NEW YORK (AP) — Robert Brustein, a giant in the theatrical world as critic, playwright, crusader for artistic integrity and founder of two of the leading regional theaters in the country, has died. He was 96.

Brustein died on Sunday at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, according to an emailed statement from Gideon Lester, the artistic director and chief executive of the Fisher Center at Bard University and a decades’ long family friend. Lester said he heard the news from Brustein’s his wife, Doreen Beinart.

Known as a passionate and provocative theater advocate who pushed for boundary-breaking works and for classics to be adventurously modernized, Brustein founded both the Yale Repertory Theatre and the American Repertory Theatre at Harvard.

Some of the works he championed upset critics and playgoers unused to nontraditional productions, but he was unapologetic. “I know I’m out of step,” he told The New York Times in 2001. “I’m so out of step I’m almost in step.”

Even in his 80s, Brustein continued offering his opinions on everything from art to politics, lashing out at the Tea Party and describing the pain of breaking ribs on his own blog. He was a distinguished scholar in residence at Suffolk University, a professor of English emeritus at Harvard University and longtime critic at The New Republic.

Born in New York City, Brustein earned a bachelor’s from Amherst and a master’s and Ph.D. from Columbia. A Fulbright scholar, he taught at Cornell, Vassar and Columbia, where he taught drama. He was dean of the Yale School of Drama from 1966-1979 and during that time founded the Yale Repertory Theatre.

Yale Rep, a champion of new work, has produced several Pulitzer Prize winners and nominated finalists. Many of its productions have advanced to Broadway and together have garnered 10 Tony Awards and more than 40 nominations.

“The goal is to try and have people in the audience take away something that lasts and will haunt them, be it either a subject for debate or of their dreams,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 1997. “They’ll have an unresolved experience.”

After a painful, highly publicized dismissal from Yale, Brustein in 1979 switched to Harvard, where he taught English and founded the American Repertory Theatre in 1980. Then in 1987, he founded the Institute for Advanced Theatre Training, a two-year graduate program. He retired as artistic director from A.R.T. in 2002 but continued serving as its founding director.

A.R.T. has grown into one of the country’s most celebrated theaters and the winner of numerous awards, including the Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize. In 2003, it was named one of the top three regional theaters in the country by Time magazine.

Over the course of his long career as director, playwright, and teacher, Brustein aided the artistic development of such theater artists as Meryl Streep, Christopher Walken, Cherry Jones, Sigourney Weaver, James Naughton, James Lapine, Tony Shalhoub, Linda Lavin, Adam Rapp, William Ivey Long, Steve Zahn, Wendy Wasserstein, David Mamet and Peter Sellars.

At both Yale Rep and A.R.T., Brustein told The Boston Globe in 2012, he embraced popular theater with a nationalistic streak: “We were trying to liberate American theater from its British overseers. We were trying to find an American style for the classics,” he said.

“I was looking for the energies of popular theater applied to traditional work. I was also looking for new American plays. This was a very important function of ours, to encourage and develop new American playwrights.”

Brustein’s own full-length plays include “Demons,” “The Face Life” and “Spring Forward, Fall Back” and “Nobody Dies on Friday,” based on the real-life relationship between Lee Strasberg and his student Marilyn Monroe.

His work has been produced at the Vineyard Playhouse on Martha’s Vineyard, at Theater J in Washington, D.C., and the Abington Theatre in New York. “Playwriting is not so much a craft as an obsession,” he once observed.

His trilogy on the life and work of William Shakespeare includes “The English Channel,” which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize; “Mortal Terror”; and “The Last Will,” a witty play which takes place inside a tavern on the eve of Shakespeare’s theater career and presents the young poet as an intellectual kleptomaniac. Brustein published his first book on Shakespeare, “The Tainted Muse: Prejudice and Presumption in Shakespeare and His Time,” in 2009.

Brustein was a staunch believer that theater should be first and foremost an art form, not just a political platform. He once criticized the African-American playwright August Wilson for declaring that Black people should not participate in colorblind casting but should form their own separatist companies. The pair then aired their differences in 1997 in a high-profile confrontation at New York’s Town Hall.

Brustein, a tall man with a deep voice, also wrote “Shlemiel the First,” based on the stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer and set to traditional klezmer music. The light, absurd comedy, which gently mocks the lavishness of other musicals, premiered in 1994 at the American Repertory Theatre and was close to making it to Broadway. It was revived in 2011 by Theatre for a New Audience.

“I think the greatest theater is that which combines the low and the high,” he told the Globe. “One thing I can’t stand is the middle.”

His short plays include “Poker Face,” “Chekhov on Ice” and “Airport Hell.” His other books include “Revolution as Theatre,” “Letters to a Young Actor” and multiple volumes of his essays and criticism.

He won multiple honors, including the George Polk Award for Journalism and an award for distinguished service to the arts from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He was also inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame. In 2010, he was awarded the Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama at the White House and hailed as “a leading force in the development of theater and theater artists in the United States.”

He is survived by his wife, who ran the human rights film program at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Kennedy School of Government; and a son, Daniel. His first wife, the actress Norma Brustein, died just after he was let go from Yale.

Brustein was asked in 2012 what he thought of the current state of American theater and said tickets were too expensive and the work often failed to find a deep resonance.

“I love entertainment, but entertainment has got to be a serious effort to investigate the American soul through its theater. Novelists understand this, poets understand this, and for a while the playwrights really understood it,” he told the Globe. “We don’t have that anymore. And if we do, it’s not making it on the stage.

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Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

The actor was found dead at his Los Angeles home, according to coroner’s records. An investigation into how Perry died is ongoing, and it may take weeks before his cause of death is determined.

Perry’s body was found in a hot tub at his home, according to unnamed sources cited by the Los Angeles Times and celebrity website TMZ, which was the first to report the news. LAPD Officer Drake Madison told The Associated Press on Saturday that officers had gone to that block “for a death investigation of a male in his 50s.”

“This truly is The One Where Our Hearts Are Broken, ”Friends” co-creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane, and executive producer Kevin Bright, said in a statement. “We will always cherish the joy, the light, the blinding intelligence he brought to every moment – not just to his work, but in life as well. He was always the funniest person in the room. More than that, he was the sweetest, with a giving and selfless heart.”

Perry’s 10 seasons on “Friends” made him one of Hollywood’s most recognizable actors, starring opposite Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow and David Schwimmer as a friend group in New York.

As Chandler, he played the quick-witted, insecure and neurotic roommate of LeBlanc’s Joey and a close friend of Schwimmer’s Ross. During the show’s hijinks, he could be counted on to chime in with a line like “Could this BE any more awkward?” or another well-timed quip.

Perry was open about his long and public struggle with addiction, writing at the beginning of his 2022 million-selling memoir: “Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead.”

“Friends” ran from 1994 until 2004, winning one best comedy series Emmy Award in 2002. The cast notably banded together for later seasons to obtain a salary of $1 million per episode for each.

Some of his “Friends” guest stars paid tribute on social media, posting photos, GIFS and bloopers from their favorite episodes.

“What a loss,” actress Maggie Wheeler, who played Perry’s on-again, off-again girlfriend Janice, wrote on Instagram. “The joy you brought to so many in your too short lifetime will live on.”

Actress Morgan Fairchild, who played Perry’s mother on the show, said the loss of a “brilliant young actor” was a shock.

“I’m heartbroken about the untimely death of my ‘son,’” she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

By the “Friends” finale, Chandler is married to Cox’s Monica and they have a family, reflecting the journey of the core cast from single New Yorkers trying to figure their lives out to several of them married and starting families.

The series was one of television’s biggest hits and has taken on a new life — and found surprising popularity with younger fans — in recent years on streaming services.

Perry described reading the “Friends” script for the first time in his memoir, “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.”

“It was as if someone had followed me around for a year, stealing my jokes, copying my mannerisms, photocopying my world-weary yet witty view of life. One character in particular stood out to me: it wasn’t that I thought I could ‘play’ Chandler. I ‘was’ Chandler.”

On Sunday, Perry’s book was ranked No. 1 on Amazon, supplanting Britney Spears’ memoir.

Unknown at the time was the struggle Perry had with addiction and an intense desire to please audiences.

“’Friends’ was huge. I couldn’t jeopardize that. I loved the script. I loved my co-actors. I loved the scripts. I loved everything about the show but I was struggling with my addictions which only added to my sense of shame,” he wrote in his memoir. “I had a secret and no one could know.”

“I felt like I was gonna die if the live audience didn’t laugh, and that’s not healthy for sure. But I could sometimes say a line and the audience wouldn’t laugh and I would sweat and sometimes go into convulsions,” Perry wrote. “If I didn’t get the laugh I was supposed to get I would freak out. I felt that every single night. This pressure left me in a bad place. I also knew of the six people making that show, only one of them was sick.”

He recalled in his memoir that Aniston confronted him about being inebriated while filming.

“I know you’re drinking,” he remembered her telling him once. “We can smell it,” she said, in what Perry called a “kind of weird but loving way, and the plural ‘we’ hit me like a sledgehammer.”

In the foreword to Perry’s memoir, Lisa Kudrow described him as “whip smart, charming, sweet, sensitive, very reasonable, and rational.” She added, “That guy, with everything he was battling, was still there.”

An HBO Max reunion special in 2021 was hosted by James Corden and fed into huge interest in seeing the cast together again, although the program consisted of the actors discussing the show and was not a continuation of their characters’ storylines.

Perry received one Emmy nomination for his “Friends” role and two more for appearances as an associate White House counsel on “The West Wing.”

Perry also had several notable film roles, starring opposite Salma Hayek in the rom-com “Fools Rush In” and Bruce Willis in the the crime comedy “The Whole Nine Yards.”

He worked consistently after “Friends,” though never in a role that brought him as much attention or acclaim.

In 2015, he played Oscar for a CBS reboot of “The Odd Couple” that aired for two seasons. He told the AP that playing Oscar Madison, the character originally made famous by Walter Matthau in the 1968 movie, was a “dream role.” He also said he was surprised how much he enjoyed being filmed again in front of a live audience.

“I didn’t realize I missed it really until it actually happened, til we actually shot the pilot and there was a studio audience there and I realized, ‘Wow, I really like this. This is nice,’” he said. “You kind of ham up for the people in the audience. My performance never got better than when there was an audience there.”

Perry was born Aug. 19, 1969, in Williamstown, Massachusetts. His father is actor John Bennett Perry and his mother, Suzanne, served as press secretary of Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and is married to “Dateline” correspondent Keith Morrison.

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Associated Press writers Alicia Rancilio, Janie Har, Hillel Italie, Lindsey Bahr, Ryan Pearson and Anthony McCartney contributed to this report.

The Los Angeles Times is reporting tonight Perry was found at his LA home in a hot tub. Perry was 54.

The LA Police told the Herald Saturday night any official word of a death would need to come from the coroner’s office. But they did tell the Associated Press that officers had gone to Perry’s home “for a death investigation of a male in his 50s.”

The Associated Press is posting photos of Perry under the headline “Matthew Perry Has Passed Away” and is now also saying he died.

Perry was born on Aug. 19, 1969, in Williamstown, Mass., to his mother, Canadian journalist Suzanne Marie Morrison, and father, actor and former model John Bennett Perry.

Perry is best know for his character “Chandler” on the hit TV show “Friends” that premiered on NBC in 1994. The show and its young cast — Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, and Matt LeBlanc — all became marquee names.

“There’s nothing better than a world where everybody’s just trying to make each other laugh,” Perry was once quoted as saying.

The show ran for 10 years and Perry’s character, somewhat unhinged, fit in with the theme of the show where young New Yorkers shared love and life as they coped with the big city.

TMZ, People, the New York Post, and Variety — to name just a few — are all also reporting Perry’s death tonight.

Perry received one Emmy nomination for his “Friends” role and two more for appearances as an associate White House counsel on “The West Wing,” the AP reported.

Perry, the AP added, also had several notable film roles, starring opposite Salma Hayek in the rom-com “Fools Rush In” and opposite Bruce Willis in the the crime comedy “The Whole Nine Yards.”

Lambert is at peak Glambert. He’s cheeky, charming, swagger stuffed in leather, and absolutely crushing an insanely difficult song to cover on stage Sunday at the TD Garden in front of a packed house.

Adam Lambert is very good at his job. And at the same time, no one can replace Freddie Mercury. And everyone knows this. Especially Adam Lambert.

The thing is Brian May and Roger Taylor are still perfect — note for note perfect! —  at their jobs, even at 76 and 74, respectively.

Rock has entered an interesting, odd phase. John Mayer can stand in for Jerry Garcia with members of the Grateful Dead. Axl Rose can fill in for Brian Johnson in AC/DC. Eagles tour with Glenn Frey’s kid, Phil Collins tours with his own kid playing his drum parts, Michael Sweet of Stryper actually logged time singing for Boston.

What are we to do? Scream “cash grab?” Skip the show? Mock the revolution for being televised, commodified, commercialized? In the case of Queen + Adam Lambert, so popular they booked back-to-back Garden parties, maybe we can miss Freddie and shout along to “Bicycle Race,” “Somebody to Love,” “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and rest of the hits and stone cold classics.

May and Taylor should get to play these songs (many of which they wrote) if they can still play them. And it’s shocking what they can do five decades into rock ‘n’ roll. Taylor still plays so deep in the pocket while tossing out fills that are both subtle and virtuosic. May has a bigger role to play — his guitar was always the second most distinctive thing about Queen.

May needed a few songs to heat up, but, my word, he eventually became pure fire. He took his time building up an epic groove on the extended outro of “Fat Bottomed Girls.” He showed off his delicate and lyrical side on the haunting “Who Wants to Live Forever.” He blitzed through the furious, glorious tangle of notes that made up the climax of “I Want It All.”

Of course, ears and eyes often return to Lambert (how could they not? see “disco ball Harley,” “leather swagger”).

