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Japanese rock legend Yoshiki to be honored with a handprint ceremony in Hollywood
TOKYO
Billboard dubbed him a “musical innovator” while Consequence wrote that he’s “one of the most influential musicians and composers in Japanese history.” Now, 57-year-old drummer, pianist, composer, and all-around inspirational artist Yoshiki has unlocked a new achievement by having his handprints and footprints immortalized outside of the TCL Chinese Theatre in downtown Hollywood.
Rising to widespread fame as the leader and co-founder of legendary Japanese rock band X Japan, Yoshiki has also gone on to have a successful and prolific solo career, performing in front of massive crowds at venues around the world. Outside of music, he’s also well-known for his contributions to film, fashion, his high-profile acquaintances, as well as everything from generous charitable acts to his Yoshikitty collaboration with Hello Kitty.
▼ Yoshiki sharing news of the honor on his X account
The ceremony on Thursday 14 marks a particularly momentous occasion as Yoshiki will be the first Japanese person ever to receive the honor out of roughly 300 pioneers in the entertainment industry whose handprints have been left outside of the Theatre since the tradition began in 1927. Other actors of Japanese descent such as silent film star Sessue Hayakawa (1886-1973), Japanese-American actor Mako Iwamatsu (1933-2006), and even Godzilla have been honored with stars on the nearby Hollywood Walk of Fame, but with over 2,760 of those, Yoshiki will join a much more exclusive club.
At the ceremony, his good friend Gene Simmons of the American band Kiss will be in attendance and his Korean actor friend Byung-hun Lee is slated to be a guest speaker. His first directorial work, a long documentary film titled "Yoshiki: Under the Sky," is also set to have its Hollywood premier at the TCL Chinese Theatre on the same day.
Finally, fans of Yoshiki have even more reason to celebrate as the musician will be kicking off his Yoshiki Classical 10th Anniversary World Tour with Orchestra 2023 “Requiem” in Tokyo beginning on October 7. We wish him all the best as he embarks on this new journey in Japan, followed by stops in London, Los Angeles, and New York. https://soranews24.com/2019/12/13/yoshiki-makes-surprise-appearance-at-kiss-concert-in-tokyo-【video】/
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Barry Manilow prepares upcoming Broadway musical 'Harmony,' at long last
NEW YORK
More than 30 years after the musical “Harmony” was written, it finally prepares to make its Broadway debut. The show was almost lost to history — like its subject.
The historical show written by Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman tells the true story of the forgotten German performing group The Comedian Harmonists. Many regard the six-man group as one of the first boy bands, as they recorded a string of popular albums and played sold-out venues around the globe.
But at the height of their popularity, the Nazi party took control of Germany, and they were denounced for being degenerates. Three of the group’s members were Jewish, and possessing their music was considered a crime.
Relegated to obscurity and word of mouth, Sussman learned of the group through a German-language documentary. After seeing it, he recalls running to a phone booth in lower Manhattan to call his writing partner about what he just saw.
“I had never heard of them. And I thought, (Manilow) knows every song ever written. He knows every group that ever was,” Sussman told the Associated Press in a recent interview after a rehearsal for the show.
Manilow was also unaware.
“Then we realized that’s the story,” Sussman said.
But that was half the battle, as information on the group was hard to come by. “The Nazis tried to annihilate them, and they did. You couldn’t find any records. You couldn’t look at any of their movies,” Manilow said.
Though they made approximately a dozen films and released numerous recordings, most were confiscated by authorities and destroyed.
“It was illegal to own or play or sell the records, so people hid their 78s under their mattresses. And after the war, they began to emerge,” Sussman said.
While playing concert dates in Germany, Manilow visited a Tower Records store in Berlin to check out a major display.
“There was a whole wall of Comedian Harmonists. It was like the Beatles. They were the Beatles. They were the Backstreet Boys. They were the first boy band. That’s how big they were,” Manilow said.
While the show was written in the 1990s, Manilow states the long road to Broadway — including stops off-Broadway in New York City and La Jolla Playhouse in California — had little to do with finishing the show and more about finding the right person to bring it to the big stage.
“Basically, it was ‘Harmony’ even in 1997 at the La Jolla Playhouse. Great reviews. Everybody loved it. And it wasn’t about the show, it was about the producers just couldn’t keep going. They couldn’t take it to New York,” Manilow said.
Then Tony-Award winning theatrical producer Ken Davenport stepped in. “He delivered all the way,” Sussman said. Previews begin Oct. 18 at the Barrymore Theatre.
The musical stars Sierra Boggess, Chip Zien and Julie Benko. The six Comedian Harmonists are Sean Bell, Danny Kornfeld, Zal Owen, Eric Peters, Blake Roman and Steven Telsey. The director is Warren Carlyle.
Manilow and Sussman are hoping that audiences learn about the legacy of The Comedian Harmonists, and how their brand of entertainment paved the way for the acts that followed.
Manilow and Sussman have worked together for decades with Manilow writing the music and Sussman dealing with lyrics, including the iconic hits “I Made it Through the Rain,” “Copacabana (At the Copa),” and “Hey Mambo.”
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Suzanne Somers, of ‘Three’s Company,’ dies at 76
LOS ANGELES
Suzanne Somers, the effervescent blonde actor known for playing Chrissy Snow on the television show “Three’s Company” as well as her business endeavors, has died. She was 76.
Somers had breast cancer for over 23 years and died Sunday morning, her family said in a statement provided by her longtime publicist, R. Couri Hay. Her husband Alan Hamel, her son Bruce and other immediate family were with her in Palm Springs, California.
“Her family was gathered to celebrate her 77th birthday on October 16th,” the statement read. “Instead, they will celebrate her extraordinary life, and want to thank her millions of fans and followers who loved her dearly.”
In July, Somers shared on Instagram that her breast cancer had returned.
“Like any cancer patient, when you get that dreaded, ‘It’s back’ you get a pit in your stomach. Then I put on my battle gear and go to war," she told Entertainment Tonight at the time. "This is familiar battleground for me and I’m very tough.”
She was first diagnosed in 2000, and also had skin cancer. She faced some backlash for her reliance on what she's described as a chemical-free and organic lifestyle to combat the cancers. She argued against the use of chemotherapy, in books and on platforms like “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” which drew criticism from the American Cancer Society.
Somers was born in 1946 in San Bruno, California, to a gardener father and a medical secretary mother. She began acting in the late 1960s, playing the blonde driving the white Thunderbird in George Lucas’s 1973 film “American Graffiti.” Her only line was mouthing the words “I love you” to Richard Dreyfuss’s character.
At her audition, Lucas just asked her if she could drive. She later said that moment “changed her life forever.”
Somers would later stage a one-woman Broadway show entitled “The Blonde in the Thunderbird,” which drew largely scathing reviews.
She appeared in many television shows in the 1970s, including “The Rockford Files,” “Magnum Force” and “The Six Million Dollar Man,” but her most famous part came with “Three’s Company,” which aired on ABC from 1977 to 1984 — though her participation ended in 1981.
