Inquirer.com – Zurich DR

Category: Entertainment Wires

  • David Clayton-Thomas, powerhouse lead singer of Blood, Sweat & Tears, has died at 84

    NEW YORK — David Clayton-Thomas, the lead singer of Blood, Sweat & Tears, whose husky, high-strung tenor on “Spinning Wheel,” “And When I Die,” and other hits helped make the so-called “brass rock” band among the most popular acts of the late 1960s, has died at age 84.

    Spokesperson Eric Alper said that Mr. Clayton-Thomas died “peacefully” Wednesday at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. Alper did not cite a specific cause.

    Mr. Clayton-Thomas was a onetime street fighter and petty thief from Canada who briefly became a rock superstar, the front man of a nine-member group that sold millions of records and won two Grammys for Blood, Sweat & Tears, which beat out the Beatles’ Abbey Road for best album of 1969. Calling out amid a jazzy parade of horns, keyboards, and percussion, Mr. Clayton-Thomas’ urgent shout was a signature voice of the era, preaching love on the Motown cover “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy,” a lasting legacy on Laura Nyro’s “And When I Die,” and a cool head on his own “Spinning Wheel.” Meanwhile, Blood, Sweat & Tears helped inspire a wave of horn-led bands, among them Chicago, the Electric Flag, and Ten Wheel Drive.

    “A lot of the guys [in Blood, Sweat & Tears] would play a Broadway show matinee, then go up to Harlem and play Latin music or R&B and funk at night, or come down to the Village and play pure jazz the next night,” Mr. Clayton-Thomas told bestclassicbands.com in 2023. “I was just a blues player: give me three chords and I’ve got a song.”

    At its peak, Blood, Sweat & Tears’ appeal was so broad it helped lead to the band’s downfall.

    Hip enough to perform at the 1969 Woodstock festival, where they were among the highest paid acts, they also were known enough to the establishment to tour Eastern Europe the following year on behalf of the State Department. When Mr. Clayton-Thomas and other band members denounced the Communist regimes on the other side of the Cold War, Rolling Stone’s David Felton wrote that “the State Department got its money worth.” Yippies would turn up at a 1970 Blood, Sweat & Tears show at Madison Square Garden, carrying obscene banners outside and dumping manure by the front gate.

    The band had practical reasons for going along with the government: Mr. Clayton-Thomas, who had allegedly wielded a gun at his girlfriend, had been denied a green card and faced deportation. But after topping the charts in 1970 with the album Blood, Sweat & Tears 3, their appeal soon faded. A burned out Mr. Clayton-Thomas left the group in 1972, and neither he nor the remaining musicians ever regained their old stature. Blood, Sweat & Tears would continue recording over the next few years, and even briefly reunited with Mr. Clayton-Thomas, who went on to release more than a dozen solo albums and tour on his own for decades.

    Mr. Clayton-Thomas was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1996. “Spinning Wheel,” covered by everyone from James Brown to TV star Barbara Eden, was voted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame a decade later.

    Mr. Clayton-Thomas is survived by his daughters, Ashleigh Clayton-Thomas and Christine Graham.

    Up from the streets

    Born David Henry Thomsett in Surrey, England, and raised near Toronto and Ottawa, he was the son of a Canadian World War II veteran and of a pianist-entertainer who helped inspire her son’s interest in music. Thomsett was lucky to have the chance. He fought violently with his father, was living in the streets by his mid-teens and by age 20 was serving time in a reformatory for vagrancy, assault and other crimes.

    An old guitar, left behind by a fellow inmate, changed his life. He taught himself to play and began spending extensive time in the early 1960s around Toronto’s Yonge Street music “strip,” where peers included the American rockabilly star Ronnie Hawkins, a mentor to Robbie Robertson and other future members of the Band and a guide for Thomsett early in his career.

    Anxious to reinvent himself, he changed his last name to Clayton-Thomas while leading his own groups. In the mid-60s, he released such albums as Sings Like It Is and had a hit single with the anti-war rocker “Brainwashed.” He would also befriend a rising star, Joni Mitchell, whose childlike “Circle Game” helped inspire “Spinning Wheel,” and the venerable John Lee Hooker, who would indirectly contribute to Mr. Clayton-Thomas’ breakthrough in the U.S.

    America beckons

    Hooker had encouraged Mr. Clayton-Thomas to move to New York, where the American bluesman had an engagement at the Cafe Au Go Go in Greenwich Village. When Hooker unexpectedly departed for a tour of Europe, club owner Howard Solomon needed a replacement and recruited Mr. Clayton-Thomas.

    “So I played him a couple songs on the guitar,” Mr. Clayton-Thomas told bestclassicbands.com. “He said, ‘Do you have a band?’ I said, ‘Sure,’ and went out into Greenwich Village looking for anybody carrying a guitar case or even looking like a musician, and we put together a little band and we opened there that night. We ended up staying there for several months.”

    Around the same time, session man-producer Al Kooper was looking to a form jazz-rock group and was joined by such musicians as guitarist Steve Katz, drummer Bobby Colomby, and horn players Randy Brecker and Jerry Weiss. They called themselves Blood, Sweat & Tears, releasing the debut album Child Is Father to the Man early in 1968. Although praised by Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner as “a fine, exemplary group,” members were torn between those allied with Kooper and those who thought his vocals too weak to attract a substantial audience.