The most dramatic, bombastic, histrionic voice to come from “American Idol” can sing every note in the Queen catalog. Sometimes Lambert can sing too much like Freddie — notably on “Who Wants to Live Forever.” But over the past dozen years he’s been doing this, he’s become wonderfully confident. Maximum commitment, eyeliner and ego, costume changes and charisma, glitter and glam packaged with the staccato attack of “Stone Cold Crazy,” the eerie and ethereal intro to “I Want It All,” and the pomp and preening of “Killer Queen.”

Label this rock star fantasy camp or karaoke with a million dollar budget. Queen + Adam Lambert have managed to build something unlikely, imperfect, amazing, endlessly entertaining, and worthy. Skip it — skip anything that isn’t a classic line up — if you want. But know what you’re missing.

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Norwegian writer Jon Fosse, whose work tackles birth, death, faith and the other “elemental stuff” of life in spare Nordic prose, won the Nobel Prize for Literature on Thursday for writing that prize organizers said gives “voice to the unsayable.”

The novelist and playwright said the prize was recognition of “literature that first and foremost aims to be literature, without other considerations” — an ethos expressed in dozens of enigmatic plays, stories and novels, including a seven-book epic made up of a single sentence.

Fosse’s work, rooted in his Norwegian background, “focuses on human insecurity and anxiety,” Anders Olsson, chair of the Nobel literature committee, told The Associated Press. “The basic choices you make in life, very elemental stuff.”

One of his country’s most-performed dramatists, Fosse said he had “cautiously prepared” himself for a decade to receive the news that he had won.

“I was surprised when they called, yet at the same time not,” the 64-year-old told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK. “It was a great joy for me to get the phone call.”

The author of 40 plays as well as novels, short stories, children’s books, poetry and essays, Fosse was honored “for his innovative plays and prose, which give voice to the unsayable,” according to the Swedish Academy, which awards the prize.

Fosse has cited the bleak, enigmatic work of Irish writer Samuel Beckett — the 1969 Nobel literature laureate — as an influence on his sparse, minimalist style.

Edmund Austigard, executive officer of Fosse’s publisher, Samlaget, said the author described his work as “slow writing and reading literature.”

“It’s not a type of literature that you bring to the beach and read in an hour or two,” he said. “It’s a type of literature … that invites you into a unique world and invites you to stay there for a while.”

While Fosse is the fourth Norwegian writer to get the literature prize, he is the first in nearly a century and the first who writes in Nynorsk, one of the two official written versions of the Norwegian language. It is used by just 10% of the country’s 5.4 million people, according to the Language Council of Norway, but completely understandable to users of the other written form, Bokmaal.

Guy Puzey, senior lecturer in Scandinavian Studies at the University of Edinburgh, said Bokmaal is “the language of power, it’s the language of urban centers, of the press.” Nynorsk, by contrast, is used mainly by people in rural western Norway.

“So it’s a really big day for a minority language,” Puzey said.

Norway’ culture minister, Lubna Jaffery, told news agency NTB that it was “a historic day for the Nynorsk language and Nynorsk literature.”

Norway’s Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson received the prize in 1903, Knut Hamsun was awarded it in 1920 and Sigrid Undset in 1928.

In recognition of his contribution to Norwegian culture, in 2011 Fosse was granted use of an honorary residence in the grounds of the Royal Palace.

His first novel, “Red, Black,” was published in 1983, and his debut play, “Someone is Going to Come,” in 1992.

His work “A New Name: Septology VI-VII” — described by Olsson as Fosse’s magnum opus — was a finalist for the International Booker Prize in 2022. The final volume in a seven-novel exploration of life, death and spirituality contains no sentence breaks.

His other major prose works include “Melancholy;” “Morning and Evening,” whose two parts depict a birth and a death; “Wakefulness;” and “Olav’s Dreams.”

His plays, which have been staged across Europe and in the United States, include “The Name,” “Dream of Autumn” and “I am the Wind.”

Fosse has also taught writing — one of his students was best-selling Norwegian novelist Karl Ove Knausgaard — and consulted on a Norwegian translation of the Bible.

Mats Malm, permanent secretary of the academy, reached Fosse by telephone to inform him of the win. He said the writer, who lives in the western city of Bergen, was driving in the countryside and promised to drive home carefully.

“I stand here and feel a little numb, but of course very happy for the great honor,” Fosse told Norway’s TV2.

The Nobel Prizes carry a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1 million) from a bequest left by their creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. Winners also receive an 18-carat gold medal and diploma at the award ceremonies in December.

Though his books have been translated into dozens of languages and his plays produced around the world, Fosse is what some critics might see as a classic, safe Nobel choice: A highbrow European man with little name recognition beyond small literary circles.

The prize has long faced criticism that it is too focused on European and North American writers of style-heavy, story-light prose. It’s also male-dominated, with just 17 women among its 119 laureates, including last year’s winner French author Annie Ernaux.

Others point out that the prize has gone in recent years to a strong mix of authors with both critical acclaim and robust sales, such as Kazuo Ishiguro, Mario Vargas Llosa and Alice Munro. And the most populist choice by the committee – 2016 laureate Bob Dylan – also sparked plenty of controversy and debate about whether his lyrics rose to the level of literature.

Publisher Austigard said Fosse’s slow prose could be “ just what we need and just what people are looking for” in a frenetic world.

“It’s birth, it’s love, it’s death. It’s about what it means to be a human being.”

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Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands, and Lawless from London. Associated Press writer Jan M. Olsen contributed from Copenhagen.

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Follow all AP stories about the Nobel Prizes at https://apnews.com/hub/nobel-prizes

At the end of the coming 2023-2024 season, the Boston Ballet will return to Paris (COVID clobbered touring plans after the 2019 triumphant French performances). Between now and then, the 60th anniversary season will include four world premieres, a couple dozen sold out nights of “The Nutcracker,” the return of “Cinderella,” and complete reinventions of lost classics.

Boston Ballet Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen took the time to walk us through what he loves about the art form’s past, present and future.

Fall Experience, now through Oct. 15

The season opens with pieces from four different choreographers that range from Jorma Elo and the Bach Cello Suites to a world premiere from My’Kal Stromile — three of the four being with new-millennium creations. Nissinen hopes a few of them eventually achieve immortality, but notes that’s never the goal. “We don’t try to create classics, we try to create art, and some of things do eventually become the new classics,” he told the Herald. “You will fail if you try to do it the other way.”

The Nutcracker, Nov. 24 – Dec. 31

Why is “The Nutcracker” so popular? Yes, nostalgia and the Christmas connection help. But mostly it’s that it is a stunning ballet full of complex, compelling, and challenging dance. “We at the company don’t think of it as entertainment, we think of it as a serious piece of art,” Nissinen said. “I choreographed it to be incredibly difficult for the dancers for a couple of reasons. I know I have a tired company on December 31st, but I also know I have a better company.”

Winter Experience, Feb. 22 – March 3

Earlier this fall, the Boston Lyric Opera reinvented “Madama Butterfly” to reflect modern values while retaining the opera’s artistic core. Nissinen will do that with Marius Petipa’s “Raymonda.” He considers Petipa’s work a masterpiece to enchant ballet purists and full of outdated and offensive caricatures. His new version re-envisions it in one bright and thrilling act. The winter program will pair “Raymonda” with two works by Helen Pickett, world premiere “SISU” and 2007 Boston Ballet commission “Petal.”

Cinderella, March 14 – 24

Love “The Nutcracker” but it’s the only ballet you’ve seen? Here is your next step. It’s a cornerstone of classical ballet and has an absolutely awesome score from Sergei Prokofiev.

Carmen, April 25 – May 5

Know that collective exclamation that rises from the audience when the swans emerge from the fog in “Swan Lake?” You’ll get a similar gasp when 28 female dancers emerge in unison for “Kingdom of the Shades.” Paired with “Carmen,” “Kingdom of the Shades” represents another revision from the company — Boston Ballet has rejected the rest of “La Bayadère” and its outdated stereotypes. “We’re just doing this abstract pearl of classical ballet,” Nissinen said of the outtake. It represents the company’s commitment to “preserve the best of classical choreography without perpetuating culturally insensitive and offensive portrayals.”

Spring Experience, May 9–19, 2024

A perfect reflection of the Boston Ballet’s love of old and new might be a Ken Ossola’s world premiere inspired by Michelangelo’s “non-finito” sculptures Prisoners and scored by Boston Ballet Music Director Mischa Santora. Beside it will be Jiří Kylián’s “Bella Figura” and William Forsythe “Blake Works III (The Barre Project).”

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami hosted a ghost story reading event in Tokyo amid growing attention before the announcement of this year’s Nobel Prize in literature, an award he is a perennial favorite to win.

Murakami said at Thursday’s reading that he enjoys scary stories and wanted to write more of them. The event featured one from the 18-century collection “Tales of Moonlight and Rain,” which intrigued Murakami since his childhood and is known to have inspired his work.

The classic collection written by Akinari Ueda and called “Ugetsu Monogatari” in Japanese explores a blurry borderline between the real and surreal, which Murakami said in a guide he contributed to a 2021 magazine made him wonder which side he was on.

Borders and walls are important motifs in Murakami’s writing. Protagonists in his stories often travel through walls or between two worlds and encounter mysterious, exotic characters. While Murakami has said he grew up mostly reading Western novels, some experts have also noted the influence of Ueda’s stories in some of Murakami’s work.

Murakami has been a candidate for the Nobel Prize in literature for more than a decade, and the winner of the 2023 prize is scheduled to be announced on Oct. 5. If he wins, he would will be first Japanese writer since Kenzaburo Oe in 1994 to be named a Nobel laureate.

Japanese media also have mentioned novelists Yoko Ogawa and Yoko Tawada as possible contenders in recent years, and international media also have put Chinese fiction writer Can Xue and American novelist Thomas Pynchon on the list of this year’s potential winners.

The pending Nobel Prize did not come up at Thursday’s ghost story event. Kayoko Shiraishi, a veteran actress known for ghost tale monologues, performed Ugetsu’s “The Kibitsu Cauldron,” a story of an imprudent man who marries a priest’s good daughter despite a cauldron’s fortunetelling revealing a bad omen. The protagonist meets a horrendous end after betraying his wife, who becomes a vengeful spirit.

Murakami said he enjoyed Shiraishi’s “scary” performance of multiple roles and said he would like her to try “The Mirror,” one of the short horror stories he wrote in 1983.

Murakami wrote his first published novel, 1979’s “Hear the Wind Sing,” after being inspired to write fiction while watching a baseball game at Meiji Jingu Stadium, which is now part of a controversial redevelopment of Tokyo’s historic Jingu Gaien park area, to which opposition is growing.

Murakami, who voiced opposition to the project in his radio show last month, repeated his concern at the story reading event, noting the plan involves removing about 1,000 trees. An avid runner, Murakami also noted that the area is part of his running course, and that the stadium is home to his favorite team, the Yakult Swallows.

“Jingu Gaien is a very important place for me,” Murakami said. “I will continue to raise my voice of opposition to this redevelopment, and any of you who agree with me, please support.” The audience applauded his statement.

LONDON (AP) — Michael Gambon, the Irish-born actor knighted for his illustrious career on the stage and screen and who went on to gain admiration from a new generation of moviegoers with his portrayal of Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore in six of the eight “Harry Potter” films, has died. He was 82.

The actor died on Wednesday following “a bout of pneumonia,” his publicist, Clair Dobbs, said Thursday.

“We are devastated to announce the loss of Sir Michael Gambon. Beloved husband and father, Michael died peacefully in hospital with his wife Anne and son Fergus at his bedside,” his family said in a statement.

While the Potter role raised Gambon’s international profile and found him a huge audience, he had long been celebrated as one of Britain’s leading actors. His work spanned TV, theater, film and radio, and over the decades he starred in dozens of movies from “Gosford Park” and “The King’s Speech” to the animated family film “Paddington.” He recently appeared in the Judy Garland biopic “Judy,” released in 2019.

Gambon was knighted for his contribution to the entertainment industry in 1998.

The role of the much loved Professor Dumbledore was initially played by another Irish-born actor, Richard Harris. When Harris died in 2002, after two of the films in the franchise had been made, Gambon took over and played the part from “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” through to “Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2.”

He once acknowledged not having read any of J. K Rowling’s best-selling books, arguing that it was safer to follow the script rather than be too influenced by the books. That didn’t prevent him from embodying the spirit of the powerful wizard who fought against evil to protect his students.

Co-stars often described Gambon as a mischievous, funny man who was self-deprecating about his talent. Actress Helen Mirren fondly remembered his “natural Irish sense of humor — naughty but very, very funny.”

Fiona Shaw, who played Petunia Dursley in the “Harry Potter” series, recalled Gambon telling her how central acting was to his life.

“He did once say to me in a car ‘I know I go on a lot about this and that, but actually, in the end, there is only acting’,” Shaw told the BBC on Thursday. “I think he was always pretending that he didn’t take it seriously, but he took it profoundly seriously.”

Irish President Michael D. Higgins paid tribute to Gambon’s “exceptional talent,” praising him as “one of the finest actors of his generation.”

Born in Dublin on Oct. 19, 1940, Gambon was raised in London and originally trained as an engineer, following in the footsteps of his father. He did not have formal drama training, and was said to have started work in the theater as a set builder. He made his theater debut in a production of “Othello” in Dublin.

In 1963 he got his first big break with a minor role in “Hamlet,” the National Theatre Company’s opening production, under the directorship of the legendary Laurence Olivier.

Gambon soon became a distinguished stage actor and received critical acclaim for his leading performance in “Life of Galileo,” directed by John Dexter. He was frequently nominated for awards and won the Laurence Olivier Award 3 times and the Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards twice.

A multi-talented actor, Gambon was also the recipient of four coveted British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards for his television work.

He became a household name in Britain after his lead role in the 1986 BBC TV series “The Singing Detective,” written by Dennis Potter and considered a classic of British television drama. Gambon won the BAFTA for best actor for the role.