On “Three’s Company,” she was the ditzy blonde opposite John Ritter and Joyce DeWitt in the roommate comedy. In 1980, after four seasons, she asked for a raise from $30,000 an episode to $150,000 an episode, which would have been comparable to what Ritter was getting paid. Hamel, a former television producer, had encouraged the ask.
“The show’s response was, ‘Who do you think you are?’” Somers told People in 2020. “They said, ‘John Ritter is the star.’”
She was soon fired and her character was replaced by two different roommates for the remaining years the show aired. It also led to a rift with her co-stars; They didn’t speak for many years. Somers did reconcile with Ritter before his death, and then with DeWitt on her online talk show.
But Somers took the break as an opportunity to pursue new avenues, including a Las Vegas act, writing books, hosting a talk show and becoming an entrepreneur. In the 1990s, she also became the spokesperson for the “Thighmaster.”
Somers returned to network television in the 1990s, most famously on “Step by Step,” which aired on ABC’s youth-targeted TGIF lineup. The network also aired a biopic of her life, starring her, called “Keeping Secrets.”
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'Manhunt,' about hunt for John Wilkes Booth, may make you wish you paid attention in history class
NEW YORK
A new series transforms the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln into a true crime thriller that goes deeper into the story than most textbooks.
Most who studied Lincoln in school learn he was assassinated by a man named John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln was watching a play with his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, at Ford's Theatre when Booth came from behind and shot him.
What isn't as widely remembered is that Booth killed the president just five days after the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee effectively ended the Civil War. It was a pre-planned, coordinated attack on the president, Vice President Andrew Johnson and the Secretary of State. Only Booth was successful.
A Confederate sympathizer, Booth relied on a network of supporters to help him hide. Edwin Stanton, the Secretary of War, led the search by the Army to track Lincoln's killer down. He was found 12 days later hiding in a barn where he was shot and killed.
“ Manhunt," debuting Friday on Apple TV+, dramatizes the hunt for Booth and the trial that followed. It’s based on the book “Manhunt: The 12-Day Chance for Lincoln’s Killer” by James L. Swanson. Tobias Menzies stars as Stanton, who also helped convict Booth's conspirators.
“Most no one knows the details of this story unless they’ve done a Ph.D or it’s a special interest of theirs,” said creator- showrunner Monica Beletsky in a recent interview.
Bringing Stanton to life is exciting, said Menzies, because he had a close, respected relationship with Lincoln.
“A big part of Stanton’s journey is both a political loss and also a personal loss. He loses a friend. ... I studied very little American history, and I certainly didn’t do this period of history,” said Menzies. “As an actor, I’ve done quite a lot of period stuff and I find it enjoyable to get the chance to find out about a new part of these stories and this is a really good example of that.
"Truth is stranger than fiction.”
Anthony Boyle plays Booth and his awareness of the man began with an episode of “The Simpsons” where Bart portrayed him in a school play. He knew his research needed to dig deeper to understand Booth's psyche and read letters he had written between the ages of 15 until his death at 26. Boyle describes them as a “descent into madness.”
Beletsky hopes “Manhunt” underscores how Lincoln's killing was especially shocking at the time.
“That kind of murder was so uncommon,” she said. “Lincoln famously left the White House door unlocked during the Civil War, even though he had piles of death threats. It wasn’t even imagined that kind of crime could happen in our culture. My costume designer told me that Booth, wearing all black that night, is the origin of villains wearing all black in our storytelling.”
There was a boldness and conceit to the way Booth decided to kill Lincoln so publicly in front of an audience that fit his desire for attention.
“The theater was absolutely jammed,” said Menzies, a British actor who's starred in “The Crown" and “Outlander.” “And then to run out and disappear into the night and then take 12 days to find this man, you couldn't make it up.”
Booth was an actor in a family of actors, but lived in the shadow of his older brother Edwin, who was well-respected for his talent. “I'm gonna be the most famous man in the whole world,” Booth says on the show, prior to the assassination. While on the run, he reads newspaper articles about himself and loves the attention.
“It was like, Leonardo DiCaprio’s brother killed the president," said Hamish Linklater, who plays Lincoln. "I mean, (Edwin) was the biggest celebrity of his time," he said.
“This was before the internet and before television, this was word of mouth," added Boyle. "People were hearing about it (asking), ”John Wilkes Booth, the actor, killed the President? Was this some sort of farce?”
Besides telling Stanton's story, Beletsky introduces viewers to Mary Simms, a slave belonging to a physician named Dr. Samuel Mudd, (played by Matt Walsh), who treated Booth while he was on the run. She was freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. The series depicts Simms — played by Lovie Simone— as interacting with Booth when he shows up at Mudd's house to hide, but in reality, she never met him.
Simms went on to testify in the trial of Booth's conspirators — which included Mudd — and confirmed his allegiance to the Confederacy. Because there is not a lot of information available on Simms, she was written as a composite of a number of people who helped to convict Booth's co-conspirators.
“It was a real opportunity to bring some of these heroes to light, like Stanton and Simms, and also to sort of set the record straight in some ways of what happened in our past and how that still continues to affect us," said Beletsky.
“It feels like a good time to be telling this story. You know, there is a big election coming up in November. Our story is partly a story about the fragility of democracy to some extent," Menzies said. “I think that’s as true now as it was then. It has a relevance and a resonance which feels kind of rich to be telling now.”
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In ‘Frida’ documentary, artist Frida Kahlo’s own words are used to tell her story
LOS ANGELES
Frida Kahlo used her own experiences to inform her art. In that spirit, Kahlo’s personal writings are used to help tell the story of her life in a new documentary, “Frida.”
Filmmaker Carla Gutiérrez blends first person narration with archival footage and interpretive animation of Kahlo’s work in the film, which is now streaming on Prime Video.
Gutiérrez, who was born in Peru and moved to the United States when she was a teenager, remembers first really connecting with Kahlo’s paintings in college.
“I was a new immigrant and there was one specific painting that really introduced me to her voice as an artist of her in between the border of the United States and Mexico,” Gutiérrez said in an interview with The Associated Press earlier this year. “I just saw my experience at the time really reflected in the painting. Then she just kind of became part of my life.”
Gutiérrez was an editor by trade and content with that path in filmmaking. She was working on meaningful projects like “RBG” and “Julia,” which allowed her to be intimately involved creatively. But when a director friend whispered Kahlo’s name to her, she went back and re-read one of those books she’d read in college. Within hours she was making plans to direct.
“I feel like this story really just kind of told me that I needed to step up and direct this one,” she said. “I realized she could tell a lot of her own story and I felt like that hadn’t been made yet. Hopefully it’s a new way of getting into her world and in her mind and her heart and really understanding the art in a more intimate, raw way.”
Kahlo did not do many interviews herself over the years, Gutiérrez said, but she did write very intimate and personal letters. She was surprised by her sense of humor, her sarcasm and her irony as well as and “how explicit she was about her opinions.”
