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      Arnold Schwarzenegger Is Busy Caring for a Pony, Pig, Donkey and Malamute

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      The longtime actor, now starring in “FUBAR,” on his many animals, good cigars and wanting his kids to outshine him.Arnold Schwarzenegger was smoking a cigar on his patio in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood, lamenting all the things that he had decided to trim from his list of 10 essentials. Most of all his five kids.“I cannot live without my children,” he said on a video call as his pet pig, Schnelly, wandered around. “I need to be in touch daily.”Schwarzenegger was sounding a lot like Luke Brunner, his character in the Netflix series “FUBAR,” which just began streaming its second season. In it, he plays the world’s best spy, and perhaps its most overprotective father, who learns that his daughter is a C.I.A. operative with an ego, just like Dad is.“She says, ‘When they say Brunner, I don’t want them just to talk about you. I want them also to talk about me,’” he said. “It’s the same thing as it is in real life with Patrick, my son, being an actor now and being big time and doing fantastic shows,” including a star turn this year in Season 3 of “The White Lotus.”Was the elder Schwarzenegger feeling a bit competitive? “I hope and wish that he will do bigger things than I’ve ever done,” he said before elaborating on his love of chess and driving his M47 tank. “It’s fantastic when kids are performing better than their parents because that is largely because of them, and it’s also because of you. It’s upbringing.”These are edited excerpts from the conversation.ChessI learned to play chess with my father and did that pretty much every day. I have collected chess sets from all over the world, but now 99 percent of the time you play on an app with your friends in Austria or Germany or Hungary or Russia — wherever they are.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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      in Theater

      Harris Yulin, Actor Who Perpetually Played the Bad Guy, Dies at 87

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      As an award-winning actor and director, he appeared in scores of stage plays, movies and TV shows over six decades, most often as unsavory characters.Harris Yulin, a chameleonic character actor who for more than six decades portrayed guys whom critics described as unsympathetic, soulful, menacing, corrupt and glowering, both onstage and onscreen, died on Tuesday in Manhattan. He was 87.His wife, Kristen Lowman, said the cause of death, in a hospital, was cardiac arrest.Inspired to pursue an acting career when he first took center stage at his bar mitzvah, Mr. Yulin never became a marquee name. But to many audiences he was instantly recognizable, even as a man of a hundred faces. He played at least as many parts, including J. Edgar Hoover, Hamlet and Senator Joseph McCarthy. Other roles ranged from crooked cops and politicians to a lecherous TV anchorman.“I’m not always the bad guy,” he told The New York Times in 2000. “It just seems to be what I’m known for.”Mr. Yulin, left, earned an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of a mobster in a 1996 episode of the sitcom “Frasier,” with David Hyde Pierce, center, and Kelsey Grammer. Gale M. Adler/NBCU Photo Bank, via Getty ImagesHe wasn’t just any bad guy. One reviewer characterized him as “an eloquent growler.” Another wrote that “his whiskeyed voice sounds just like that of John Huston.”Honors followed. Mr. Yulin was nominated in 1996 for a prime time Emmy Award for playing a crime boss in the TV comedy series “Frasier.” For his work in theater, he won the Lucille Lortel Award from the League of Off Broadway Theaters for his direction of Horton Foote’s “The Trip to Bountiful” in 2006. In the late 1990s he won Drama Desk nominations for acting on Broadway in “The Diary of Anne Frank” and Arthur Miller’s “The Price.”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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      in Television

