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      Golden Bachelor, Boomer Bait?

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      “The Golden Bachelor” is part of broadcast networks’ efforts to cater to their mostly older audience.In September 1985, a new hit premiered on NBC. The network envisioned a show like nothing else on TV. “Take some women around 60. Society has written them off, has said they’re over the hill,” the pitch to producers went. “We want them to be feisty as hell and having a great time.”The result, of course, was “The Golden Girls,” the beloved sitcom about a group of single women, widowed and divorced, living together in a house in Florida. The show was ranked in the Top 10 of Nielsen ratings for six of its seven seasons. More than 27 million people watched the 1992 series finale.Thirty-eight years later, ABC is betting that a house full of single women, ages 60 to 75, and the 72-year-old man whose heart they’ll vie to win, can achieve ratings success with the aid of mostly boomer-age viewers who still flip on the TV for the prime-time lineup, and have yet to fully abandon network television for streaming.I tuned in for Thursday night’s premiere of “The Golden Bachelor” at 8 p.m. sharp with high hopes. Buzz for the season promised we’d accompany a mild-mannered retired and widowed “grandzaddy” from Indiana on his quest for a second chance at love with one of 22 equally self-possessed bachelorettes. This sounded more my speed than the high-conflict carryings-on I usually associate with reality TV. Perhaps I’d be part of the showrunners’ hoped-for “new audiences who might have turned their noses up at the brand before now.”In the innuendo-packed first episode, we meet our bachelor, Gerry Turner, who spends the hour speed-dating the eager bachelorettes, including Leslie, a fitness instructor from Minneapolis who tells us she dated Prince; Sandra, a retired executive assistant from Georgia with a Zen practice that incorporates curse words; and Faith, a high school teacher from Washington State who rides in on a motorcycle, serenades Gerry with a guitar and seems from the little time we spend with her to be a leading contender for last woman standing.When the show opened with a scene of Gerry getting dressed, deliberately showing him putting in his hearing aids as he recounted the tale of his wife’s death over the strains of “The Wind” by Cat Stevens, I thought this might be a departure for the “Bachelor” franchise, a more serious examination of aging and mortality. But once we arrived at the mansion where Gerry canoodles with each potential sweetheart — a dizzying procession of bawdy jokes and canned repartee — I remembered that this was a reality show with a bonkers conceit that is about pure entertainment (and ratings). It may not end up being any more cerebral than its brethren, but that’s not its remit.So can “The Golden Bachelor” keep network television afloat through the imminent shortage of scripted shows occasioned by the writers’ and actors’ strikes? My colleague John Koblin says it’s “off to a decent start”: While far from the most-watched show of the week, the premiere episode was the most-watched show on network television on Thursday night and, with delayed viewing, the audience will only grow.But, more pressing for viewers, will Gerry ultimately find his soul mate? Who will get the final rose? And will people like me, still skeptical of love competition shows, tune in to find out?I was charmed to learn that one of the showrunners for “The Golden Bachelor” studied “The Golden Girls” for conversation topics should the repartee on the show start to lag. I’m holding out hope that we will see the golden bachelorettes in their chenille bathrobes and house scuffs, sharing a cheesecake in the middle of the night.For moreSee the moment in the NBC promotional special from 1984 when the “Night Court” actress Selma Diamond joked about an imaginary show called “Miami Nice,” a bit that inspired network executives to create “The Golden Girls.”Part of the networks’ continuing efforts to retain older viewers? Game shows.“Older daters face all of the challenges their younger counterparts do — burnout, ghosting, gaslighting — but many of them have found that dating can be infinitely better when you don’t have as much to prove,” writes my colleague Catherine Pearson of the roses and thorns of dating after 60.THE WEEK IN CULTUREMichael Gambon as DumbledoreJaap Buitendjik/Warner Bros. PicturesMichael Gambon, best known for playing Dumbledore in several of the Harry Potter movies, died at 82. Read how he inhabited the role of the beloved Hogwarts headmaster.A man was charged with murder in the 1996 killing of Tupac Shakur. Since his death, Shakur has become an almost mythical figure.A judge ended a legal arrangement between Michael Oher, the subject of the hit movie “The Blind Side,” and the people who took him in when he was a teenager. It had given them authority over his affairs.Amal Clooney, Anne Hathaway and Jon Hamm hit the fall galas in New York.After a lackluster debut for Helmut Lang in New York, the brand’s