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    Late Night on Trump, the Constitution and Playing With Dolls

    On “Meet the Press” and social media, President Trump gave the hosts a lot of material to choose from, even by his standards.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.Presidents Say the Darndest ThingsDuring a “Meet the Press” interview that aired on Sunday, President Trump was asked whether he had to uphold the Constitution. He replied, “I don’t know.”“Wow, they talked a lot about Biden’s mental decline, but this guy can’t even remember stuff from, like, four months ago,” Seth Meyers said on Monday.“Well, it’s been great, folks, but that’s it — I think we can roll credits on the United States.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“On ‘Millionaire,’ that’d be the warm-up question, like ‘What color is an orange?’ or ‘Name a planet with people on it.’ I mean, if you can’t answer that the president’s supposed to uphold the Constitution, I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t even let you become a citizen.” — JON STEWART“It’s the same answer he gives when they ask where Melania lives: ‘I don’t know, I’d have to ask my lawyers.’” — JIMMY KIMMEL“The Constitution isn’t one of Don Jr.’s birthdays. You can’t just ignore it.” — JIMMY KIMMELTrump, asked about the economy, also doubled down on his suggestion that children could get by with fewer toys. “I don’t think a beautiful baby girl needs — that’s 11 years old needs to have 30 dolls,” he said. “I think they can have three dolls, or four dolls.”“Right, think of them like wives: Two, three, four would be a good number.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“All you need to know about the relationship he has with his daughters and granddaughters is he thinks 11-year-olds still play with dolls.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Johnson. It’s a beautiful 11-year-old baby! You did so well in your 44th trimester.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“In response, Pokémon has rolled out their new slogan: ‘Pokémon, Gotta Catch a Couple!’” — SETH MEYERS“I mean, who runs on a pledge of ‘Let’s make Christmas worse for children’?” — BILL MAHER“A billionaire telling kids they need to cut back on dolls. That is some world-class political messaging right there.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Every interview now is like an episode of ‘Kids Say the Darndest Things.’” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Punchiest Punchlines (May the Fourth Edition)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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    ‘Forever,’ Plus 7 Things to Watch on TV this Week

    The Netflix show based on a Judy Blume book comes to streaming. And tune into E! for all the red-carpet looks of the Met Gala.Between streaming and cable, there is a seemingly endless variety of things to watch. Here is a selection of TV shows and specials that air or stream this week, May 5-11. Details and times are subject to change.Yearning.Judy Blume’s novel “Forever” has certainly made a splash in the literary world since its publication in 1975. The book, which focuses primarily on teenage sexuality, has often been banned or censored in schools and libraries because of the protagonist’s use of birth control. Now Netflix is coming out with a television adaptation, which is set in 2018 Los Angeles and follows the love story of two Black teenagers, Keisha Clark (Lovie Simone) and Justin Edwards (Michael Cooper Jr.), while they also explore their identities and aspirations. Streaming Thursday on Netflix.Lights, Camera, Fashion.Anna Wintour at the 2024 Met Gala.Jamie Mccarthy/Getty ImagesThe first Monday in May can only mean one thing: It is time for celebrities and fashion designers to adorn themselves in creative, lavish outfits and celebrate the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute at the annual Met Gala. This year’s theme is “Tailored for You,” which is tied to the institute’s new exhibition “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.” Alongside the Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour, this year’s chairs are Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, ASAP Rocky, Pharrell Williams and LeBron James. The Met Gala red carpet will be streaming live, so we can all sit back and admire (or judge) the looks from the comfort of our homes. Monday at 6 p.m. on E!Catching a liar.Natasha Lyonne returns for a second season of “Poker Face,” in which she stars as Charlie, a woman who has a special ability to detect when people are lying. And like the first one, this season will serve as a spotting exercise for all the familiar faces, including Cynthia Erivo, John Mulaney and John Cho. Charlie will be back on the road and investigating murders that happen at alligator farms, funeral homes, grade-school talent shows and more. Streaming Thursday on Peacock.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 Last of Us’ Season 2, Episode 4: Seattle Slew

