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      Kevin Spacey Is Cleared of Anthony Rapp’s Battery Claim

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      A jury found Mr. Spacey not liable in a civil trial. Mr. Rapp, an original cast member in “Rent,” had filed a lawsuit accusing Mr. Spacey of making a sexual advance when Mr. Rapp was 14.A federal jury in Manhattan found Kevin Spacey not liable for battery on Thursday after the actor Anthony Rapp filed a lawsuit accusing Mr. Spacey of climbing on top of him and making a sexual advance in 1986, when Mr. Rapp was 14.Mr. Rapp’s claim was one of the most prominent in the early days of the #MeToo movement, as accusers started to come forward with allegations against high-profile men in the entertainment, political and business worlds. Mr. Spacey, a star of the political drama “House of Cards” and a lauded actor who had hosted the Tony Awards months earlier, quickly experienced career blowback.The disclosure by Mr. Rapp, which BuzzFeed News published in October 2017, was followed by more than a dozen other sexual misconduct accusations against Mr. Spacey. He has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault charges in Britain, and outside the courthouse on Thursday, one of his lawyers, Jennifer L. Keller, said he would be proven innocent in all cases.The civil trial to consider Mr. Rapp’s claim of battery hinged on his account of a night in 1986, when, he said, he attended a party at Mr. Spacey’s New York apartment during a Broadway season in which both of them were acting in plays. Mr. Spacey, who was 26 at the time, denied that such an encounter ever occurred.After less than an hour and a half of deliberation, an 11-person jury in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan decided in favor of Mr. Spacey, whose lawyers had hammered Mr. Rapp with questions that challenged his memory of events said to have occurred more than 36 years ago.Following the verdict, Mr. Spacey stood up with tears in his eyes and hugged his lawyers. He was silent during his exit from the courthouse, but Ms. Keller told reporters, “We’re just grateful that the jury saw the truth.”Anthony Rapp sued Mr. Spacey, accusing him of making a sexual advance when Mr. Rapp was 14.Eduardo Munoz/ReutersMr. Rapp was straight-faced in response to the decision. In a statement later posted to his Twitter account, Mr. Rapp said he was “deeply grateful” for the opportunity to have his case heard before a jury.“Bringing this lawsuit was always about shining a light,” the statement said, “as part of the larger movement to stand up against all forms of sexual violence.”Mr. Rapp, an actor on “Star Trek: Discovery” and who is best known for his originating role in the musical “Rent,” was able to bring his claim under a New York State law, the Child Victims Act. The law included a temporary “look-back” window during which old claims that had already passed the statute of limitations could be revived.The jury determined that there was not enough evidence to prove that Mr. Spacey had touched one of Mr. Rapp’s “sexual or intimate” parts, meaning the claim could not be revived under the law. Mr. Rapp testified that when Mr. Spacey picked him up, one of his hands “grazed” his buttocks.Mr. Rapp’s lawyers presented testimony from three men who said he had told them in the mid-1990s or earlier about an encounter with Mr. Spacey. The defense focused on inconsistencies and picked at vagueness in his account, highlighting that Mr. Rapp, 50, presented no third-party corroboration of the gathering on the night that he said the encounter had occurred. Midway through the trial, the judge, Lewis A. Kaplan, dismissed a claim against Mr. Spacey, 63, of intentional infliction of emotional distress.“There is no evidence that this happened and plenty of evidence that it didn’t,” Ms. Keller said in closing arguments.Both actors took the stand to testify, presenting disparate accounts about what happened in the spring of 1986, when Mr. Rapp was a teenage actor in the play “Precious Sons” and Mr. Spacey was in “Long Day’s Journey Into Night.”Mr. Rapp testified that he had withdrawn to the bedroom to watch late-night TV during Mr. Spacey’s party because he did not know any other guests. Once the party wound down, Mr. Rapp testified, Mr. Spacey approached him, picked him up, laid him on the bed and climbed on top of him, pressing his groin into Mr. Rapp’s hip.“I knew something was really wrong now,” Mr. Rapp said, recalling feeling frozen in place.He testified that he was able to wriggle out from under Mr. Spacey, who appeared intoxicated, and escape to the nearby bathroom. Mr. Rapp recalled that before he exited the apartment, Mr. Spacey said, “Are you sure you want to leave?”The defense contended that Mr. Rapp had fabricated the claim to get attention for himself and his career, which he denied.“Does it look like he is enjoying the attention of this?” a lawyer for Mr. Rapp, Richard M. Steigman, said in closing arguments. “He is doing this to hold Kevin Spacey accountable.”Despite issuing an apology shortly after Mr. Rapp made public his allegation, Mr. Spacey testified that the encounter never happened, that he had never been alone with Mr. Rapp and that he had not had a party at his apartment in the time frame Mr. Rapp described.Peter Gallagher and Mr. Spacey in the Broadway show “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” in 1986.Jim Wilson/The New York TimesMr. Spacey said he did recall that Mr. Rapp had attended with a friend a performance of “Long Day’s Journey,” and that afterward, Mr. Spacey had invited them to dinner, then to a nightclub and then back to his apartment.Mr. Spacey said he had flirted with Mr. Rapp’s friend, John Barrowman, who was 19 at the time. Back at Mr. Spacey’s apartment, he said, he pushed Mr. Barrowman gently back onto the bed when Mr. Rapp left for the bathroom. Feeling that Mr. Rapp was too young to see them in a romantic situation, Mr. Spacey said, the two men sat up when Mr. Rapp returned.“I had no interest in Mr. Rapp joining us,” Mr. Spacey testified.Mr. Rapp testified that on the night they all went to the nightclub — which he described as his second time meeting Mr. Spacey — they did not go back to the apartment. In a videotaped deposition, Mr. Barrowman, an actor known for his role in the TV show “Doctor Who,” recalled the series of events that night as Mr. Spacey had.Mr. Rapp called the alleged encounter with Mr. Spacey the most traumatic event of his life. Mr. Rapp testified about moments when he later saw Mr. Spacey onscreen — in films like “American Beauty” and “Working Girl” — and felt startled, sometimes feeling as if “poked with a cattle prod.”Mr. Spacey’s lawyers suggested throughout the trial that Mr. Rapp was motivated to fabricate the accusation because he was envious of Mr. Spacey’s career or frustrated that Mr. Spacey was not public about his relationships with men.Mr. Rapp denied those motivations, asserting that he had come forward to seek belated justice for himself. But during a lengthy and tense cross-examination, he acknowledged that he might have been mistaken about a couple details, including that the alleged encounter had occurred in a separate bedroom in Mr. Spacey’s apartment.Mr. Spacey’s lawyers also questioned Mr. Rapp on similarities between his account and moments of staging in “Precious Sons.” In the play, the character of Mr. Rapp’s father, who was played by Ed Harris, had picked up the character of Mr. Rapp in the same manner that he described Mr. Spacey picking him up — like a groom carrying a bride. Mr. Harris also climbed on Mr. Rapp twice during the play.Mr. Rapp dismissed the idea that there was any connection, saying the staging had been done “with care and consent.”Mr. Rapp’s lawyers pointed to Mr. Spacey’s initial response to Mr. Rapp’s accusation, in which he did not categorically deny the encounter, as supporting evidence for their client. In a statement Mr. Spacey posted after the BuzzFeed article, he said he had no memory of the encounter, adding, “But if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior.”In his testimony, Mr. Spacey said he regretted making that apology, attributing the decision to advisers who feared that people would call Mr. Spacey a “victim blamer” if he denied the allegation outright.“I’ve learned a lesson,” Mr. Spacey testified, “which is, never apologize for something you didn’t do.”One additional accuser, Andy Holtzman, testified during the trial that Mr. Spacey had groped him in an office in 1981, when Mr. Holtzman was 27 and Mr. Spacey was several years younger. Mr. Spacey denied doing so. No other accusations were discussed in front of the jury, and Judge Kaplan instructed the jury to disregard two instances when Mr. Rapp had alluded to other allegations against Mr. Spacey during his testimony.As a result of the sexual misconduct allegations against him, Mr. Spacey — who has won two Oscars and a Tony — lost major roles, with an arbitrator ordering him to pay $31 million to the “House of Cards” studio for breach of contract.But the jury’s verdict on Thursday adds to the list of legal victories for Mr. Spacey. Prosecutors dropped a sexual assault charge in Massachusetts, and an anonymous accuser who had originally sued alongside Mr. Rapp decided not to continue his claim when Judge Kaplan ruled that the plaintiff would need to identify himself publicly.“What’s next,” Ms. Keller said outside the courthouse on Thursday, “is that Kevin Spacey is going to be proven innocent of anything he’s been accused of.” More