creative director, Peter Do, showed a better-received collection under his own name at Paris Fashion Week. In Milan, some of the most interesting looks were on the street.A meme of “King of Queens” actor Kevin James has taken over some people’s social media feeds, Vulture reports.Aerosmith postponed the rest of its farewell tour until next year because its lead singer, Steven Tyler, injured his vocal cords.Performances of Stephen Sondheim’s final musical, “Here We Are,” commenced this week. The composer died in 2021.Cher is accused of hiring four men to kidnap her adult son as an apparent form of intervention, The Los Angeles Times reported.Usher will perform at the Super Bowl. Listen to a playlist inspired by his hit “Yeah!”Electronic Arts, a video game publisher, released “EA Sports FC,” a rebranded version of its popular soccer series FIFA. Much of the game is the same, The Guardian reports.The French actor Gérard Depardieu’s art collection sold at auction in Paris for $4.2 million.The home of the French singer Serge Gainsbourg is open to the public, with everything as it was on the day he died.The eight remaining campuses of the Art Institutes, a system of for-profit colleges, will close by the end of the month.THE LATEST NEWSHiroko Masuike/The New York TimesHeavy rainfall pounded New York City and the surrounding region, causing flash floods, shutting subway lines and turning roads into lakes. See some of the hardest-hit areas.Senator Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who gained national stature in more than 30 years in the Senate, died at 90.Hard-line Republicans tanked Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s long-shot attempt to avert a government shutdown ahead of a midnight deadline tonight to keep federal funding flowing.A co-defendant in the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump pleaded guilty to five charges, the first of the 19 defendants to enter a plea.The United Arab Emirates is giving weapons and medical treatment to one side in Sudan’s war under the guise of saving refugees.An I.R.S. contractor was charged with leaking tax return information believed to be Donald Trump’s.CULTURE CALENDAR📚 “Let Us Descend” (Tuesday): This book, inspired by Dante’s “Inferno,” is the latest from Jesmyn Ward, a two-time National Book Award winner and the youngest recipient of the Library of Congress’s American fiction prize. The novel follows an enslaved teenager named Annis as she travels through the pre-Civil War South after her white slave-owner father sold her. The book is among the most anticipated novels of the year.🎬 “Foe” (Friday): Paul Mescal and Saoirse Ronan, who are among the buzziest young actors working, play a married couple living on a farm in 2065 in this sci-fi drama. Their lives are upended when Junior (Mescal) is told that he’s been chosen to work on a space station. While he’s away, Henrietta (Ronan) will live with a duplicate version of her husband. — Desiree IbekweRECIPE OF THE WEEKLinda Xiao for The New York TimesTomato sandwichesAs September fades away, it’s time to celebrate some of the last of the good heirloom tomatoes by piling them in the sandwich of your dreams. While there are loads of variations to choose from, my tomato sandwich is probably the messiest, in the very best way. The recipe is a hybrid, combining the garlic-rubbed, oil-slathered toast of Catalan pan con tomate with the kind of slivered onions you would see in a tomato tea sandwich, and the bacon of a BLT. Act fast, because sad winter tomatoes will not do justice to a sandwich as good as this.REAL ESTATEHiroko Masuike/The New York TimesA dining table for six: Inside the Long Island City apartment of a best-selling cookbook author.A new frontier: As rising sea levels threaten coastlines, some developers look to floating homes.What you get for $1.4 million: A Cape Cod-style house in Monhegan Island, Maine; an Edwardian home in Evanston, Ill.; or an 1890 rowhouse in Washington, D.C.The hunt: These newlyweds want a three-bedroom house with a yard and a reasonable commute to Manhattan. Which did they choose? Play our game.LIVINGSimon Bailly/SepiaSelf-esteem: Want to believe in yourself? “Mattering” is key.Going solo: Make the best of attending a wedding alone.Elton John’s piano: Celebrity memorabilia and estate sales headline the coming auction season.Child of Birkin: The new standard-bearer for French-girl style just opened a store in Manhattan.Lessons from summer: Climate change is making travel season less predictable.ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTEREmergency essentialsWhen preparing for a natural disaster, no single strategy is right for everyone. But Wirecutter experts have found a few things to be true. When you put together a bag to grab in an emergency, don’t buy a premade kit. Instead, add gear that you actually need and know how to use. (Here’s a good place to start.) And it’s not just about the gear — simple tasks you can do today, like taking a CPR or first aid class, or designating a point person to be in touch with, can make a big difference. — Ellen AirhartFor more advice, sign up for Emergency Kit, an easy-to-follow guide to preparing for natural disasters from Wirecutter’s experts.GAME OF THE WEEKENDTaylor Swift at last week’s Kansas City Chiefs game.David Eulitt/Getty ImagesKansas City Chiefs vs. New York Jets: Taylor Swift and the N.F.L., two of America’s cultural juggernauts, pulled off a remarkable bit of brand synergy last weekend. Swift showed up in Kansas City to cheer on the Chiefs’ star tight end, Travis Kelce, whom she is rumored to be dating. The TV cameras, of course, cut to her constantly, and her exuberant celebrations brought life to an otherwise lousy game. Will she show up again this week? The N.F.L. surely hopes so — her presence would make this prime-time broadcast must-see TV, even if the game itself is another dud. (Fans who want great football without the spectacle should tune in earlier in the day to the powerhouse matchup between the Miami Dolphins and the Buffalo Bills.) 8:30 p.m. Eastern tomorrow on NBC.NOW TIME TO PLAYHere is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were bootjack and jackboot.See the hardest Spelling Bee words from this week.Take the news quiz to see how well you followed this week’s headlines.And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku and Connections.Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. — MelissaSign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. More

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      After Threats in Mexico, Peso Pluma Postpones U.S. Concerts

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      The breakout musician has not given a reason for rescheduling the dates. The authorities in Mexico are investigating the credibility of written threats against him.A string of concerts in the United States by the breakout Mexican singer-songwriter Peso Pluma were postponed this week after written threats were apparently issued by a major drug cartel. The authorities said they were investigating the credibility of the threats, which were written on banners and posted publicly in the border city Tijuana.Ticketmaster and Live Nation said that Peso Pluma shows scheduled from Thursday to Sunday, in Milwaukee, Chicago, Indianapolis and Birmingham, had been rescheduled for later this fall; his performances are set to resume on Sept. 30 in Chula Vista, Calif. A representative for Peso Pluma did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the scheduling changes.The singer, who performed at the MTV Video Music Awards on Tuesday night, is in the middle of his North American Doble P Tour, following the release of his third album, “Génesis,” which has helped lead an international surge in what is known in the United States under the umbrella term “regional Mexican music.” The album reached No. 3 on the Billboard chart upon its release in June, and has tallied hundreds of millions of digital streams.Peso Pluma — who was born Hassan Emilio Kabande Laija, and whose stage name translates to Featherweight — specializes in corridos tumbados, a modern form of the drug-trade songs known as narcocorridos, combining regional Mexican styles like ranchera, norteño, banda and mariachi with influences from American and Latin rap.On Tuesday morning, three threatening banners, or narcomantas, were spotted in different areas of Tijuana. The messages, written in big red letters, were addressed to Peso Pluma, who is scheduled to perform in the city on Oct. 14.“This is for you, Peso Pluma,” one of the banners read in Spanish. “Refrain from appearing this October 14. Because it will be your last presentation.”The banner was signed with the initials of the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación, or Jalisco New Generation Cartel, one of the most powerful and brutal cartels in Mexico, and a major rival to the Sinaloa Cartel. It said the artist would face consequences for being “disrespectful and loose-mouthed.”Edgar Mendoza, a state prosecutor in Baja, Calif., told the local press that one person had been detained on drug and terrorism charges after being found in the vicinity of one of the banners.The mayor of Tijuana, Montserrat Caballero, who is living in military headquarters, initially said the banners would be investigated while concert security was ramped up. As of Friday afternoon, tickets for Peso Pluma’s concert there next month remained on sale.However, on Tuesday, Caballero said in a radio interview that artists like Peso Pluma had potentially invited the attention of the cartels with their lyrics. “Let’s be clear: They sing and make an apology of crime and thus they should know the risk and consequences,” Caballero told Azucena Uresti, the host of Radio Fórmula, in a phone interview.She added that whether the authorities canceled the concert would be contingent on whether the narcomantas were the work of organized crime or ordinary citizens. Caballero, who is from the governing party Morena, moved into the military headquarters of the 28th Infantry Battalion after one of her bodyguards suffered an armed attack, and has said she is being targeted by organized crime for confiscating