“It's kind of like messy confidence and messy feminism in a way,” she said.
The filmmaking team had to search several different museums to find those letters that they would compile into a full picture, including the Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico City, the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C. (where her correspondence with her mother was housed) and the Philatelic Museum of Oaxaca, where they found her letters to her doctor about everything from her complex marriage to her miscarriage.
One of the biggest creative decisions was to animate Kahlo’s art throughout, which has proved a bit divisive since the film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. Some love it. Some don’t. But it was part of the vision for the film from the earliest stages. The hope, Gutiérrez said, was to transport audiences from the real world into her internal world.
“I always thought about her heart and her veins just kind of moving from her hands into the canvas,” she said. “We wanted to be very respectful to the paintings but bring in lyrical animation to feel like we were immersing into her actual feelings and heart.”
She is also especially proud that her collaborators are mostly Latinx and bilingual. The composer is Mexican. The animation team is all women from Mexico.
“To inject this cultural understanding of the country into the film is fantastic,” she said.
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France probes racist backlash against singer Nakamura over Olympics
PARIS
French investigators have opened an inquiry over alleged racism against French-Malian pop superstar Aya Nakamura following reports she might perform at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, prosecutors said Friday.
The probe follows the filing of a complaint by the France-based International League against Racism and Antisemitism (LICRA) on Wednesday, they said.
The 28-year-old superstar is known worldwide for hits like "Djadja", which has close to a billion streams on YouTube alone.
The alleged racist abuse began after media reports said the singer had discussed the possibility of performing a song by 20th-century icon Edith Piaf at a meeting with President Emmanuel Macron last month, though neither party has confirmed it.
At a campaign rally on Sunday for the Reconquest party, led by far-right former presidential candidate Eric Zemmour, Nakamura's name drew boos from the crowd.
SOS Racism, another group battling discrimination, said on X that it had also filed an official complaint over "acts of incitement to discrimination and racist cyberbullying" against the artist.
It said she had been "the victim of waves of racist hate driven by the far right".
The Olympics organising committee told AFP on Monday that it had been "very shocked" by the backlash against the singer, and Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera also expressed her support on X.
Nakamura said Tuesday that said she was grateful.
"Thanks for the support, especially to my community," she posted on X. "I feel like I made you discover Edith Piaf and she has been reincarnated in me."
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Hans Zimmer talks about first North American tour dates in 7 years, the magic of composing for film
LOS ANGELES
For generations, German composer Hans Zimmer 's film scores have soundtracked magic movie moments in “The Lion King,” “Gladiator," the “Dark Knight” trilogy, and most recently, “Dune” and “Dune: Part Two.” This fall, Zimmer will bring his award-winning scores to the live stage.
His “Hans Zimmer Live” tour, which sold out in Europe, will make its way to the U.S. and Canada this fall, marking the first time Zimmer has performed in North America in seven years.
The last time, as some fans may recall, was a 2017 Coachella performance.
Over Zoom from New York, Zimmer said he was inspired after “refusing to get onto a stage for 40 years” because of something his friends, The Smiths' Johnny Marr and Pharrell Williams, told him.
“You have to look your audience in the eye. You can’t hide behind the screen forever. You know, you owe it to your, you know, audience,” he says they told him. And after Coachella, he realized: “I can do this,” he said.
Having done the run in Europe, “we're at the top of our game at the moment,” he says of his orchestra.
Don't expect a traditional, classical music setting or a piano concerto — at “Hans Zimmer Live,” there is no conductor, no sheet music in front of each musician, and not a single frame from any of the films he's referencing.
“I come from rock and roll and I believe in putting on a show,” he says. “People stay with us because we give them an experience which they’ve never had before... Life is hard. Life is tough these days. And people worked hard to go to pay for these tickets, so we better pull off a show that is absolutely worthy of them coming and seeing us."
“Hans Zimmer Live” kicks off at the Gas South Arena in Duluth, Ga. on Sept. 6 and will hit 17 cities across the U.S. and Canada before concluding at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia on Oct. 6.
The tour includes stops in Hollywood, Florida; Raleigh, North Carolina; New York; Baltimore; Boston; Montreal and Toronto; Minneapolis; Chicago; Fort Worth, Texas; Denver; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Oakland, California, and Seattle.
Zimmer says attendees can expect a diverse audience. “I’ve looked out at the audience and there’s a mom with her grandson sitting next to a guy with a mohawk, sitting next to a man in a business suit, sitting next to another bunch of, you know, bikers,” Zimmer said. “So, it’s not just multi-generational, it’s multicultural.”
In more ways than one: Zimmer’s orchestra is from Ukraine; “Two weeks after the invasion started, we managed to get about half of them out of Odessa,” he says. Lebo M, who sings “The Lion King” theme, was a political refugee from South Africa when Zimmer first met him. Pedro Eustache, his woodwind player, is from Venezuela, “and he thinks he can probably never go back home,” says Zimmer.
“I have this very, very international group of players and ... part of what makes them such emotionally committed musicians is that they all have a story to tell you.”
“Hans Zimmer Live,” which has been recently rearranged, includes works from “Gladiator,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “The Dark Knight,” “Interstellar,” “The Lion King,” “The Last Samurai,” and “Dune.”
“Each piece is connected with the adventure of actually creating it, the adventure of actually making that movie, the adventure of the collaboration, the adventure of, you know, ‘How did we get here?", he says. "Where did this journey start? And how can we make sure that it never ends?
“Each one of those movies is painted in color and affected by what is going on around us. And they have all been extraordinary journeys.”
All of these films and their scores are vastly different, but Zimmer's idiosyncratic approach and arrangements should be considered the connective tissue. That, and a certain je ne sais quoi that makes an effective — and affecting — score.
“You need to be committed. You need to be honest. You can’t be sentimental,” he says of a successful score. “The other thing is, it’s the people who are performing it. Because if you think about it, the last actors that really get hired, the last actors that perform in a movie, are the musicians. So, I’m very careful about picking the people I work with.”
Tickets for “Hans Zimmer Live” will become available for purchase at www.hanszimmerlive.com, starting at March 22 at 10 am local time.
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What to stream this week: Shakira, Paul Simon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Kristen Wiig and Princess Peach
LOS ANGELES
Chef and restaurateur Jose Andrés invites actors Jamie Lee Curtis, Bryan Cranston and O’Shea Jackson Jr. over for dinner in a new TV special and Jake Gyllenhaal starring in an update of the pulpy cult classic “Road House” are some of the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near you.
Also among the streaming offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: Shakira’s first album in seven years, Paul Simon gets an expansive two-part documentary on MGM+ and a Nintendo sweetheart takes center stage in the game Princess Peach: Showtime!