    By the end of the year, Kooper and others had departed, and the band was seeking a new singer. After Judy Collins saw Mr. Clayton-Thomas perform, she recommended him to Colomby.

    “I got home and just a couple of days later, Bobby Colomby called me up and said, ‘Hey, Kooper’s gone. We got four guys left out of the nine. And we still got a record contract with Columbia. Do you want to come down and try out for the band?”’ Mr. Clayton-Thomas told bestclassicbands.com. ”I said, ‘You’re damn right.’ I knew [bassist] Jim Fielder real well and I knew they were superb musicians. So I was on the next plane. We had a rehearsal that afternoon, an audition, and it was instant magic. We just knew right off the bat.”

  • Comedy trailblazer Tom Dreesen, Sinatra’s longtime opening act, dies at 86

    LOS ANGELES — Tom Dreesen, who along with partner Tim Reid formed one of America’s first interracial stand-up comedy duos and later spent years as Frank Sinatra’s opening act, died Wednesday. He was 86.

    Dreesen died at his home in Los Angeles, according to publicist Lori De Waal. A cause of death was not provided.

    After meeting in Chicago, Dreesen and Reid, who was Black, formed “Tim and Tom” in 1969. Against a backdrop of simmering racial tension, they used humor to address social issues and promote understanding between audiences of different backgrounds. They worked together until the mid-1970s. Reid went on to solo success playing DJ Venus Flytrap on the popular TV sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati, where Dreesen was a guest star.

    “When I was a kid I found an album he and his comedy partner did called Tim and Tom and took it home and played it and it was one of the albums that changed the course of my life. So great,” comedian and filmmaker Mike Binder wrote on X.

    After splitting with Reid, Dreesen honed a solo comedy act, making over 500 national TV appearances, including 60 visits to The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. He also was a frequent guest and sometime guest host on The Late Show with David Letterman. Their friendship dated to the early 1970s when both worked at the Comedy Store in West Hollywood, Calif.

    Dreesen’s final TV appearance came last week on Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen, which replaced Stephen Colbert’s canceled CBS late-night show.

    Dreesen was Sinatra’s opening act for 14 years and became close with the entertainer.

    “If he loved you, he worshipped the ground you walked on,” Dreesen told the Desert Sun newspaper in 2014. ”In a lot of ways, he was like a father to me. I didn’t have a father that really cared that much where I was and what I did. But Frank would give me advice and counsel, and then he was a buddy in a lot of ways. I thought the world of him.”

    Dressen also toured with Sinatra’s fellow Rat Pack member Sammy Davis Jr., as well as Liza Minnelli, Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight, and Tony Orlando.

    “He was one of the most brilliant comedians of all time. Tonight, he’ll once again be opening for Dean, Frank and Sammy,” Deana Martin, a daughter of Dean Martin, posted on X.

    In 2008, Dreesen co-wrote the book Tim and Tom: An American Comedy Act in Black and White and in 2020 he authored his memoir.

    Dreesen acted in such TV shows as Columbo, Murder, She Wrote, and Touched by an Angel. His film roles included Spaceballs, Man on the Moon, and Trouble With the Curve, as well as the HBO movies The Rat Pack and Lansky.

    Dreesen was active in charitable work, motivational speaking, and veterans’ causes, including serving as ambassador for the Gary Sinise Foundation.

    “America lost one of our great comedians and patriots, and I lost a dear friend,” Sinise posted on X.

    He was born on Sept. 11, 1939, in Chicago and raised as one of eight children in suburban Harvey. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy at age 17 and after getting out in 1960 he returned home to work a series of jobs, including selling insurance.

    Dreesen is survived by daughters Amy and Jennifer from his marriage to Maryellen Subock, which ended in divorce in 1984, as well as seven grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his son Tommy.

  • Springsteen, Bono and Stevie Wonder help the Obamas open their presidential museum

    Former President Barack Obama formally opened his presidential center in Chicago on Thursday with a call to defend democracy as three other former presidents joined him on stage in an extraordinary event featuring politicians, A-list celebrities, athletes, and other internationally known figures.

    “I hope this center will serve as an affirmation of just how special, how precious our democracy truly is and remind us what we can achieve when we embrace our shared responsibilities as citizens,” the nation’s first Black president told the crowd.

    Bono, John Legend, Christina Aguilera, Marc Anthony, and Eddie Vedder took turns on the stage ahead of Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Wonder, who closed the show singing “Higher Ground” as the former presidents, world leaders, and others danced along.

    President Donald Trump was conspicuous both in his physical absence and by not being mentioned by any of the speakers or performers. Trump called the $850 million center a “total disaster” in a social media post in February.

    Obama voiced his support for character, honesty, integrity, kindness, compassion, and sense of duty, praising both Democrats and Republicans, including those he defeated.

    “Every president here today, as different as we are, has tried our best to uphold values that John McCain and Mitt Romney believed in no less than I did,” Obama said. “It is our greatest inheritance.”