      Late Night Reviews Trump’s Night at the Theater

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      Jimmy Kimmel said that Trump “going to see ‘Les Misérables’ right now is like Kanye going to ‘Fiddler on the Roof.’”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.Master of the HousePresident Donald Trump attended the opening night of “Les Misérables” at the Kennedy Center on Wednesday.“Usually, when Trump watches a staged rebellion, it’s Fox News coverage of the ‘riots’ here in L.A.,” Jimmy Kimmel said on Thursday.“It’s a musical largely about a revolution. It’s the people standing up against their king. The rebellion happens in Act 2 — or, I should say, it usually happens in Act 2. After Act 1 last night, Trump called in the National Guard and squashed the whole thing.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“I have to say, Trump going to see ‘Les Misérables’ right now is like Kanye going to ‘Fiddler on the Roof.’ ” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Some cast members from ‘Les Mis’ decided to boycott the performance because President Trump was there. Right now, the only person less popular than Trump in the world of theater is Patti LuPone.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Napoleon Bona-spurs was accompanied by Melania, as is required under Section B Subsection 3 of their prenup, which states, ‘Mrs. Trump shall accompany her husband to no fewer than two public appearances per calendar year during which she shall refrain from open displays of revulsion, disgust, and/or hatred, regardless of current mood or events.’ Also known as ‘date night’ for them.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“But Melania, from all accounts, she loved the show. Her favorite song was ‘On My Own.’” — JIMMY KIMMELOn the red carpet, a reporter asked the president if he was more of a Jean Valjean or Javert. “Oh, that’s a tough one,” he replied, and did not supply an answer.“I don’t know what’s worse: that a reporter thought it was a good idea to ask Trump if he’s the hero or the villain, or that Trump’s response was ‘Oof, that’s a tough question.’” — DESI LYDIC“All right, that’s famously not a tough one. There’s a pretty clear good guy and bad guy, but then I think Trump would have the same problem after a screening of ‘Star Wars.’ [imitating Trump] ‘Oh, that’s a tough one. Darth Vader is a mean guy, but also the Skywalker kid was very rude to the gay robot.’” — SETH MEYERS“What do you mean you don’t know? Javert is the bad guy. You just said you’ve seen the show a number of times. Is that number zero?” — STEPHEN COLBERT“[imitating Trump] The character I identify with most is Les. Les — Lester Miserables. Big, tough guy. Built that castle on a cloud. Not happy about it.” — STEPHEN COLBERTWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Television

      ‘And Just Like That …’ Season 3, Episode 3 Recap: An Expensive Date

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      Carrie flies to Virginia for a lunch with her “boyfriend,” Aidan. Seema tags along. It is unclear why either is really going.Season 3, Episode 3: ‘Carrie Golightly’They say Virginia is for lovers. They do not say Virginia is for casual lunches and sleeping alone in a guesthouse.In Episode 3, it is Carrie who visits Aidan at his home, but not because her “boyfriend” (I’m still using quotes around that word and you can’t stop me) did something crazy like invite her. It is because Virginia is on a list of locations Carrie could go to promote her work, along with sexier options like Google’s Palo Alto office and Austin’s South by Southwest festival.First of all, why does Carrie even have to choose? She is a childless cat lady with no looming deadlines. What is stopping her from hitting up all three to boost her clout in preparation for an upcoming foray into historical fiction?But Williamsburg, Va. is the only place our gal wants to go because it’s vaguely near Aidan, and she thinks that if she pops down south, cool as a cucumber, “easy breezy,” with no expectations, Aidan might be willing to meet her for a quick meal. Because the bar for this relationship is in the basement.The saddest part about all this is that Carrie feels she needs a cover story in the first place. She can say, “I love you,” to Aidan, but apparently, she can’t simply say, “I want to see you.” And that’s really Aidan’s fault; she is just playing by his rules. But this game sucks.Thankfully, Miranda is in touch with her judgy side, as she can’t stop cracking jokes about Carrie venturing over the river and through the woods for merely a bite to eat with her beau. Yet, Miranda is concocting a cover story of her own. After some bad luck in the romance department this season that included a tryst with a nun and a snub from a straight “guacamole girl,” Miranda is finally sweet on someone she would make sense with: Joy (Dolly Wells) the BBC producer.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘The Survivors’ Is a Polished and Potent Murder Mystery