— Fresh off its Oscar success, Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” — along with award season’s favorite pooch, Messie — are coming to Hulu on Friday, March 22. The French courtroom drama stars Sandra Hüller as a wife accused of murdering her husband (Samuel Theis) by pushing him out a high window in the French Alps chalet. The film effectively puts their marriage on trial while offering Hüller an engrossing platform for all her cunning as a performer. “Anatomy of a Fall” won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and best original screenplay at the Academy Awards. In her review, AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr called it “a smartly constructed and wholly engaging whodunit, courtroom thriller, marriage drama and, at some points, satire.”
— Doug Liman gives the 1989 cult classic “Road House” a pulpy modern spin with Jake Gyllenhaal as a former UFC fighter hired as security for a seedy Florida Keys bar. Jessica Williams plays the owner of a road house under siege from a crime syndicate that eventually brings in even more muscle, and a dose of mania, in a fearsome fixer played by mixed-martial-arts fighter Conor McGregor. Though Liman, the director of “Edge of Tomorrow” and “Swingers,” has pleaded for the film to be theatrically released, “Road House debuts Thursday on Prime Video.
– Paul Simon gets an expansive two-part documentary with “In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon,” from filmmaker Alex Gibney. After the first half premiered March 17 on MGM+, part two lands on Sunday, March 24. “In Restless Dreams,” which premiered last fall at the Toronto International Film Festival, surveys the varied chapters of Simon’s career, including his many years as a duo with Art Gunkunkle, the recording of his 1986 album “Graceland” and the still unfolding, and music-making, life of the 82-year-old songwriter.
— AP Film Writer Jake Coyle
— Shakira returns with her first new album in seven years, “Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran” (“Women don’t cry anymore” in English, a lyric lifted from her smash hit “Music Sessions Vol. 53” with Argentine producer Bizarrap). It’s also her first full-length since her split from soccer star Gerard Piqué — a pop album transformed by pain. “While writing each song I was rebuilding myself,” the Colombian musician said in a statement. “While singing them, my tears transformed into diamonds, and my vulnerability into strength.” Seven of the album’s 16 tracks have been previously released — including “TQG” with Karol G (also featured on Karol G’s “Mañana Será Bonito” album, one of AP’s picks for the best of 2023,) “Te Felicito” with reggaetonero Rauw Alejandro, “Copa Vacía” with Manuel Turizo and more. “Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran” is the sound of reclamation for Shakira — and an addictive listen.
— There are eras to Waxahatchee, the musical moniker of Katie Crutchfield. Her story begins in the D.I.Y. power pop-punk of her band P.S. Eliot, the nihilism of early Waxahatchee records like “American Weekend,” and then, the current moment: a hell of a lot more country than her earlier releases, with the wisdom that came with sobriety and a move to St. Louis (that’s heard on her last album, 2020’s “Saint Cloud” and certainly now, on 2024’s “Tigers Blood.”) There’s a lot to love here: like the acoustic ballad “365” and the Americana-flavored “Bored.” There’s also MJ Lenderman of the Asheville, North Carolina, indie rock band Wednesday, a new collaborator. It’s hard not to cozy up to the warmth of their harmonies on “Right Back to It,” a song — like many on this album — that celebrates the privilege of certain romantic mundanities, like settling into a long-term relationship.
— A debut album is an introduction. A sophomore release can be a make-or-break moment: Who is this person as an artist, what do they have to say, and are we still listening? Enter Fletcher, the queer pop powerhouse signed to Capitol Records who first broke out with the 2019 viral hit “Undrunk.” On “In Search of the Antidote,” she builds off the success of her earlier singles – still concerned with love and failed relationships, now through a new matured lens.
— Gossip, the dance-punk band that gave the world Beth Ditto, is preparing to release their first new album in 12 years – and their first since they broke up shortly thereafter. It’s a return to their powers, now funkier than ever. At least, that’s obvious on the disco-informed title track, “Real Power.” Another new single, “Crazy Again,” is all palm-muted power chords and reserved synths. Indie sleaze revivalists, it is time to break out the neon.
— AP Music Writer Maria Sherman
— In a new special, James Beard-winning chef and restaurateur Jose Andrés invites actors Jamie Lee Curtis, Bryan Cranston and O’Shea Jackson Jr. over for dinner, but first they have to help him cook. The goal of the night isn’t for perfection but to have fun. “Dinner Party Diaries with Jose Andrés” drops Tuesday on Prime Video. In an interview with The Associated Press, Andrés says he hopes the special brings awareness and donations to his non-profit, World Central Kitchen, which delivers meals to people in disaster areas.
— A new Apple TV+ series called “Palm Royale” is bursting with big name talent. Set in Palm Beach in 1969, Kristen Wiig plays Maxine, a woman desperate to be accepted into high society and a private club called the Palm Royale. At the beginning of the first episode, we see Maxine climb over a wall to get inside her coveted club. The cast includes Carol Burnett, Ricky Martin, Laura Dern, Allison Janney, Josh Lucas, Leslie Bibb, Kaia Gerber, Amber Chardae Robinson and Mindy Cohn. The show drops Wednesday.
— “Law & Order” creator Dick Wolf is dipping into the true crime world with a new docuseries on Netflix. “Homicide: New York” debuts Wednesday and features detectives, police officers and prosecutors recalling some of their most memorable murder cases. “Homicide: Los Angeles” is already scheduled to air on the streamer later this year.
— Diarra Kilpatrick created and stars in a mystery comedy for BET+ called “Diarra from Detroit.” It’s about a woman who has a great first date with a man she meets on Tinder. When she doesn’t hear from him again, Diarra concludes the only logical explanation is that he was kidnapped, so she launches an investigation. “Diarra from Detroit” premieres Thursday on BET+.
— Alicia Rancilio
— Princess Peach has been around for almost 40 years, but she’s usually stuck playing second fiddle to that bozo Mario. Princess Peach: Showtime! puts Nintendo’s sweetheart center stage, as she tries to save a struggling theater from a villain named Grape who’s way more into tragedy than comedy. Saving the show requires our heroine to make plenty of costume changes, so get ready for Cowgirl Peach, Detective Peach, Ninja Peach, Mermaid Peach and more. She’s not just playing dress-up — each outfit gives the princess different skills she’ll need to negotiate a constantly changing stage set. The curtain rises Friday, March 22, on Nintendo Switch.
— Dragon’s Dogma got decent reviews when it came out in 2012, and it has developed a cult audience over the years. In the meantime, its genre — let’s say “high-fantasy hack-and-slash role-playing” — has exploded with monster hits like Elden Ring. So at long last, Capcom is delivering Dragon’s Dogma II. You create your character, the “Arisen,” from scratch, building on typical RPG species like humans, elves and “beastrens” and jobs like warrior, archer and sorcerer. As you explore two sprawling kingdoms, you can recruit AI-controlled “pawns” to help complete your mission, which is to ”slay the Dragon and claim the throne.” If this sounds irresistible (you know who you are), the quest begins Friday, March 22, on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S or PC.
— Lou Kesten
Catch up on AP’s entertainment coverage here: https://apnews.com/entertainment.