arms.Other Mexican musicians have drawn attention to the risks of the genre as well. Natanael Cano, who is considered a pioneer of corridos tumbados, recently stopped mid-song during a concert in Sonora, remarking that he was “going to get killed.” The lyrics of the song, “Cuerno Azulado,” allude to drug deals and potential government involvement, including a line assumed to be a reference to Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the drug lord known as El Chapo.Narcomantas have long been used by cartels and organized crime to leave public messages for authorities, rivals or the community at large. Popularized at the height of the drug war in the 2010s, the banners can be used to promote or assuage fear, although it is often unclear who is responsible for making them and how credible their messages are.Peso Pluma had previously been expected to appear at a concert at the Chevron Stadium in Tijuana in March, alongside the artists Eden Muñoz, Roberto Tapia and El Fantasma. But in late February, Tapia Entertainment, which was organizing the show, said tickets would be reimbursed “due to insecurity and threats towards other events.”Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, criticized some of the country’s current popular music in June, invoking Peso Pluma’s hit song “AMG,” about a Mercedes-Benz. “As if material things were the most important things — brand clothes, houses, jewelry, power or arrogance,” he said. “There are other options, there are other alternatives, it’s possible to be happy in another way.” More

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      Zach Bryan Arrested After Interfering With Traffic Stop in Oklahoma

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      “Emotions got the best of me and I was out of line in the things I said,” the singer-songwriter wrote on social media.The singer-songwriter Zach Bryan was arrested and briefly jailed in rural Oklahoma on Thursday, a few days after he reached a career milestone by landing both the No. 1 album and single for the first time.Mr. Bryan, 27, was arrested in Vinita, Okla., and charged with obstructing an officer, a misdemeanor, according to Oklahoma Highway Patrol, which made the arrest. On social media, Mr. Bryan said he was released later the same day. A mug shot of the singer, apparently taken at the Craig County Sheriff’s Office, where he was jailed, began circulating on social media shortly thereafter, though on Friday it was not available on the sheriff’s website.According to a probable cause affidavit released by the authorities, a highway patrol officer had pulled over a speeding driver on a road through Vinita, and then observed a black Ram pickup truck pull alongside it. This second driver — Mr. Bryan — stepped outside, asked what was taking so long, and ignored the officer’s admonition that he return to his vehicle or risk going to jail.“I’ll go to jail, let’s do it,” Mr. Bryan said, according to the document.In a post late Thursday on X, formerly known as Twitter, Mr. Bryan apologized and said: “Today I had an incident with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. Emotions got the best of me and I was out of line in the things I said. I support law enforcement as much as anyone can, I was just frustrated in the moment.”Later, in a series of videos posted on Instagram Stories, Mr. Bryan — who grew up in nearby Oologah, Okla. — gave an account of the incident that largely matched that of the police report. The driver of the first vehicle, he said, was his security guard, and the two of them were on a journey to Boston to see a football game. Mr. Bryan acknowledged being disrespectful to the officer, including interrupting him while he spoke.According to the affidavit, Mr. Bryan was “clearly aggravated and argumentative,” and the singer asked to be released from his handcuffs, saying: “If you don’t, this is going to be a mistake, sir. I promise.”On Instagram, Mr. Bryan added: “It was ridiculous, it was immature, and I just pray everyone knows that I don’t think I’m above the law. I was just being disrespectful and I shouldn’t have been, and it was my mistake.”A spokesman for Mr. Bryan did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.Mr. Bryan, whose work is variously classified as country, rock or Americana folk, drew acclaim for a series of self-released albums before putting out “American Heartbreak” last year on Warner Records, a major label. Last month he released his latest LP, “Zach Bryan,” which contains a hit duet with Kacey Musgraves, “I Remember Everything.” More

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      North Korea Executes People for Watching K-Pop, Rights Group Says

