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      Richard Gadd Says ‘Baby Reindeer’ Was ‘Emotionally True’ but ‘Fictionalized’

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      Richard Gadd, the show’s creator, said in a court filing that Fiona Harvey, who is suing Netflix for defamation, harassed him in real life but that the show is a dramatic retelling.After Netflix was sued by a woman who claimed that she inspired the stalker character on the hit series “Baby Reindeer,” the show’s creator, Richard Gadd, said in court papers filed Monday that he had been stalked by the woman in real life but that the series was a “fictionalized retelling.”In a declaration filed in federal court in Los Angeles, Mr. Gadd said that the woman, Fiona Harvey, harassed him in many of the same ways the character Martha stalks Mr. Gadd’s character, Donny, on “Baby Reindeer,” which claims to be “a true story.”Mr. Gadd said that in real life, Ms. Harvey visited him constantly at the bar where he worked and sent him “thousands of emails, hundreds of voicemails, and a number of handwritten letters,” some which were sexually explicit or threatening. But he also argued that “Baby Reindeer” is “a dramatic work.”“It is not a documentary or an attempt at realism,” Mr. Gadd wrote in the filing. “While the Series is based on my life and real-life events and is, at its core, emotionally true, it is not a beat-by-beat recounting of the events and emotions I experienced as they transpired. It is fictionalized, and is not intended to portray actual facts.”Mr. Gadd gave his declaration in support of a motion filed by Netflix seeking to dismiss the defamation lawsuit Ms. Harvey filed last month.Ms. Harvey claimed in the suit that the character Martha was based on her, and that the series defamed her by portraying the character as a convicted stalker who at one point sexually assaults the character played by Mr. Gadd. In her lawsuit, Ms. Harvey said she had never been convicted of a crime and had never sexually assaulted Mr. Gadd.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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      ‘Kleo’ Review: Spy vs. a Lot of Other Spies

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      The archly humorous, high-body-count Netflix series about an ex-Stasi assassin is like “Killing Eve” with a more discernible heartbeat.“Killing Eve” went off the air in April 2022. “Kleo” came along four months later. The offbeat, darkly comic, cold-war-related spy thriller abhors a vacuum.The German writers and producers Hanno Hackfort, Bob Konrad and Richard Kropf, who created “Kleo” for Netflix, evidently were not afraid of comparisons to the popular “Killing Eve,” which ran for four seasons on BBC America. Kleo Straub (Jella Haase), their East German protagonist, is a lethal assassin with a guileless pride in her abilities, reminiscent of Villanelle, the “Killing Eve” role that brought Jodie Comer an Emmy.Kleo also comes with her own version of Sandra Oh’s Eve, here a West German cop named Sven Petzold (Dimitrij Schaad) — an operative from the other side who is obsessed with Kleo and whose on-and-off, cat-and-mouse, will-they-or-won’t-they relationship with her is the show’s emotional center. And the two series share a style: the spy caper as darkly humorous fairy tale, shifting between mordant, violent theatricality and mordant, goofy comedy.But “Kleo,” whose second season premiered last week on Netflix, is its own show, and, depending on your taste, it might be the better of the two. It is lighter and more straightforward in its storytelling and its humor, but just as moving and involving. It doesn’t have the filigree of “Killing Eve,” the same degree of baroque inventiveness, but it is ingenious in its own more casual, more human way.And it is less of a self-contained hall of mirrors than the earlier show; it benefits from being about something real, even if its relationship to history is stretched to the breaking point. Season 2 returns to the fraught period between the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and German reunification in 1990, with Kleo, the former off-the-books Stasi hit woman, still pursuing a personal mission of revenge that is somehow mixed up with the fate of the two Germanys.The jokes, the suspense, the melodrama and the violent action of “Kleo” are all contained within a vivid portrait of post-fall Berlin. Everyone is quick to take advantage of the moral and political vacuum, from Thilo (Julius Feldmeier), the spectral techno-music junkie who becomes Kleo’s roommate and confidant, to all the Russian, American and East and West German spymasters who use her for their own purposes. The settings, in Berlin and other Central and Eastern European locales, are always visually absorbing, simultaneously candy colored and brutalist drab.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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      Jon Stewart Recaps a Pretty Eventful Week in Politics