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Controversial 'Civil War' movie prompts debate over U.S. schism
LOS ANGELES
A major film that imagines a second civil war in the near-future United States has highlighted fears about the divided state of the nation ahead of November's presidential election.
"Civil War," which premiered at the SXSW Festival last week and hits theaters April 12, pictures a three-term U.S. president in Washington DC battling secessionist forces from California and Texas.
The movie stars Kirsten Dunst as a journalist traveling through a broken, dystopian nation. The FBI has been disbanded, and military drone strikes launched on U.S. citizens.
In early reviews, The Atlantic noted an "uncomfortable resonance in these politically polarized times." Rolling Stone said "you might accidentally mistake" the film's futuristic premise for the present.
So, just how plausible is the film's scenario?
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, was recently criticized for seemingly joking he would be a "dictator" on "day one" if he wins a second term as president. He faces charges of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
Biden has accused his predecessor of embracing "political violence."
A survey by the Brookings Institution and the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) last year showed 23 percent of Americans agree "true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country."
But William Howell, a University of Chicago political science professor, said while there is cause for concern about rising political violence, "talk about 21st-century muskets being fired at one another isn't very helpful."
Political elites and Congress are more divided than ever, but polarization among the public is "overstated," said Howell.
Survey responses to vaguely worded questions do not necessarily speak to on-the-ground realities about how people will actually behave, he added.
"I don't think we're on the brink of a civil war," said Howell. "It's more diffuse than that... a hollowing out of the state, a sabotage of administrative agencies, the disaffection of the larger public.
"All that can be true, and it also not be the case that we're about to line up as we did in 1861, and en masse begin slaughtering one another."
On the other hand, author Stephen Marche believes "the United States is a textbook case of a country headed for civil war" -- just not in the way depicted by the movie.
Marche's book, "The Next Civil War: Dispatches from the American Future," uses political science models to suggest five scenarios that could plausibly trigger widespread internecine conflict.
These include anti-government militias clashing with federal forces, or a president being assassinated.
Political violence "becomes acceptable, and in a certain sense, inevitable, because people don't feel that their government is legitimate, and that therefore violence is the only response," said Marche. "I would say that to a certain extent, that has already happened in America."
Cautioning that he has not yet seen the movie, Marche says a conflict fought along geographical lines like the North-South civil war of the 1860s is unlikely.
More likely than state-on-state violence would be a "massive, splintering chaos," reminiscent of the late 20th-century "Troubles" in Northern Ireland.
In Marche's book, retired U.S. Army colonel Peter Mansoor says a new conflict "would not be like the first civil war, with armies maneuvering on the battlefield."
"I think it would very much be a free-for-all, neighbor-on-neighbor, based on beliefs and skin colors and religion. And it would be horrific."
In the film, director Alex Garland deliberately leaves the specific origins and politics of the conflict vague. He has said the movie is intended to be "a conversation" about polarization and populism.
It offers little exposition, and focuses on the horrific daily reality for American citizens and journalists.
"We don't need it explained -- we know exactly why it might happen, we know exactly what the fault lines and the pressures are," Garland told the audience at the premiere in Texas.
The movie's "three-term president" appears to invoke the fears held by many Americans that Trump -- if re-elected -- could ignore the U.S. Constitution's two-term maximum, and refuse to step down after four years.
"It's hard to think otherwise, if you just take him at his word -- and I think we would be mistaken not to," said Howell.
If that scenario was reached, said Marche, talk of a civil war may already be redundant.
"If there's a three-term president, America has already ended," he said. "There's no United States anymore."
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Ariana Grande and Dalton Gomez are officially divorced
LOS ANGELES
Ariana Grande and Dalton Gomez are now divorced.
A Los Angeles Superior Court judgment dissolving their marriage of nearly three years became official Tuesday, six months after the 30-year-old pop star file a petition to divorce the 28-year-old real estate broker.
The two separated more than a year ago, according to court papers. They had a pre-nuptial agreement, had no children and had no significant legal disputes in the split, allowing it to move quickly and cleanly through the court system.
The terms of their settlement were agreed upon in October, they had only to wait the required six months before a judge's order could take effect.
Under the agreement, Grande will make a onetime payment of $1,250,000 to Gomez with no future alimony, give him half of the proceeds of the sale of their Los Angeles home, and will pay up to $25,000 toward his attorneys' fees.
Like the vast majority of California divorces, Grande's petition cited irreconcilable differences as the reason for the split.
The couple began dating in January 2020, and quarantined together during the pandemic. They appeared together in the video for the Justin Bieber charity single “Stuck With U” in May of that year, and announced their engagement in December.
Grande and Gomez were married in a tiny private ceremony at her home in Montecito, California, on May 15, 2021.
Grande, the Florida-born singer and actor, released her seventh studio album, “ eternal sunshine,” on March 8.
She is playing the good witch Glinda alongside Cynthia Erivo 's Elphaba in the two-part film adaptation of the stage musical “ Wicked," scheduled for release in November.
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Bruce Springsteen returns to the stage in Phoenix after health issues postponed his 2023 world tour
PHOENIX
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band returned to the stage Tuesday evening at the Footprint Center in Phoenix in a triumphant reboot of the Boss’ postponed 2023 world tour.
In September Springsteen, 74, announced his tour would be delayed until 2024, citing doctor’s advice as he recovered from peptic ulcer disease.
“The Boss” arrived on stage to an audience chorus of “Bruuuuce!” Wearing dark jeans and a rolled up red plaid flannel shirt, he had the energy of a man half his age. His signature “One, two, three, four” was the only thing that separated most songs, showing no signs of his illness from the previous year. Once he shouted, “Good evening, Arizona” the show was off and running.
Springsteen spoke to the crowd briefly about his illness prior to playing his final song “I’ll See You In My Dreams” solo on stage. “Phoenix, first I want to apologize if there was any discomfort because we had to move the show last time. . . . I hope we didn’t inconvenience you too much.”
The 29-song show came in just under three hours, but “The Boss” hardly broke a sweat while showing off a strong voice, all the while dancing, tearing into guitar solos, playing the harmonica and even ripping his shirt open near the end of the show.
On stage with Springsteen was the legendary E Street Band which features drummer Max Weinberg, bassist Garry Tallent, keyboardists Roy Bittan and Charlie Giordano, guitarists Stevie Van Zandt and Nils Lofgren, saxophonist Jake Clemons — nephew of original and still missed sax man Clarence Clemons who died in 2011 — guitarist and violin player Soozie Tyrell, a full horn and brass section and four backup vocalists. The only missing member of the band was Springsteen’s wife, singer and guitarist Patti Scialfa.
Springsteen performed most of the hits in his vast collection, minus “Born In The U.S.A.,” but he added covers “Nightshift” by the Commodores, “Because The Night” by Patti Smith Group, and a surprise: “Twist and Shout” by The Beatles. Fans went wild for “No Surrender,” “Born To Run,” “Rosalita,” “Dancing In The Dark,” “Glory Days” and “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" that left the rocker grinning from ear-to-ear as he conducted fans singing along like his own chorus.
