Lifestyle
L.A. Affairs: He was a perfect gentleman. Homeowner. Father. Film producer … and ex-con?
If you had asked me to go on a date with someone who was barely out of prison, my answer would be an immediate no. I am not someone with Bonnie and Clyde syndrome, and I have never initiated anything with a known ex-con. My dad used to make fun of me for being someone who sticks to rules — almost to a fault. I hated when he double parked or ignored posted signs.
Then I met Mr. Hollywood on a dating app.
As I get older, using dating apps puts me in a smaller and smaller mating pool. Most men my age or younger date younger or are married and looking for something on the side. I’m a health food-eating meditator who is rather arty. I have not made a fortune yet, and I want to find a partner, not a paramour.
I’m not everyone’s style. Men no longer look at me as a woman to mold. They just see that I don’t drink, don’t smoke and have aged out of being a pinup.
I was intrigued by Mr. Hollywood. He was cute. He had a nice profile that depicted a clean-cut, slightly geeky guy. He was more computer tech than Miami drug dealer. His profile showed that he relished the outdoors, was a fit runner, enjoyed films and had homes in two states. His kids liked him, and he looked kind.
When he sent a rose my way, I thought, why not meet him? We texted, then talked, so I was fairly sure he was not catfishing me — that’s so common now on dating apps. He immediately asked me to dinner. That was different. Almost no one did that. Coffee, sure. A walk, maybe. Committing to an early evening out felt good. It had been a long time since anyone had asked. I said yes.
Then he sent me something to read.
“See if you still want to meet me after you read this,” he said. I was a tad reticent to click a link. Potential scammers on LinkedIn have sent me private messages with URLs to jobs that may or may not have been real. (I generally delete them instead of finding out.) So why would I trust a link from a random guy I’d interacted with only on my phone?
Instead, I searched his name and the headline of the article and easily found what I was looking for. He had been in prison for selling drugs. He had been in prison for selling drugs. The article definitely sided with Mr. Hollywood and his business partner. It said, in so many words, they had been wrongly accused of being “kingpins” and did not deserve their 20-year sentences. Well, I thought, this won’t be a boring dinner. I’d like to hear his story.
He set the date for the first night he’d be back in L.A., and I gave him a few restaurant ideas. He picked one close to me in Santa Monica. That was nice. I could walk there.
I learned that he found out he was autistic in middle age but always thought he was neurodivergent, even if that term was not yet in the zeitgeist. I found him to be charming. He pulled my chair out for me and was the right amount of interested. He was the perfect gentleman, along with having a Hollywood producer cool. Producing movies was his passion; selling drugs allegedly made him a lot of money to pursue it.
He loved his dinner. The conversation flowed. He sneaked in “I’m not a good person” so innocuously that the old me would have overlooked it. Current me heard it like a Rebound ringtone.
Prior to dinner, I would have thought that sentence was his wounded self, which needed love and attention to heal. I was raised by a sweet henpecked father, who would have said something disparaging about himself to get me to help him with his computer or read tiny print. I used to rush in, taking on the helper role because it offered warmth and a modicum of love. That pattern never worked in relationships and was exactly what I wasn’t looking for.
But the sentence went by fast, and he seemed genuinely interested in perhaps working together. He even said during dinner something like, “I’m feeling like we’ve got a collaborating-on-work vibe more than romance going here.”
I agreed. But then, he said that he was feeling a lot of attraction for me. It was nice to hear. The flattery was quickly flattened. He divulged that he could be going back to prison soon. He had another court date coming up.
As the date ended, he made sure I would be OK getting home on my own and asked me to send him a specific script I’d written, which doubled as the “Yes, I did get home safely” text. I later looked up more information to see what I might have missed about him. Other than a couple of giant red flags, our dinner was a fun date — something I haven’t had in far too long. Instead of being disappointed, I felt more hopeful about dating in general.
I sent him the script, and he responded he’d read it soon. I followed up a couple of weeks later, and he said he was woefully behind. Unlike men I had gone out with, the ones who strung me along knowing we were not couple material, he simply never contacted me again.
I didn’t feel rejected. I felt like he gently slipped away after a nice dinner. His approach wasn’t criminal. It was closer to heroic. I hope he finds a Bonnie to his Clyde and lives a long and happy life.
The author has written live-action scripts and animation. She lives in Los Angeles.
L.A. Affairs chronicles the search for romantic love in all its glorious expressions in the L.A. area, and we want to hear your true story. We pay $400 for a published essay. Email LAAffairs@latimes.com. You can find submission guidelines here. You can find past columns here.
Ariana Grande arrives at the 83rd Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif.
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The brightest stars in TV and film kicked off the 83rd annual Golden Globes tonight in Beverly Hills, Calif. with Ariana Grande, Noah Wyle, Teyana Taylor and George Clooney are just some the names who walked the red carpet. This year’s ceremony was hosted by comedian Nikki Glaser.
Here’s a glimpse of what some of the attendees are wearing tonight.