    This week brings an expedition full of harrowing action and emotional revelations.Season 2, Episode 4It’s comforting to know that long after the collapse of civilization, certain TV clichés will persist. Like: If a woman vomits unexpectedly in one episode, in the next episode we will find out she is pregnant.So it goes with Dina, who puked in last week’s “The Last of Us” after stumbling across some human corpses, and noted at the time that her reaction was unusual, given that she often sees (and smells) dead people. Sure enough, in this week’s episode, Dina finds some pregnancy tests in a Seattle drugstore and gives several a try. They all come up positive.Dina does not say anything to Ellie — or to those of us watching at home who had not already guessed her secret — until close to the end of the episode, after the two of them have narrowly escaped multiple waves of Wolves and zombies. Her confession retroactively lends weight to everything these two women have just gone through. They have so much more at risk now.As was the case last week, a good portion of this episode is spent watching Dina and Ellie’s relationship blossom. They bounce sardonic, deadpan repartee back and forth. (Ellie, when Dina is exploring on her own: “Shout if something tries to kill you.” Dina: “That’s the plan.”) They share stories from their pasts, with Dina confessing that when she was little she told her mother she liked both boys and girls — to which her mom said, “No, you like boys.” They also fall into each other’s arms, making passionate love.Overall, there are three major revelations that Dina and Ellie share. One is the pregnancy. The other is that they have feelings for each other. And because of extenuating circumstances, Ellie also reveals to Dina that she is immune from the cordyceps infection. (I will come back to that later.)Unlike last week, all the charming chitchat is balanced with harrowing action. Dina and Ellie’s expedition into Seattle gets off to a quiet start, highlighted by a trip to an abandoned music store, where Ellie serenades Dina with a lovely acoustic rendition of A-ha’s “Take on Me.” The scene is beautifully staged and lit, with sunshine streaming in from a weed-and-moss-covered hole in the wall. At the end, Dina says Joel taught Ellie well. In a quiet voice laden with meaning, Ellie responds, “He did.”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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    Will Hutchins, Gentle Cowboy Lawman in ‘Sugarfoot,’ Dies at 94

    He starred in one of the westerns that dominated TV in the late 1950s. After losing traction in Hollywood, he became a traveling clown.Will Hutchins, who had a comically genteel starring role during the craze for television westerns in the 1950s, playing a sheriff who favored cherry soda over whiskey on “Sugarfoot,” died on April 21 in Manhasset, N.Y., on the North Shore of Long Island. He was 94.The cause was respiratory failure, his wife, Barbara Hutchins, said in a funeral home death notice.In 1958 and ’59, eight of the top 10 shows on TV were westerns. The best known included “Cheyenne” and “Maverick.” Mr. Hutchins was part of the stampede: “Sugarfoot” premiered on ABC in 1957 and ran for four seasons.The show was produced by Warner Brothers, which took its name and theme music from an otherwise unrelated 1951 western movie starring Randolph Scott. The title refers to a man of the Wild West who seems so unsuited to shootouts and cattle wrangling that he cannot be called even a “tenderfoot.”Mr. Hutchins’s character, Tom Brewster, was the sugarfoot in question: an Eastern law student seeking his fortune as a sheriff who sidles up to the saloon bar to order a sarsaparilla (Wild West root beer) “with a dash of cherry.” He abhors violence, tries to stop women from throwing themselves at him and lovingly gives up his share of drinking water for his horse.Gil Perkins, left, with Mr. Hutchins in a scene from a 1958 episode of “Sugarfoot” titled “The Hunted.” ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content, via Getty ImagesMr. Hutchins played the role for comedy, following up a villain’s insult with a dramatic pause, only to critique the man for not being “sociable.” Other dramatic moments prompted him to lecture Westerners about problems with their “disposition.”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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    ‘Sinners’ and Shows like ‘Severance’ Give an Old Form New Life