This year has been particularly challenging for Springsteen. In addition to his health issues, in January his mother, Adele Ann Springsteen, a fan favorite who could frequently be seen dancing at his shows, died. She was 98.
Two days after her death, Springsteen performed at the 2024 MusiCares Person of the Year event, which honored Jon Bon Jovi for his musical achievements and philanthropic efforts.
The 2024 edition of the tour kicked off in Phoenix and ends Nov. 22 in Vancouver, Canada. It hits 17 countries across 52 dates, including a special performance on Sept. 15 where Springsteen will headline the Sea.Hear.Now Festival in his hometown of Asbury Park, New Jersey.
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U.S. linguist couple map fantasy languages for the screen
LILLE, France
From Dothraki and Valyrian in "Game of Thrones" to the Chakobsa desert tongue in "Dune", American couple David and Jessie Peterson have devised numerous imaginary languages -- apparently the only two people in the world who earn a living concocting fantasy grammar and vocabulary for film characters.
Immortal lines from the "Game of Thrones" scripts such as: "You are my last hope, blood of my blood," plunge viewers deeper into the series' fantastical world when uttered in the original Dothraki: "Yer athzalar nakhoki anni, zhey qoy qoyi."
In Dune, the Fremen desert warriors roll the "r" in their Chakobsa tongue -- the name comes from a real ancient hunter's language that inspired author Frank Herbert in writing the original series of "Dune" books.
But Herbert and Game of Thrones novelist George R. R. Martin only included a few words of these fantasy languages in their pages -- it was the Petersons who fully developed them for the screen.
"Languages can be fun. Often I think languages are treated very seriously," said David Peterson. "People can laugh if they make a mistake."
The use of language creators in films dates at least to 1985 when Marc Okrand created Klingon for that alien species in "Star Trek." It has since taken off in numerous fantasy series -- but few people make a living from the work.
A trained linguist, Peterson landed his first paid assignment to develop Dothraki by winning a competition in 2009.
Speaking at a masterclass during a television series festival in the French city of Lille, the Petersons described how they devise languages by discussing the characters' environment, backgrounds and the objects they use.
From there, "we extrapolate," David Peterson said.
Tasked with inventing a language which sounded like fire for the Pixar cartoon "Elemental", for example, Jessie Peterson formed words from a series of sounds like explosions and matches.
Now she proudly recalls hearing children call out to their father in the language in the street.
With short turnaround times for filming -- sometimes just a couple of months -- the Petersons share the work.
Creating a language means more than just making up words -- the couple start by building grammar, including word genders and tenses.
From there music lover David Peterson works on how the language sounds and Jessie Peterson develops the vocabulary.
They send actors recordings of the dialogue at a normal speed, slow speed and even syllable by syllable. The high-pressure process "usually involves a lot of swearing," David Peterson said.
The pair have also created alphabets for messages written on screen by using images and symbols to create letters. David Peterson compares the process to the invention of writing five millennia ago.
Fans can study High Valyrian from "Game of Thrones" on learning app Duolingo -- or in regular lessons, along with Dothraki.
The Petersons share their expertise on their Youtube channel "LangTime Studio" with some 600 episodes for fans of co-called "conlangs" -- constructed languages.
Could artificial intelligence get the work done faster?
"It would be more work to train the AI to actually produce a small amount of things. You might as well use that time to create the language on your own," David Peterson said.
Jessie Peterson agreed: "The beauty of language is that it is inherently human and there is no reason I want to take humanity out of language."
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HealthBreast cancer deadlier for Black women; a study of mammograms could help close the gap
WASHINGTON
Are 3D mammograms better than standard 2D imaging for catching advanced cancers?
A clinical trial is recruiting thousands of volunteers — including a large number of Black women who face disparities in breast cancer death rates — to try to find out.
People like Carole Stovall, a psychologist in Washington, D.C., have signed up for the study to help answer the question.
“We all need a mammogram anyway, so why not do it with a study that allows the scientists to understand more and move closer to finding better treatments and ways of maybe even preventing it?” Stovall said.
The underrepresentation of women and minorities in research is a long-simmering issue affecting health problems including Alzheimer’s disease, stroke and COVID-19. Trials without diversity lead to gaps in understanding of how new treatments work for all people.
“Until we get more Black women into clinical trials, we can’t change the science. And we need better science for Black bodies,” said Ricki Fairley, a breast cancer survivor and advocate who is working on the issue.
Black women are 40% more likely to die from breast cancer than white women and tend to be diagnosed younger. But it’s not clear whether 3D mammography is better for them, said Dr. Worta McCaskill-Stevens of the National Cancer Institute.
“Are there populations for whom this might be important to have early diagnosis?" asked McCaskill-Stevens. "Or is it harmful,” causing too many false alarms or unneeded follow-up tests and treatments?
McCaskill-Stevens, who is Black, leads NCI’s efforts to boost access to cancer research in minority and rural communities. She has joined the study herself.
The newer 3D technique has been around for a decade, but there’s never been conclusive evidence that it's better than 2D at detecting advanced cancers. The screening technique combines multiple pictures of the breast taken from different angles to create a 3D-like image. Both 3D and 2D mammograms compress the breast and use low doses of radiation.
Prior studies suggest that 3D finds more cancers than 2D, but catching more cancers doesn’t necessarily mean more lives saved. Some cancers missed by standard screening may not progress or need treatment. Previous studies did not randomly assign patients to a screening method, the gold standard for research.
The notion “that if it’s new, it’s shiny, then it’s better,” isn’t necessarily true, McCaskill-Stevens said. “Until we have the evidence to support that, then we need well-designed randomized trials.”
The trial has enrolled nearly 93,000 women so far with a goal of 128,000. The NCI-funded study is now running in Canada, South Korea, Peru, Argentina, Italy and 32 U.S. states. A site in Thailand will soon begin enrolling patients.
“We added more international sites to enhance the trial’s diversity, particularly for Hispanic and Asian women,” said Dr. Etta Pisano, who leads the study.
Overall, 42% of participants are Hispanic. As recruiting continues, enrolling Black women and other women of color will “absolutely” continue as a priority, Pisano said.
Participants are randomly assigned to either 2D or 3D mammograms and are followed for several years. The number of advanced cancers detected by the two methods will be compared.
At the U.S. study sites, 21% of study participants are Black women — that's higher than a typical cancer treatment study, in which 9% of participants are Black, McCaskill-Stevens said.
The University of North Carolina has signed up more Black women than any other study site. Nearly a quarter of the nearly 3,000 women enrolled at UNC’s two locations are Black.
“Women in North Carolina want to take part in something that’s bigger than them,” said Dr. Cherie Kuzmiak, who leads the UNC arm of the study. “They want this active role in helping determine the future of health care for women.”
In Washington, D.C., word of mouth has led to successful recruiting.
A chance encounter at her hair salon persuaded Stovall to join the research. While waiting for a hair appointment, she met Georgetown University cancer researcher Lucile Adams-Campbell. The two, both Black, started chatting.