    Reflecting on his arrival in Chicago in 1985 as an untested political organizer, he said he could not have built the Obama Presidential Center anywhere else. He met his future wife, Michelle, nearby, their wedding reception was within walking distance, his children were born in the neighborhood, and he launched his first candidacy not far away.

    “It’s an expression of thanks, an acknowledgment that so much of what I hold most dear I owe to the people of this city and the people of the surrounding neighborhoods,” Obama said.

    Michelle had some emotional words for her husband

    The Obamas and their daughters shared the stage with former presidents Joe Biden, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton along with former first ladies Jill Biden, Laura Bush, and Hillary Rodham Clinton. Former Vice President Kamala Harris and many other leading Democrats were in the audience.

    Michelle Obama spoke directly to her husband when she stepped up to the podium. “Eight years in the crucible and not once did you melt in the heat. Not once did you let it harden you.

    “Instead, you used it to reveal your truest essence,” she said. “Your stubborn optimism and unflinching courage. Your dazzling brilliance and unpretentious decency. Your ferocious work ethic and absolutely unshakable moral fiber. And to do it all as a first.”

    She ticked off highlights from her husband’s eight years in office, including ordering the raid that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden, “standing up for marriage equality,” and “listening to science.”

    “And you did it all with such grace and class and cool,” she said. “You made the hardest job in the world look like a walk in this beautiful park.”

    Obama appeared to wipe away a tear as she praised him.

    Michelle Obama also referenced the current “anxious and divisive times” and warned against being cynical or complacent as “everything feels so upside down.” She pitched the center as “a respite from all that.”

    A-list entertainers, inspirational anthems, and protest songs

    Jennifer Hudson sang the national anthem and Aguilera delivered a rousing rendition of “What a Wonderful World.” Pearl Jam’s Vedder, joined by Chicago teenagers in the nonprofit Guitars Over Guns program, sang an original song called “Better Believe,” written just for the dedication.

    Legend sang “Someday We’ll All Be Free” and was joined by the rapper Common and Uniting Voices Chicago for their Academy Award-winning song “Glory.”

    Bono, who said he was representing the Irish, joined with The Edge in singing the U2 song “City of Blinding Lights.” The Roots served as the house band. And Springsteen sang “Land of Hopes and Dreams” before turning to the Obamas and saying “I love you.”

    Wonder sang “All I Do” and “Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours)” before the grand finale, joined by the performers who preceded him.

    The VIP crowd included several potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidates; civil rights leaders Andrew Young and Al Sharpton; Oprah Winfrey; comedians David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, and Stephen Colbert; actor Tom Hanks; tennis legend Billie Jean King; and Chicago Cubs Chairperson Tom Ricketts.

    Former world leaders in attendance included former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

    Event kicked off weekend of celebration

    The three-hour invitation-only celebration included commentary from a nearby park where thousands gathered, and it was livestreamed to many more. It kicks off a weekend of events as the center opens to the general public on Juneteenth.

    “This is not a monument to the Obamas,” said Valerie Jarrett, the Obama Foundation’s chief executive and former Obama top adviser. “This is a tribute to all those who made this journey possible.”

    The opening, like the ribbon-cuttings of other presidential libraries over the years, had a heavy focus on accomplishments. This former president also expressed some regrets — such as the increase in political polarization during his two terms. “It’s one of the few regrets of my presidency — that the rancor and suspicion between the parties has gotten worse instead of better,” Obama said in his final State of the Union.

    “Some of the exhibits reflect unfinished business,” Obama said Thursday. “In some cases, my own shortcomings and mistakes.”

    General admission tickets for the center are sold out through the end of October. More than a million visitors a year are expected at the nearly 20-acre campus.

  • U.K. bans under-16s from using social media apps including TikTok and YouTube

    LONDON — Britain will ban children aged under 16 from using a range of social media apps, including Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube, to protect them from harmful content and excessive screen time, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Monday.

    The ban, which is expected to take effect early next year, makes the U.K. part of a growing global movement to tighten online safety for children. Australia, Canada, Brazil, and Indonesia have introduced legislation or announced age-based restrictions or requirements for children’s access to social media. France, Spain, Denmark, Thailand, and South Korea are among others studying or developing similar approaches.

    “Every parent can see it with their own eyes. Social media is making children unhappy,” said Starmer, who has two teenage children. “I’ve heard first hand from families crying out for change and we will do right by them.”

    The plan was met with mixed reaction, with some praising Starmer for taking action and others questioning the effectiveness of a blanket ban.

    YouTube and Meta — the parent company of Facebook and Instagram — warned Monday that a blanket social media restriction could push kids into unregulated spaces.

    “Blanket bans push kids out of such curated, supervised, beneficial experiences and towards anonymous, less-safe services,” a YouTube spokesperson said. Meta said a ban could drive teens to online alternatives without any parental controls.

    Starmer acknowledged the challenges and said some teens would try to find their way around a ban, but said: “I do believe we can enforce it.”

    He added: “Teenagers drink before they should, but we do not then say, ‘in which case let us abandon any attempt to stop them buying alcohol.’”

    The prime minister — who is under pressure to step down from members of his own party over what they see as poor leadership and could face a challenge from within his Labour Party in the coming days or weeks — said he is “not prepared to compromise on the safety and happiness of our children.”