Michael B. Jordan
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Ryan Coogler and Zinzi Evans
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Jean Smart
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Teyana Taylor
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Jenna Ortega
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Owen Cooper
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Sara Wells and Noah Wyle
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Claire Danes
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Stellan Skarsgård and Megan Everett-Skarsgard
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Amy Poehler
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EJAE
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Amanda Anka and Jason Bateman
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Paul Mescal
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Adam Brody and Leighton Meester
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Laufey
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Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons
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Chris Olsen
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Lisa Ann Walter
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Macaulay Culkin and Brenda Song
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Jacob Elordi
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Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco
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Ryan Destiny
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Jennifer Garner
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Rose Byrne
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Kate Hudson
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Snoop Dogg
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Timothée Chalamet
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Miley Cyrus
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George Clooney and Amal Clooney
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Leonardo DiCaprio
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Michel Martin
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Steve Inskeep
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Leila Fadel
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A Martinez
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Ben Falcone and Melissa McCarthy
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Amanda Seyfried
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William Stanford Davis
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Tessa Thompson
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Kathy Bates
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Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell
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Skylar Diggins
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Monica Padman
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Adam Scott and Naomi Scott
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Jayme Lawson
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Maya Rudolph and Paul Thomas Anderson
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Emma Stone
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Natasha Lyonne and Clea DuVall
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Nischelle Turner
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Parker Posey
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Vince Gilligan
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Mark Ruffalo and Sunrise Coigney
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Sheryl Lee Ralph
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Keegan-Michael Key and Elle Key
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Justin Sylvester
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Judd Apatow and Lesley Mann
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Keltie Knight
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Sarah Snook
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Glen Powell
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Piper Curda
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Justine Lupe
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Helen Hoehne
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Natasha Rothwell
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Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis
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Minnie Driver
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Orlando Bloom
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Hudson Williams
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Connor Storrie
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Erin Doherty
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Wanda Sykes
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Nikki Glaser
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Julia Roberts
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Emily Blunt
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Chris Perfetti
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Rhea Seehorn
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Dakota Fanning
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Queen Latifah
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2026 Golden Globes
Nikki Glaser Shouts Out Rob Reiner …
Dons ‘Spinal Tap’ Hat at Close of Show
Published
Rob Reiner wasn’t forgotten at this year’s Golden Globe awards … because host Nikki Glaser paid tribute to him just weeks after his murder.
Here’s the deal … during the sign-off for the awards show, Nikki came onstage wearing a black and white “Spinal Tap” hat — the band which serves as the subject of Reiner’s iconic 1984 mockumentary of the same name.
Worth noting … the Golden Globes do not typically air an in memoriam — so this was the only time Reiner was mentioned at the show.
As you know … Rob and his wife Michele Singer Reiner were found dead in their Los Angeles home last month. Their son Nick Reiner has been arrested for murder in connection to the case.
TMZ.com
Nick’s arraignment was scheduled for last week … but, his lawyer Alan Jackson dropped out of the case — leaving Nick with a public defender and new arraignment date set for late February.
Jackson told a gaggle of reporters outside the courthouse that Nick’s not guilty … but, he simply can’t defend him. He did not provide a reason for his withdrawal.
Our new documentary “TMZ Investigates The Reiner Murders: What Really Happened” dives into Rob and Michele’s grisly deaths … as well as Nick’s history of mental health issues and even how his weight gain set him on a dangerous path.
“TMZ Investigates The Reiner Murders: What Really Happened” is now streaming on Hulu.
On-air challenge
Today’s puzzle is called “Pet Theory.” Every answer is a familiar two-word phrase or name in which the first word start starts PE- and the second word starts T-. (Ex. What walkways at intersections carry –> PEDESTRIAN TRAFFIC)
1. Chart that lists all the chemical elements
2. Place for a partridge in “The 12 Days of Christmas”
3. Male voyeur
4. What a coach gives a team during halftime in the locker room
5. Set of questions designed to reveal your traits
6. Something combatants sign to end a war
7. Someone who works with you one-on-one with physical exercises
8. Member of the Who
9. Incisors, canines, and premolars that grow in after you’re a baby
10. Nadia Comaneci was the first gymnast to score this at the Olympics
11. What holds the fuel in a British car
Last week’s challenge
Last week’s challenge was a numerical one from Ed Pegg Jr., who runs the website mathpuzzle.com. Take the nine digits — 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. You can group some of them and add arithmetic operations to get 2011 like this: 1 + 23 ÷ 4 x 5 x 67 – 8 + 9. If you do these operations in order from left to right, you get 2011. Well, 2011 was 15 years ago. Can you group some of the digits and add arithmetic symbols in a different way to make 2026? The digits from 1 to 9 need to stay in that order. I know of two different solutions, but you need to find only one of them.
Challenge answer
12 × 34 × 5 – 6 – 7 + 8 – 9 [or] 1 + 2 + 345 × 6 – 7 × 8 + 9
Winner
Daniel Abramson of Albuquerque, N.M.
This week’s challenge
This week’s challenge comes from listener Ward Hartenstein. Think of a well-known couple whose names are often said in the order of _____ & _____. Seven letters in the names in total. Combine those two names, change an E to an S, and rearrange the result to name another famous duo who are widely known as _____ & _____.
If you know the answer to the challenge, submit it below by Thursday, January 15 at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle.
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