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      ‘Modern Love’ Goes Global in New Television Series

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      The latest iteration of the “Modern Love” franchise, “Modern Love Tokyo,” begins streaming on Oct. 21.Times Insider explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.Daniel Jones, the senior editor of The New York Times’s Modern Love column, remembers when, a dozen years ago, it was just him selecting stories from a stack of nearly a thousand monthly submissions and editing each one for the essay series. “It was kind of lonely,” he said.This week, he has plenty of company. He is in Japan to attend the premiere of the television series “Modern Love Tokyo,” the latest installment in Amazon’s global “Modern Love” franchise. The seven-episode show will begin streaming on Amazon Prime Video on Oct. 21. The episodes are set in Tokyo, feature the work of actors, of directors and of a creative team from Japan, and are based on essays published in the column that were reimagined to make them more familiar to Japanese audiences. (In a “Modern Love” first, one of the episodes will be animated.)“I love that the process includes all these other talented people who are interpreting stories and amplifying emotions, putting in music,” Mr. Jones said in an interview last week. “It’s just exploded the job into a whole new realm.”Since the original “Modern Love” show was released on Amazon in October 2019, three international spinoffs have debuted in three languages: “Modern Love Mumbai,” in Hindi; “Modern Love Hyderabad,” in Telugu; and the Tokyo series, in Japanese. A fourth series, “Modern Love Chennai,” in Tamil, is forthcoming, and a fifth, “Modern Love Amsterdam,” offered in Dutch, is set to be released in mid-December.Mr. Jones reflected on the television franchise’s expansion abroad, on the process of adapting American stories for each series and on the longevity of the Modern Love column. Read the edited interview below.When did the idea to create international versions of the show come about?The original series, set in New York City, came out in 2019, and pretty soon after that, we started talking about other cities around the world where we might be able to do versions of it. Of course, then the pandemic hit, which made everything harder and a little delayed. And so the international versions we began talking about several years ago are just now coming out.What is your role on the series?I’m a co-producer on all the international versions. I see the episodes as they’re being edited; I read the scripts. I try to maintain a sense of what Modern Love is and has been for more than 18 years now, meaning realistic love stories, not sweeping romances. No overt sex or Bollywood plots or anything that would push the boundaries and make it seem outside what the column does. But the people working on this at Amazon Studios know this and get it. In fact, that’s what they value most about these series and what makes the work distinctive in these markets. We’re all on the same page.Also, the Modern Love archive is enormous — it’s 900-some essays at this point. While the teams in different countries who are picking content completely reimagine the stories for their audiences, the shows’ creators often stick close to the plot, so I’m helpful to them if they want a certain kind of story; I know the archive better than anyone. But I’ve been so impressed with the local teams’ approach and research and passion for this project.Daniel Jones attending the “Modern Love Tokyo” premiere. Phoebe JonesHow does the process of adapting an American story for an audience in another country work?For one of the Mumbai episodes, the creative team in Mumbai took an essay about a woman in Brooklyn who had separated from her husband and who was feeling down in every way — she was in bad physical shape, emotionally wrung out. And she now needed to get herself to work by bicycle.She started riding across the Manhattan Bridge, but she didn’t have the stamina to go all the way up, so the story was about the empowerment — both physical and emotional — of building herself back up. It was a very New York story, but when they took it to Mumbai, they made her character a domestic servant in a wealthy family, highlighting the class divide there. There’s a bridge in Mumbai, called the Flyway, that goes from a gritty area to the gleaming city center, and it was the same basic process of her building herself back up. It speaks to the universality of these conflicts — you can get a divorce in Mumbai, and you can get a divorce in Brooklyn. The emotions and struggle and all that can be so similar.All of the versions of the show are available to stream on Amazon Prime in the United States, right?Yes. Now, with the success of series like “Squid Game,” it’s become clear that subtitles are not a barrier. I hope people check out the versions set in the other cities, too.What’s been the most exciting part of working on the international versions?When these teams discover stories that I’d long forgotten about in the archive, and then reintroduce me to them in a new way. It’s great to have other people look at the archive with fresh eyes, find such gems and see how to reimagine them for the screen.What’s next for the “Modern Love” television franchise?Our fifth international series, “Modern Love Amsterdam,” premieres in mid-December. Beyond that, stay tuned, because we have ambitions for all over the world. 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      ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 1, Episode 9 Recap: A Convenient Mistake

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      This week’s episode focused on the immediate aftermath of the king’s death and on the misunderstanding that helped shape the consequences.Season 1, Episode 9: ‘The Green Council’Before we get started this week, let us have a moment of silence for Lord Beesbury.The ancient master of coin and his meandering financial reports had mostly been a source of light humor on the Small Council until Sunday, when he stood in defiance as one of the few people in the Red Keep with any sense of honor or loyalty. Then Ser Criston killed him for it.Adding insult to injury, the council left his corpse lying on the table while they plotted. But all in all, Lord Beesbury (Bill Paterson) was one of the lucky ones. His early exit meant that he didn’t have to stick around for an episode that, while it had its good points, was mostly a mess.As expected, the hour focused on the immediate aftermath of Viserys’s death, specifically the scramble undertaken by Otto and Alicent to install Aegon as king in defiance of Viserys’s stated wish that Rhaenyra succeed him. The episode title, “The Green Council,” signaled that we would be getting the Hightower show this week, and that was more or less how it turned out. (The season finale is called “The Black Queen,” suggesting that we’ll get the other side next Sunday.)The title also referred specifically to the non-Beesbury faction of the Small Council that, unbeknown to Queen Alicent, us or anyone else, has been working with Otto on a succession scheme for some time. The conspirators kicked these “long-laid