    Starmer says the U.K. will go further than Australia

    The U.K. plans to follow the same model for a social media ban as Australia, which last year became the first country to bar under-16s from holding social media accounts. Platforms that fail to take reasonable steps to exclude children younger than 16 could be punished with multimillion-dollar fines.

    The U.K. said its ban will apply to platforms including Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and X, but not YouTube Kids or messaging services like WhatsApp and Signal. Starmer stressed that enforcement action will target tech companies, not children.

    He said the move was a “big moment for our country,” adding that he will go further than Australia’s measures.

    The government will also act to prevent strangers from contacting children on gaming and livestreaming platforms, Starmer said. AI chatbots designed to simulate romantic or sexual relationships with users will be restricted to those over 18 only, and authorities are also considering additional measures including overnight curfews and breaks in infinite scrolling for those under 18.

    More details are expected next month.

    Some skepticism over whether a ban will work

    The decision follows a public comment period in which the government received 116,000 responses from parents, the tech industry, and children. More than 90% of respondents wanted an under-16 ban, the government said.

    Ellen Roome, a children’s online safety campaigner whose son took his own life at 14 years old, welcomed the move. She believes her son died after an online challenge went wrong and has campaigned for legal reforms to give parents access to children’s social media accounts after their death.

    “The tech companies, if they wanted to make changes, they could have done that by now. They’ve chosen not to do it,” she said. “We need to come down hard on them. If they’re not going to do it, we need to be very strict.”

    But others say research in Australia has shown that age verification is difficult to enforce, and that a blanket ban fails to address a deeper problem — the way social media algorithms push harmful content to young people.

    “This is far too easy to work around. It is based on age verification tools that have been shown to be ineffective to date,” said Kate Edwards, head of education at the Molly Rose Foundation, which was set up in memory of 14-year-old Molly Russell, who took her own life after being exposed to self-harm content online.

    “It does nothing to address the actual problem itself, the harmful algorithms, the harmful content that is existing on those platforms,” Edwards added.

    A Meta statement said it shares “the goal of keeping teens safe online,” and that it now features teen accounts to automatically limit who can contact them and the content they see.

    “Like others, we don’t think bans will achieve this goal,” Meta said, adding that Australia had shown how “bans risk isolating teens from online communities and information.”

    Jon Crowcroft, a communications systems professor at the University of Cambridge, said people supporting social bans are well-meaning but probably misguided, and changes could prevent children from accessing sites they need.

    “There is a real risk this will drive some users to worse sites, and policing devices is close to impossible technically,” Crowcroft said.

    Other critics including the Open Rights Group have expressed concerns about age verification companies and how users’ private data is protected.

    U.S. opposes the move

    The ban could further inflame tensions with the U.S., which has warned that regulations should be narrow and not violate free speech protections, according to a statement from the U.S. Embassy in London. It said it was also concerned that regulations would place greater burdens on American technology companies.

    Starmer said he expected to discuss the issue with U.S. President Donald Trump and other world leaders at a Group of Seven summit in France that started Monday.

    “I honestly think that across world leaders, there has always been a recognition that leaders have to take steps to protect children,” he said. “I don’t think that’s controversial.”

  • Trump’s name gone from the Kennedy Center’s facade

    WASHINGTON — The curtain may have come down for President Donald Trump at the Kennedy Center but the tarp stays up for now.

    Matt Floca, executive director and chief operating officer of the performing arts venue, told a federal court Saturday that the institution had complied with an order to remove Trump’s name from the facade. In a filing, Floca said the board of trustees and the center had removed “all physical signage on the Kennedy Center building and grounds, including the front portico, that purports to rename the Kennedy Center after President Trump.”

    But for onlookers who have gathered on the plaza in front of the center over the past day hoping to witness a dramatic moment symbolizing the limits of Trump’s power, it was virtually impossible to see whether the signage was gone. A tarp hung over the scaffolding constructed for workers to perform that task. It was unclear when the tarp might be removed to reveal the original lettering that had endured for decades: “The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”

    A reporter was able to peer through a slight opening in the tarp, which was pulled tightly against the wall, and saw that the letters for Trump’s name were no longer affixed to the building.

    By the end, the Kennedy Center’s leadership had dug in against a federal judge’s order to erase Trump’s name from the building. Two courts rejected the institution’s last-minute request to retain Trump’s name pending an appeal. After severe thunderstorms raked Washington on Friday evening, the Kennedy Center sought one more extension before complying with a noon Saturday deadline.

    Those who pushed for the scrubbing of Trump’s name were in a celebratory mood. Rep. Joyce Beatty (D.,Ohio), an ex officio member of the board who sued to remove references to the president from the building and the center’s operations, was spotted in the plaza late Friday and Saturday morning. She posted a video to social media that purported to show her performing the “Trump dance” in one of the Kennedy Center’s great halls.

    “Today’s victory is the beginning of returning the Kennedy Center to the American people,” Beatty said in a statement. “The rule of law prevailed, and that is worth celebrating.”

    Leo Bartholomaus, a recent graduate of Syracuse University who lives in Virginia, said he was walking by the Kennedy Center on Friday afternoon after visiting the National Mall to see events related to this weekend’s UFC match at the White House. He said he was not happy that Trump added his name to the building.