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      At least seven people have been put to death in the past decade for watching or distributing K-pop videos, as the North cracks down on what its leader calls a “vicious cancer.”SEOUL — North Korea has publicly executed at least seven people in the past decade for watching or distributing K-pop videos from South Korea, as it cracks down on what its leader, Kim Jong-un, calls a “vicious cancer,” according to a human rights report released on Wednesday.​The group, ​ Transitional Justice Working Group, which is based in Seoul, interviewed 683 North Korean defectors since 2015 to help map places in the North where people were ​killed and buried​ in state-sanctioned public executions​. In its latest report, the group said it had documented 23 such executions under Mr. Kim’s government.Since taking power a decade ago, Mr. Kim has attacked South Korean entertainment — songs, movies and TV dramas — which, he says, corrupts North Koreans’ minds. Under a law adopted last December, those who distribute South Korean entertainment can face the death penalty. One tactic of Mr. Kim’s clampdown has been to create an atmosphere of terror by publicly executing people found guilty of watching or circulating the banned content.It remains impossible to find out the true scale of public executions in the isolated totalitarian state. But Transitional Justice Working Group focused on executions that have taken place since Mr. Kim ascended and on those that have occurred in Hyesan, a North Korean city and a major trading hub on the border with China.The North Korean town of Hyesan, near the border with China, is a gateway to smuggle in South Korean entertainment stored on USB sticks.Damir Sagolj/ReutersThousands of North Korean defectors to South Korea have lived in or have passed through Hyesan. The city of 200,000 people is the main gateway for outside information, including South Korean entertainment stored on computer memory sticks and bootlegged across the border from China. As such, Hyesan has become a focus in Mr. Kim’s efforts to stop the infiltration of K-pop.Of the seven executions for watching or distributing South Korean videos, all but one took place in Hyesan, the report says. The six in Hyesan occurred between 2012 and 2014. Citizens were mobilized to watch the grisly scenes, where officials called the condemned social evil before they each were put to death by a total of nine shots fired by three soldiers.“The families of those being executed were often forced to watch the execution,” the report said.Mr. Kim rules North Korea with the help of a personality cult and a state propaganda machine that controls nearly every aspect of life in the North. All radios and television sets are set to receive government broadcasts only. People are blocked from using the global internet. But some North Koreans still manage to secretly watch South Korea’s movies and TV dramas. As the North’s economy has floundered amid the pandemic and international sanctions, defections to the South have continued.North Korean defectors filling bottles with rice and USB sticks to toss into the sea toward their former homeland.Ed Jones/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe number of defectors arriving in South Korea has dropped sharply in recent years, however, so gathering fresh information on the North has become harder. Mr. Kim’s government has also further tightened border restrictions amid the pandemic.But Daily NK, a Seoul-based website that gathers news from clandestine sources in the North, reported that a villager and an army officer were publicly executed this year in towns deeper inland for distributing or possessing South Korean entertainment.And a few secretly filmed video clippings of public trials and executions have been smuggled out of North Korea. In footage shown on the South Korean TV station Channel A last year, a North Korean student was brought before a huge throng of people, including fellow students, and was condemned for possessing a USB stick that held “a movie and 75 songs from South Korea.”Shin Eun-ha told Channel A of a public execution she and her classmates had been made to watch from the front row when she was in second grade in North Korea. “The prisoner could hardly walk and had to be dragged out,” she said, adding, “I was so terrified that I could not dare look at a soldier in uniform for six months afterward.”Though Mr. Kim has described South Korean entertainment as a “vicious cancer,” North Koreans were able to watch the popular girl band Red Velvet and other South Korean stars who flew to Pyongyang in 2018 for two performances.Korea Pool via APMr. Kim has at times tried to appear more flexible toward outside culture​, allowing state television ​to play the theme song from “Rocky” and to show ​Mickey and Minnie Mouse characters ​onstage. He even invited South Korean K-pop stars to the capital, Pyongyang, in 2018, when he was engaged in summit diplomacy with President Moon Jae-in of South Korea. But at home, he has also escalated his crackdown on K-pop, especially after his talks with President Donald J. Trump collapsed in 2019 and the North’s economy has deteriorated in recent years.Amid growing international scrutiny of North Korea’s human rights abuses, the government appears to have taken steps to prevent information about its public executions from being leaked to the outside world.It no longer appears to execute prisoners at market places, moving the sites farther away from the