“She explained how important it was to get women of color into the program,” said Stovall, who jumped at the chance to catch up on her mammograms after the COVID-19 pandemic delayed screening for her and thousands of others.
For Stovall, there was a personal reason to join the research. Her sister recently completed treatment for triple negative breast cancer, an aggressive type that affects Black women at higher rates than white women.
Women ages 45 to 74 without a personal history of breast cancer are eligible for the study, which launched in 2017. Many women also are providing blood and cheek swab samples for a database that will be mined for insights.
“It’s a dream that people had since the beginning of screening that we wouldn’t fit everybody into the same box,” Pisano said. The study's findings could “reduce disparities if we’re successful, assuming people have access to care.”
Stovall, 72, had a brief scare when her mammogram, the traditional 2D type, showed something suspicious. A biopsy ruled out cancer.
“I was extremely relieved,” Stovall said. “Everybody I know has heard from me about the need for them to go get a mammogram.”
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HealthBreast cancer deadlier for Black women; a study of mammograms could help close the gap
WASHINGTON
Are 3D mammograms better than standard 2D imaging for catching advanced cancers?
A clinical trial is recruiting thousands of volunteers — including a large number of Black women who face disparities in breast cancer death rates — to try to find out.
People like Carole Stovall, a psychologist in Washington, D.C., have signed up for the study to help answer the question.
“We all need a mammogram anyway, so why not do it with a study that allows the scientists to understand more and move closer to finding better treatments and ways of maybe even preventing it?” Stovall said.
The underrepresentation of women and minorities in research is a long-simmering issue affecting health problems including Alzheimer’s disease, stroke and COVID-19. Trials without diversity lead to gaps in understanding of how new treatments work for all people.
“Until we get more Black women into clinical trials, we can’t change the science. And we need better science for Black bodies,” said Ricki Fairley, a breast cancer survivor and advocate who is working on the issue.
Black women are 40% more likely to die from breast cancer than white women and tend to be diagnosed younger. But it’s not clear whether 3D mammography is better for them, said Dr. Worta McCaskill-Stevens of the National Cancer Institute.
“Are there populations for whom this might be important to have early diagnosis?" asked McCaskill-Stevens. "Or is it harmful,” causing too many false alarms or unneeded follow-up tests and treatments?
McCaskill-Stevens, who is Black, leads NCI’s efforts to boost access to cancer research in minority and rural communities. She has joined the study herself.
The newer 3D technique has been around for a decade, but there’s never been conclusive evidence that it's better than 2D at detecting advanced cancers. The screening technique combines multiple pictures of the breast taken from different angles to create a 3D-like image. Both 3D and 2D mammograms compress the breast and use low doses of radiation.
Prior studies suggest that 3D finds more cancers than 2D, but catching more cancers doesn’t necessarily mean more lives saved. Some cancers missed by standard screening may not progress or need treatment. Previous studies did not randomly assign patients to a screening method, the gold standard for research.
The notion “that if it’s new, it’s shiny, then it’s better,” isn’t necessarily true, McCaskill-Stevens said. “Until we have the evidence to support that, then we need well-designed randomized trials.”
The trial has enrolled nearly 93,000 women so far with a goal of 128,000. The NCI-funded study is now running in Canada, South Korea, Peru, Argentina, Italy and 32 U.S. states. A site in Thailand will soon begin enrolling patients.
“We added more international sites to enhance the trial’s diversity, particularly for Hispanic and Asian women,” said Dr. Etta Pisano, who leads the study.
Overall, 42% of participants are Hispanic. As recruiting continues, enrolling Black women and other women of color will “absolutely” continue as a priority, Pisano said.
Participants are randomly assigned to either 2D or 3D mammograms and are followed for several years. The number of advanced cancers detected by the two methods will be compared.
At the U.S. study sites, 21% of study participants are Black women — that's higher than a typical cancer treatment study, in which 9% of participants are Black, McCaskill-Stevens said.
The University of North Carolina has signed up more Black women than any other study site. Nearly a quarter of the nearly 3,000 women enrolled at UNC’s two locations are Black.
“Women in North Carolina want to take part in something that’s bigger than them,” said Dr. Cherie Kuzmiak, who leads the UNC arm of the study. “They want this active role in helping determine the future of health care for women.”
In Washington, D.C., word of mouth has led to successful recruiting.
A chance encounter at her hair salon persuaded Stovall to join the research. While waiting for a hair appointment, she met Georgetown University cancer researcher Lucile Adams-Campbell. The two, both Black, started chatting.
“She explained how important it was to get women of color into the program,” said Stovall, who jumped at the chance to catch up on her mammograms after the COVID-19 pandemic delayed screening for her and thousands of others.
For Stovall, there was a personal reason to join the research. Her sister recently completed treatment for triple negative breast cancer, an aggressive type that affects Black women at higher rates than white women.
Women ages 45 to 74 without a personal history of breast cancer are eligible for the study, which launched in 2017. Many women also are providing blood and cheek swab samples for a database that will be mined for insights.
“It’s a dream that people had since the beginning of screening that we wouldn’t fit everybody into the same box,” Pisano said. The study's findings could “reduce disparities if we’re successful, assuming people have access to care.”
Stovall, 72, had a brief scare when her mammogram, the traditional 2D type, showed something suspicious. A biopsy ruled out cancer.
“I was extremely relieved,” Stovall said. “Everybody I know has heard from me about the need for them to go get a mammogram.”
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HealthDoes chicken soup really help when you're sick?
DAYTON, Ohio
Preparing a bowl of chicken soup for a loved one when they’re sick has been a common practice throughout the world for centuries. Today, generations from virtually every culture swear to the benefits of chicken soup. In the U.S., the dish is typically made with noodles, but different cultures prepare the soothing remedy their own way.
Chicken soup as a therapy can be traced back to 60 A.D. and Pedanius Dioscorides, an army surgeon who served under the Roman emperor Nero, and whose five-volume medical encyclopedia was consulted by early healers for more than a millennium. But the origins of chicken soup go back thousands of years earlier, to ancient China.
So, with cold and flu season in full swing, it’s worth asking: Is there any science to back the belief that it helps? Or does chicken soup serve as just a comforting placebo, that is, providing psychological benefit while we’re sick, without an actual therapeutic benefit?
As a registered dietitian and professor of dietetics and nutrition, I’m well aware of the appeal of chicken soup: the warmth of the broth and the rich, savory flavors of the chicken, vegetables and noodles. What gives the soup that distinctive taste is “umami” – the fifth category of taste sensations, along with sweet, salty, sour and bitter. It is often described as having a “meaty” taste.
Improved appetite, better digestion
All that makes sense, because amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, and the amino acid glutamate is found in foods with the umami taste. Not all umami foods are meat or poultry, however; cheese, mushrooms, miso and soy sauce have it too.