plans,” as Tyland Lannister described them, into motion before the king’s body was even covered up.The plot, which amounted to a kind of palace coup, received serendipitous assistance in the form of Alicent’s bogus claim about the king’s deathbed reversal. (More on that in a minute.) It all led to a mad dash to implement Operation Usurp and Awe, which included securing the treasury, locking Rhaenys in her room, compelling bent knees from former Rhaenyra supporters (and seizing dissenters), searching out Aegon from his presumed whereabouts within the dicier precincts of King’s Landing and then, finally, crowning him in front of everybody to make it official. (I suppose Lord Beesbury’s death counts as the first casualty in the coming conflict to be known as the Dance of the Dragons.)However, a more fitting episode title would have been “Wait, What?” Because that’s what I kept muttering over and over in response to all the confusing details and jarring detours along the way.As in, wait, what? The White Worm found and “tucked away” Aegon beneath the altar in the sept, of all places? And she was motivated to do so partly because she wants to end the underground urchin fight club? Which we found out about only 40 seconds ago? And are Aegon’s bastards participating in it? Or just languishing outside the octagon?Return to Westeros in ‘House of the Dragon’HBO’s long-awaited “Game of Thrones” prequel series is here.Playing Kingmaker: Fabien Frankel plays Ser Criston Cole, who got to place the crown on the new King of Westeros’s head. He is still not sure how he landed the role.The Princess and the Queen: Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke, who portray the grown-up versions of Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower, talked about the forces that drive their characters apart — and pull them together.A Man’s Decline: By the eighth episode of the season, Viserys no longer looks like a proud Targaryen king. The actor Paddy Considine discussed the character’s transformation and its meaning.A Rogue Prince: Daemon Targaryen is an agent of chaos. But “he’s got a strange moral compass of his own,” Matt Smith, who portrays him, said.And wait, what? Larys does the bidding of the queen because she indulges his foot fetish? And the coronation is in the Dragonpit? And the Cargyll twins, those conflicted Kingsguard brothers who found Aegon before losing him to Criston and Aemond, are actually named Arryk and Erryk? (I guess that explains why I never knew which one was which. And why I still don’t.)I ID’d the Cargylls by consulting various online resources after I watched the episode screener. That was also how I confirmed that the Dragonpit was where Aegon was crowned, after cross-referencing its imposing exterior with HBO’s King’s Landing map. Were we supposed to understand that was the Dragonpit from the jump? Or was that part of the surprise of Rhaenys crashing up through the floor on her dragon? And why have a coronation in a Dragonpit anyway? Was that the only venue available on such short notice?I guess Rhaenys’s smile amid the scrum in the streets, as the plebes were herded toward the ceremony, happened because she, at least, realized where they were being herded, which would allow her to reunite with her precious Meleys. You might recall from earlier in the episode that Alicent did not want her to do that, because it would influence Rhaenyra’s willingness to negotiate for peace rather than declare war. (At least Rhaenys’s big entrance gave the great Eve Best something to do beyond tête-à-têtes in gloomy chambers.)Which is the good one and which is the bad one? Luke, left, and Elliott Tittensor in “House of the Dragon.”Ollie Upton/HBOThe upshot of all of the above was that I found myself constantly trying to sort out what I was seeing, at the expense of enjoying the story, or even following it at times. You shouldn’t have to do online research or remember details from the novel or watch after-show segments in order to understand an episode of television. I doubt I was the only confused viewer out there, but in case I was, feel free to let me know all the obvious cues I missed. (For the record, episode screeners don’t have a subtitles option, but those shouldn’t be required to understand the story either.)And all of this is before we even get to the thing that happened that was also the thing that I was most afraid would happen.Last week, I held out hope that Viserys’s addled prophecy sharing with Alicent would not amount to a big misunderstanding, à la Criston’s admission to the queen that he had slept with Rhaenyra. But no such luck.My main objection — besides the fact that, again, they already used this gimmick just a few weeks ago — is that the crazy misunderstanding is one of the lowest forms of sitcom writing, the kind of transparent plot contrivance you might forgive within a half-hour of yuk-yuks but don’t expect to see on a Sunday night on HBO.Then there is the abundance of Aegons in this story, which is slightly ridiculous on its own and consequently feels even more so when it is the source of a “Who’s on first?” deathbed routine. George R.R. Martin has explained that he patterned all his saga’s name-repeating after real-life royal dynasties — consider how many times England has had a King George or Charles.But such parallels are more legible within the context of a novel than when coming out of the mouths of characters in a TV show. (See also: Arryk and Erryk, the latter of which my spell-checker keeps changing to “Erik,” which is what they both sound like.) It is within the producers’ power to change the occasional name from the book.The most meaningful question posed by Alicent’s misunderstanding, from a character standpoint: Did she actually believe that after backing Rhaenyra for decades, Viserys changed his mind at the last minute? Or did she hear what she wanted to hear? Or just lie?For what it’s worth, in an interview with The New York Times, Olivia Cooke said she thought Alicent’s mishearing of Viserys happened in good faith and was not the product of the queen’s having created her own preferred reality. (“I genuinely think she thinks he’s talking about Aegon, her son,” Cooke said.) Conversely, when I clung to hope last week that they wouldn’t take this silly path, I think I knew they probably would but was projecting my own desire that they not. So perhaps I’m taking it harder than most people will — it definitely contributed to my general annoyance with this disjointed episode.Ultimately, because Otto’s scheme was already in place, the Greens’ power grab didn’t hinge on Alicent’s misunderstanding. But it certainly helped to sell the plan, and also, perhaps, to convince Alicent to go along with it. (I think she probably would have anyway, despite the support she expressed for Rhaenyra last week.) I guess we’ll see if Rhaenyra ever gets a chance to clear things up for her.As I said in the beginning, there were some nice moments this week. The dynamic between Aemond and Criston felt lived-in and affectionate, a reminder that, with the general lack of interest Viserys had in his second batch of children — Paddy Considine discussed this last week in an interview with The Times — Criston the sword-trainer likely functioned as a kind of mentor figure.I also enjoyed the promise of a growing rivalry between Alicent and Otto, based partly on their differing sympathies for Rhaenyra. It could complicate the Hightowers’ attempt to consolidate and hold onto their power.But overall … not my favorite episode. Here’s hoping next week’s season finale brings more enjoying and less Googling.Look out behind you. Bill Paterson, right, in “House of the Dragon.”Ollie Upton/HBOA few thoughts while we renew our license to killApparently Ser Criston can just murder anyone without consequences, including the longstanding lord of a noble house? I guess we’ll see next week or next season if killing Lord Beesbury comes back on him.In “Fire & Blood,” the Martin novel, Larys is also known as Larys Clubfoot. While the character has limped throughout the show, I believe this is the first time it has been explicit about both his twisted foot and his twisted foot obsession. (Update: As several readers have pointed out, the show briefly highlighted Larys’s disability during the royal hunt, in Episode 3.) His and Alicent’s arrangement was clearly well-established. You might recall that after Larys had his father burned up to make room for Otto’s return as Hand, he told Alicent, “I feel certain you will reward me when the time is right.” I guess this is what he was talking about?And here Otto thought he had the upper hand when what he really needed was a nice pair of feet. Mysaria, the White Worm, has been a reliable source of intel for him — even he was shocked that she knew the king was dead. (I assume Alicent’s handmaiden, part of the Red Keep spy network Larys mentioned, notified her when she lit those candles in the window.) But it looks as if Mysaria will need to find a new wormhole, if she survived the fire. (She probably did.)