Gambon also won Emmy nominations for more recent television work — as Mr. Woodhouse in a 2010 adaption of Jane Austen’s “Emma,” and as former U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson in 2002’s “Path to War.”

Gambon was versatile as an actor but once told the BBC he preferred to play “villainous characters.” He played gangster Eddie Temple in the British crime thriller “Layer Cake” — a review of the film by the New York Times referred to Gambon as “reliably excellent” — and a Satanic crime boss in Peter Greenaway’s “The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover.”

He also had a part as King George V in the 2010 drama film “The King’s Speech.” In 2015 he returned to the works of J.K. Rowling, taking a leading role in the TV adaptation of her non-Potter book “The Casual Vacancy.”

“I absolutely loved working with him,” Rowling posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “The first time I ever laid eyes on him was in ‘King Lear’, in 1982, and if you’d told me then that brilliant actor would appear in anything I’d written, I’d have thought you were insane.”

Gambon retired from the stage in 2015 after struggling to remember his lines in front of an audience due to his advancing age. He once told the Sunday Times Magazine: “It’s a horrible thing to admit, but I can’t do it. It breaks my heart.”

Gambon was always protective when it came to his private life. He married Anne Miller and they had one son, Fergus. He later had two sons with set designer Philippa Hart.

Chan also believes the 120-year-old Puccini opera should be reclaimed and reinvented by Asian and Asian-American artists.

Best known for his work in ballet and as a co-founder of Final Bow for Yellowface, an organization  committed to eliminating offensive stereotypes of Asians on stage, Chan makes his opera directing debut with the Boston Lyric Opera’s “Madama Butterfly.” The production, which runs Sept. 14-24 at the Emerson Colonial Theatre, is the culmination of a massive exploration of the legacy of “Madama Butterfly” undertaken by Chan, the BLO team and a dozen others.

“We can say that ‘Madama Butterfly’ is inherently racist and sexist, but we could also ask, ‘How can we save it? What else can this work be?’” Chan told the Herald. “Three years ago, scholars, performers, directors, historians, and folks from all across the opera ecosystem took a look at this work asking what are problems with it and what is a way forward for it.”

The problems were obvious. Puccini had never been to Japan so he populated “Madama Butterfly” with hurtful and dangerous caricatures. Those caricatures were more often than not played by white actors in yellowface. Puccini also leaned into orientalism to make the opera more “exotic.”

“Orientalism is when you have an outsider, such as a European artist, setting a story in an exotic, other place while having a disregard for any cultural realities of that place,” Chan said.

The way forward involved destroying the orientalism trope by moving the setting to America. The BLO’s version brings the story of Japanese-American nightclub performer Cio-Cio-San and American Naval Officer B.F. Pinkerton to 1940s San Francisco and a California prison camp during a time when World War II amplified racial prejudices.

“No one wears a kimono on stage, there are no geishas, nobody is demure,” Chan said. “Nobody is culturally Japanese in this story. Everybody is American… In some ways, this is no different than any other reimagining [for the stage] whether it’s a Shakespeare play or an opera with a new setting. We’re just continuing the grand tradition of reimagining classic works.”

The reworking doesn’t extend to Puccini’s score. The music remains untouched (likely to the relief of a large number of opera diehards).

“There are a couple little changes, like ‘I’m the luckiest girl in Nagasaki’ becomes ‘I’m the luckiest girl in San Francisco,” Chan said. “But otherwise, if you close your eyes, you can’t tell the difference between this and any other opera house performing ‘Madama Butterfly.’”

Then Chan quickly adds: “Although I think our singers are fantastic.”

Many of those singers finally get to embrace “Madama Butterfly” in a way they never could. The performer playing matchmaker Goro, Rodell Rosel, told Chan this was the first time he’s played the character as himself and not with the affectations of an Asian caricature.

“He’s so brilliant and it works for the character and you can tell that he’s loving it,” Chan said. “It works because it feels real.”

For tickets and details, visit blo.org

Shot in France using a real abandoned church, “The Nun II” has its Catholic credentials in order, and once again gives us a demonic nun bearing a weird resemblance to rock star Alice Cooper. The Catholic element is what gives these films some semblance of verisimilitude.

Written by Ian Goldberg and Richard Naing of “The Autopsy of Jane Doe” and Akela Cooper of “MEGAN” fame, based on characters created by Gary Dauberman (“Annabelle Comes Home”) and the horror and action film phenomenon James Wan (“The Conjuring”), “The Nun II” is a sequel to “The Nun” (2018) and the ninth installment in “The Conjuring” universe.

Now, I like nun movies as much as anyone (one of my favorites is Ken Russell’s still shocking 1971 horrorshow “The Devils”), and I bring a Catholic parochial school background to these films. Like its predecessor, “The Nun II,”  which is in essence a remake of the wildly successful (in spite of terrible reviews and audience scores) first film, borrows a lot of plot development and incense-infused iconography from the late William Friedkin’s landmark horror film “The Exorcist” (1973).

This new “Nun” movie, directed by Michael Chaves (“The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It”) has nothing to offer except 1 hour and 50 minutes of jump cuts (the film equivalent of someone shouting, ”Boo!” in your face) and newly-anointed “Scream Queen” Taissa Farmiga furrowing her brow while decked out as the spiritually powerful, but otherwise vapid Sister Irene of the first film. Also returning is actor Bonnie Aarons, who played the satanic homeless person in David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive” (2001) and originated the role of the demon nun Valak in “The Conjuring 2” (2016).

In this installment Valak has reappeared in rural France in 1956 in the sacristy of a church, where the demon causes a bottle of wine to explode and water to boil in a stone font and then immolates a priest. Sister Irene has a new BFF in this film. She is Sister Debra (Storm Reid), who is from Mississippi and was sent to a convent by her father after the family home was burned down. Sisters Irene and Debra find themselves in a French town with a boarding school, where Valak seeks another relic, the gouged out eyes of St. Lucy of Syracuse. Also at the boarding school is a hunky gardener named Maurice (tall Belgian Jonas Bloquet of the original film), who is romantically interested in a teacher named Kate (Anna Popplewell, “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”). The teacher has a daughter named Sophie (Katelyn Rose Downey) at the school. The demonic nun takes a special interest in Sophie, of course. In one scene, some “mean girls” lure Sophie into a ruined chapel and lock her in. Someone becomes possessed by Valak, adding to the number of satanic baddies. Girls scream and run. The demonic nun kills some people gruesomely (Why?). This happens. Then, that happens.

In the film’s technically best scene, Sister Irene encounters a possessed newsstand in a dark street and pages of multiple magazines begin to unfold, flapping maniacally before her, revealing a certain face. In the worst sequence, a character we barely know is lured into the ruined chapel and killed (Why?). With its Escher-meets-Hogwarts-like stairways, door-pounding demon goat and collapsing floors and bell tower, “The Nun II” is more like an amusement park ride you did not want to take than a movie. The most frightening thing about “The Nun II” is the inevitability of “The Nun III.”

(“The Nun II” contains gruesome images, frightening scenes and a demon resembling Alice Cooper)

“Jimmy passed away peacefully on the night of September 1st surrounded by his family, friends, music and dogs,” a statement posted to Buffett’s official website and social media pages said late Friday. “He lived his life like a song till the very last breath and will be missed beyond measure by so many.”

The statement did not say where Buffett died or give a cause of death. Illness had forced him to reschedule concerts in May and Buffett acknowledged in social media posts that he had been hospitalized, but provided no specifics. Buffett is survived by his wife, Jane; daughters, Savannah and Sarah; and son, Cameron.

“Margaritaville,” released on Feb. 14, 1977, quickly took on a life of its own, becoming a state of mind for those ”wastin’ away,” an excuse for a life of low-key fun and escapism for those “growing older, but not up.”

The song is the unhurried portrait of a loafer on his front porch, watching tourists sunbathe while a pot of shrimp is beginning to boil. The singer has a new tattoo, a likely hangover and regrets over a lost love. Somewhere there is a misplaced salt shaker.

“What seems like a simple ditty about getting blotto and mending a broken heart turns out to be a profound meditation on the often painful inertia of beach dwelling,” Spin magazine wrote in 2021. “The tourists come and go, one group indistinguishable from the other. Waves crest and break whether somebody is there to witness it or not. Everything that means anything has already happened and you’re not even sure when.”

The song — from the album “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes” — spent 22 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and peaked at No. 8. The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2016 for its cultural and historic significance, became a karaoke standard and helped brand Key West, Florida, as a distinct sound of music and a destination known the world over.

“There was no such place as Margaritaville,” Buffett told the Arizona Republic in 2021. “It was a made-up place in my mind, basically made up about my experiences in Key West and having to leave Key West and go on the road to work and then come back and spend time by the beach.”

The song soon inspired restaurants and resorts, turning Buffett’s alleged desire for the simplicity of island life into a multimillion brand. He landed at No. 18 in Forbes’ list of the Richest Celebrities of All Time with a net worth of $1 billion.

President Joe Biden sent condolences to Buffett’s family.

“Jill and I send our love to his wife of 46 years, Jane; to their children, Savannah, Sarah, and Cameron; to their grandchildren; and to the millions of fans who will continue to love him even as his ship now sails for new shores,” Biden said in a statement. “We had the honor to meet and get to know Jimmy over the years, and he was in life as he was performing on stage – full of goodwill and joy, using his gift to bring people together.”

Former President Bill Clinton wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that Buffett’s “music brought happiness to millions of people. I’ll always be grateful for his kindness, generosity, and great performances through the years.”

Music critics were never very kind to Buffett or his catalogue, including the sandy beach-side snack bar songs like “Fins,” “Come Monday” and “Cheeseburgers in Paradise.” But his legions of fans, called “Parrotheads,” regularly turned up for his concerts wearing toy parrots, cheeseburgers, sharks and flamingos on their heads, leis around their necks and loud Hawaiian shirts.

“It’s pure escapism is all it is,” he told the Republic. “I’m not the first one to do it, nor shall I probably be the last. But I think it’s really a part of the human condition that you’ve got to have some fun. You’ve got to get away from whatever you do to make a living or other parts of life that stress you out. I try to make it at least 50/50 fun to work and so far it’s worked out.”

His special Gulf Coast mix of country, pop, folk and rock added instruments and tonalities more commonly found in the Caribbean, like steel drums. It was a stew of steelpans, trombones and pedal steel guitar. Buffett’s incredible ear for hooks and light grooves were often overshadowed by his lyrics about fish tacos and sunsets.

Rolling Stone, in a review of Buffett’s 2020 album “Life on the Flip Side,” gave grudging props. “He continues mapping out his surfy, sandy corner of pop music utopia with the chill, friendly warmth of a multi-millionaire you wouldn’t mind sharing a tropically-themed 3 p.m. IPA with, especially if his gold card was on the bar when the last round came.”

Tributes on Saturday came from all walks of life, from Hollywood star Miles Teller posting photos of himself with Buffett to former U.S. Sen. Doug Jones of Alabama, who wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that Buffett “lived life to the fullest and the world will miss him.” Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys wrote: “Love and Mercy, Jimmy Buffett.”

Buffett’s evolving brand began in 1985 with the opening of a string of Margaritaville-themed stores and restaurants in Key West, followed in 1987 with the first Margaritaville Café nearby. Over the course of the next two decades, several more of each opened throughout Florida, New Orleans and California.

The brand has since expanded to dozens of categories, including resorts, apparel and footwear for men and women, a radio station, a beer brand, ice tea, tequila and rum, home décor, food items like salad dressing, Margaritaville Crunchy Pimento Cheese & Shrimp Bites and Margaritaville Cantina Style Medium Chunky Salsa, the Margaritaville at Sea cruise line and restaurants, including Margaritaville Restaurant, JWB Prime Steak and Seafood, 5 o’Clock Somewhere Bar & Grill and LandShark Bar & Grill.

There also was a Broadway-bound jukebox musical, “Escape to Margaritaville,” a romantic comedy in which a singer-bartender called Tully falls for the far more career-minded Rachel, who is vacationing with friends and hanging out at Margaritaville, the hotel bar where Sully works.

James William Buffett was born on Christmas day 1946 in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and raised in the port town of Mobile, Alabama. He graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and went from busking the streets of New Orleans to playing six nights a week at Bourbon Street clubs.

He released his first record, “Down To Earth,” in 1970 and issued seven more on a regular yearly clip, with his 1974 song “Come Monday” from his fourth studio album “Living and Dying in ¾ Time,” peaking at No. 30. Then came “Margaritaville.”

He performed on more than 50 studio and live albums, often accompanied by his Coral Reefer Band, and was constantly on tour. He earned two Grammy Award nominations, two Academy of Country Music Awards and a Country Music Association Award.

Buffett was actually in Austin, Texas, when the inspiration struck for “Margaritaville.” He and a friend had stopped for lunch at a Mexican restaurant before she dropped him at the airport for a flight home to Key West, so they got to drinking margaritas.

“And I kind of came up with that idea of this is just like Margarita-ville,” Buffett told the Republic. “She kind of laughed at that and put me on the plane. And I started working on it.”

He wrote some on the plane and finished it while driving down the Keys. “There was a wreck on the bridge,” he said. “And we got stopped for about an hour so I finished the song on the Seven Mile Bridge, which I thought was apropos.”

Buffett also was the author of numerous books including “Where Is Joe Merchant?” and “A Pirate Looks At Fifty” and added movies to his resume as co-producer and co-star of an adaptation of Carl Hiaasen’s novel “Hoot.”

Many assumed the lyrics in Anthony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond” — which discuss “minors on an island” and people abusing welfare — denoted a Republican mindset, but Anthony has since tried to separate himself from any political affiliation.

During his interview on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” the overnight sensation similarly took a measured approach to discussing his political stance. However, he admitted that most of his friends in Virginia “vote red” and support Donald Trump. He also at one point took a shot at Barack Obama.

“I love freedom of speech and I love the Second Amendment,” Anthony shared, although he said he knew both issues have been used as “triggers” by the right to drum up support from their base.

