Leslie and Jane’s posthumous novel “Persuasion.”Based on a fictionalized account of Cassandra Austen’s life, “Miss Austen,” led by Keeley Hawes, speculates on what led Cassandra to burn her sister Jane’s letters.Robert Viglasky/MasterpieceWe 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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      ‘God Is in the Details’: Embracing Boredom in Art and Life

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      The Netflix show “Adolescence” and asks audiences to be OK with slower moments and small talk. Is that possible in 2025?The Netflix drama “Adolescence” requires its audience to linger — to sink into the mundane.Each of its four hourlong episodes was shot in one continuous take, allowing its harrowing story — centered on a 13-year-old boy accused of killing a classmate — to unfold in real time. As the visual point of view shifts, its audience is invited to eavesdrop on interactions that are extraneous to the plot, as characters loiter in hallways and cars, and make small talk with strangers.“Adolescence” is unusual because, as a character study without a propulsive plot, it requires its audience be OK with being in the moment. It stands in contrast to most modern television shows, which are increasingly geared toward a smartphone-addicted viewership of people who scroll while watching (think fast-moving shows like “Reacher”).It also stands in contrast to how we live our lives, with shortening attention spans, increasing isolation and an inability to sit still. “Adolescence” challenges us to be OK with small talk and boredom, even if our impulse is to disappear into our screens.“We’re becoming conditioned for these fast filtered interactions that involve constant stimulation,” said Fallon Goodman, the director of the Emotion and Resilience Laboratory at George Washington University. “So the consequences of that are shorter attention spans, making us more impatient with the natural flow of an in-person interaction.”Early in the fourth and final episode of “Adolescence,” Eddie (Stephen Graham, also a creator of the series), drives to a hardware store with his wife, Manda (Christine Tremarco), and daughter, Lisa (Amelie Pease), to buy paint. The ride lasts eight minutes — an eternity in television time. Viewers ride along, too, watching as the family tries to maintain the illusion of normality, even as the couple’s young son, Jamie (Owen Cooper), is sitting in jail. As Eddie puts it, they are “solving the problem of today.” They discuss their love of the band a-ha and how Eddie and Manda met, and they make plans to celebrate Eddie’s birthday.The sequence does not affect the central story line in a meaningful way, and one can imagine a less ambitious show condensing this scene, focused strictly on character work, to a minute or two, or cutting it entirely. But from the passenger seat, viewers learn Eddie and Manda are in therapy and observe the heaviness under which the family is living, despite their smiles as “Take On Me” plays in the background.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 Watches ‘Signalgate’ Claim a Victim, Sort of

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      Mike Waltz, who added a journalist to a Signal group chat about plans to bomb Yemen, is out as national security adviser, but his career isn’t over.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.Not the Last WaltzOn Thursday, Mike Waltz — famous for inadvertently adding a journalist to a Signal chat group where officials discussed plans to attack Yemen — was removed from his post as President Trump’s national security adviser. But Trump soon announced that he would nominate Waltz to be the ambassador to the United Nations.“The news was first reported when he accidentally texted it to Lester Holt,” Seth Meyers said on “Late Night.”“So finally — finally — a member of the Trump administration faces lasting consequences that lasted three and a half hours.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“What a strong message that is: ‘We can’t trust you to keep our secrets. But go cavort freely with representatives from every country in the world.’” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Well, he’s not fired, but he was removed from the group chat.” — JIMMY FALLON“It was a tough decision, and as with anything this sensitive, the first person to find out was Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“So, that guy, the one who claimed strangers’ numbers can get sucked into your phone, will now be Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations if he gets confirmed, which means he’ll spend a lot less time at the White House, where his portfolio seemed to consist of two things: leaking war plans on group chats and, much like his phone, sucking up to Donald Trump.” — SETH MEYERSThe Punchiest Punchlines (Return to Office Edition)“Apparently, Elon Musk is stepping away from his work at the White House so he can focus on running Tesla. He was like, ‘Hm, what’s better: this dumpster fire or this dumpster fire?’” — JIMMY FALLON“Elon is dialing back his DOGE duties to focus on his own disaster of a company.” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Bits Worth WatchingQuinta Brunson, the creator and star of “Abbott Elementary,” crashed Thursday’s “Tonight Show” to promote her gig hosting “Saturday Night Live” this weekend.Also, Check This OutGeorge Clooney in “Good Night, and Good Luck.” He was among the screen stars who got Tony nominations for their work on Broadway this season.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesAudra McDonald, George Clooney, and Sarah Snook, stars of both stage and screen, received Tony nominations on Thursday. More