    Online, onstage and onscreen, performers are playing multiple parts. The effect of watching someone shape-shift can be both thrilling and unnerving.The much-anticipated season finale of one of my favorite sitcoms was recently derailed when its creator, Shawna Lander, ran into a few snags. In the story I’ve been following for months, a peppy if scatterbrained woman named Jennifer McCallister has gone into labor after a pregnancy that’s transformed her relationship with her sister-in-law (also named Shawna) from antagonistic to amiable. Meanwhile, Jennifer’s mother, Barb — passive-aggressive to a comically villainous degree — is getting drunk on margaritas at a local Mexican restaurant and terrorizing the wait staff when she gets a call to meet Jennifer at the hospital.But just as Jennifer was about to give birth, the story stopped. Lander announced that due to technical difficulties and illness, the audience would have to wait a few days to see what shenanigans Barb got up to, and whether this birth would help her and her son, Jennifer’s brother John, smooth over their rocky relationship. Illness foils shooting days all the time, but typically one creator’s bout of fever wouldn’t force audiences to wait well past the target air date to find out what happens. The difference with Lander’s show, which chronicles the ever-sprawling antics of the McCallister family — most sketches are actually stealth explorations of relationship dynamics — is that Lander is the show. She writes it. She produces and distributes it. She directs and shoots it.Michael B. Jordan as the twins Smoke and Stack in “Sinners.” He’s one of many performers this season playing multiple parts in a production.Warner Bros. PicturesAnd, most important, like several actors in hit TV shows, big-budget films and Tony-nominated Broadway productions this season, she plays every single character: Jennifer, Barb, Shawna, John, other male partners, assorted friends, the waitress, even Shawna’s two small children. They’re all Lander in wigs and different shirts, shot in close-cropped vertical framing for platforms like TikTok and Instagram, where she posts under the handle @shawnathemom. Her performances are so funny and specific that it’s shockingly easy to forget it’s all just her.The McCallister family saga boasts considerable viewership. The chronicles are followed by two million TikTok users, with nearly a million more on Instagram. Add it up, and that’s a bigger audience than watched the Season 3 premiere of “The White Lotus.”Lander’s format — playing every part herself, with shots framed and edited so the characters seem to be conversing with each other — involves a visual vocabulary familiar to comedians on vertical video platforms, who often post satirical sketches about corporate life or marriage. Just recently, a creator who goes by Sydney Jo posted the multi-episode “Group Chat” series, in which she played the multitudinous members of a friend group experiencing mounting drama over one girl’s boyfriend, culminating in a “Real Housewives”-style reunion episode. The series was such a viral hit that Sydney Jo was invited onto the “Today” show to talk about it.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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    Where Would Hollywood Find Its Guillotines or Pay Phones Without Them?

    When the Netflix series “Wednesday” needed a guillotine recently, it did not have to venture far. A North Hollywood prop house called History for Hire had one available, standing more than eight feet high with a suitably menacing blade. (The business offers pillories too, but the show wasn’t in the market for any.)The company’s 33,000-square-foot warehouse is like the film and television industry’s treasure-filled attic, crammed with hundreds of thousands of items that help bring the past to life. It has a guitar Timothée Chalamet used in “A Complete Unknown,” luggage from “Titanic,” a black baby carriage from “The Addams Family.”Looking for period detail? You can find different iterations of Wheaties boxes going back to the ’40s, enormous television cameras with rotating lenses from the ’50s, a hair dyer with a long hose that connects to a plastic bonnet from the ’60s, a pay phone from the ’70s and a yellow waterproof Sony Walkman from the ’80s.History for Hire’s 33,000-square-foot warehouse has aisles and aisles of items grouped together by topic or theme.Need a guillotine? They can help.They have a large collection of vintage cameras.History for Hire, which Jim and Pam Elyea have owned for almost four decades, is part of the crucial but often unseen infrastructure that keeps Hollywood churning, and helps make it one of the best places in the world to make film and television.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

    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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    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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    David Harbour Is Conflicted About Becoming a Morning Person

    Working on the new movie “Thunderbolts*” and the TV series “Stranger Things,” he said, “You’re up early at 6 in the morning. But I still have that beast inside me that wants to sleep till 1 p.m.”The Red Guardian never made the varsity squad of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but that’s more than OK with David Harbour.“Of the people that do love these movies, we are not the favorite,” he said of the antiheroes in the new Marvel film “Thunderbolts*.” “But we really poured our hearts into this movie and tried to make something that is about isolation in modern society and light and the darkness that is within all of us.”During what Harbour called a bit of a nightmare, he worked on “Thunderbolts*” at the same time he was shooting the final season of the Netflix series “Stranger Things,” in which he plays Hopper, the heroic small-town police chief. He is currently working on “DTF St. Louis,” an HBO limited series and the first thing he has produced, with Jason Bateman and Linda Cardellini.In a video call from Los Angeles, he elaborated on the headphones, sunglasses and Zen mantra that he considers essential. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.An AmericanoI drink it all day long. My doctor has told me to knock it off, but it is the last vice I have. I have an assistant and she does a lot of great things for me, but probably the No. 1 job is she brings me too many Americanos throughout the day.Wired HeadphonesI love a tangled cord. I used to carry a CD player back in the early 2000s and I would put on headphones and walk around the East Village and have my little soundtrack to my life. Just sort of float through.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