At many points in the conversation, Rogan seemed to try to get Anthony to discuss the more controversial points in his song — such as when he sings “If you’re 5-foot-3 and you’re 300 pounds, taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds.”

The country singer, however, would deftly skirt around most of those talking points.

“Fat people shouldn’t be buying f—ing fudge rounds with food stamps,” Rogan said.

“Yeah, and that’s sort of a conversation that got blown multiple ways, and really I’d like to let a song be left up to the interpretation of the listener,” Anthony responded.

He then connected the issue to General Motors (GM) “being bailed out of the recession after making all these terrible decisions,” saying he’d really like to write a song about that.

The conversation then veered into various territories, including aliens, hunting, the Bible and even pornography.

“That stuff’s terrible for people,” Anthony said about porn, adding “that’s one thing I had to give up because it does disconnect you from reality in many ways. I think a lot of the weird perversion we see coming out now at this point — I even reference some of it in the song, of course, but you read about a lot of the weird things people are doing that maybe wouldn’t have been accepted 100 years ago.”

Anthony continued to be fairly vulnerable with other topics, including his battle with anxiety and depression, going “on a run with SSRIs” (which he said didn’t help), and finding peace partially through reading scripture.

He even shared that he first started uploading his music to the internet because he thought he was going to die and wanted to leave something behind for his family.

Robertson died surrounded by family, a statement from his manager said.

From their years as Bob Dylan’s masterful backing group to their own stardom as embodiments of old-fashioned community and virtuosity, The Band profoundly influenced popular music in the 1960s and ’70s, first by literally amplifying Dylan’s polarizing transition from folk artist to rock star and then by absorbing the works of Dylan and Dylan’s influences as they fashioned a new sound immersed in the American past.

The Canadian-born Robertson was a high school dropout and one-man melting pot — part-Jewish, part-Mohawk and Cayuga — who fell in love with the seemingly limitless sounds and byways of his adopted country and wrote out of a sense of amazement and discovery at a time when the Vietnam War had alienated millions of young Americans. His life had a “Candide”-like quality as he found himself among many of the giants of the rock era — getting guitar tips from Buddy Holly, taking in early performances by Aretha Franklin and by the Velvet Underground, smoking pot with the Beatles, watching the songwriting team of Leiber and Stoller develop material, chatting with Jimi Hendrix when he was a struggling musician calling himself Jimmy James.

The Band began as supporting players for rockabilly star Ronnie Hawkins in the early 1960s and through their years together in bars and juke joints forged a depth and versatility that opened them to virtually any kind of music in any kind of setting. Besides Robertson, the group featured Arkansan drummer-singer Levon Helm and three other Canadians: bassist-singer-songwriter Rick Danko, keyboardist singer-songwriter Richard Manuel and all-around musical wizard Garth Hudson. They were originally called the Hawks, but ended up as The Band — a conceit their fans would say they earned — because people would point to them when they were with Dylan and refer to them as “the band.”

They remain defined by their first two albums, “Music from Big Pink” and “The Band,” both released in the late 1960s. The rock scene was turning away from the psychedelic extravagances of the Beatles’ “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and a wave of sound effects, long jams and lysergic lyrics. “Music from Big Pink,” named for the old house near Woodstock, New York, where Band members lived and gathered, was for many the sound of coming home. The mood was intimate, the lyrics alternately playful, cryptic and yearning, drawn from blues, gospel, folk and country music. The Band itself seemed to stand for selflessness and a shared and vital history, with all five members making distinctive contributions and appearing in publicity photos in plain, dark clothes.

Through the “Basement Tapes” they had made with Dylan in 1967 and through their own albums, The Band has been widely credited as a founding source for Americana or roots music. Fans and peers would speak of their lives being changed. Eric Clapton broke up with his British supergroup Cream and journeyed to Woodstock in hopes he could join The Band, which influenced albums ranging from The Grateful Dead’s “Workingman’s Dead” to Elton John’s “Tumbleweed Connection.” The Band’s songs were covered by Franklin, Joan Baez, the Staple Singers and many others. During a television performance by the Beatles of “Hey Jude,” Paul McCartney shouted out lyrics from “The Weight.”

Like Dylan, Robertson was a self-taught musicologist and storyteller who absorbed everything American from the novels of William Faulkner to the scorching blues of Howlin’ Wolf to the gospel harmonies of the Swan Silvertones. At times his songs sounded not just created, but unearthed. In “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” he imagined the Civil War through the eyes of a defeated Confederate. In “The Weight,” with its lead vocals passed around among group members like a communal wine glass, he evoked a pilgrim’s arrival to a town where nothing seems impossible:
“I pulled into Nazareth, was feelin’ about half past dead / I just need some place where I can lay my head / Hey, mister, can you tell me where a man might find a bed? / He just grinned and shook my hand, ‘No,’ was all he said.”

The Band played at the 1969 Woodstock festival, not far from where they lived, and became newsworthy enough to appear on the cover of Time magazine. But the spirit behind their best work was already dissolving. Albums such as “Stage Fright” and “Cahoots” were disappointing even for Robertson, who would acknowledge that he was struggling to find fresh ideas. While Manuel and Danko were both frequent contributors to songs during their “Basement Tapes” days, by the time “Cahoots” was released in 1971, Robertson was the dominant writer.

They toured frequently, recording the acclaimed live album “Rock of Ages” at Madison Square Garden and joining Dylan for 1974 shows that led to another highly praised concert release, “Before the Flood.” But in 1976, after Manuel broke his neck in a boating accident, Robertson decided he needed a break from the road and organized rock’s ultimate sendoff, an all-star gathering at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom that included Dylan, Van Morrison, Neil Young, Muddy Waters and many others. The concert was filmed by Martin Scorsese and the basis for his celebrated documentary “The Last Waltz,” released in 1978.

Robertson had intended The Band to continue recording together but “The Last Waltz” helped permanently sever his friendship with Helm, whom he had once looked to as an older brother. In interviews and in his 1993 memoir “Wheel on Fire,” Helm accused of Robertson of greed and outsized ego, noting that Robertson had ended up owning their musical catalog and calling “The Last Waltz” a vanity project designed to glorify Robertson. In response, Robertson contended that he had taken control of the group because the others — excepting Hudson — were too burdened by drug and alcohol problems to make decisions on their own.

“It hit me hard that in a band like ours, if we weren’t operating on all cylinders, it threw the whole machine off course,” Robertson wrote in his memoir “Testimony,” published in 2016.
The Band regrouped without Robertson in the early 1980s, and Robertson went on to a long career as a solo artist and soundtrack composer. His self-titled 1987 album was certified gold and featured the hit single “Show Down at Big Sky” and the ballad “Fallen Angel,” a tribute to Manuel, who was found dead in 1986 in what was ruled a suicide (Danko died of heart failure in 1999, and Helm of cancer in 2012).

Robertson, who moved to Los Angeles in the 1970s while the others stayed near Woodstock, remained close to Scorsese and helped oversee the soundtracks for “The Color of Money,” “The King of Comedy,” “The Departed” and “The Irishman” among others. He also produced the Neil Diamond album “Beautiful Noise” and explored his heritage through such albums as “Music for the Native Americans” and “Contact from the Underworld of Redboy.”

The Band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994; Robertson attended, Helm did not. In 2020, Robertson looked back and mourned in the documentary “Once Were Brothers” and in the title ballad, on which Robertson sang “When the light goes out and you can’t go on / You miss your brothers, but now they’re gone.”

Robertson married the Canadian journalist Dominique Bourgeois in 1967. They had three children before divorcing.

Jaime Royal Robertson was born in Toronto and spent summers at the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve where his mother Rosemarie Dolly Chrysler grew up. He never met his father, Alexander David Klegerman, who died before he was born and whose existence Robertson only learned of years later. His mother had since married a factory worker, James Robertson, whom Robbie Robertson at first believed was his biological parent.

Music was an escape from what he remembered as a violent and abusive household; his parents separated when he was in his early teens. He would watch relatives play guitar and sing at the Six Nations reserve, and became “mesmerized” by how absorbed they were in their own performances. Robertson was soon practicing guitar himself and was playing in bands and writing songs in his teens.

He had a knack for impressing his elders. When he was 15, his group opened for Hawkins at a club in Toronto. After overhearing Hawkins say he was in need of new material, Robertson hurried home, worked up a couple of songs and brought them over to his hotel. Hawkins recorded both of them, “Someone Like You,” and “Hey Boba Lu,” and Robertson would soon find himself on a train to Hawkins’ home base in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Over the next few years, he toured with Hawkins in the U.S. and Canada as members left and the performers who eventually became The Band were brought in. By 1963, Robertson and the others had grown apart from Hawkins and were ready to work on their own, recording a handful of singles as the Canadian Squires and stepping into rock history when mutual acquaintances suggested they should tour behind Dylan, then rebelling against his image as folk troubadour and infuriating fans who thought he had sold out.

In 1965-66, they were Dylan’s co-adventurers in some of rock’s most momentous shows, with Dylan playing an acoustic opening set, then joined by the Hawks for an electric set that was booed so fiercely, Helm dropped out and was replaced on the road by Mickey Jones. As captured in audio recordings and in footage by filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker seen decades later in the Dylan documentary “No Direction Home,” the music on stage for such Dylan songs as “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” and “Ballad of a Thin Man” more than equaled the fury of its detractors, culminating in a May 1966 show at Manchester, England, when one fan screamed out “Judas!”
“I don’t belieeeeve you,” Dylan snarled in response. “You’re a liar!” Calling on the Hawks to “play f—-ing loud,” he led them through an all-out finale, “Like a Rolling Stone.”

“A kind of madness was percolating,” Robertson wrote in his memoir. “The whole atmosphere was heightened. I adjusted the strap on my Telecaster so I could release it with a quick thumb movement and use the guitar as a weapon. The concerts were starting to feel that unpredictable.”
Later in 1966, Dylan was badly injured in a motorcycle accident and recuperated in the Woodstock area, where The Band also soon settled. Under no contractual obligations or any sort of deadlines, Dylan and his fellow musicians stepped out of time altogether. They jammed on old country and Appalachian songs and worked on such originals as “Tears of Rage” and “I Shall Be Released” that were originally intended as demo recordings for other artists. “The Basement Tapes,” as they were eventually called, were among rock’s first bootlegs before being released officially — in part in 1975, and in a full six-CD set in 2014.

Working and writing with Dylan encouraged The Band to try an album of its own. “Music from Big Pink” featured the Dylan-Danko collaboration “This Wheel’s On Fire” and Dylan-Manuel’s “Tears of Rage,” along with such Band originals as Manuel’s “In a Station” and Robertson’s “Caledonia Mission.”

In his memoir, Robertson remembered the first time their old boss listened to “Music from Big Pink.”

“After each song, Bob looked at ‘his’ band with proud eyes. When ‘The Weight’ came on, he said, ‘This is fantastic. Who wrote that song?'” he wrote. “‘Me,’ I answered. He shook his head, slapped me on the arm, and said, ‘Damn! You wrote that song?'”

The problem is, while visiting with my in-laws it was pointed out to us that my mother-in-law had made a collage of pictures and included in it the person who raped my daughter. In all, there are five pictures of him in group settings. When my husband asked her calmly to remove them, she refused. She says it would punish the other grandchildren if she removed the pictures, and it would “ruin her collage.”

We have asked her three times, but she refuses to budge. She says we all need counseling and that the request is completely out of line. Do you think our request was out of line? — APPALLED IN ILLINOIS

DEAR APPALLED: Of course not! Was your mother-in-law aware of what this person had done to her granddaughter when the collage was created? If so, her reaction is bizarre and unbelievably insensitive.

Approach her once more and ask if she would agree to take the collage to a photographer so your daughter’s attacker can be digitally edited out of it. If that’s not possible, perhaps she would agree to take down the collage when your family visits. However, if the response to that request is also negative, I wouldn’t blame you if you went there very rarely, if ever.

(This top item is from the Dear Abby archives)

DEAR ABBY: I have a friend who lived in my home most of the time for about six years. During that period, she rented out rooms in her house. She paid her bills, and I paid mine, but I covered her living off me. At the time, it didn’t bother me much because I could afford it, although I would have preferred to save that money.

I have since sold that house and bought my dream retirement home in another state. Now, I stay with her, and her renters have moved out. It’s unpleasant sometimes because when she gets drunk she accuses me of using her. (It’s true, I am.) Is it OK to use her by staying in her home without really liking her much? I feel it’s my turn to leech, and I’d like to stick it out until I retire in about a year. — WAITING TO MOVE

DEAR WAITING: It’s OK with me as long as it’s OK with you. But don’t kid yourself. You’re not living there rent-free. Tolerating an unpleasant drunk is the price you’re paying, and only you can determine whether it’s worth it.

Ana Castillo reclined on the off-white gallery chair and I apologized for looking like a slob, but where I had to be next required more informal clothing, and so, I apologized —

“For not dressing professionally?”

Yeah, I laughed nervously, I’m driving to —

“A baseball game?”

She didn’t laugh but smiled flatly and I couldn’t tell if she was insulted or joking or not joking but kind of joking. I never do know. She wore white pants stylishly frayed at the cuffs and a white sweater beneath a denim jacket embroidered elegantly on the sleeves, a piece from a Spanish designer, but Castillo is not the type to give plugs and decides not to spill the label.

I’ve never entirely gotten a handle on Ana Castillo. Though, to be fair, who has? One of Chicago’s best living writers (and a 2022 inductee of the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame), she’s often mentioned in the same breath as that other great Chicana writer from Chicago, Sandra Cisneros. She writes haunting fiction on life in Chicago and at the Mexico border. But she’s a better poet. And not too shabby a visual artist. And a good playwright. Also, as an essayist, she’s indispensable on feminism from the perspective of a woman with Chicago and Mexican indigenous roots.

Plus, she draws a pretty fun picture of … farm animals smoking cigars?

