Diego Maradona was an imperfect athlete, but a perfect celebrity athlete. His faults, inconsistencies, contradictions and oddities were clear in his playing years but became even clearer as he grew older. That’s why the media loved him and made him the most dazzling and fascinating footballer of the late 20th...
Is Johnny Depp mad? Why on earth did he start legal action that could end in the destruction of his professional life? Unless the appeal his legal team promises succeeds, this may be the last we see of Depp. He’ll be an abusive pariah, and Hollywood studios will never offer...
Time: January 3, 2015. Place: Trump Tower Bar and Grill, 5th Avenue, New York Overheard conversation between two diners. “Another great show, Don. You were terrific as usual. Your bluster is so intimidating. I loved the way you thundered on about that one guy’s shortcomings and made him cry.” “Yeah,...
They say money makes the world go round, but Kim Kardashian West surely chooses its direction. She seems to be able to do pretty much anything. Over the past 14 years, since the launch of “Keeping Up With The Kardashians,” Kim and her family have become some of the most...
Imagine it’s 1997, and you’re leaving a TV studio in Chicago where you’ve been part of an audience for the recording of “The Jerry Springer Show.” You’ve watched, judged and laughed at people from super-dysfunctional families talking through their “issues,” as personal problems are now called. Sex, drugs, religion, mid-life...
“If you had to choose a time to be, in the words of Lorraine Hansberry, young, gifted, and black in America, you would choose right now,” Barack Obama told a graduating class at Howard University in Washington DC four years ago, drawing attention to Hansberry’s 1996 collection of plays, interviews...
The adage “When the going gets tough, the tough get going” might have been made for Harry and Meghan. But as a joke. They’ve not only got going — at first to Canada, then quickly (presumably after feeling Toronto’s freezing January temperature) — to California. But they’ve got going again,...
“Once Upon a Time in the World” is a story set in a parallel universe in which the world has been gripped by a ghastly virus that threatens to decimate planet Earth’s population. All humans can do in this universe is hide themselves away from the deadly infective agent that...
“We’d rather die on our feet than live on our knees. Say it loud! I’m black and I’m proud!” James Brown thundered out this line in one of his songs. At the time, Brown would have been called a “negro” — or bogusly dignified with an uppercase N — by...
A week ago, it would have been unthinkable. Now it’s materialized — a world without sports. The calendar still shows Wimbledon, the Tokyo Olympics, a world heavyweight title fight and the Tour de France, among others. But these events are under threat. Already, the NBA has canceled games in the...