“You look so much like your mother in certain lights,” Otto told Alicent, dusting off his old manipulation standby. Her rolled-eyes response suggests that it doesn’t work anymore.Aegon was briefly one of the clearest thinkers in the episode. The king could have made me heir anytime in the past 20 years, he told his mother, but he didn’t because he didn’t like me, so why would he now? But then the magical dagger somehow convinced him it was all real, and by the end Aegon — whom nobody likes, for good reason — was basking in the crowd’s adulation.I guess either Arryk (Luke Tittensor) or Erryk (Elliott Tittensor), whichever one we saw letting his brother fight Ser Cristen and then walking away, did so because he somehow sold out to Alicent? (This was probably what Otto was referring to later with his line about Alicent’s reward of “a pouch of silver.”) Presumably it was the other brother who then freed Rhaenys before losing her in the streets of King’s Landing.With one puff, Rhaenys and Meleys could have ended the Dance of Dragons before it began. Rhaenys’s restraint called back to Alicent’s comments about the women’s inclinations toward peace, even as Meleys foreshadowed the pain the realm is about to endure, by wiping out a few dozen civilians with its arrival.What did you think? Will Rhaenys join Rhaenyra’s cause? Am I making too much of the Dragonpit? Which other sitcom cliché would you like to see “House of the Dragon” incorporate? A Very Special Comments Section awaits your input. More

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      ‘House of the Dragon’ Star Fabien Frankel on Playing Kingmaker

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      The man who placed the crown on the new King of Westeros’s head is still not quite sure how he got there.This interview includes spoilers for the first nine episodes of “House of the Dragon.”To this day, Fabien Frankel doesn’t really know how he wound up on “House of the Dragon.”“I got an email from my agent that said ‘Untitled HBO Television Series,’” he said. He was asked to audition for a character named “Clint.”Wearing all black, the startlingly photogenic English actor, who plays the lethal Kingsguard knight Ser Criston Cole, settled back into a couch at HBO’s New York headquarters last week to continue the story. “I did the audition, and heard nothing back other than that they were looking for a slightly more Jason Momoa type for the part. That certainly wasn’t me, and I really didn’t think about it again.”Six months later, by which point the word was out that a “Game of Thrones” prequel was in the works, he was offered the part. “What I still don’t know, and I’m fascinated to know, is whether they couldn’t find their Jason Momoa type, or if they decided to change their casting brief. If the opportunity arises to ask them, I will.”Judging from how things have been going in Westeros, Frankel has time to spare. In the show’s most recent episode, his Ser Criston struck the first blow in the internecine conflict for control of Westeros — known as the Dance of the Dragons in George R.R. Martin’s source novel, “Fire & Blood” — and placed the crown on the head of the new king, the creepy Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney). In the book, this earns Cole the sobriquet of “Kingmaker.” To hear Frankel tell it, though, the acclaim has not yet hit home.These are edited excerpts from the conversation.“House of the Dragon” is an enormous hit. How has your life changed?My life in London is more or less the same. I’m probably getting slightly more calls from my agents, and a weekly call from my brother and friends to talk about the episodes. But my day-to-day life is not very different at all.London’s a good city at keeping you grounded because people tend to be quite private and un-invasive. You hear all these stories of, “I couldn’t walk down the street,” but I don’t have any of that. I can count on two hands the amount of times people on the street have taken notice.I’m a bit surprised to hear that. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but you’ve become kind of a sex symbol among the fandom.I haven’t. I mean, I suppose it was inevitable for whoever was going to have a romance with Rhaenyra [the princess who seduces Cole, played by Milly Alcock and, later, Emma D’Arcy], but I can tell you now that no one in my close circle is swooning.Cole with Milly Alcock, as the younger version of Rhaenyra. The character shaped Cristen Cole’s trajectory in the show.Ollie Upton/HBOLet’s talk about Ser Criston’s journey from one side of the conflict to the other. When he first becomes romantically involved with Rhaenyra, he seems a little idealistic, a little naïve.I never felt that he was naïve. I felt that he was taken out of a life he understood into a life he didn’t.Return to Westeros in ‘House of the Dragon’HBO’s long-awaited “Game of Thrones” prequel series is here.Playing Kingmaker: Fabien Frankel plays Ser Criston Cole, who got to place the crown on the new King of Westeros’s head. He is still not sure how he landed the role.The Princess and the Queen: Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke, who portray the grown-up versions of Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower, talked about the forces that drive their characters apart — and pull them together.A Man’s Decline: By the eighth episode of the season, Viserys no longer looks like a proud Targaryen king. The actor Paddy Considine discussed the character’s transformation and its meaning.A Rogue Prince: Daemon Targaryen is an agent of chaos. But “he’s got a strange moral compass of his own,” Matt Smith, who portrays him, said.He’s a soldier. In the army, you don’t just become a sergeant or a captain; you work to become a sergeant or a captain. In King’s Landing, it’s hereditary names, titles, people who haven’t earned the right to be anywhere. You take this character, who has nothing in common with that entire world, and put him in the central circle. It takes him a beat to figure things out.Then, obviously, there is a darkness within him that a certain moment triggers, and he becomes what he is.Why does he react so fanatically when Rhaenyra rejects his marriage proposal and counters with a sort of indecent proposal of her own?There’s nothing extraordinary about it: He’s asked a girl to run away with him, and he’s been told no. That’s the basis. It doesn’t matter who she is — they’re two kids, and they’re young, and he has very strong feelings for her. And she said, “No, but I’ll keep you on the side, do what I need to do,” which is disrespectful unto itself.My justification, and this is probably somewhat controversial, was that Rhaenyra could have let him go at the end of that conversation, or at some point before her wedding. Instead, she made him sit through the whole thing. And he flips. It becomes very evident that he has a temper that we had not yet seen. That temper, for reasons he feels are profound, makes him flip.Frankel didn’t know what he was auditioning for when he first read for “House of the Dragon.” Peter Fisher for The New York TimesI like how you put it earlier, that there’s a darkness within him. It’s much closer to the surface now than it used to be.Yes. The sourness and bitterness of this world has washed off on him. You are your surroundings; you are the people you’re surrounded by. Ser Criston happens to be surrounded by an incredibly ambitious group of very Machiavellian human beings whose sole ambition is power. Eventually, you go: “Well, that’s the life I live. That’s what I am now. I’m in too deep.”And you become the Kingmaker. You draw first blood in the conflict between the so-called “Greens” and “Blacks,” bashing in the head of poor Lord Beesbury (Bill Paterson). Was