What is this? I asked her, standing before such an image, hanging now, alongside others from Castillo, through Oct. 9, at the Hilton Asmus Contemporary gallery in River North. It was made in 2021 at her home in New Mexico and the title is “El Club de las Xismosas Poetas,” and like many of her drawings here, it’s selling for about $2,900. A relative steal, particularly if you’re a connoisseur of art made by seminal literary figures.

“Who is this?” Castillo asked. “It’s haters! It’s called (in English) the Club of Gossipers. There’s a snake there, there’s a pig, there’s a goat, and there’s another little pig and that’s a rat. So basically, it’s the people who get together, sit around and talk about you.”

And the figures in the drawing above that smoking pig?

“I don’t know. You tell me. ‘Mother & Child,’ it’s titled.”

I see a cat, only longer, with wings. No, wait: two mice.

“Maybe. Whimsical pets. They are feel-good drawings and you could have them in your bedroom and see them every day. Those kind of drawings. Here is another one with animals. I have a tendency to draw like little hummingbirds but them, see, there are bugs crawling along the bottom. Because that’s what life is like. Where we live in New Mexico, we have dogs and we’re surrounded by turtles and frogs. In these kind of compositions, I tend to have the sea, earth, sky, the universe. You can also see snails here, and Trees of Life — I’m obsessed with Trees of Life. Oh, there’s a worm. I don’t know how many Trees of Life I have drawn. A lot. There’s the sun, the Earth. In my mind, it’s all part of reminding yourself of the environment. Environmental issues are very noticeable where I live. After I wrote (the 1993 breakout novel) ‘So Far From God,’ I was surprised to be recognized as an environmental activist because of that book. But that was my conscience coming out. I wrote about the day the dead birds fell from the sky. Which happened in New Mexico. A few years ago, universities started to look into that and try to figure out why. I found four or five (dead birds) and I thought one of the dogs was getting them, but no, these birds, they were just dropping out of the sky.”

Birds hit skyscrapers in Chicago all the time, I offered, lamely.

“I have a lot of windows at home it’s horrible when they hit windows, but no, I am literally talking about dead birds dropping out of the sky! (The universities) have come up with a lot of dumb things about these birds but nothing that’s like So this is why it’s happening!”

Castillo, who turned 70 in June, first left Chicago many decades ago, after graduating from Northeastern Illinois University; she headed to California to teach and help with the United Farm Workers movement there, led by Cesar Chavez. Ever since, she’s shuttled back and forth between the West Coast and the Southwest and Mexico and Chicago. “Doña Cleanwell Leaves Home,” her new collection of short stories, her first since 1996, features characters who occupy those very routes, particularly Chicago to Mexico and back. In “Ven,” a man reads his late sister’s diaries and retraces her footsteps in Mexico. In the title story, a wise high school graduate from Chicago is sent to Mexico by her father to find her mother, who abandoned the family several months earlier. In Castillo’s short stories, people in Chicago are often trying to unearth dark hidden truths.

She’s said reviewers have been characterizing her stories as about Mexicans “going back and forth.” But whereas “customary migration is them coming here to find ‘a better life,’ I found it interesting, and this wasn’t intentional, my characters go north to south — but move up in status. My family here didn’t have a pool or housekeeper. In Mexico, that might have been.”

She’s working on her next novel, “Isabel 2121,” using a related calculus: “There’s the future and past living simultaneously, based on string theory. So you have characters 500 years in the future, and characters at the conquest of Mexico, 500 years ago. It’s dystopian in 2121 and, for my ancestors, conquest was dystopian.”

She writes in the a.m. and makes art in the p.m.

The 20 pieces on display in River North are a sliver of hundreds of similar drawings she made in the past decade. It began in 2015 when she found herself with free time during a teaching job. She made the first drawings as a meditation, she said: “Hence the lines.”

Yes, the lines. Thin and tight and parallel, and there are so many of them, arranged into geometric blocks, swirling, like dizzying rabbit holes constructed of angular pinwheels.

Frankly, obsessive.

“It does seem I have gone mad,” Castillo said. “I did ask people if it seemed like I went mad here. They said, ‘No, not at all.’ They said it was ‘discipline.’” She drew the works freehand with a Sharpie and only occasionally employed a ruler. “‘Discipline’ doesn’t mean anything. I mean, I could have some obsessive disorder. I meditated years ago and you become accustomed to any ritual becoming a calming thing. We live in extreme quiet in New Mexico. We live in the desert. We hardly see anybody. You can see the sun set. Music from far off. Making lines like this, it’s like knitting a pattern of all of that.”

Castillo grew up on Taylor Street, crowded, very Italian.

“Then they built the (University of Illinois Chicago) campus on top of it and relocated everyone, including my family. But just blocks away. I was there 20 years. Then my family moved to Lakeview and bought a two-flat and I suppose we became North Siders.”

Were there ghosts? I asked.

Ghosts, imagined and metaphoric, float through much of her new book. “On Taylor Street? There were things no one in my family verified but I remember vividly. Ghosts in my culture, Mexican indigenous culture — we believe in ghosts. Everyone has a ghost sighting. The book opens with the dad saying, ‘Do you believe in ghosts?’ I wanted to evoke the possibility (of ghosts), but it’s not the point. The point is the living. In ‘The Girl in the Green Dress,’ you have a woman hearing a story of a headless girl in the library.”

A Chicago Public Library branch.

“Right.”

And the librarian is caught overnight during a polar vortex.

“Yes.”

Why do you get to write about Chicago polar vortexes from the warmth of New Mexico?

“I know polar vortexes! I do! I know them well. When I was invited back to Dominican University — it was a vortex! They stay with you. In ‘Green Dress,’ that librarian is starting to freeze in there and go into hypothermia and she’s terrified at the possibility of a headless ghost and she’s thinking over her life and if she lives, she’ll make changes.”

We never learn what happens.

“I leave everything open, always.”

Indeed. As I’m leaving, just outside the gallery, the smoke from Canadian wildfires has made it to Wells Street and the daylight is unnerving. A commuter speed-walks past, staring into storefronts with his mouth shaped in a perfect “O.” A few doors down a woman sweeps dirt off the stoop of a Brazilian day spa as if she’s in a musical. She hums loudly and I wonder if there are Brazilian day spas in musicals. I don’t know why I am noticing this stuff, only that I am and those stories go on. As Castillo said, “We think a story is over, but there’s this other moment, then another year, and another time. And that is life. It is open-ended.”

cborrelli@chicagotribune.com

“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Sinéad. Her family and friends are devastated and have requested privacy at this very difficult time,” the singer’s family said in a statement reported by the BBC and RTE.

O’Connor was found unresponsive shortly before noon Wednesday in a home in southeast London and pronounced dead at the scene, the Met Police said. They did not say how she died but said her death was not considered suspicious.

She was public about her mental illness, saying that she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. O’Connor posted a Facebook video in 2017 from a New Jersey motel where she had been living, saying that she was staying alive for the sake of others and that if it were up to her, she’d be “gone.”

When her teenage son Shane died by suicide last year, O’Connor tweeted there was “no point living without him” and she was soon hospitalized. Her final tweet, sent July 17, read: “For all mothers of Suicided children,” and linked to a Tibetan compassion mantra.

Recognizable by her shaved head and with a multi-octave mezzo soprano of extraordinary emotional range, O’Connor began her career singing on the streets of Dublin and soon rose to international fame.

She was a star from her 1987 debut album, “The Lion and the Cobra,” and became a sensation in 1990 with her cover of Prince’s ballad “Nothing Compares 2 U,” a seething, shattering performance that topped charts from Europe to Australia and was heightened by a promotional video featuring the gray-eyed O’Connor in intense close-up.

She was a lifelong non-conformist — she said she shaved her head in response to record executives pressuring her to be conventionally glamorous — but her political and cultural stances and troubled private life often overshadowed her music.

A critic of the Roman Catholic Church well before allegations of sexual abuse were widely reported, O’Connor made headlines in October 1992 when she tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II while appearing on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” and denounced the church as the enemy.

The next week, Joe Pesci hosted “Saturday Night Live,” held up a repaired photo of the Pope and said if he had been on the show with O’Connor he “would have gave her such a smack.” Days later, she appeared at an all-star tribute for Bob Dylan at Madison Square Garden and was immediately booed. She was supposed to sing Dylan’s “I Believe in You,” but switched to an a cappella version of Bob Marley’s “War,” which she had sung on “Saturday Night Live.”

Although consoled and encouraged on stage by her friend Kris Kristofferson, she left and broke down, and her performance was kept off the concert CD. (Years later, Kristofferson recorded “Sister Sinead,” for which he wrote, “And maybe she’s crazy and maybe she ain’t/But so was Picasso and so were the saints.”)

She also feuded with Frank Sinatra over her refusal to allow the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at one of her shows and accused Prince of physically threatening her. In 1989 she declared her support for the Irish Republican Army, a statement she retracted a year later. Around the same time, she skipped the Grammy ceremony, saying it was too commercialized.

In 1999, O’Connor caused uproar in Ireland when she became a priestess of the breakaway Latin Tridentine Church — a position that was not recognized by the mainstream Catholic Church. For many years, she called for a full investigation into the extent of the church’s role in concealing child abuse by clergy. In 2010, when Pope Benedict XVI apologized to Ireland to atone for decades of abuse, O’Connor condemned the apology for not going far enough and called for Catholics to boycott Mass until there was a full investigation into the Vatican’s role.

“People assumed I didn’t believe in God. That’s not the case at all. I’m Catholic by birth and culture and would be the first at the church door if the Vatican offered sincere reconciliation,” she wrote in the Washington Post in 2010.

O’Connor announced in 2018 that she had converted to Islam and would be adopting the name Shuhada’ Davitt, later Shuhada Sadaqat — although she continued to use Sinéad O’Connor professionally.

“Her music was loved around the world and her talent was unmatched and beyond compare,” Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said in a statement on social media.

O’Connor was born on Dec. 8, 1966. She had a difficult childhood, with a mother she alleged was abusive and encouraged her to shoplift. As a teenager she spent time in a church-sponsored institution for girls, where she said she washed priests’ clothes for no wages. But a nun gave O’Connor her first guitar, and soon she sang and performed on the streets of Dublin, her influences ranging from Dylan to Siouxsie and the Banshees.

Her performance with a local band caught the eye of a small record label, and, in 1987, O’Connor released, “The Lion and the Cobra,” which sold hundreds of thousands of copies and featured the hit “Mandinka,” driven by a hard-rock guitar riff and O’Connor’s piercing vocals. O’Connor, then 20 and pregnant, co-produced the album.

“I suppose I’ve got to say that music saved me,” she said in an interview with the Independent newspaper in 2013. “I didn’t have any other abilities, and there was no learning support for girls like me, not in Ireland at that time. It was either jail or music. I got lucky.”

“Nothing Compares 2 U” received three Grammy nominations and was the featured track on her acclaimed album, “I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got,” which helped lead Rolling Stone to name her Artist of the Year in 1991.

“She proved that a recording artist could refuse to compromise and still connect with millions of listeners hungry for music of substance,” the magazine declared.

O’Connor’s other musical credits included the albums, “Universal Mother” and “Faith and Courage,” a cover of Cole Porter’s “You Do Something to Me,” from the AIDS fundraising album “Red Hot + Blue,” and backing vocals on Peter Gabriel’s “Blood of Eden.” She received eight Grammy nominations and in 1991 won for best alternative musical performance.

O’Connor announced she was retiring from music in 2003, but continued to record new material. Her most recent album was ” I’m Not Bossy, I’m the Boss,” released in 2014 and she sang the theme song for Season 7 of “Outlander.”

The singer married four times; her union to drug counsellor Barry Herridge, in 2011, lasted just 16 days. O’Connor had four children: Jake, with her husband John Reynolds; Roisin, with John Waters; Shane, with Donal Lunny; and Yeshua Bonadio, with Frank Bonadio.

In 2014, she said she was joining the Irish nationalist Sinn Fein party and called for its leaders to step aside so that a younger generation of activists could take over. She later withdrew her application.

Singer Tori Amos was among the many musicians who paid tribute to O’Connor on Wednesday, calling her “a force of nature.”

“Such passion, such intense presence and a beautiful soul, who battled her own personal demons courageously,” Amos said. “Be at peace dear Sinead, you will forever be in our hearts.”
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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. The U.S. suicide and crisis lifeline is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org. In the U.K., the Samaritans can be reached at 116 123.

Paparazzi spotted Brady picking up Shayk at Los Angeles’ Hotel Bel-Air afternoon and taking her to his place on Friday afternoon, and sources tell TMZ she didn’t leave his digs until around 9:30 on Saturday morning, when Brady drove her back to the hotel.

And that wasn’t the end of their time together this weekend: Brady retrieved Shayk from the hotel on Saturday afternoon and drove her back to his place again, TMZ adds, and photographers captured video of him stroking her face.

Brady, a seven-time Super Bowl champion who retired from the NFL this February, announced in October 2022 that he and Bündchen had finalized their divorce after 13 years of marriage. The former couple has two children together: Benjamin, 13, and Vivian, 10. (Brady also has a son, Jack, 15, with “Blue Bloods” star Bridget Moynihan.)

“We are blessed with beautiful and wonderful children who will continue to be the center of our world in every way,” Brady said in a statement after he and the Brazilian supermodel settled their split. “We will continue to work together as parents to always ensure they receive the love and attention they deserve.”

This May, Brady’s reps rebuffed rumors that the former athlete was dating Kim Kardashian, according to People.

A source close to Kardashian, meanwhile, told the magazine that the reality star and Brady “have friends and business partners in common, but are not dating.”

Shayk was previously in a relationship with Bradley Cooper, with whom she has a 6-year-old daughter. She and the “Nightmare Alley” actor went their separate ways in 2019 after four years together.

In April, Shayk was spotted chatting with Leonardo DiCaprio at Coachella, though sources told TMZ at the time that she and the Oscar winner are just friends.

Publicist Sylvia Weiner confirmed Bennett’s death to The Associated Press, saying he died in his hometown of New York. There was no specific cause, but Bennett had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016.