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      “In the span of a week, Democrats have gone from the despair of a certain Trump presidency to the joy of a statistical tie,” Stewart said on “The Daily Show.”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.‘Ref! Ref! Open Your Eyes!’Jon Stewart, back on “The Daily Show” after a hiatus, had a lot of catching up to do on Monday.“In the span of a week, Democrats have gone from the despair of a certain Trump presidency to the joy of a statistical tie.” — JON STEWARTThe swift rise of Kamala Harris as the Democrats’ likely nominee after President Biden’s withdrawal got a lot of reaction from conservatives on cable TV. Stewart surveyed the responses, which ranged from calling it a “coup” to suggesting that Harris, because she has Indian roots, isn’t really Black.“[Imitating a conservative pundit:] ‘Two races? In one person? Now I’ve seen everything. I heard she sent her DNA to 23 and Me, and it broke the computer. I don’t know what to do! Goodness gracious.’ If these people ever saw a Pizza Hut/Taco Bell, they’d lose their [expletive] minds: ‘What is this, a D.E.I. restaurant?’” — JON STEWART“But I get it! If I thought I had this thing in the bag, and you were going to be going up against old Joe Biden, and then they pull this, I’d be like, ‘Ref! Ref! Open your eyes! How can you not see they’re coup-ing? They’re coup-ing!’” — JON STEWART“[Imitating Donald Trump:] Do you have any idea how much money on “Let’s Go Brandon” ear bandages I’ve spent?” — JON STEWART“Your candidate’s Donald Trump. His catchphrase is literally, ‘You’re fired!’ He’s the Anna Wintour of authoritarian wannabes. Donald Trump hired 44 cabinet members — 75 percent of them want nothing to do with the guy. His secretary of state called him a [expletive] moron. His chief of staff said, ‘He’s the most flawed person I’ve ever met.’ You know why he needs a new vice-presidential running mate? I’ll tell you why — he tried to get the last one killed.” — JON STEWART, responding to pundits’ allegations that Harris is an unpleasant boss“But you know what? I do understand that they’re upset. It makes sense. So how about we do this? Out of fairness. I’m a fair person. You can replace your old guy, too!” — JON STEWARTThe Bits Worth WatchingPresident Biden’s transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, talked about Harris and other things on “The Daily Show.” (The other shows are taking the week off, incidentally.)What We’re Excited About on Tuesday NightJon M. Chu, the director of “Wicked,” will appear on Tuesday’s “Daily Show.”Also, Check This OutMarina Abramovic “embracing” the ocean on Fire Island in early 2024. Marco AnelliAt 77, the performance artist Marina Abramovic is creating new work with plans to continue past 100. More

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      Erica Ash of ‘Mad TV’ and ‘Survivor’s Remorse’ Dies at 46

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      Erica Ash started out on sketch comedy shows in the 2000s before appearing in movies like “Scary Movie V” and the satirical reality show “Real Husbands of Hollywood.”Erica Ash, an actress and comedian known for her roles in the satirical reality show “Real Husbands of Hollywood” and on the sketch comedy show “Mad TV,” died on Sunday in Los Angeles. She was 46.The cause was cancer, her mother, Diann Ash, said in a statement on Monday.Ms. Ash began her career in the 2000s as a cast member on the sketch comedy shows “The Big Gay Sketch Show” and “Mad TV,” where she impersonated celebrities like Michelle Obama and Condoleezza Rice.She went on to appear in several dozen TV shows and films, including “Scary Movie V.” She landed a recurring role on BET’s “The Real Husbands of Hollywood,” a parody of reality TV shows that starred Kevin Hart.On Starz’s “Survivor’s Remorse,” a drama-comedy about a young basketball star’s rise to fame, she played the main character’s sister. Among her last projects, Ms. Ash appeared in the Netflix horror-comedy film, “We Have a Ghost.”Erica Chantal Ash was born on Sept. 19, 1977, in Florida, according to IMDb. She attended Emory University as a pre-medicine student, but pivoted to comedy and entertainment. In an interview in 2018 with Steve Harvey, she talked about taking a year off from studying medicine and becoming a backup singer for a Japanese band.She was popular on social media, where she spoke out on politics and posted videos of herself portraying funny characters.A list of survivors was not immediately available. More