border with China or town centers, and inspecting spectators more closely to prevent them from filming the executions, Transitional Justice Working Group said.Mr. Kim has also tried to create a public image as a benevolent leader by occasionally pardoning people condemned to death, especially when the size of an assembled crowd at a public trial is large, the group said.But K-pop seems to be an enemy that Mr. Kim cannot ignore.North Korea repeatedly lashes out against what it describes as an invasion of “anti-socialist and nonsocialist” influences from the South. It cracks down on South Korean slang spreading among its youths, including “oppa,” which became internationally known through Psy’s “Gangnam Style” song and video.The North’s state media has also warned that if left unchecked, K-pop’s influence would make North Korea “crumble like a damp wall.” More

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      Song Yoo-jung, a South Korean Actress, Has Died at 26

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storySong Yoo-jung, South Korean Actress, Is Found Dead at 26No cause of death was disclosed, but the case followed a string of suicides by young entertainers in the country.Tiffany May and Jan. 25, 2021Updated 2:25 p.m. ETSong Yoo-jung in 2014. She appeared in several Korean television dramas and also acted in music videos.Credit…Dong-a Ilbo, via Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesA 26-year-old actress was found dead on Saturday in Seoul, South Korea, the latest loss of a young performer in the country’s entertainment industry, which has faced a reckoning over the mental health burden on its glamorous stars.The death of the actress, Song Yoo-jung, who appeared in several television dramas, was confirmed in a statement by the company that represented her, Sublime Artist Agency. The agency did not disclose the cause, but the suddenness of Ms. Song’s death brought to mind the series of suicides that has plagued Korean pop music in recent years.Alarms have long been raised over the pressures imposed by South Korean management companies on young entertainers, many of whom are groomed starting as teenagers to be pop idols. Their looks are closely scrutinized, and their tightly choreographed lives are often broadcast on social media platforms that expose them to both adulatory fan mail and hateful comments.For many, their time in the limelight is limited, if they ever reach star status. By their late 20s, some are considered replaceable.A number of the K-pop stars who have taken their own lives spoke of struggles with their mental health and the toll of cyberbullying. Ms. Song, an up-and-coming actress, had not mentioned publicly any such issues.Ms. Song began her acting career at 20 and appeared in commercials for Estée Lauder skin care products and for the ice cream chain Baskin-Robbins. In her breakout role in 2019, Ms. Song played a fresh-faced architecture student with a pixie cut, searching for her soul mate, in a web series called “Dear My Name.” She also acted in music videos.She was an advocate for people with disabilities, serving as ambassador for a South Korean group called Warm Accompaniment.Ms. Song’s agency called her “a great actress who performed with passion.” It did not immediately respond to requests for comment.The problem of suicide in South Korea is not restricted to the entertainment industry. The country has the highest suicide rate among the 37 developed nations that make up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.But celebrity suicides, involving actors and others, have been a fixture in the South Korean news media over the past decade or more. In recent years, attention has fallen most sharply on deaths in the K-pop industry, one of the country’s most successful cultural exports.In 2017, a singer, Kim Jong-hyun, killed himself at 27 after leaving a note saying that he had been overcome by depression.In 2019, Sulli, a 25-year-old K-pop star, took her own life after she had complained about the relentless cyberbullying she faced upon joining a feminist campaign that advocated not wearing bras.About six weeks later, her friend Goo Hara, 28, also killed herself, leaving a handwritten note about her despair.Ms. Goo had tried to reason with online critics, asking them to refrain from vicious comments.“Public entertainers like myself don’t have it easy — we have our private lives more scrutinized than anyone else and we suffer the kind of pain we cannot even discuss with our family and friends,” she wrote.If you are having thoughts of suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (TALK) or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      FKA twigs Sues Shia LaBeouf, Citing Abusive Relationship