The last of the great saloon singers of the mid-20th century, Bennett often said his lifelong ambition was to create “a hit catalog rather than hit records.” He released more than 70 albums, bringing him 19 competitive Grammys — all but two after he reached his 60s — and enjoyed deep and lasting affection from fans and fellow artists.

Bennett didn’t tell his own story when performing; he let the music speak instead — the Gershwins and Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern. Unlike his friend and mentor Sinatra, he would interpret a song rather than embody it. If his singing and public life lacked the high drama of Sinatra’s, Bennett appealed with an easy, courtly manner and an uncommonly rich and durable voice — “A tenor who sings like a baritone,” he called himself — that made him a master of caressing a ballad or brightening an up-tempo number.

“I enjoy entertaining the audience, making them forget their problems,” he told The Associated Press in 2006. “I think people … are touched if they hear something that’s sincere and honest and maybe has a little sense of humor. … I just like to make people feel good when I perform.”

Bennett was praised often by his peers, but never more meaningfully than by what Sinatra said in a 1965 Life magazine interview: “For my money, Tony Bennett is the best singer in the business. He excites me when I watch him. He moves me. He’s the singer who gets across what the composer has in mind, and probably a little more.”

He not only survived the rise of rock music but endured so long and so well that he gained new fans and collaborators, some young enough to be his grandchildren. In 2014, at age 88, Bennett broke his own record as the oldest living performer with a No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart for “Cheek to Cheek,” his duets project with Lady Gaga. Three years earlier, he topped the charts with “Duets II,” featuring such contemporary stars as Gaga, Carrie Underwood and Amy Winehouse, in her last studio recording. His rapport with Winehouse was captured in the Oscar-nominated documentary “Amy,” which showed Bennett patiently encouraging the insecure young singer through a performance of “Body and Soul.”

His final album, the 2021 release “Love for Sale,” featured duets with Lady Gaga on the title track, “Night and Day” and other Porter songs.

For Bennett, one of the few performers to move easily between pop and jazz, such collaborations were part of his crusade to expose new audiences to what he called the Great American Songbook.

“No country has given the world such great music,” Bennett said in a 2015 interview with Downbeat Magazine. “Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern. Those songs will never die.”

Ironically, his most famous contribution came through two unknowns, George Cory and Douglass Cross, who in the early ’60s provided Bennett with his signature song at a time his career was in a lull. They gave Bennett’s musical director, pianist Ralph Sharon, some sheet music that he stuck in a dresser drawer and forgot about until he was packing for a tour that included a stop in San Francisco.

“Ralph saw some sheet music in his shirt drawer … and on top of the pile was a song called ‘I Left My Heart In San Francisco.’ Ralph thought it would be good material for San Francisco,” Bennett said. “We were rehearsing and the bartender in the club in Little Rock, Arkansas, said, ‘If you record that song, I’m going to be the first to buy it.'”

Released in 1962 as the B-side of the single “Once Upon a Time,” the reflective ballad became a grassroots phenomenon staying on the charts for more than two years and earning Bennett his first two Grammys, including record of the year.

By his early 40s, he was seemingly out of fashion. But after turning 60, an age when even the most popular artists often settle for just pleasing their older fans, Bennett and his son and manager, Danny, found creative ways to market the singer to the MTV Generation. He made guest appearances on “Late Night with David Letterman” and became a celebrity guest artist on “The Simpsons.” He wore a black T-shirt and sunglasses as a presenter with the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the 1993 MTV Music Video Awards, and his own video of “Steppin’ Out With My Baby” from his Grammy-winning Fred Astaire tribute album ended up on MTV’s hip “Buzz Bin.”

That led to an offer in 1994 to do an episode of “MTV Unplugged” with special guests Elvis Costello and k.d. lang. The evening’s performance resulted in the album, “Tony Bennett: MTV Unplugged,” which won two Grammys, including album of the year.

Bennett would win Grammys for his tributes to female vocalists (“Here’s to the Ladies”), Billie Holiday (“Tony Bennett on Holiday”), and Duke Ellington (“Bennett Sings Ellington — Hot & Cool”). He also won Grammys for his collaborations with other singers: “Playin’ With My Friends — Bennett Sings the Blues,” and his Louis Armstrong tribute, “A Wonderful World” with lang, the first full album he had ever recorded with another singer. He celebrated his 80th birthday with “Duets: An American Classic,” featuring Barbra Streisand, Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder among others.

“They’re all giants in the industry, and all of a sudden they’re saying to me ‘You’re the master,'” Bennett told the AP in 2006.

Long associated with San Francisco, Bennett would note that his true home was Astoria, the working-class community in the New York City borough of Queens, where he grew up during the Great Depression. The singer chose his old neighborhood as the site for the “Fame”-style public high school, the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, that he and his third wife, Susan Crow Benedetto, a former teacher, helped found in 2001.

The school is not far from the birthplace of the man who was once Anthony Dominick Benedetto. His father was an Italian immigrant who inspired his love of singing, but he died when Anthony was 10. Bennett credited his mother, Anna, with teaching him a valuable lesson as he watched her working at home, supporting her three children as a seamstress doing piecework after his father died.

“We were very impoverished,” Bennett said in a 2016 AP interview. “I saw her working and every once in a while she’d take a dress and throw it over her shoulder and she’d say, ‘Don’t have me work on a bad dress. I’ll only work on good dresses.'”

He studied commercial art in high school, but had to drop out to help support his family. The teenager got a job as a copy boy for the AP, performed as a singing waiter and competed in amateur shows. A combat infantryman during World War II, he served as a librarian for the Armed Forces Network after the war and sang with an army big band in occupied Germany. His earliest recording is a 1946 air check from Armed Forces Radio of the blues “St. James Infirmary.”

Bennett took advantage of the GI Bill to attend the American Theater Wing, which later became The Actors Studio. His acting lessons helped him develop his phrasing and learn how to tell a story. He learned the more intimate Bel Canto vocal technique which helped him sustain and extend the expressive range of his voice. And he took to heart the advice of his vocal coach, Miriam Spier.

“She said please don’t imitate other singers because you’ll just be one of the chorus whoever you imitate whether it’s Bing Crosby or Frank Sinatra and won’t develop an original sound,” Bennett recalled in the 2006 AP interview. “She said imitate musicians that you like, find out how they phrase. I was particularly influenced by the jazz musicians like (pianist) Art Tatum and (saxophonists) Lester Young and Stan Getz.”

In 1947, Bennett made his first recording, the Gershwins’ standard “Fascinatin’ Rhythm” for a small label under the stage name Joe Bari. The following year he gained notice when he finished behind Rosemary Clooney on the radio show “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts.” Bennett’s big break came in 1949 when singer Pearl Bailey invited him to join her revue at a Greenwich Village club. Bob Hope dropped by one night and was so impressed that he offered the young singer a spot opening his shows at the famed Paramount Theater, where teens had swooned for Sinatra. But the comedian didn’t care for his stage name and thought his real name was too long for the marquee.

“He thought for a moment, then he said, ‘We’ll call you Tony Bennett,'” the singer wrote in his autobiography, “The Good Life,” published in 1998.

In 1950, Mitch Miller, the head of Columbia Records’ pop singles division, signed Bennett and released the single, “The Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” a semi-hit. Bennett was on the verge of being dropped from the label in 1951 when he had his first No. 1 on the pop charts with “Because of You.” More hits followed, including “Rags to Riches,” “Blue Velvet,” and Hank Williams’ “Cold, Cold Heart,” the first country song to become an international pop hit.

Bennett found himself frequently clashing with Miller, who pushed him to sing Sinatra-style ballads and gimmicky novelty songs. But Bennett took advantage of the young LP album format, starting in 1955 with “Cloud 7,” featuring a small jazz combo led by guitarist Chuck Wayne. Bennett reached out to the jazz audience with such innovative albums as the 1957 “The Beat of My Heart,” an album of standards that paired him with such jazz percussion masters as Chico Hamilton, and Art Blakey. He also became the first white male singer to record with the Count Basie Orchestra, releasing two albums in 1958. Sinatra would later do the same.

Bennett’s friendship with Black musicians and his disgust at the racial prejudice he encountered in the Army led him to become an active supporter of the Civil Rights Movement. He answered Harry Belafonte’s call to join Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march and perform for the protesters.

Bennett’s early career peaked in the 1960s as he topped the charts with “San Francisco” and became the first male pop solo performer to headline at Carnegie Hall, releasing a live album of the 1962 concert.

In 1966, he released “The Movie Song Album,” a personal favorite which featured Johnny Mandel’s Oscar-winning song “The Shadow of Your Smile” and “Maybe September,” the theme from the epic flop “The Oscar,” noteworthy because it marked Bennett’s first and only big-screen acting role.

But as rock continued to overtake traditional pop, he clashed with Columbia label head Clive Davis, who insisted that the singer do the 1970 album “Tony Sings the Great Hits of Today,” with such songs as “MacArthur Park” and “Little Green Apples.” Bennett left Columbia in 1972, and went on to form his own record label, Improv, which in 1975-76 produced two duet albums with the impressionistic pianist Bill Evans now considered jazz classics.

Despite artistic successes, Improv proved a financial disaster for Bennett, who also faced difficulties in his personal life. His marriage to artist Patricia Beech collapsed in 1971. He wed actress Sandra Grant the same year, but that marriage ended in 1984. With no recording deals, his debts brought him close to bankruptcy and the IRS was trying to seize his house in Los Angeles. After a near-fatal drug overdose in 1979, he turned to his son, Danny, who eventually signed on as his manager. Bennett kicked his drug habit and got his finances in order, moved back to New York and resumed doing more than 200 shows a year.

He is survived by his wife Susan, daughters Johanna and Antonia, sons Danny and Dae and nine grandchildren.
Bennett was named a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2005 and a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master in 2006. He also won two Emmy Awards — for “Tony Bennett Live By Request: A Valentine Special” (1996) and “Tony Bennett: An American Classic” (2007).

Besides singing, Bennett pursued his lifelong passion for painting by taking art lessons and bringing his sketchbook on the road. His paintings, signed with his family name Benedetto — including portraits of his musician friends and Central Park landscapes — were displayed in public and private collections, including the Smithsonian Museum of American Art.
“I love to paint as much as I love to sing,” Bennett told the AP in 2006. “It worked out to be such a blessing in my life because if I started getting burnt-out singing … I would go to my painting and that’s a big lift. … So I stay in this creative zone all the time.”
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AP National Writer Hillel Italie contributed to this story.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Ted Lasso” star Jason Sudeikis, Rosario Dawson and other top movie and TV actors joined picket lines alongside screenwriters Friday on the first full day of a walkout that has become Hollywood’s biggest labor fight in decades.

A day after the dispute brought production to a standstill across the entertainment industry, Sudeikis was among the picketers outside NBC in New York pressing for progress following the breakdown of contract talks with studios and streaming services. Dawson, star of the film “Rent” and the “Star Wars” TV series “Ahsoka,” joined picketers outside Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, California.

“Lord of the Rings” star Sean Astin marched with chanting protesters outside Netflix’s offices in Hollywood. Also present at Netflix were “Titanic” and “Unforgiven” actor Frances Fisher and “The Nanny” star Fran Drescher, who is president of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

The actors’ arrival energized the picket lines outside Netflix, where music blared and the sidewalks were packed with demonstrators.

Elsewhere, “Once Upon a Time” actor Ginnifer Goodwin stood with protesters at Paramount Pictures.

The famous faces of Oscar and Emmy winners will likely be seen with some regularity on picket lines in New York and Los Angeles, adding star power to the demonstrations outside studios and corporate offices.

The walkout is the first double-barreled strike by actors and screenwriters in more than six decades.

In recent weeks, many actors made a show of solidarity with the 11,500 writers, who walked out in May. On Thursday, 65,000 members of the actors’ union formally joined them on strike.

The two guilds have similar issues with studios and streaming services. They are concerned about contracts keeping up with inflation and about residual payments, which compensate creators and actors for use of their material beyond the original airing, such as in reruns or on streaming services. The unions also want to put up guardrails against the use of artificial intelligence mimicking their work on film and television.

Many on the picket lines took aim at Disney chief executive Bob Iger, who said Wednesday that the damage the strikes will do to the entertainment economy is “a shame.”

“I think that when Bob Iger talks about what a shame it is, he needs to remember that in 1980, CEOs like him made 30 times what their lowest worker was making,” actor Sean Gunn, who starred in “Guardians of the Galaxy,” said outside Netflix.

Now Iger “makes 400 times what his lowest worker is. And I think that’s a shame, Bob. And maybe you should take a look in the mirror and ask yourself, ‘Why is that?’”

No talks are planned, and no end is in sight for the work stoppage. It is the first time both guilds have walked off sets since 1960, when then-actor Ronald Reagan was SAG’s leader.

“What we won in 1960 was our health and pension plans and the existence of residuals. That was the most important strike in LA union history, and now we’re on strike together again, and honestly, this strike is even bigger,” Adam Conover, host of the TV series “Adam Ruins Everything” and member of the Writers Guild negotiating committee, said outside Netflix. “We’re going to win. If you are gaining momentum like we are, 70-odd days into a strike, you are going to win.”

Conover was one of many picketers, including Sudeikis, who are members of both unions.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents employers including Disney, Netflix, Amazon and others, has lamented the walkout, saying it will hurt thousands of workers in industries that support film and television production.

The actors’ strike will affect more than filming. Stars will no longer be allowed to promote their work through red carpet premieres or personal appearances. They cannot campaign for Emmy awards or take part in auditions or rehearsals.

The strike triggered cancellations of red carpet events scheduled for next week for “Special Ops: Lioness,” starring Zoe Saldaña and Nicole Kidman, and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer.”

A “Haunted Mansion” premiere event at Disneyland on Saturday was set to go on as planned, but with no actors in attendance to promote the film.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said it was clear that the entertainment industry “is at a historic inflection point.” She urged all parties to work around the clock until an agreement is reached.