    “My grandmother had a big love of the arts,” he said. “I’ve been here to see The Lion King. I wasn’t a fan of Donald Trump putting his name on it. I thought it was better as the Kennedy Center.”

    Closing an unusual chapter

    The removal of Trump’s name closes one of the more unusual chapters in the history of the Kennedy Center, which began construction in 1964 and was dedicated to the memory of the slain president, Democrat John F. Kennedy. At what is typically one of the few relatively nonpartisan spaces in Washington, Trump has wielded tremendous influence over the venue during his second term.

    Though he rarely discussed the Kennedy Center during his 2024 campaign, Trump moved quickly to oust the institution’s leadership when he returned to office in January 2025 and replaced it with a board of trustees that named him chairman. His name was quickly added to the building.

    While the removal of his name marks a setback for Trump, he is moving forward with plans to reshape the physical landscape of the nation’s capital in ways that have few modern parallels.

    He demolished the East Wing of the White House and is building a controversial ballroom in its place. He remodeled the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and plans extensive renovations of a golf course in East Potomac Park, moves that could significantly reduce the public’s access to running and biking paths. He is also moving forward with a triumphal arch that will sit near Arlington National Cemetery across the Potomac River in Virginia.

    Indeed, as Trump’s name was being removed from the Kennedy Center, the South Lawn of the White House has been transformed into a venue for a UFC match intended to celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence but also coinciding with Trump’s birthday on Sunday.

    Questions linger about the Kennedy Center’s future

    Back at the Kennedy Center, there are many questions about the institution’s future. The same May court decision that ordered Trump’s name to be removed from the building also blocked a planned two-year closure for renovations that was set to begin next month.

    The Kennedy Center’s calendar for the weeks ahead include performances of Moulin Rouge! The Musical and Bluey’s Big Play. Comedian Bill Maher is to be awarded the Mark Twain Award for American Humor during a ceremony on June 28.

    But little is scheduled for the stages beyond that and, after substantially reducing staff, it is unclear how quickly the Kennedy Center could build out a robust performance list. Trump, angered by the court’s order to remove his name, has said he would turn the Kennedy Center over to Congress and has suggested it might simply shutter because of public safety concerns.

    In its unsuccessful appeal on Friday seeking a pause on the order removing Trump’s name, the Kennedy Center’s leadership argued, in terms that seemed similar to the president’s speech patterns, that the lower court was interfering with needed renovations.

    “The District Court is not allowing us to close in order to properly fix up and repair the Building, including potentially life threatening structural damage like beams and parking garage ceilings that are rusted, and in serious danger of falling onto people below,” according to the appeal. “Indeed, total collapse!”

    The institution also suggested that the president’s name could return to the building if the Kennedy Center later wins its appeal.

    If the court denied the venue’s request for a pause, the Kennedy Center argued it would “be forced to squander time and money — by both removing the signage and then potentially returning it after appeal.”

  • Trump’s name poised to be removed from Kennedy Center after court denies last-minute move to keep it

    WASHINGTON — The Kennedy Center was running out of options Friday evening to keep President Donald Trump’s name on the facade of the iconic performing arts venue.

    A judge earlier in the afternoon rejected a request to pause a court-ordered deadline of Friday to remove references to Trump from the building and other aspects of the Kennedy Center’s operations. The institution appealed that ruling, an effort that was also rebuffed Friday evening.

    Scaffolding was erected earlier in the day around a section of the building that includes Trump’s name, though there was no effort to remove it by 7 p.m. Eastern Time. Storms with lightning were dancing around Washington, adding to the challenge for workers.

    After ignoring the Kennedy Center for much of his first term, Trump has wielded tremendous influence over the venue during his return to office. Just a month into his second term, he ousted the center’s previous leadership and replaced it with a board of trustees that named him chairman. Trump’s name was quickly added to the building.

    In his ruling that only Congress could make changes to the Kennedy Center’s name, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper also blocked the administration from closing the cultural and arts venue for major renovations that had been planned to start in July and last for two years.

    The Kennedy Center’s leadership argued in its appeal Friday that the renovation was badly needed and accused the lower court, in terms that seemed similar to Trump’s speech patterns, of interfering in the effort.

    “The District Court is not allowing us to close in order to properly fix up and repair the Building, including potentially life threatening structural damage like beams and parking garage ceilings that are rusted, and in serious danger of falling onto people below,” according to the appeal. “Indeed, total collapse!”

    Even as the Kennedy Center has fought efforts to remove Trump’s name from the building, it has taken steps to comply with Cooper’s initial ruling.

    A June 4 memo to staff from the Kennedy Center’s Office of General Counsel said email signatures, letterhead and other documents must reflect the name as “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts” or “Kennedy Center.”

    The Kennedy Center’s website has dropped Trump’s name. And an earlier email sent to members offering ticket packages for the June 28 Mark Twain Award for American Humor ceremony came from the Kennedy Center without including Trump’s name.

  • Judge rules Trump can stage UFC fights on the White House’s South Lawn this weekend

    WASHINGTON — A federal judge ruled on Friday that the White House is allowed to stage a UFC show this weekend in an elaborate ring already built on the South Lawn to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary — on President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday.