that an accident, or did Cole kill him on purpose?I don’t want to say. If it comes from me, then it’s decided, and I’d rather “House of the Dragon” fans, who are so astute, watch it and decide for themselves.Then he puts the crown on King Aegon II’s head in full view of the public. He’s famous now. Is that a role he embraces?I think he sees it as his duty, by proxy of being Alicent’s sworn protector, to protect these boys. He’s been very close to a father figure to them. Criston Cole taught these kids to fight, taught these kids respect. There’s that bit where Aemond [Aegon’s younger brother, played by Ewan Mitchell] is talking, and Criston didn’t like how he was speaking, and he says something like — I don’t remember ——“Every woman is an image of the Mother, to be spoken of with reverence.”Yes. So I think that’s his duty now. He doesn’t want to be a big star or very famous. It’s not in his nature. That’s just what happened.That’s a very funny line given what we’ve seen and heard from Criston.I’m glad you found it funny because I remember thinking it was hilarious. There was a conversation between Sara [Hess, the episode’s writer]; Clare [Kilner], our director; and myself when we were in Spain shooting that scene about how it should be delivered. I said it can only be funny. I mean, he’s not exactly proved that every woman is an image of the Mother.Frankel said his life hasn’t changed much since “House of the Dragon” began airing. “My day-to-day life is not very different at all,” he said.Peter Fisher for The New York TimesThat sequence really built up the relationship between Criston and Aegon’s kid brother, Aemond One-Eye. There’s a mutual respect there, even among such shifty characters.Criston sees Aemond in himself, and himself in Aemond. Ewan and I talked a lot about that. He and I would spend a lot of time together, walking around Spain together, discussing this relationship. There’s a real closeness between them.They’re also the two coolest characters on the Green side, to be honest.Oh, mate, I’m loving you saying that. I’m very Team Green, and proud of it. That’s kind of how I’m programmed to think now. I’m glad to hear there’s some love for the Greens out there. I think we are a force to be reckoned with. It’s a good solid crew. I’d back us in a street fight.Perhaps it’s too late at this point to ask, but does some part of Ser Criston still love Rhaenyra?[Smiles ruefully.] First love is first love. I think everyone will always love the person that they fell in love with for the first time. From the first time you hear a beautiful piece of music, you’ll always love it, even if you’ve heard it a hundred times, because you remember that first time you heard it. So yeah, he will always love Rhaenyra. More

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      Ralph Macchio Will Always Be ‘The Karate Kid.’ He’s Finally Fine With That.

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      His new memoir, “Waxing On,” sees the ’80s star making peace with the role that has brought him back into circulation thanks to “Cobra Kai.”Playing Daniel LaRusso in “The Karate Kid” made Ralph Macchio famous for life. For decades, people have been telling him where they were when they saw the 1984 popcorn flick or how its underdog story affected them.Such all-encompassing fame, however, came with a downside.As he tried to move on in his acting career, he couldn’t quite leave the role behind. Sometimes, he said, he even felt stifled by it, no longer the freewheeling but vulnerable 22-year-old whose character in the movie learned the importance of balance, in life and in martial arts.Nearly four decades later, he has written a memoir, “Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me,” about the making of the movie, and how it has shaped — and continues to shape — his life.The book is reassuringly free of scandal or self-destructive behavior, but there’s a palpable ambivalence that runs through its 241 pages, though ultimately the tone bends toward optimism.Macchio as Daniel LaRusso in the first film, a hit that spawned two sequels.Columbia Pictures, via Everett CollectionHaving wrapped his fifth season reprising the role in “Cobra Kai,” Netflix’s surprisingly popular sequel series, Macchio seems to have made peace with, and even embraced, what he calls “the wonderful gift.”Looking back, he writes, the original film is “a prime example of when Hollywood gets it all right. It teaches and inspires through pure entertainment.”On a sunny rooftop terrace in Lower Manhattan one recent morning, Macchio — a not at all 60-looking 60, even with his sunglasses off — displayed the natural relatability that has been a hallmark of his career. It’s something he shares with Daniel LaRusso, “the every-kid next door,” he explained, who “had no business winning anything.”Growing up on Long Island, Macchio would watch MGM movie musicals with his mom. Soon enough, he was taking tap-dancing lessons in between Little League games and working Saturdays with his dad. (His brother took more to the family laundromat and pump-truck businesses.)Along with roles in school plays and dance recitals, Macchio started auditioning for commercials, leading to two Bubble Yum spots. After his first movie, “Up the Academy,” and a one-season stint on ABC’s “Eight Is Enough,” he landed the career-changing role of the “lost puppy” Johnny Cade, opposite his fellow teen idols C. Thomas Howell and Matt Dillon, in Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Outsiders.”Back home, Macchio, then 21, got called for another audition. The screenplay was based on an article about a bullied kid who learned martial arts for self-defense. It was set to be directed by John G. Avildsen, who had made the underdog classic “Rocky.”“I recall connecting to the father-and-son elements and heart in the story right off the bat,” Macchio writes of his first reading of the screenplay. But he “found some of the high school story line characters a bit corny and stereotyped.”One other thing bothered him: the title. He thought it sounded ridiculous. “I mean, can you imagine?” he writes. “If I ever did get this part and the movie hit, I would have to carry this label for the rest of my life!”Macchio, right, with C. Thomas Howell in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 film “The Outsiders.”Warner Home VideoTo Robert Mark Kamen, who wrote the movie’s screenplay, Macchio was the natural choice: He mixed a “pugnacious attitude” with emotional vulnerability.“He was sharp. He was smart,” Kamen said in a phone interview. “And if he got in a fight, he had nothing to back it up but being a wise guy. It was exactly who the character was.”Then the ’80s started tilting toward the ’90s. Macchio felt he was aging out of the character, but the character wasn’t aging out of him — at least as far as the entertainment industry was concerned.In 1986, with “The Karate Kid Part II” in theaters and a third movie on the horizon, Macchio got a chance to stretch, as the struggling son of the drug dealer played by Robert De Niro in the Broadway drama “Cuba and His Teddy Bear.”“It was all moving pretty fast,” he recalled in the interview. “I just wish I soaked it in a little more. Here I am, toe to toe with De Niro every night.”In a phone interview, De Niro said he admired Macchio’s levelheadedness and work ethic. It was “easy to like him personally, and then also relate to him in what we were doing,” he said. “We had something already to work off.”Macchio with Burt Young, left, and Robert DeNiro in a scene from the play “Cuba and His Teddy Bear.”Martha Swope/The New York Public Library for the Performing ArtsBut behind the scenes, Macchio’s personal frustrations were mounting — moments that are among the book’s most revealing.One night the famed film director Sidney Lumet was in the audience. Backstage after the performance, Lumet said he was planning a film to be called “Running on Empty,” and was interested in him playing “a significant role” in it, Macchio recalls in the book.The problem was that the time Lumet was slated to shoot “Running on Empty” for one studio directly conflicted with the production schedule for “The Karate Kid Part III” at another.