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      How ‘House of the Dragon’ Turns Fiery Fantasy Into TV Reality

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      For the “Game of Thrones” prequel series, the producers had to figure out how to make the title beasts believably bigger, badder and more prominent.At the risk of mixing medieval metaphors, dragons are a double-edged sword.For Ryan Condal, the co-creator and showrunner of HBO’s “House of the Dragon,” the creatures are key to the show’s magic, literally and figuratively.“They are the one fantasy element that we’ve allowed ourselves,” he said. “In our world, in this period, the magic is these dragons.”But they are also death incarnate. “It’s all metaphor, all allegory for nuclear conflict,” Condal said. “You take the city with an army if you want it to be standing afterward. You can’t do anything surgical with a dragon.”The ongoing second season of the “Game of Thrones” prequel has included more of these beautiful, terrible beasts than any other in the franchise, including spectacular air battles in the fourth episode, “The Red Dragon and the Gold.” Sunday’s installment, “The Red Sowing,” in which aspiring dragon riders claim new mounts — or die trying — was more grounded, but it presented the most complicated challenge yet.In interviews last week, Condal, the visual effects supervisor Dadi Einarsson and some of the actors charged with piloting the creatures onscreen explained how they brought it all to life.The test caseWe 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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      ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2, Episode 7 Recap: Soothing the Savage Beasts

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      Not everyone gets to have a dragon. But maybe more people get to have dragons than everyone thought?Season 2, Episode 7: ‘The Red Sowing’Sometimes, in politics, a bold gamble in unprecedented times pays off. This is as true for the world of Westeros as it is for our own. The woman who wants to rule the realm staked it all on a long-odds play, and her odds came in.For several episodes, Queen Rhaenyra has been down one dragon. The formidable beast Meleys and her equally impressive rider, Princess Rhaenys, are dead. Prince Daemon’s war-hardened “Blood Wyrm,” Caraxes, is mired in his master’s endless quest to subdue the Riverlands. None of the mounts available to Team Black can possibly match Prince-Regent Aemond and his colossal creature, Vhagar, in battle, even when combined.On the advice of her counselor (with benefits?) Mysaria, Rhaenyra expands her search for potential dragon riders to the unrecognized descendants of her sprawling royal family — those born as commoners, outside of marriage. In a face-to-face meeting with the young shipwright Addam of Hull, revealed to be the new rider of the dragon Seasmoke, Rhaenyra has already learned that even those not of fully noble birth can ride a dragon. She doesn’t know that Addam is the son of Lord Corlys Velaryon, whose house has frequently intermarried with the Targaryens — and neither Addam nor Corlys tells her so — but since the young man’s mother was a commoner regardless, the point stands.When word of the search gets to King’s Landing through the usual back channels, Ulf and Hugh, two of the commoners we’ve been following all season, take the fateful trip to Dragonstone to test their mettle against monsters widely considered more god than animal. There, they learn the hard way that gambling is easier when you’re betting with someone else’s money.True, Rhaenyra talks about needing dragon riders to avoid bloodshed, not cause it. And she pushes back against her son Prince Jacaerys’s furious tirade against elevating lowborn part-Targaryen “mongrels” to the level of dragon rider. (In fairness to Jace, his shame about his own parentage, and his fear of becoming just another Targaryen-blooded bastard with a dragon and thus no more a claim to the throne than any other, play as much of a role as snobbery does here.)What Rhaenyra does not do is ask her potential dragon riders to proceed onto the barbecue grill — I’m sorry, the viewing platform — beneath Dragonstone to approach the mighty dragon Vermithor one at time. So what if the dragon keepers have gone on strike in protest of this “blasphemous” move? Surely the Black Queen is aware of best practices when it comes to large groups and hungry fire-breathing dinosaurs by this point in her life. I would call this a flaw in the writing, but the reckless disregard of even “good” Targaryens like Rhaenyra and Rhaenys for civilians caught in the crossfire of their boldness has been a through line of the series.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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      What’s on TV This Week: ‘Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes’ and ‘House of the Dragon’