    U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta rejected a legal advocacy group’s request to block organizers from using the White House lawn as the venue for Sunday’s planned UFC mixed martial arts event.

    Mehta concluded that the plaintiffs likely don’t have legal standing to challenge the event and have failed to prove that they would suffer irreparable harm by the event going forward as planned. The judge also cited the plaintiffs’ “unreasonable delay” in suing to challenge an event that’s been in the works for months.

    “In the context of an emergency application — and coupled with the fact that the UFC fight date was long ago known — it is fair to say Plaintiffs unreasonably delayed bringing suit, undercutting their claims of irreparable harm,” Mehta wrote.

    Attorneys from the nonprofit Public Integrity Project sued to challenge Trump’s UFC Freedom 250 event on behalf of an activist and a Vietnam War veteran. The two plaintiffs also asked the court to block organizers from building anything for the event on White House grounds, including a 92-foot-tall, 600-ton steel structure called the Claw.

    The plaintiffs’ alleged “aesthetic harms,” the judge noted, are temporary since the Claw will be disassembled starting Monday morning and staging equipment at the Lincoln Memorial must be removed before then. “The President’s musings about permanency of the Claw does not move the dial in the face of a White House official’s clear representation,” the judge wrote.

    The White House called the lawsuit a baseless attempt to prevent Trump from hosting an event that’s no different from many others routinely hosted at public forums in the nation’s capital.

    Trump’s administration can’t issue permits for sporting events on the South Lawn or at the Lincoln Memorial, where UFC fighters planned to hold a news conference in front of fans on Friday, according to plaintiffs’ attorneys. They noted that the event is a privately organized, for-profit business venture, with VIP packages costing millions of dollars.

    “The President’s administration is granting the UFC an extraordinary business opportunity it may not lawfully grant, and in exchange the UFC is throwing an event at which its leadership, fighters, advertisers, and various celebrities will all pay tribute to the President on his birthday,” plaintiffs’ attorneys wrote.

    Public Integrity Project attorney Brendan Ballou said the plaintiffs were disappointed in the judge’s decision but respect it and intend to “keep bringing cases to raise the cost of corruption in America.”

    “This isn’t a case about a sporting event, it’s about corruption, as a handful of people and companies stand to profit from our public monuments,” Ballou said in a statement.

    The National Park Service and the Interior Department are named as defendants in the lawsuit.

    In 2019, during his first term in office, Trump became the first sitting president to attend a UFC show. Trump, a Republican, is a friend of UFC president and CEO Dana White.

    Mehta was nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama, a Democrat. Mehta has presided over other Trump-related cases, including civil litigation accusing Trump of inciting a mob of his supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after he lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden, a Democrat.

  • Lights! Camera! Cage match! The White House lawn’s Octagon is ready for Trump’s 80th birthday bash

    WASHINGTON — It looks from afar more UFO than UFC.

    Maybe it’s the kind of contraption that has carried space aliens to the White House to force a meeting with America’s leader.

    But come closer and you’ll see the contours of the eight-sided cage, 30 feet in diameter and shaped, with careful precision, like the MMA league’s signature Octagon.

    That is, a STOP! sign flipped on its edge, with wire-mesh sides and padded corners fitted with different sponsors’ logos: Morgan & Morgan, Bud Light, Dodge Ram, Corona Extra, and Polymarket, which identifies itself as the world’s largest prediction market.

    Overhead looms the Claw, a four-sided mass that arcs more than 90 feet into the air and features lights, speakers, thick snakes of wiring, and four large screens so fans not seated right next to the Octagon can follow the cage fighting below.

    Think more of the four-sided, metal grabby thing that tries to grasp stuffed animals at a video arcade rather than what house cats have — hence the extraterrestrial vibes.

    And surrounding all that are risers filled with gray folding chairs forming a temporary arena expected to seat 4,000-plus people for the seven UFC fights being staged on Sunday to celebrate the 80th birthday of President Donald Trump and the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence’s signing.

    “Quite attractive to a lot of people”

    For non-UFC fans, all of this might be disorienting under any circumstances. But the temporary arena is covering nearly the entirety of the White House’s South Lawn, where Marine One usually lands to ferry the president to out-of-town trips and gobs of kids scramble in the grass during the Easter Egg Roll every spring.

    More than $60 million and tens of thousands of hours of labor have been poured into building the arena, according to a court filing from the National Park Service, which oversees the South Lawn and contested a lawsuit meant to block the event. Federal Judge Ahmet P. Mehta on Friday declined to block it, ruling it could go forward.

    The White House says the UFC is covering the costs, though the filing states that seven agencies — including the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Aviation Administration — have “allocated significant resources and manpower.”

    Fighters, their entourages, and assorted support staffers are expected to take over the driveway and part of the West Wing when they’re not fighting. But they’ll enter the arena via curtained-off walkways with access to the Octagon.

    They, as well as ordinary attendees of Sunday’s spectacle, will have picturesque views of the White House’s Executive Residence and its storied Truman Balcony on one side and the Washington Monument towering in the distance on the other. All of it will be accentuated by swirling spotlights, and perhaps even sweat and blood pouring off the fighters pummeling each other.