“The ‘Running on Empty’ ship was set to sail,” Macchio writes, “and I was consigned back to my original port of call.” (River Phoenix was nominated for an Oscar in the part.)On another night, Warren Beatty was the surprise visitor to Macchio’s dressing room. The young actor shared his frustrations; Beatty counseled him, suggesting he find balance between his commercial successes and his other ambitions. “Don’t look down on those movies,” Macchio writes, recalling what Beatty said. “You need that as much as you want this (meaning the De Niro play).”One bright spot was his being cast in 1992’s “My Cousin Vinny,” alongside Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei. Macchio’s daughter was born that same year, and his son would arrive three years later.In “Cobra Kai,” Macchio plays a grown Daniel LaRusso, who meets up again with a former nemesis, portrayed by Yuji Okumoto.NetflixStill, he writes of the ’90s, when “planning the growth of our family on Long Island … my career had little to no growth of its own. The future was looming and unknown, and the unknown was daunting to me.”His agents floated the idea of doing a television series, but the development deal only led to a few episodes, never to be aired. Macchio then turned to making short films and writing screenplays.“I would draw from the lessons that I had learned from the Avildsens and Coppolas of the world,” he writes. “I kept myself creatively fulfilled and thriving during those leaner acting years. I was finding the balance in work and family.”Then, in 2018, came “Cobra Kai,” the vision of the creators Jon Hurwitz, Josh Heald and Hayden Schlossberg.Macchio would play Daniel LaRusso once again, except this time he’d be a middle-aged family man, though still open to a rivalry with Johnny Lawrence and the Cobra Kai dojo, albeit one with a bit more complexity this time.Signing Macchio on took some persuading.“I understood where I fit in the construct of ‘Cobra Kai’ and the storytelling,” he said. “If the show bombed and tanked, I’d probably say, you know, I was right. I was worried about that. … But everything happened right.”“The future was looming and unknown, and the unknown was daunting to me,” Macchio writes of his post- “Karate Kid” fortunes. Nearly three decades later came “Cobra Kai.”Tonje Thilesen for The New York TimesThe new series, he said, understands what made “The Karate Kid” such a favorite: “Fathers and sons, bullying, redemption, overcoming the obstacles, finding your way, falling forward, skinning your knees, scraping your hands, getting up, figuring it out.”In the book, Macchio acknowledges that in “Cobra Kai” “the tone at times is different,” but “a common ground it shares with the movie is in its heart.” It’s that kind of emotional openness the screenwriter, Kamen, saw in the actor decades ago. After the interview was over, Macchio stepped into the elevator, heading to the building’s lobby. Others got in as well. One recognized him, and asked for a picture.“I’m just the elevator guy,” he said, with a grin. More

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      What’s on TV This Week: ‘The Vow’ and ‘American Horror Story’

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      HBO airs a second season of the documentary on the Nxivm cult and Ryan Murphy’s show begins its 11th season, set in New York City.Between network, cable and streaming, the modern television landscape is a vast one. Here are some of the shows, specials and movies coming to TV this week, Oct. 17-23. Details and times are subject to change.MondayTHE VOW 9 p.m. on HBO. This docuseries, about Keith Raniere and his “sex cult” Nxivm, is beginning its second season. In 2020 Raniere was sentenced to 120 years in prison for sex trafficking and other crimes. The first installment of the series explored the stories of the members who joined the group. This set of episodes will more focus Raniere and his inner circle as his trial took place.TuesdayBEETLEJUICE (1988) 9 p.m. on Freeform. Tim Burton’s comedy staring Michael Keaton and Wynona Rider is essential viewing for spooky season. Keaton plays the title character who is hired by a recently deceased couple (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) to scare away the new (alive) residents of their house. The film was adapted into a Broadway musical of the same name, which will close in January after almost 700 performances.WednesdayA still from “Year One: Political Odyssey.”Courtesy of HBOYEAR ONE: POLITICAL ODYSSEY 9 p.m. on HBO. Spanning from inauguration day in 2021 to the State of the Union in 2022, this documentary outlines President Biden’s first year in office, including the fallout from the Jan. 6 attack, efforts to encourage vaccination against Covid-19, the withdrawal from Afghanistan and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, to name just a few events. It also features interviews with the secretary of state, Antony J. Blinken; the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan; the secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin; and The New York Times’s very own David E. Sanger.AMERICAN HORROR STORY 10 p.m. on FX. Though murders are down 3 percent in the U.S., mysterious deaths around New York City continue to arise in the 11th installment of Ryan Murphy’s anthology series. Zachary Quinto, Patti LuPone and Billie Lourd — all “A.H.S.” veterans — star. Murphy has recently received some backlash from families of the victims of Jeffrey Dahmer for his show “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” in which Evan Peters (another “A.H.S.” regular) portrays the serial killer.DOCUMENTARY NOW! 10 p.m. on IFC. Each episode of this faux documentary series takes inspiration from an actual documentary, with the writers and actors making it outrageous and goofy. Created by “Saturday Night Live” alums Seth Meyers, Fred Armisen and Bill Hader, the show begins its fourth season with two episodes inspired by the 1982 documentary “Burden of Dreams” about the director Werner Herzog. In this version, written by John Mulaney, Cate Blanchett stars as an eccentric filmmaker and Nicholas Braun plays a moviegoer who mistakes an art-house cinema for a porno theater.ThursdayVinny Guadagnino in “Jersey Shore Family Vacation.”Courtesy of MTVJERSEY SHORE FAMILY VACATION 8 p.m. on MTV. It is hard to believe that in 2022 we are still fist pumping with our favorite group of party animals. The “Family Vacation” spinoff, which follows Snooki, her crew and their brood as they travel around the country, has been filming for longer than the original “Jersey Shore” series. The whole squad is gathering together for a reunion to wrap up the fifth season and bank more hours of delectable reality TV.MIKA: LIVE AT THE PARIS PHILHARMONIC 10 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). The Lebanese British pop singer Mika, known for songs like “Lollipop,” “Grace Kelly” and “Happy Endings/Over My Shoulder,” takes his talents to the Paris Philharmonic, where he performs with the orchestra and a choir.FridayTHE AWFUL TRUTH (1937) 8 p.m. on TCM. Cary Grant and Irene Dunne play the divorcing couple Jerry and Lucy who mess with each other’s new potential love lives when they realize they’re still in love with each other. The movie is based on a 1922 play of the same name.Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper in “Silver Linings Playbook.”JoJo Whilden/Weinstein CompanySILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK (2012) 10:49 p.m. on Starz. This film by David O. Russell, filled with laughter, tears and lots of mentions of Philadelphia Eagles, stars Bradley Cooper as Pat, who, after ending up in a mental institution, moved back in with his parents. Jennifer Lawrence plays Tiffany, a young widow who promises to help Pat get back his estranged wife if he enters into a dance competition with her. Russell’s “movies embrace different problems and character types,” Manohla Dargis wrote in her review of the film for The Times. “A strung-out drug addict rather than an alcohol-soaked swell — but like the classics of the form, they have zippy, at times breakneck pacing, rapidly fired zingers and physical comedy that, taken together, reflect the wild unpredictability of the greater world.”SaturdayCRISS ANGEL’S MAGIC WITH THE STARS 8 p.m. on The CW. Like “Dancing with the Stars” but with magic? Each week celebrity contestants learn tricks and illusions created by Criss Angel and then perform them in front of a panel of judges. This week Corbin Bleu and Miles Brown will be showing off their sleight of hand — next week Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Omarion are up. At the end, the celebrities with the highest scores will be invited back to compete for the golden wand.SundayBMF: THE RISE AND FALL OF A HIP-HOP DRUG EMPIRE 10:05 p.m. on Starz. This eight-part series examines the true story of Black Mafia Family’s drug trafficking and money laundering operation based in Detroit. It is set to feature interviews with Demetrius “Big Meech” Flenory as well and other ring leaders. This documentary series is a companion to the network’s scripted series “Black Mafia Family,” returning this fall for a second season. More