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      Based on the book by Jane Harper, this six-part Australian drama takes place in a coastal Tasmanian town, where the bodies keep surfacing.Perhaps all of streaming television is one giant conspiracy to persuade us not to dream of beach town living. They’re the murder capitals of TV, these towns, with their craggy shores and generational secrets, their prodigal sons and nosy outsiders. Stay away from the water! Reject those quaint houses and majestic vistas! This is not a place of honor!“The Survivors,” a six-episode Australian murder mini-series on Netflix, is a tasty, polished instantiation of the form. Based on the book by Jane Harper, the coastal misery here takes place in Tasmania, where Kieran (Charlie Vickers) is returning home to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the night of a terrible storm. Kieran himself nearly drowned, and his brother and a friend died trying to save him.Those were not the only two people who died that night. A teen girl, Gabby, also disappeared and presumably drowned, but she is rarely acknowledged in all the public grieving. In the present day, a young woman who was conducting her own investigation into Gabby’s death turns up dead, and now a whole other mystery is crying out to be solved.Though it covers a lot of familiar angles, “The Survivors” outshines most of its brethren. The relationships here are knotty, the characters multidimensional in intriguing, moving ways. People can be both wonderful and cruel, loving but maybe not loving enough, loyal but also dishonest.Mia (Yerin Ha), Kieran’s wife, was Gabby’s best friend, and now she isn’t sure how to relate to Gabby’s bereft mom and sister, who disagree with each other about the need to investigate Gabby’s death further. Kieran’s mother, Verity (Robyn Malcolm), struggles with grief and blame — and care taking. Kieran’s father, Brian (Damien Garvey), has worsening dementia, and when the police grill him about what he might have witnessed, his recollections are fractured, mixed up.But who doesn’t struggle with painful memories? Doesn’t everyone have something he or she wants to forget? There’s plenty of sorrow to go around, even as the characters argue about who has it the worst, desperate for their suffering to be beheld, to be legitimized.The show picks up as it goes, and its plot lines nest like Russian dolls, giving the story a real sense of heft and potency. More

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      in Television

      Trump’s New ‘Apprentice’ Boardroom: The Oval Office

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      The stately room has long been a site of diplomacy. But the reality-star president often does not come there to make friends.“This is going to be great television, I will say that.”So concluded President Trump after a stunning Oval Office confrontation in February, in front of live cameras, in which he and Vice President JD Vance took turns castigating President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and held out the prospect of withholding support for the country invaded by Russia.At a May meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, Mr. Trump brought his own television, playing video clips to support his false claims that white South African farmers have been the victims of genocide. The ambush, which also found Mr. Trump showing a news image actually taken from the Democratic Republic of Congo, left Mr. Ramaphosa scrambling to respond. But again, the cameras broadcast it all.The confrontations were shocking compared with how diplomacy has long been conducted in that stately office. But they were not surprising — at least, not to anyone who had watched Mr. Trump during his 14 seasons as the capricious, demanding host of the NBC business-competition series “The Apprentice.”In his high-drama Oval Office meetings, carried live on cable news, Mr. Trump has created himself a reality show right inside the White House. It is a serial production, tailored to his tastes for attention and drama, in which his guests submit to judgment and win a blessing or a tongue-lashing.The dynamic in these showdowns is oddly similar to the climactic “firings” Mr. Trump conducted on the NBC show. Then, as now, Mr. Trump was installed in a set designed to magnify his power — in “The Apprentice,” it was a sleek “boardroom” custom-built to improve on Trump Tower’s underwhelming real-life offices.Reality competition shows and Mr. Trump’s politics operate on the same principles: shock value, conflict, shows of dominance. Escalating a fight is almost always better for ratings than defusing one. So it was in Mr. Trump’s TV career; so it is in his administration, whether the tussle is with a world leader or Elon Musk.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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      Desi Lydic Wants Trump to Leave the Troops Alone