“This affects all of us and is essential to our overall economy,” Bass said in a statement.

The writers’ strike had already stopped much of television production, and the actors joining them immediately led to a shooting shutdown for many major films, including “Deadpool 3,” “Gladiator 2” and the eighth installment of Tom Cruise’s “Mission Impossible” series. All are scheduled for release next year.

The writers’ strike also shut down late-night talk shows and “Saturday Night Live,” as well as several scripted shows that have either had their writers’ rooms or production paused, including “Stranger Things” on Netflix, “Hacks” on Max and “Family Guy” on Fox. Many more are sure to follow them now that performers also have been pulled.

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This story has been corrected to fix the misspelling of Jason Sudeikis’ last name and Ginnifer Goodwin’s first name.

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Associated Press Writer Krysta Fauria contributed.

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For more on the Hollywood strikes, visit https://apnews.com/hub/hollywood-strikes/

Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, executive director of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Radio and Television Artists, said at a news conference that the union leadership voted for the work stoppage hours after their contract expired and talks broke off with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers representing employers including Disney, Netflix, Amazon and others.

“A strike is an instrument of last resort,” he said. Union leaders said at a news conference that they voted unanimously for a strike to begin at midnight. Outside Netflix’s Hollywood offices, picketing screenwriters chanted “Pay Your Actors!” immediately after the strike was announced.
It’s the first strike for actors from film and television shows since 1980. And it’s the first time two major Hollywood unions have been on strike at the same time since 1960, when Ronald Reagan was the actors’ guild president.

“Employers make Wall Street and greed their priority and they forget about the essential contributors that make the machine run,” former “The Nanny” star and SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher said. “Shame on them. They are on the wrong side of history.”

With a stoppage looming, the premiere of Christopher Nolan’s film “Oppenheimer” in London was moved up an hour so that the cast could walk the red carpet before the SAG board’s announcement.

The looming strike also cast a shadow over the upcoming 75th Emmy Awards, whose nominations were announced a day earlier.

Disney chief Bob Iger warned Thursday that an actors strike would have a “very damaging effect on the whole industry.”

“This is the worst time in the world to add to that disruption,” Iger said in an appearance on CNBC. “There’s a level of expectation that (SAG-AFTRA and the WGA) have that is just not realistic.”

A nearly two-week extension of the contract, and negotiations, only heightened the hostility between the two groups. Drescher said the extension made us “feel like we’d been duped, like maybe it was just to let studios promote their summer movies for another 12 days.”

Before the talks began June 7, the 65,000 actors who cast ballots voted overwhelmingly union leaders to send them into a strike, as the Writers Guild of America did when their deal expired more than two months ago.

When the initial deadline approached in late June, more than 1,000 members of the union, including Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence and Bob Odenkirk, added their names to a letter signaling to leaders their willingness to strike.

The stakes in the negotiations included both base and residual pay, which actors say has been undercut by inflation and the streaming ecosystem, benefits, and the threat of unregulated use of artificial intelligence.

“At a moment when streaming and AI and digital was so prevalent, it has disemboweled the industry that we once knew,” Drescher said. “When I did ‘The Nanny everybody’ was part of the gravy train. Now it’s a vacuum.”

The AMPTP said it was disappointed in the breakdown.

“This is the Union’s choice, not ours. In doing so, it has dismissed our offer of historic pay and residual increases, substantially higher caps on pension and health contributions, audition protections, shortened series option periods, a groundbreaking AI proposal that protects actors’ digital likenesses, and more,” the group said in a statement.

It added that instead of continuing to negotiate, “SAG-AFTRA has put us on a course that will deepen the financial hardship for thousands who depend on the industry for their livelihoods.”
SAG-AFTRA represents more than 160,000 screen actors, broadcast journalists, announcers, hosts and stunt performers. The walkout affects only the union’s 65,000 actors from television and film productions, who voted overwhelmingly to authorize their leaders to call a strike before talks began on June 7. Broadway actors said in a statement that they stand “in solidarity” with SAG-AFTRA workers.

The 11,500 members of the Writers Guild of America have been on strike since their own talks collapsed and their contract expired on May 2. The stoppage has showed no signs of a solution, with no negotiations even planned.

That strike brought the immediate shutdown of late-night talk shows and “Saturday Night Live,” and several scripted shows, including “Stranger Things” on Netflix,” “Hacks” on Max, and “Family Guy” on Fox, have either had their writers’ rooms or their production paused. Many more are sure to follow them now that performers have been pulled too.
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Associated Press journalists Sian Watson in London, Krysta Fauria in Los Angeles and Jake Coyle and Jocelyn Noveck in New York contributed to this story. For more on the Hollywood strikes, visit https://apnews.com/hub/hollywood-strikes/

The woman was discovered in front of the home and arrested on Monday, said Westerly Police Chief Paul Gingerella.

TMZ published photos showing someone in handcuffs outside the home’s gates, which had multiple “No Trespassing” signs.

Overzealous fans have been a problem for Swift over the years, with several arrests at her homes.

In July 2019, an Iowa man who said he wanted to meet Swift was arrested near her beachfront mansion carrying a crowbar and lock picks, and a New Jersey man was caught inside the home months later. A Florida man who broke into Swift’s home in New York City in 2018 was sentenced to jail after pleading guilty to criminal contempt and attempted burglary.

It’s unclear if Swift was home on Monday. She is in the middle of a 52-show stadium tour dubbed “Eras.” On Friday, she released “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version),” a re-recorded version of her third album.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — San Antonio Spurs rookie Victor Wembanyama said Thursday he believes Britney Spears grabbed him from behind as he was walking into a restaurant at a Las Vegas casino, and that the security detail he was with pushed the pop star away.

Wembanyama said he wasn’t told that Spears was the person who grabbed him until hours later, and that he never actually saw her.

Spears, who filed a report with Las Vegas police, said in posts on Twitter and Instagram that the run-in was “super embarrassing,” and denied grabbing Wembanyama, saying she only “tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention.”

She said she had recognized him earlier in the evening and when seeing the No. 1 pick in this year’s NBA draft — a 7-foot-3 French standout who is entering the NBA with as much acclaim as anyone since LeBron James 20 years ago — and she “decided to approach him and congratulate him on his success.”

Spears said, “His security then back handed me in the face without looking back, in front of a crowd. Nearly knocking me down and causing my glasses off my face.”

Police said a report was filed on an incident at the Aria Resort & Casino, but gave no further details.

Spears’ attorney Mathew Rosengart declined comment, citing the police investigation.

Wembanyama said security advised him to not stop for anyone as he walked into the restaurant, mindful that pausing could cause a stir and allow a crowd to build.

“Something did happen, a little bit, when I was walking with some security from the team to some restaurant,” Wembanyama said. “We were in the hall. There was a lot of people, so people were calling (at) me, obviously. There was one person who was calling me but we talked before with security.

“I couldn’t stop. That person was calling me, ‘Sir, sir,’ and that person grabbed me from behind,” Wembanyama said. “I didn’t see what happened because I was walking straight and didn’t stop. That person grabbed me from behind — not on my shoulder, she grabbed me from behind. I just know the security pushed her away. I don’t know with how much force but security pushed her away. I didn’t stop to look so I could walk in and enjoy a nice dinner.”

Spears said in her social media posts that she gets swarmed by people all the time, including that same night, but her “security team didn’t hit any of them.”

TMZ first reported details of the event that took place Wednesday night near a restaurant at the casino. TMZ said Spears was in a group of four trying to enter a restaurant for dinner and that she “was swarmed by fans as she entered the casino.” TMZ’s account of the encounter with Wembanyama was similar to Spears’; the site said she tapped him on the shoulder and wound up being struck in the face and having her glasses knocked off.

“I didn’t know for a couple hours, but when I came back to the hotel … I thought it was no big deal, and then security of the Spurs told me it was Britney Spears,” Wembanyama said. “At first, I was like, ‘You’re joking,’ but yeah, it turns out it was Britney Spears. I never saw her face. I just kept walking straight.”

He was unaware that the situation had made headlines until Thursday.

“I saw the news obviously this morning. I woke up to a couple of phone calls,” Wembanyama said.

Wembanyama will make his NBA Summer League debut with the Spurs on Friday night in Las Vegas against the Charlotte Hornets. He signed some autographs for fans at the Aria on Wednesday night and did the same for a small number of onlookers as he entered a local high school for practice with the Spurs on Thursday morning.

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AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles and Associated Press Writer Ken Ritter in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Secretary of State William Galvin continued his holiday preparations on Thursday, previewing historical documents to be displayed at the Commonwealth Museum’s annual Independence Day exhibit.

In years past, several hundred people have flocked to the Columbia Point museum the morning of the Fourth before they head off to other celebrations. Galvin said he’s excited for that tradition to continue Tuesday.

The museum will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and visitors will get a chance to get up close to the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Watertown — a July 1776 international agreement that was the first to recognize the new United States as an independent nation — and other historic passages.

“It brings to life the history of our state but also of our country, very much the case that the history of our state is the history of the country,” Galvin told the Herald. “It is a way that people can actually relate the celebration they’re engaging in to that history.”

A letter written by Alexander Hamilton in 1780 to Marquis de Lafayette, the French aristocrat who served as a general in the Continental Army, will be on display for the second straight year.

The letter, detailing an imminent British threat to French forces in Rhode Island, is believed to have been stolen decades ago from the Massachusetts state archives, but it returned to the Commonwealth Museum after a lengthy court battle, said Debra O’Malley, the secretary’s communications director.

“Some others have been on display once or twice before,” O’Malley said. “They come out every couple of years because they can’t be exposed that much because they are fragile documents. The Hamilton letter is kind of a popular one given its saga.”

Here are some ways to celebrate America’s 247th birthday in Boston:

Fireworks will be launched from a barge at Long Wharf, between Columbus Park and the Marriott Long Wharf Hotel, from 9:15 to 9:30 p.m. Saturday. The display will light up the night sky along the Inner Harbor waterfront.

Want to kick back and enjoy some chowder? Head down to Downtown Crossing for the Harborfest’s Chowderfest Monday from 2 to 4 p.m. The treats are free until supplies run out between Winter and Bromfield streets.

Starting the Fourth nice and early, City Hall Plaza will host the City of Boston’s 247th Independence Day Celebration from 9 to 10 a.m. Tuesday.

A parade will follow to the Granary Burying Ground on Tremont Street for a wreath-laying ceremony. From there, participants head to the Old State House for a reading of the Declaration of Independence at 10 a.m.

Gates open at noon for the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular at the Esplanade. The iconic show will begin at 8 p.m. and run until around 11 when fireworks wrap up.

If you can’t make it to the Esplanade, concert viewing screens and sound towers will be set up on the Boston and Cambridge sides of the river, and an additional screen is expected to be set up on the Rose Kennedy Greenway.

“This show requires all of you,” Chanel told the Herald. “It’s mentally, physically draining. Yes, acting is not real, and we know that. But sometimes your body and mind have a disconnect, so your mind knows it’s fake but your body is going through something physically. That can mean trembling. It can mean hearing words that trigger a certain experience. The show is exhausting.”

But the exhaustion comes with tremendous artistic satisfaction.

Despite being based on Alanis Morissette’s 1995 album “Jagged Little Pill,” this is no silly jukebox musical indulgence. This is a decidedly modern Broadway production – “Jagged Little Pill” plays at the Citizens Bank Opera House June 13 -25.

Developed at Cambridge’s American Repertory Theatre before it went to Broadway in 2019, the show pulls Morissette’s ’90s angst into today. Morissette, Tony Award-winning director Diane Paulus, and Academy Award-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody collaborated on a show that follows Frankie, Mary Jane and the rest of the Healys through a suburban hell. What starts with little family failings (light pill popping, mild online porn addiction, keeping up with the Joneses) graduates to spectacular breakdowns (overdose, abuse, assault).

While the material is intense, Chanel finds rewards in the role of Frankie – her first on a national tour.

“I enjoy how raw the show is, how realistic the show is,” she said. “You can think of somebody in your life who has dealt with the topics (explored in the show).”

Confronted with her mother’s relentless-but-hollow cheer, Frankie struggles to find her place in the world and develop a real relationship with her adopted mother. As Frankie’s girlfriend, Jo, tells her, “You’re a Pinterest fail.” While other actors might try and keep their emotional distance to the role, Chanel worked hard to connect with Frankie.

“I had to learn to be Frankie from within myself, meaning, I had to relate to her,” Chanel said. “I grew up in a suburban area (in Atlanta). I grew up in a predominantly white area. I had to navigate how that made me feel.”

“I also did research on real-life transracial adoptees,” she added. “I had interviews with them to get to know, generally, what that is like because I don’t know what that is like.”

Chanel says she did the research and goes into each performance with a deep breath knowing what it takes to pull off the role.

“I like to sit with being uncomfortable, and this show lets you explore that,” she said.

For tickets and details, visit boston.broadway.com

“Anatomy of a Fall,” which stars Sandra Hüller as a writer trying to prove her innocence in her husband’s death, is only the third film directed by a woman to win the Palme d’Or. One of the two previous winners, Julia Ducournau, was on this year’s jury.

Cannes’ Grand Prix, its second prize, went to Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest,” a chilling Martin Amis adaptation about a German family living next door to Auschwitz. Hüller also stars in that film.

The awards were decided by a jury presided over by two-time Palme winner Ruben Östlund, the Swedish director who won the prize last year for “Triangle of Sadness.” The ceremony preceded the festival’s closing night film, the Pixar animation “Elemental.”

Remarkably, the award for “Anatomy of a Fall” gives the indie distributor Neon its fourth straight Palme winners. Neon, which acquired the film after its premiere in Cannes, also backed “Triangle of Sadness,”Ducournau’s “Titane” and Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite,” which it steered to a best picture win at the Academy Awards.

Triet was presented the Palme by Jane Fonda, who recalled coming to Cannes in 1963 when, she said, there were no female filmmakers competing “and it never even occurred to us that there was something wrong with that.” This year, a record seven out of the 21 films in competition at Cannes were directed by women.