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      ‘The Rings of Power’: Charlie Vickers on That Monster Revelation

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      The actor spoke about the big news regarding his character in Friday’s Season 1 finale. Major spoilers ahead.This interview includes spoilers for the Season 1 finale of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”When he auditioned for the Amazon prequel series “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” Charlie Vickers did not know he would be playing two roles: the conflicted human Halbrand and the ultimate deceiver, Sauron. But he began to have suspicions early on.During his audition, he was asked to read pieces from William Shakespeare’s “Richard III” and John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” — “literally auditioning as Satan,” he recalled by phone on Thursday, just hours before the Season 1 finale dropped overnight, on Friday. “That was a bit of a clue.”But it wasn’t until filming was about to resume for the third episode (after a Covid production hiatus) that the series’s showrunners, Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne, took Vickers to the set for an evil fortress, turned to him and said, “Hail, Lord Sauron.”“That was a seminal moment for me,” Vickers said.While he missed out on playing the spiky armored version of the dark lord in the show’s prologue in Episode 1 (“I wish that was me!” he said), Vickers went all-in on his Sauron studies, reading “The Silmarillion” in its entirety and combing through obscure passages in Tolkien’s Legendarium as part of his “subconscious work.”Taking a break from Season 2 production outside London, Vickers discussed the big revelation about his character and what it means for Halbrand’s relationship with Galadriel (Morfydd Clark). These are edited excerpts from the conversation.How does it feel to be the answer to the question tormenting the internet? Or if you’re Sauron, maybe you enjoy tormenting the internet.Explore the World of the ‘Lord of the Rings’The literary universe built by J.R.R. Tolkien, now adapted into a new series for Amazon Prime Video, has inspired generations of readers and viewers.Artist and Scholar: Tolkien did more than write books. He invented an alternate reality, complete with its own geography, languages and history.Being Frodo: The actor Elijah Wood explains why he’ll never be upset at being associated with the “Lord of the Rings” movie series.A Soviet Take: A 1991 production based on Tolkien’s novels, recently digitized by a Russian broadcaster, is a time capsule of a bygone era.From the Archives: Read what W.H. Auden wrote about “The Fellowship of the Ring,” the first volume of Tolkien’s trilogy, in 1954.[Laughs.] Exactly. Maybe there has been some kind of sick enjoyment that I’ve been getting. Luckily, I’ve managed to stay off the internet, but it’s been hard to avoid. I’ve had friends guessing and telling me I’m Sauron ever since the second episode, which I’ve not been able to confirm or deny. So it’s a relief.What’s been so interesting about the show is that it doesn’t shy away from the lore. For the people who know, there are little Easter eggs or hints here and there. When you look back to the second episode, you’re like, “OK, that makes sense in the grand scheme of things.” So I think it’s great that there’s been so much debate.You once mentioned that you found useful things in Tolkien’s letters, although you didn’t specify which ones. I took that as a possible reference to the period in which Sauron sought redemption. But then the showrunners talked recently about another way to read Sauron-as-Halbrand: as a power addict. What was it that you found in Tolkien that helped shape your portrayal?I think the repentant Sauron is a really interesting thing. But I like to leave it ambiguous because it was ambiguous in Tolkien’s writing, such as in Letter 131, and in “Morgoth’s Ring,” in the History of Middle-earth series. He spoke of Sauron repenting “if only out of fear.” I think his repentance is fascinating — and this is why I don’t want to say necessarily how I interpreted it as an actor — because it creates two different [possibilities] for Halbrand.If you look at him as if he’s genuinely repentant, and he wants to escape this dark path and live as someone who’s been humbled, then Galadriel inadvertently draws him back to this power. She says to him in the smithery, “There’s no peace here,” and that scene illuminates this whole idea for him of: “Well, you’re right, there is no peace for me as a regular person. My peace is in power. I need to rule. I need to lead.” And she literally gives him the keys to the kingdom and sends him back down the rabbit hole. That is, if you view him as repenting genuinely.But, if you view his repentance as an act, then it leans more into his deception, and his deception of her, in that she’s a tool for him to get back to where he wants to be. You rarely see Halbrand alone before the finale, save for this moment when he’s in the smithery, staring at his pouch, making his decision. Otherwise, you mostly see him through the eyes of other characters.And yet he’s about to cry in that moment by himself.I always like to think that in shape-shifting, the best way to deceive is to fully take on the form of what you’re trying to portray: thinking, feeling, living, breathing as a human man. Only through a wholehearted embodiment of his form could he deceive these massively influential figures. This is even when he’s by himself, because the gods are always watching. And we know that he fears the gods; we know that he’s scared. Because Tolkien says that explicitly.He can use Galadriel as a tool. She knows the right people. She gets into the right rooms. If he’s by her side, it can only lead to good things, as long as he remains undiscovered. So I made a decision as the best way for me to approach it, to make it real for me. And let people interpret it as they will.Did you decide for yourself about a lot of little details? Like, what’s in his pouch? Why was he at sea? Was his injury was self-inflicted so that Galadriel would take him to the elves?I have a belief about what’s in the pouch, but I won’t share that. Him being at sea may or may not be explored farther down the line. The injury, yes, I think he wounds himself, because he was very aware of what was coming. He thought he had stopped it, but he knows there’s only one way to get out of this mess. He risks this Halbrand form to get to the elves because he understands that the only way he can be healed is through their power and magic.So much for any fan hopes that Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) and Halbrand had a romantic future.Amazon Prime VideoDo you think he wanted Galadriel to figure it out?Yes. He’s ready for her to see him for who he is, and he thinks she’s ready to know it. He makes this pitch to her, and it’s so closely linked to the mirror of Galadriel in “The Fellowship of the Ring.” It gives it an interesting context, I think.He offers to make her his queen. Is that a marriage proposal?That’s something I thought about a lot, but I don’t think so. W.H. Auden wrote an essay on Tolkien, and he said something along the lines of, “Evil loves only itself.” [“Evil, defiantly chosen, can no longer imagine anything but itself.”] So I think in his pitch to Galadriel, it cannot mean that he loves her or that there’s any kind of romantic relationship. There should be no ambiguity around the fact that Sauron is evil — he’s terrible, and he’s using Galadriel to enhance his power.Throughout the season, she shows him a different way of ruling and maybe illuminates some things for him. So in making that pitch, I think he’s saying, “Join me and we can rule, and I can coordinate everything and rehabilitate Middle-earth.” But having said that, I also think he would have gotten there anyway without her. He would have descended back into evil. It was inevitable.Haladriel shippers will despair.