    A packed pre-event schedule included a news conference at the Lincoln Memorial with UFC chief Dana White and the fighters on Friday night.

    The schedule also includes a ceremonial weigh-in for combatants on Saturday at the Ellipse, a park near the White House, where organizers expect 120,000-plus visitors to watch Sunday night’s proceedings on large screens after winning free tickets in a lottery.

    Stunt athlete Travis Pastrana is also set to do a potentially death-defying backflip on a dirt bike on the White House lawn as part of the preshow extravaganza.

    Trump has called the Octagon and its Claw “quite attractive to a lot of people.” He’s even suggested that maybe the temporary structure could become permanent, like the Eiffel Tower, which he notes was originally built as part of the 1889 World’s Fair but then was never taken down.

    Only the president knows how serious that suggestion really is.

    The fights will go on rain or shine — despite a lack of covering

    Work on the arena began May 20 and has continued for weeks. During a walk-through for reporters on Thursday, construction noises — particularly sanding and hammering — could be heard. Giant cranes were carrying materials around overhead, though that was for the $400 million ballroom that Trump is building nearby, not the UFC fight.

    The remaining grassy lawn around the arena, on the other sides of the White House, has been fitted with supplemental spotlights. But the grass that normally grows between the White House and the start of the risers for the arena is now gone, with nothing but dusty dirt that will need to be resodded when this is all over — unless the president really does decide to leave the arena up permanently.

    There’s also a large Freedom 250 logo standing between the White House and the arena. Nearby, crews removed the tables and yellow patio umbrellas from Trump’s refurbished Rose Garden and were power-washing that space, as well as the colonnade to the Oval Office, in preparation for the fights.

    Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed a cooperation agreement with UFC that will see both institutions provide fight training and health and diet regimens, while promoting teamwork and leadership among youth around the world.

    “We are so polarized,” Rubio said. “There are only a handful of things that bring people together in one place at one time, united by their interest in one thing. We need more of those.”

    Later Thursday, crews began testing the sound system, unleashing a deep rumbling — and sometimes unsettling bass notes — throughout the West Wing. During a subsequent Oval Office event, the music from the lawn was loud enough that the 1970s hit “Boys Are Back in Town” rollicked in the background as Trump spoke.

    Sunday’s event starts at 8 p.m. ET. As darkness falls, crews will illuminate the Claw in red, white, and blue, and the mass of lights will offer projections that make it seem as though the entire structure has been enveloped in a twirling stars and stripes pattern.

    The weather forecast calls for hot and muggy conditions with thunderstorms possible. The underside of the Claw’s tower features an overhead cover that should keep the fighters reasonably dry should it rain — and Trump is also likely to watch from a protected, covered area.

    But everyone else would almost certainly get wet.

    White has vowed that even heavy lightning — when the Claw might make a conspicuous target for bolts — wouldn’t stop the show.

    “I don’t care if it snows,” White said.

  • New York’s busiest train station to get $8 billion remodel with columns, sunlight, and Trump’s name

    NEW YORK — When Manhattan’s original Pennsylvania Station was demolished in 1963, it marked the undignified end to one of America’s great public works, a monolithic Beaux Arts train terminal with Roman-style columns and a spacious central waiting area that was at the time the city’s largest indoor space.

    In its place rose Madison Square Garden — home of NBA’s New York Knicks and NHL’s New York Rangers — while train commuters were forced underground into gloomy, claustrophobic, low-ceilinged corridors when the redesign was completed in 1968.

    “Through Pennsylvania Station one entered the city like a god,” the architectural historian Vincent Scully famously lamented. “One scuttles in now like a rat.”

    But a dramatic new vision for the busiest transit hub in the Western Hemisphere calls for a return to the original station’s grandeur from 1910.

    Renderings released Monday feature a rectangular stone facade lined with imposing columns along a grand entryway. Inside, a sunlight-drenched concourse boasts soaring ceilings more than 50 feet high in places. There are bronze finishes and other ornamental details, like a bas-relief of the city’s famous skyline and a large station clock.

    Inside one entryway, an inside wall bears the seal and name of President Donald Trump, who had Amtrak assume control of the project last year after decades of political infighting among transit agencies and opposition to moving MSG from billionaire owner James Dolan.

    Trump has floated renaming his hometown station in his honor as he’s sought to burnish his legacy through public works projects, from a massive new White House ballroom to a triumphal arch.

    For now, though, the name etched across the proposed grand facade would still read “Pennsylvania Station,” according to the renderings. They were released by Amtrak, which owns the terminal, and Penn Transformation Partners, the design and development consortium picked for the project.

    Proposal aims to make Penn Station an icon again

    The proposed design draws from the ornate, Beaux-Arts design of Grand Central Terminal, the city’s other major rail hub, as well as Art Deco landmarks like the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center, according to lead design architect Vishaan Chakrabarti.

    The vision, he said, is to restore Penn Station’s place among the pantheon of the city’s greatest landmarks.

    “There was this fearless embrace of ornament and decoration that in some ways we’ve lost,” Chakrabarti said. “We want to bring some of that sense of craftsmanship back.”