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      Hosts ripped into his comment during a speech to troops about former President Joe Biden never having been “the sharpest bulb.”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.‘Two Tacos Short of a Happy Meal’President Donald Trump visited soldiers at Fort Bragg on Tuesday, where he delivered a speech to “his favorite men in uniform who aren’t in the Village People,” Desi Lydic said on Wednesday’s “Daily Show.”“Oh, my God, give these troops a break already! They have to sit through your show, they have to invade Los Angeles, and now they have to parade for you?” — DESI LYDICDuring his speech, Trump attempted to criticize former President Joe Biden’s intelligence, saying, “He’s never been the sharpest bulb.”“He was there to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the army, so, of course, he ended up discussing Joe Biden.” — DESI LYDIC“What a wordsmith. See, see, most people would’ve gone with ‘brightest bulb,’ or ‘sharpest tool,’ but Donald Trump took half of both and smushed them together. That is what makes him the cream of the litter.” — DESI LYDIC“But that’s Trump — he’s not the brightest knife in the drawer. Some say he’s two tacos short of a Happy Meal.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“He wasn’t the sharpest bulb, no. He wasn’t the brightest knife in the drawer.” — JIMMY FALLON“When Trump’s staff told him that he misquoted the idiom, he was, like, ‘Hey, who are you calling an idiom?’” — JIMMY FALLON‘Nothing $300 Million Couldn’t Fix’Elon Musk addressed last week’s tweets concerning President Trump on Wednesday, posting on X: “I regret some of my posts about President @realdonaldtrump last week. They went too far.”Jimmy Fallon said he was shocked: “I didn’t know Elon was programmed to feel human emotion.”“Yeah, apparently, Trump and Elon spoke over the phone on Monday night. Trump was very gracious. He was, like, ‘This is nothing another $300 million donation couldn’t fix.’” — JIMMY FALLON“Which ones went too far? Was it the one where you called for him to be impeached and replaced by JD Vance? Was it the one where you said his big, beautiful bill was a disgusting abomination? Was it the one that said he wouldn’t have won the election without you buying it for him? Or the one where you insinuated he is a pedophile on the Epstein list? I really would like to know.” — JIMMY KIMMELWe 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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      Review: Thomas Vinterberg’s ‘Families Like Ours,’ on Netflix

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      In Thomas Vinterberg’s series on Netflix, climate change forces a country to close, and everyone has to leave.The mini-series “Families Like Ours” on Netflix has an attention-grabbing premise: An entire country, Denmark, decides to shut itself down before climate change can do the job for it. Six million Danes start looking for new homes. Relocation plans are drawn up with Scandinavian efficiency, but European neighbors look upon waves of relatively well-off white refugees with the same distaste they show for Africans and Middle Easterners.The seven-episode series is the first from the Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg, known for founding the no-frills Dogme 95 movement with Lars von Trier and, 26 years later, being nominated for a best director Oscar for “Another Round,” which won best international feature in 2021. The handsomely appointed “Families Like Ours,” which Vinterberg wrote, with Bo Hr. Hansen, and directed, breaks just about every rule in the Dogme manifesto, as his films have all along. It is a high-class consumer item, deliberate and hushed.It does, however, have something in common with his one true Dogme film, “The Celebration” from 1998. It subjects an extended Danish family to pressure and traces the fissures of guilt and dependency, the outbreaks of bad behavior and gallantry, that result. “The Celebration,” released when Vinterberg was 29, did this via transgressive, occasionally puerile black humor; “Families Like Ours” offers restrained, tasteful domestic drama. The contrast is startling, but the underlying satisfactions are similar.The new series (it premiered Tuesday on Netflix) will be categorized as a climate-change drama, and it is that. The story appears to take place in an unspecified but near future when waters have risen and efforts to hold them back have met with varying success. But the evidence of danger is mostly offscreen; the crisis is suggested through newscasts and ominous puddles. Vinterberg imagines that the climate crisis will arrive not in floods and heat but in bureaucracy and confusion — endless lines, indecipherable rules, arduous journeys, a constant assault on hope. His vision may not be easily dramatic, but it is convincing.(The overall premise is a more difficult sell. Would the Danes, as disciplined and regimented as they might be, really leave their country as obediently as the series portrays? Wouldn’t many congregate on high ground and fight to stay? The show’s failure to take on that possibility is a problem.)The show is also defined, in part, by the obvious reversal it plays on our expectations for stories about refugees. It is formerly comfortable white people who are standing in the lines, yelling across bank counters and nakedly pleading for handouts and favors. They are shocked by the conditions they face once they make it to Paris or Bucharest.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