[Laughs.] Shipping, by the way, is actually a word that Morfydd taught me! Hopefully people will see that any kind of romantic feeling, which couldn’t exist, vanishes into thin air.What’s the plan going forward, given that Sauron is a shape-shifter?There are a lot of twists and turns coming with the character of Sauron. We know that [his disguise as] Annatar is such a massive part of this world, and the prospect of that is really exciting to me. I can’t say much more than that.Annatar is the lord of gifts. Did you get or give any gifts on set? Maybe that wonderful hooded cloak you wear to Mordor?I love that cloak so much! I didn’t get to keep it, unfortunately. I have one gift that was given to me by one of the stunt guys, Daniel Andrews, which is a T-shirt printed with an artist’s image of Halbrand doing the sword flip on the back. That’s Danny’s trick; he’s had it in his stunt arsenal for 30 years, and he’s been trying to get it into a show for 30 years. There’s been nothing released with Halbrand, so I haven’t dared to wear it, even around the house. But that’s the coolest souvenir. More

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      ‘Saturday Night Live’ Takes On the Jan. 6 Committee

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      Megan Thee Stallion was the host and musical guest of an “S.N.L.” episode that satirized what may have been the committee’s final public meeting.Although its first two episodes avoided opening sketches that recreated news events, “Saturday Night Live” eventually found reality too irresistible: This weekend’s broadcast led with a parody of what was potentially the final meeting of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.As the hearing began, Kenan Thompson, playing the committee’s chairman, Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi, offered some momentous remarks. “Jan. 6 was one of the most dramatic and consequential moments in our nation’s history,” he said. “So to fight back, we assembled a team of monotone nerds to do a PowerPoint.”Summarizing the meeting’s agenda before holding up a tray of miniature cupcakes, he added, “We’re going to summarize our findings, hold a history-making vote, and then and only then, we all get to have a little treat.”He then turned the hearing over to Heidi Gardner, playing Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming and the committee’s vice chairwoman. Gardner explained that the committee’s evidence was aimed at all Americans: “Whether you’re a Republican who’s not watching or a Democrat who’s nodding so hard your head is falling off, one person is responsible for this insurrection: Donald Trump,” she said. “And one person will suffer the consequences: me.”For those viewers wondering where her toughness came from, Gardner suggested it was hereditary. She asked, “For your 10th birthday, did you eat pizza at Chuck E. Cheese with all your friends, or did you shoot a deer in the face with Dick Cheney?”Thompson almost acknowledged an eerily eager Michael Longfellow, playing Adam Schiff, Democrat of California, but reconsidered. (“Too spooky,” he said.) The committee also showed a video of Chloe Fineman (as Speaker Nancy Pelosi) and Sarah Sherman (as the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer) reacting in real time to the Capitol attack.While Fineman, as Pelosi, conducted a tense call with Mike Pence, Sherman, as Schumer, was also on the phone — to DoorDash, seeking a missing lunch order. (She said it contained “12 dill pickles, still floating in the juice, and a hot pastrami sandwich with very light mustard.”)Another video featured James Austin Johnson as former President Donald J. Trump, making remarks said to have taken place the day before the attack. Speaking on a phone, Johnson said: “The votes don’t matter at all. Because what even is a vote? It’s just a piece of paper, you fold up and put it in a hat, a guy shakes it around.” After some rambling remarks about Apollo Creed, Ivan Drago and Obamacare, Johnson wrapped up the call by casually asking, “Is Mike Pence dead yet?”Thompson concluded the meeting itself: “We tried,” he said. “It was a fun country while it lasted.”Giiiiiiiiirrrrrl of the weekIs it possible for a single joke — a single graphic — to make an entire sketch worthwhile? If so then “Girl Talk” might just have been that sketch. It started off innocuously enough, with an introduction from its host, Mo’nique Money Mo’nique Problems (Ego Nwodim), who described the program as “the talk show where ladies tell me their problems and I keep my advice real simple.”She and her guests (Megan Thee Stallion and Punkie Johnson) went on to discuss their problems and solutions in conversations consisting of different intonations of the word “Girl.” And just to be helpful to “any white people or men tuning in,” Nwodim provided subtitles for a discussion of the war in Ukraine, during which a two-syllable utterance of “girl” by Megan Thee Stallion produced an entire screen’s worth of densely packed (but educational!) text on the history of the conflict.Music video of the weekThis filmed segment for an original song called “We Got Brought” spun laughs (and a genuinely catchy tune) from a recognizably stressful premise: Nwodim, Megan Thee Stallion and Bowen Yang played the tag-along guests of three longtime friends who have met up at a club and ditched their plus-ones to hang out among themselves.Now the three guests, who are strangers to one another, are stuck at a table and unable to find anything to talk about. As one verse goes: “You’re all out of topics and the conversation’s lazy / So you just keep on saying, ‘That’s crazy, that’s crazy.’” The anxiety of Yang’s character — who tries to make small talk by remarking that only 25 people have died at Disneyland since 1955 — is so palpable it pops off the screen.Weekend Update jokes of the weekOver at the Weekend Update desk, the anchors Michael Che and Colin Jost continued to riff on the Jan. 6 committee and the outcomes from its latest meeting.Jost began:After the Jan. 6 committee subpoenaed Donald Trump, Trump responded the next day with a 14-page letter. Fourteen pages. OK, Unabomber. I don’t know if this is a coincidence, but Trump wrote the letter on the same day the F.D.A. confirmed the nation is experiencing a shortage of Adderall. I just know from experience in college, any time I wrote a 14-page paper in one night, I’d also taken a disturbing amount of Adderall.He went on:My favorite part of Trump’s letter is the beginning because it’s on really nice letterhead. It starts, “Dear Chairman Thompson.” And then the first line is just screaming. It’s like reading a Victorian love letter that says, “My beloved Winifred, WHO THE HELL ARE YOU HAVING SEX WITH?”Che picked up the thread:The committee showed a never-before-seen video from Jan. 6 of a desperate Nancy Pelosi speaking on the phone with Mike Pence. Which to Pence counts as adultery. In the video, Pelosi said that she wanted to punch out Donald Trump and knew that if she did, she’d go to jail and be happy. I assume because she owns stock in private prisons.Heartfelt musical performance of the weekIt was a moment that passed by almost as quickly as one of Megan Thee Stallion’s verses, but in the midst of a hectic night of comedy and costume changes, the rapper was genuinely moved during a portion of one her songs. In her performance of “Anxiety,” Megan Thee Stallion referenced her mother, Holly Thomas, who died of brain cancer in 2019. As those lyrics run:If I could write a letter to HeavenI would tell my mama that I shoulda been listenin’And I would tell her sorry that I really been wildin’And ask her to forgive me, ‘cause I really been tryin’And I would ask, please, show me who been realAnd get ‘em from around me if they all been fakeIt’s crazy how I say the same prayers to the LordAnd always get surprised about who he takeMegan Thee Stallion did not so much as swallow a syllable but the emotion of the lyrics were audible in her voice and visible on her face — some viewers wondered online if they even saw her shed a tear. On Friday, Megan Thee Stallion tweeted that she was contemplating a break following “S.N.L.,” and if she chooses to take it, she has surely earned it. More