    The redesign is projected to cost roughly $8 billion, and construction is targeted to begin before the end of 2027, officials said Monday. Penn Station would remain in operation throughout as the project progresses in phases over about six years.

    More than 600,000 commuters traverse the rail hub on any given workday, or more than the three major international airports that serve greater New York City — John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia, and Newark Liberty — combined.

    Knicks and Rangers home arena would remain at the site

    Plans floated over the decades have called for relocating MSG, but the plan is for the “World’s Most Famous Arena” to remain in place. A theater owned by MSG and built directly above the tracks, however, would have to be razed.

    The developers and MSG’s owner have reached an agreement on this critical point, but the final terms — including payment — are still being negotiated. That’s according to Andy Byford, a former New York City subway chief who Amtrak named as a special adviser to oversee the redevelopment.

    Transit advocates complain the process has been shrouded in secrecy.

    “It’s really important that there be public input and involvement,” said Lisa Daglian, who heads a group that advises the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates New York’s subway and two commuter rail systems.

    “We don’t need another megamall or monument and certainly not at the cost of billions in local revenue or by putting existing services at risk,” said Danny Pearlstein of the transit advocacy group Riders Alliance.

    Byford said more details will be revealed in the months ahead, including a more detailed breakdown of costs, as the developers refine the preliminary designs and the project goes through the extensive federal environmental review process.

    But he vowed no fare hikes to cover project costs and no plans for the government to condemn and take surrounding properties to expand the station, as some have suggested.

    At Penn Station on Tuesday, John Schoen was among the regular riders who welcomed the prospect of a more inviting commute.

    “The city needs new looks. This is old,” the 55-year-old Long Island resident said. “Let’s do it. Move forward.”

    Others, though, wondered how construction might worsen their commutes. James Culhane, another Long Island rider, noted parts of the station received a significant face-lift in recent years that brought in new eateries, more natural light, and other improvements.

    “Things are operating as well as they can be,” said the 24-year-old opera stagehand. “Just use the money elsewhere.”

  • Rob Reiner’s son Nick seeks money from trust parents left him for his defense in their killings

    LOS ANGELES — Rob Reiner’s son Nick Reiner is seeking unpaid money from a trust his parents established for him, saying he needs it to help in his defense against charges that he killed them.

    A petition filed by the 32-year-old Nick Reiner’s civil attorneys in a Los Angeles County court on Monday says that trustees overseeing the funds have denied them to him without legal justification, and he needs and should get them now.

    “Nick loved his parents, and he is devastated by their deaths. But the facts about what did and did not happen to them are not at issue in this Trust litigation,” the petition says. “Like anyone accused of a crime, Nick is presumed innocent, and he is entitled to mount his defense with the resources that are lawfully his own.”

    The director and Hollywood luminary Rob Reiner and his wife, photographer and producer Michele Singer Reiner, were stabbed to death in their home in the upscale Brentwood section of Los Angeles on Dec. 14. Nick Reiner was arrested hours later and has since pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder.

    Reiner retained high-profile private lawyer Alan Jackson to represent him, but less than a month later Jackson left the case for reasons he said he couldn’t share. The new filing reveals that Reiner’s siblings, Jake and Romy Reiner, had initially agreed to pay for Jackson, but reversed course.

    In a declaration included with the petition, Jackson said “my firm stands ready, willing, and able to resume representation of Mr. Reiner” if the funds become available.

    The filing says that apart from the larger Reiner family trust, which is not at issue, Rob and Michele Reiner established smaller individual trusts for Nick Reiner and his siblings. It says they left “unambiguous instructions” in Nick Reiner’s trust, established in 1993, that he was to receive half its money when he turned 30 and the rest at 35.

    But, the filing says, Reiner never received the funds he was entitled to at 30, and that the trustee overseeing them since February — attorney Paul R. Kanin — has given “a shifting series of excuses and justifications” to deny Reiner the money, including concerns about Reiner’s competence that have no bearing on a payout that is mandatory.

    Reiner says he should also get the money he was to receive at 35 immediately because his defense and his need for basic necessities in jail require it.

    The petition says the trust has at least $1.5 million in assets, but that Kanin will not share the exact amount of its value.

    Kanin did not immediately respond to an after-hours email seeking comment.

    Proceedings in Reiner’s murder case are moving slowly. He is scheduled to return to court for a pretrial hearing in September. He is eligible for the death penalty, but District Attorney Nathan Hochman has said his office has not yet decided whether to seek it.

    Authorities have said nothing about possible motives, and leaks in the case have been virtually nonexistent on both sides. A court order has kept most details of the autopsies secret. Many of the most basic questions about the killings remain unanswered publicly.

    On the day he left the case, Jackson, speaking outside court, declared adamantly that “pursuant to the laws of California, Nick Reiner is not guilty of murder.”

    In April, Jake Reiner gave his first detailed account of the experience of losing his parents and having his brother at the center of it, calling it “a living nightmare” that is “too devastating to comprehend.”

    Rob Reiner was a prolific director whose work included some of the most memorable and endlessly watchable movies of the 1980s and ’90s. His credits included This Is Spinal Tap, Stand By Me, A Few Good Men, and When Harry Met Sally… , during the production of which he met photographer Michele Singer. They wed soon after and were married for 36 years.