After a rousing standing ovation, Triet, the 44-year-old French filmmaker, spoke passionately about the protests that have roiled France this year over reforms to pension plans and the retirement age. Several protests were held during Cannes this year, but demonstrations were — as they have been in many high-profile locations throughout France — banned from the area around the Palais des Festivals. Protesters were largely relegated to the outskirts of Cannes.

“The protests were denied and repressed in a shocking way,” said Triet, who linked that governmental influence to that in cinema. “The merchandizing of culture, defended by a liberal government, is breaking the French cultural exception.”

“This award is dedicated to all the young women directors and all the young male directors and all those who cannot manage to shoot films today,” she added. “We must give them the space I occupied 15 years ago in a less hostile world where it was still possible to make mistakes and start again.”

After the ceremony, Triet reflected on being the third female director to win the Palme, following Ducournau and Jane Campion (“The Piano”).

“Things are truly changing,” she said.

Speaking to reporters, Triet was joined by her star, Hüller, whose performance was arguably the most acclaimed of the festival. (The festival encourages juries not to give films more than one award.) But “Anatomy of a Fall” did pocket one other sought-after prize: the Palme Dog. The honor given to the best canine in the festival’s films went to the film’s border collie, Snoop.

The jury prize went to Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki’s “Fallen Leaves,” a deadpan love story about a romance that blooms in a loveless workaday Helsinki where dispatches from the war in Ukraine regularly play on the radio.

Best actor went to veteran Japanese star Koji Yakusho, who plays a reflective, middle-aged Tokyo man who cleans toilets in Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days,” a gentle, quotidian character study.

The Turkish actor Merve Dizdar took best actress for the Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s “About Dry Grasses.” Ceylan’s expansive tale is set in snowy eastern Anatolia about a teacher, Samet (Deniz Celiloğlu), accused of misconduct by a young female student. Dizdar plays a friend both attracted and repelled by Samet.

“I understand what it’s like to be a woman in this area of the country,” said Dizdar. “I would like to dedicate this prize to all the women who are fighting to exist and overcome difficulties in this world and to retrain hope.”

Vietnamese-French director Tràn Anh Hùng took best director for “Pot-au-Feu,” a lush, foodie love story starring Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel and set in a 19th century French gourmet château.

Best screenplay was won by Yuji Sakamoto for “Monster.” Sakamoto penned Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s nuanced drama, with shifting perspectives, about two boys struggling for acceptance in their school at home. “Monster” also won the Queer Palm, an honor bestowed by journalists for the festival’s strongest LGBTQ-themed film.

Quentin Tarantino, who won Cannes’ top award for “Pulp Fiction,” attended the ceremony to present a tribute to filmmaker Roger Corman. Tarantino praised Corman for filling him and countless moviegoers with “unadulterated cinema pleasure.”

“My cinema is uninhibited, full of excess and fun,” said Corman, the independent film maverick. “I feel like this what Cannes is about.”

The festival’s Un Certain Regard section handed out its awards on Friday, giving the top prize to Molly Manning Walker’s debut feature, “How to Have Sex.”

Saturday’s ceremony drew to close a Cannes edition that hasn’t lacked spectacle, stars or controversy.

The biggest wattage premieres came out of competition. Martin Scorsese debuted his Osage murders epic “Killers of the Flower Moon,” a sprawling vision of American exploitation with Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone. “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” Harrison Ford’s Indy farewell, launched with a tribute to Ford. Wes Anderson premiered “Asteroid City.”

The festival opened on a note of controversy. “Jeanne du Barry,” a period drama co-starring Johnny Depp as Louis XV, played as the opening night film. The premiere marked Depp’s highest profile appearance since the conclusion of his explosive trial last year with ex-wife Amber Heard.

The musical has always worked at an odd balancing act. It’s part subversive piece of art, part sweet-and-magical bit of popcorn. In 2018, director Bartlett Sher put his thumb on the scale tipping his revival of “My Fair Lady” toward the subversive – the touring production of the show plays April 18-30 at the Citizens Bank Opera House.

“Audiences might remember the show in a more romantic light or remember it as a really offensive piece because they’ve seen an iteration where [main character] Eliza [Doolittle] is being abused,” Madeline Powell, who plays Eliza, told the Herald. “In Bartlett’s version of this play, his biggest goal was to give Eliza agency… he was really intentional about restoring George Bernard Shaw’s original Eliza.”

Both Shaw’s 1913 play “Pygmalion” and “My Fair Lady,” the 1956 musical adaptation of the play, follow snobbish London professor Henry Higgins’ effort to transform the poor and uneducated Eliza Doolittle into a refined lady. But “Pygmalion” ends on a defiant note and “My Fair Lady” concludes with a happily ever after. This modern update seems to split the difference.

“It’s such a brilliantly written show, with equal parts gravity and levity,” Powell said. “We want audiences to engage and laugh and be rowdy with us just as much as we want to really hear what [Eliza and Henry] are saying to each other and take it in. It’s a perfect piece of musical theater for a reason.”

The original run of “My Fair Lady” in the ’50s became the longest-running and largest-grossing Broadway production of the decade and won six Tony awards. The 1964 film version did just as well, winning three Oscars and topping the box office for months. This transformation retains the spectacle and big song-and-dance numbers that made “My Fair Lady” such a hit.

But it also gets at the heart of Shaw’s work. Much of it focuses on overcoming ignorance, overcoming the impulse to talk past those we deem not worthy of talking to.

“Jonathan Grunert, who plays my Professor Henry Higgins, and I often say that it boils down to being about two people who desperately want to understand the other and that comes with a lot of challenges when there is ego involved,” Powell said. “At the end of the day, both have to learn to set themselves aside to hear the other.”

“This is something that was true of gender roles when the show was written,” she added. “But sadly it’s just as true now.”

And so “My Fair Lady” remains full of dreamy musical numbers, and luscious costumes, sets and dancing. But this time around Eliza isn’t outdated but elevated. While it will be up to the audiences to decide if Powell is right that it is “a perfect piece of musical theater,” the actor, director, and the whole team behind this updated version have worked toward perfection.

For tickets and details, visit boston.broadway.com

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Councilors on Monday referred a zoning petition to the city’s Planning Board to help revive Starlight Square in the Central Square Business Improvement District.

The petition would allow outdoor retail, entertainment and recreational facilities, like Starlight, to be located within the area by default if such spaces have minimal impact on neighbors.

Showing strong support for the petition, the council expressed urgency for the Planning Board to proceed with a hearing and other necessary action as quickly as possible since some events are planned at Starlight as early as May.

“This zoning petition not only would address some of the concerns regarding Starlight,” Councilor Marc McGovern said, “but it would allow for other really exciting arts and opportunities to take place in Central Square.”

Starlight became a point of some controversy after the city Board of Zoning Appeals voted earlier this month not to renew its special permit for a fourth season. Some city officials told the Herald the decision surprised them given how much community support is behind the venue.

Concerns driving the rejection mainly included noise complaints.

The Central Square BID which oversees Starlight, had responded to concerns, Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui told the Herald. It had reduced the number of events and speakers, installed acoustic panels and ended shows earlier, she said.

BID President Michael Monestine put forth the petition in response to the BZA’s rejection.

“We do what we say we are going to do,” he said during Monday’s meeting. “We have been responsive and responsible neighbors, navigating this process while responding to compounding crises throughout the district.”

Resident James Williams attended the BZA meeting and said he thought board members raised  “important, legitimate concerns responding to immediate neighbors.”

“It has been a failure of the government in my view,” he told the City Council. “We need to find a way to keep Starlight through the rest of the season and in a way that takes seriously the concerns of the immediate neighbors.”

Councilors also approved a motion for the city manager to work with the Central Square BID in pursuing the establishment of a permanent building for Starlight, so the square could operate for years to come.

The city last year approved using $500,000 in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to study what it would take for Starlight Square to become permanent.

“Starlight has been over the past three years just this beacon of hope and light for our community, especially for our arts community,” Vice Mayor Alanna Mallon said. “We have had so many joyful celebrations there, so many artists there, it’s only proper that we’re continuing to support this effort.”

You probably thought of Linda McCartney first, but there’s at least one other: It turns out that May Pang, who was John Lennon’s companion during the famous “lost weekend” of 1973-74, was documenting the experience. She’ll be present to show her work this Saturday and Sunday afternoon at City Winery. Her photos were often taken in informal situations, showing Lennon at his most relaxed and upbeat.

“John didn’t like the photos that most people took of him,” she said this week. “He’d always say ‘I don’t like the way I look there’ or ‘I was so fat.’ But he happened to like what my eye caught of him. You’re seeing him through my eyes, the way I saw him. I’d say I was working more as a partner than a documentarian, but I thought I caught a side that you don’t often get to see. He doesn’t smile in a lot of photos, and one comment I usually get is ‘My goodness, we’ve never seen him so relaxed’.”

The show coincides with the opening of “The Lost Weekend: A Love Story,” a film about her time with Lennon. The movie premiered at the Tribeca festival last summer, and will open nationally next month. To Pang’s mind it was a creative era for Lennon, not the endless drink and debauchery as it’s often portrayed. “The only person to set it straight is me. I’m always hearing people I don’t even know talk about how much time they spent with me and John — but he always used to say, ‘Just wait till they make stories up about you’. John was a big film lover, so he used that term [after the 1945 Ray Milland movie] — but to me, the ‘lost weekend’ was not a lost weekend.”

There were however some memorable characters in the mix– among then the brilliant but self-destructive songwriter Harry Nilsson. Pang was listed as production coordinator for “Pussycats,” the album Lennon produced for him. And sometimes her job was keeping Nilsson out of trouble. “I loved Harry, his voice was so beautiful and John was thrilled to be working with him. But he was also his own worst enemy. His closest friend was Ringo and for them the party was an everyday thing; for John it was more limited. But of course when they went out together, the media would always pick on John. I had my disagreements with Harry, telling him he had to stop– but he’d say ‘No, everybody loves it! He was very strong willed on what we wanted, which was to have a good time. He’d damaged his throat so he’d make the doctors appointments everyday, then go out at night and re-do the damage. That’s why John had to move the sessions to New York instead of Hollywood.”

Pang was also present at the oft-bootlegged, late night session where Paul McCartney dropped in to jam (on drums, no less). This was the only time after the Beatles breakup that the two made music together– albeit very loose music. “The vibe was just friends having fun. It was certainly a surprise that night when Paul and Linda walked in. It seemed that nothing had changed.”

One of her photos, taken in 1974, appears on the cover of Julian Lennon’s recent album “Jude.” She initially helped reunite Julian with his father, and she and he have remained close. She explains the photo by referring to “Hey Jude,” the Beatles song about Julian which his title referenced. “He made it better for himself. That picture comes from our 1974 Christmas vacation at Disney World, a really happy time. It always was, when we got to see him on his school vacations.”

She says she has no relationship with Yoko Ono, who initially brought her and Lennon together. But Lennon remains a presence in her life. “It’s funny, the other night I was watching ‘Law & Order’ and they used the line, ‘Whatever gets you through the night’ [a Lennon lyric from 1974]– I had to laugh. You can’t really ignore John, his spirit is everywhere.”

Last week’s permit denial for Starlight Square, an outdoor entertainment, recreation and retail venue in the city’s Central Square, caught the surprise of some Cambridge officials who have told the Herald they will be addressing a path forward as soon as this week.

Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui on Saturday said more information regarding how the city will respond to the BZA’s rejection will be coming this week. She declined to comment on what the response may entail.

“For me, it’s just really a community hub, and it really has been indispensable,” Siddiqui said. “We can’t go back to what the status quo was, which was a parking lot. It has much better uses than that.”

Starlight Square’s permit just missed out on being renewed during last Thursday’s BZA meeting. Three members approved the extension, but four yes votes were needed to constitute a supermajority. Concerns driving the rejection mainly included noise complaints.

The Central Square Business Improvement District, which oversaw the outdoor entertainment, arts and commercial venue, had responded to direct feedback, Siddiqui said. It had reduced the number of events and speakers, installed acoustic panels and ended shows earlier, she said.

“They were still willing to compromise,” the mayor said. “For it to be denied completely is a big surprise considering how much support was provided at the BZA hearing, whether it was in person or in letters.”

While events that had been planned will be canceled in the short term, city Councilor Burhan Azeem said conversations have begun around drafting legislation that would override the BZA decision and help bring Starlight Square back.

The process, Azeem told the Herald on Friday, could take two to three months at the earliest, with Starlight Square reopening in the middle of June being the best case scenario.

“They only got one noise complaint back in 2020 so the idea that people are frustrated by it is just not true,” Azeem said, “This is a really beautiful space used by thousands of people at all times of the year.”

The City Council also looks to submit zoning petition soon, Councilor Quinton Zondervan told the Herald via text message Saturday night.

Though this is a pure local issue, state Rep. Michael Connolly, D-Cambridge, submitted a letter to the BZA early last week in support of allowing Starlight Square to have a fourth season.

“In this moment when so much community space, independent retail space is hard to come by with rents going up,” Connolly said, “this became a really valuable option for community gatherings that were really accessible. At this point, many of us are in shock.”

Members of the BZA are appointed by the city manager. The BZA extended Starlight Square’s special permit the past two years before last week’s rejection despite what Central Square Business Improvement District President Michael Monestime called “overwhelming public support.”

“Someone should spend time examining a system that empowers members of an unelected board to shut down a community benefit project that has the support of the Mayor, Vice Mayor, city councilors, state representatives, community leaders, and residents,” Monestime said in an email Saturday night. “That is not ours to do.”

Some of the upcoming events that the Central Square Business Improvement District looked to hold at Starlight Square included a summit on the role of public space in the city and a fundraiser for humanitarian relief after earthquakes in Turkey, Monestime said.

“While we’re devastated, our organization has always rallied in a crisis,” he said. “This is another moment for us to do so on behalf of the Cultural District.”