Studies show that taste, it turns out, is critical to the healing properties of chicken soup. When I see patients with upper respiratory illnesses, I notice many of them are suddenly eating less or not eating at all. This is because acute illnesses ignite an inflammatory response that can decrease your appetite. Not feeling like eating means you’re unlikely to get the nutrition you need, which is hardly an optimal recipe for immune health and recovery from illness.
But evidence suggests that the umami taste in chicken soup may help spur a bigger appetite. Participants in one study said they felt hungrier after their first taste of a soup with umami flavor added in by researchers.
Other studies say umami may also improve nutrient digestion. Once our brains sense umami through the taste receptors on our tongues, our bodies prime our digestive tracts to absorb protein more easily.
This can reduce gastrointestinal symptoms, which many people experience when they’re under the weather. Although most people don’t associate upper respiratory infections with gastrointestinal symptoms, research in children has found that the flu virus increased abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea symptoms.
May reduce inflammation and stuffy nose
Inflammation is part of the body’s natural response to injury or illness; inflammation occurs when white blood cells migrate to inflamed tissue to assist with healing. When this inflammatory process occurs in the upper airway, it results in common cold and flu symptoms, such as a stuffy or runny nose, sneezing, coughing and thickened mucus.
Conversely, lower white blood cell activity in the nasal passages can reduce inflammation. And interestingly, research shows that chicken soup can in fact lower the number of white blood cells traveling to inflamed tissues. It does this by directly inhibiting the ability of neutrophils, a type of white blood cell, to travel to the inflamed tissue.
Key ingredients
To truly understand the soothing and healing effects of chicken soup, it’s important to consider the soup’s ingredients. Not all chicken soups are packed with nutritious healing properties. For instance, the ultraprocessed canned versions of chicken soup, both with and without noodles, lack many of the antioxidants found in homemade versions. Most canned versions of chicken soup are nearly devoid of hearty vegetables.
The core nutrients in homemade versions of the soup are what set these varieties apart from canned versions. Chicken provides the body with a complete source of protein to combat infection. Vegetables supply a wide array of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. If prepared the American way, noodles provide an easily digestible source of carbohydrate that your body uses for energy and recovery.
Even the warmth of chicken soup can help. Drinking the liquid and inhaling the vapors increase the temperature of nasal and respiratory passages, which loosens the thick mucus that often accompanies respiratory illnesses. Compared with hot water alone, studies show chicken soup is more effective at loosening mucus.
The herbs and spices sometimes used in chicken soup, such as pepper and garlic, also loosen mucus. The broth, which contains water and electrolytes, helps with rehydration.
So, to maximize the health benefits of chicken soup, I recommend a homemade variety, which can be prepared with carrots, celery, fresh garlic, herbs and spices, to name a few ingredients. But if you need a more convenient option, look at the ingredients and nutrition facts label, and choose soups with a variety of vegetables over an ultraprocessed, nutrient-depleted kind.
In short, the latest science suggests that chicken soup – though not an out-and-out cure for colds and flu – really helps with healing. Looks like Grandma was right again.
Colby Teeman is an assistant professor in the Department of Health and Sport Science at the University of Dayton.
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Netflix and Spielberg combine for nature doc 'Life on Our Planet'
LOS ANGELES
"Life on Our Planet," the new natural history series from Netflix and Steven Spielberg, sets out to tell the entire, dramatic story of life on Earth in a serialized, "binge watch" format.
Streaming globally from Wednesday, the show's eight episodes transport viewers through Earth's five previous mass extinction events, each recreated with computer-generated visual effects.
As Morgan Freeman's narration reminds us, life has always found a way to endure every catastrophic event thrown at it over four billion years, from brutal ice ages to meteorites.
Each time, species that survive the destruction do battle for the next era's dominance in a "Game of Thrones"-style fight -- only between vertebrates and invertebrates, or reptiles and mammals, instead of Starks and Lannisters.
"What we wanted to do, our intention at the very beginning, was to serialize the story of life. Make it a kind of binge watch. Because the story is so dramatic," said showrunner Dan Tapster. "I think, and I hope, that is something that we've achieved, which is possibly a world-first in the natural history space."
Aside from a series of cliffhanger finales, "Life on Our Planet" finds dramatic tension with a series of ordinary, loveable underdogs who "win" evolution against the odds -- at least for a few hundred million years.
The influence of executive producer Spielberg's company, Amblin Television, encouraged a series with "a lot more emotion" and "pathos" than other natural history programs, said Tapster.
The show picks out key species, such as the first fish with a backbone, or the first vertebrate to migrate from ocean to land.
With 99 percent of all the species that ever lived now extinct, filmmakers had no shortage to choose between.
"There's about at least a billion species that are no longer with us, and we had to narrow that down to 65," said Tapster.
But those selected are often unlikely heroes -- plucky survivors, such as the odd-looking Arandaspis fish, which take their chance to shine as larger ocean beasts falter, and reshape the future of life.
Arandaspis "is a bit rubbish, it's weird... But it's in (the show), because it has a really crucial role" in evolution, said visual effects supervisor Jonathan Privett.
"One of the things I really love about that scene also is that Arandaspis has just got a hint of 'ET' about him," added Tapster.
The series employs visual effects from Industrial Light & Magic, the company established by "Star Wars" creator George Lucas, which pioneered the groundbreaking 3D dinosaurs for Spielberg's "Jurassic Park" three decades ago.
Monsters of the ancient past, from dinosaurs to the far earlier, sea-dwelling Cameroceras with their giant 25-foot (8-meter) shells, are rendered over the top of real backgrounds shot by the filmmakers.
To do this, producers had to scour the planet for contemporary landscapes that most closely resemble the habitats of creatures up to 450 million years ago.
"The animals really sit in a real world. I think it's seamless, and I think it's a very authentic way of taking us back into that time," said producer Keith Scholey.
Filmmakers also had to use visual effects tools to painstakingly remove pesky modern newcomer species, like fish, mammals -- and even grass.
"Grass was the bane of our lives," recalls Tapster. Grass "only really took over the world about 30 million years ago... that, for us, meant we had to do a lot of gardening."
The show enters a crowded marketplace, going up against David Attenborough's latest BBC series "Planet Earth III," which also launched this week.
It follows Apple TV+'s "Prehistoric Planet," also narrated by Attenborough, which uses computer-generated effects to recreate the age of dinosaurs.
But "Life on Our Planet" also aims to stand out from the competition due to the timely message embedded within its narrative.
Despite the show's interest in cliffhangers and plot twists, it is not much of a spoiler to say that it ends with life surviving, and humans on top.
Yet with a sixth mass extinction event already under way due to humankind's impact on Earth, there is a deeply sobering warning too.
"The five events we've had so far, there has been one common denominator -- and that is, the dominant species as you go into that extinction never came out," says series producer Alastair Fothergill.
"We are creating the sixth one, and I think you probably think we are the dominant species at the moment ..."
Tapster added: "In a strange way, there is a message of hope within that. Because not only is this the first extinction event that is being caused by a species, but we also have the ability to stop it."
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