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      HBO airs a new documentary. The “Game of Thrones” spinoff wraps up its second season.For those who still enjoy a cable subscription, here is a selection of cable and network TV shows, movies and specials that broadcast this week, July 29-August 4. Details and times are subject to change.Monday30 FOR 30: AMERICAN SON 7 p.m. on ESPN. In 1989, when Michael Chang was 17 years old, he won the French Open and became the youngest person to win a singles major. He was also the only Chinese American playing tennis at that level at the time. This documentary goes through Chang’s family history, his experience as a child of immigrants and his career in tennis.TuesdayJennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo in “30 Going on 30.”Barry Wetcher/Columbia Pictures13 GOING ON 30 (2004) 8 p.m. on Bravo. Now, being close to 30, I sometimes wish I were 13, but this movie is the opposite of that. It follows Jenna Rink (Jennifer Garner), a 13-year-old girl who wishes she could advance time and be an adult with a boyfriend. Part of her wish comes true, and she wakes up the next morning as a 30 year old. Along the way, she runs into her childhood friend Matt Flamhaff (Mark Ruffalo), and, of course, sparks fly. “As acted by Ms. Garner, the older Jenna has a coltish gawkiness that is never quite sublimated,” Elvis Mitchel wrote in his review for The New York Times. “She plays Jenna as someone who is secretly peeking inside her own head and can’t contain her giddiness.”WednesdayREAL CSI: MIAMI 9 p.m. on CBS. The scripted version of the show, which existed in the very extensive “CSI” universe, ended in 2012. But this reboot brings back the concept as a documentary series that follows real-life detectives in Miami. In the first season finale, the series examines the murder of Jill Halliburton Su, who was discovered her stabbed to death in her bathtub.ThursdaySIMONE BILES AT THE OLYMPICS GAMES 12:15 p.m. on NBC. During the 2020 Olympics, the gymnast Simone Biles withdrew from the finals because she had the “twisties,” a colloquial expression for when a gymnast feels lost in the air, making it difficult and dangerous to attempt a routine. But now, Biles is back and ready to perform in the women’s all-around finals, with events including vault, uneven bars and balance beam over the following days.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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      Opening Ceremony Misses the Boat

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      The Paris Games began with a new look and sparkled with Celine Dion. But the show suffered from bloat similar to TV’s other spectacles.About six hours before Celine Dion gutted out the final number of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony, the streaming service Peacock emailed a promo for its coverage with the headline, “We’ll all be crying by the end of this.” So maybe they knew more than they were letting on.The homestretch of the marathon four-hour broadcast, when the celebrating athletes and dance extravaganzas and speeches were out of the way, had some starkly lovely images and moving moments: the speedboat carrying former champions up the Seine in the dark (like a real-life echo of Leos Carax’s great water-skiing scene in “Les Amants du Pont-Neuf”). The grand scale and dramatic lighting of the Louvre as the torch was carried, like a firefly’s flame, through its courtyards. The torch coming to the hand of a 100-year-old French cyclist, steady in his wheelchair, and Dion defying her illness to belt out “Hymne à l’Amour” on the Eiffel Tower.Celine Dion’s performance of “Hymne à l’Amour” provided a triumphant finale.Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesBut it took endurance to get there — for the athletes, performers and spectators drenched by the summer rain, and for the viewers at home watching the ceremony as it was conceived by the French organizers and packaged by NBC and Peacock.The decision to abandon the event’s traditional format — the long, formal parade of athletes marching into a stadium — for a waterborne procession along the Seine intercut with performances had a twofold effect. It turned the ceremony into something bigger, more various and more intermittently entertaining. But it also turned it into something more ordinary — just another bloated made-for-TV spectacle, like a halftime show or awards show or holiday parade that exists to promote and perpetuate itself.Those spectacles can be fun, of course, and the traditional Olympics opening ceremony could feel dull and interminable. But it was not quite like anything else, and it played a key part in making the Games feel special.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