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyFKA twigs Sues Shia LaBeouf, Citing ‘Relentless’ Abusive RelationshipThe lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles by the musician, accuses the actor of sexual battery, assault and infliction of emotional distress.The musician FKA twigs, born Tahliah Debrett Barnett, filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court that accuses the actor Shia LaBeouf of sexual battery, assault and infliction of emotional distress.Credit…Ana Cuba for The New York TimesKatie Benner and Dec. 11, 2020Updated 6:12 p.m. ETJust after Valentine’s Day in 2019, the musician FKA twigs was in a car speeding toward Los Angeles. At the wheel was her boyfriend, the actor Shia LaBeouf. He was driving recklessly, she said in a lawsuit filed on Friday, removing his seatbelt and threatening to crash unless she professed her love for him.They were returning from the desert, where Mr. LaBeouf, the star of “Transformers,” had raged at her throughout the trip, FKA twigs said in the lawsuit, once waking her up in the middle of the night, choking her. After she begged to be let out of the car, she said he pulled over at a gas station and she took her bags from the trunk. But Mr. LaBeouf followed, and assaulted her, throwing her against the car while screaming in her face, according to the suit. He then forced her back in the car.The gas station incident is at the heart of the lawsuit that says Mr. LaBeouf, 34, abused FKA twigs physically, emotionally and mentally many times in a relationship that lasted just short of a year. Her aim in coming forward, she said in an interview, was to explain how even a critically acclaimed artist with money, a home and a strong network of supporters could be caught in such a cycle.“I’d like to be able to raise awareness on the tactics that abusers use to control you and take away your agency,” FKA twigs, 32, born Tahliah Debrett Barnett, said.Mr. LaBeouf responded Thursday to the concerns raised by Ms. Barnett, and a second former girlfriend who has accused him of abusive behavior, in an email that broadly addressed his conduct.“I’m not in any position to tell anyone how my behavior made them feel,” he said in an email to The New York Times. “I have no excuses for my alcoholism or aggression, only rationalizations. I have been abusive to myself and everyone around me for years. I have a history of hurting the people closest to me. I’m ashamed of that history and am sorry to those I hurt. There is nothing else I can really say.”The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, says that Mr. LaBeouf knowingly gave Ms. Barnett a sexually transmitted disease. It accuses him of “relentless abuse,” including sexual battery, assault and infliction of emotional distress.Mr. LaBeouf and his representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.“I have no excuses for my alcoholism or aggression, only rationalizations,” Mr. LaBeouf wrote in an email to The New York Times. Responding to specific accusations in another email, he wrote that “many of these allegations are not true.”Credit…Mark Blinch/ReutersKarolyn Pho, a stylist who is another of Mr. LaBeouf’s former girlfriends, described similarly tumultuous experiences to The Times, some of which are also outlined in the lawsuit. Once, the suit says, he drunkenly pinned her to a bed and head-butted her, enough that she bled. Afterward, she began to grapple with the idea that he was abusing her. “So much goes into breaking down a man or woman to make them OK with a certain kind of treatment,” she said in an interview.Presented with a detailed account of the claims that the women made against him, in interviews and subsequently in the lawsuit, Mr. LaBeouf, responding in a separate email, wrote that “many of these allegations are not true.” But, he continued, he owed the women “the opportunity to air their statements publicly and accept accountability for those things I have done.”He added that he was “a sober member of a 12-step program” and in therapy. “I am not cured of my PTSD and alcoholism,” he wrote, “but I am committed to doing what I need to do to recover, and I will forever be sorry to the people that I may have harmed along the way.”Mr. LaBeouf has a long history of turbulent behavior. He has been arrested several times on charges that have been dismissed, including assault and disorderly conduct, according to newspaper reports and public records. In 2015, strangers recorded video of him arguing with his girlfriend at the time, the actress Mia Goth, telling her, “This is the kind of thing that makes a person abusive.” After the men recording Mr. LaBeouf gave him a ride, he told them: “If I’d have stayed there, I would’ve killed her,” according to the video.Ms. Barnett said Mr. LaBeouf would squeeze or grab her to the point of bruising. But she did not go to the police, she said, first out of a misguided concern about harming his career, and later because she thought her account would not be taken seriously, and it would be futile.Though many states have laws that treat gender-based, sexual or domestic violence as a civil rights violation, tort suits of the kind Ms. Barnett is pursuing, with a daunting account of painful moments, are relatively uncommon; most often, allegations arise amid divorce or custody proceedings, or while seeking orders of protection. But there has been a slight uptick in civil claims since the #MeToo movement, amid more attention on the complex nature of abuse, said Julie Goldscheid, a law professor at CUNY Law School who studies gender violence and civil rights.Three women die each day at the hands of their abusers, according to the National Organization for Women. The pandemic has exacerbated dangerous situations by forcing partners to stay without interruption in close quarters, law enforcement officials said, and hotlines around the world have reported an increase in calls for help.In the lawsuit, Ms. Barnett describes how she met Mr. LaBeouf in 2018, when she was cast in “Honey Boy,” a mostly autobiographical film he wrote, and they started dating after the movie wrapped. The early days of their relationship were marked by his “over-the-top displays of affection,” she says in the lawsuit, which helped earn her trust.In an abusive relationship, there’s often a “honeymoon phase,” as some experts call it, that builds intimacy and sets a benchmark for how happy the romance could be. It serves as a powerful lure; though flashes of bliss may remain, they are meted out through increasingly controlling demands and impossible standards of behavior.Noah Jupe and Ms. Barnett on the set of “Honey Boy,” a mostly autobiographical film Mr. LaBeouf wrote.Credit…Amazon StudiosIn the lawsuit, Ms. Barnett and Ms. Pho said that Mr. LaBeouf did not like it if they spoke to or looked at male waiters; in an interview, Ms. Barnett said she learned to keep her eyes down when men spoke to her. She also stated in the suit that Mr. LaBeouf had rules about how many times a day she had to kiss and touch him, which he enforced with constant haranguing and criticism.Mr. LaBeouf convinced Ms. Barnett to stay with him in Los Angeles, she said, rather than move back to London where she and her professional circle lived. It was a step toward her isolation, she said. And he would often say that her creative team used her, a message that eventually led her to doubt them.But living with him became frightening, she said. The lawsuit says that he kept a loaded firearm by the bed and that she was scared to use the bathroom at night lest he mistake her for an intruder and shoot her. He didn’t let her wear clothing to bed, and would spin a trifling disagreement — over an artist she liked and he didn’t, for example — into an all-night fight, depriving her of sleep, the suit says.The situation came just as she was completing what became her most critically lauded album, “Magdalene.” Ms. Barnett said she found herself in stasis, struggling to fulfill her professional duties, and confounding her friends and colleagues. “Twigs is always the driving force behind her career — always a step ahead of everyone else,” said her longtime manager, Michael Stirton. “This was an extreme change in her personality and character.” The album’s release was delayed multiple times, and a tour was rescheduled at great cost, Mr. Stirton said, as Ms. Barnett receded. “I could speak to her,” he said. “But I couldn’t reach her.”As Ms. Barnett grew more isolated, she said she felt as though her safety nets were unraveling. The gas station incident had happened in public, she said, and no one stepped to her aid; an early attempt she made to tell a colleague was brushed off. “I just thought to myself, no one is ever going to believe me,” she said in an interview. “I’m unconventional. And I’m a person of color who is a female.”Slowly, with the help of a therapist, she began to strategize her exit. While she was packing to leave in spring 2019, Mr. LaBeouf turned up unannounced and terrorized her, according to a sworn statement from a witness, her housekeeper, in the lawsuit. When Ms. Barnett wouldn’t leave with him, the statement says, he “violently grabbed” her, picked her up and locked her in another room, where he yelled at her.Escaping him began to seem “both difficult and dangerous,” the lawsuit says. And even as she grew in resolve, she felt overwhelmed, she told her therapist, in an email The Times has reviewed. Though she had the means, it took several attempts for Ms. Barnett to extricate herself, she said in an interview. And it was only afterward that she realized how broken down she had become.“The whole time I was with him, I could have bought myself a business-flight plane ticket back to my four-story townhouse in Hackney,” in London, she said. And yet she didn’t. “He brought me so low, below myself, that the idea of leaving him and having to work myself back up just seemed impossible,” she said.In her lawsuit, Ms. Barnett said she plans to donate a significant portion of any monetary damages to domestic-violence charities. “It was actually very expensive, and a massive undertaking of time and resources, to get out,” she said in an interview. Her status makes her situation unusual, she said. But she wanted to share her story because it was otherwise so common.“What I went through with Shia was the worst thing I’ve ever been through in the whole of my life,” she said. “I don’t think people would ever think that it would happen to me. But I think that’s the thing. It can happen to anybody.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More