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Best Portraits from the Festival of Books: John Green, Henry Winkler and more

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Best Portraits from the Festival of Books: John Green, Henry Winkler and more

The 29th Los Angeles Times Festival of Books returned to USC with a first ever live stream of activities.

Many of the participants and guests stopped by our portrait studio: John Green, Henry Winkler, Sophia Bush, Max Greenfield, Lois Lowry and more poets, artists, chefs, journalists, celebrities and musicians.

Here are some of the best photos from the day of people who did their best to entertain our photographer Myung J. Chun.

Max Greenfield in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio.

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Maris Pasquale Doran and Phillipa Soo in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio

Maris Pasquale Doran and Phillipa Soo in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio.

Henry Winkler in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio

Henry Winkler in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio at the Festival of Books.

George Stephanopoulos in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio.

Former White House Communications Director George Stephanopoulos in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio.

Author John Green in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio

Author John Green in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio at the Festival of Books.

Actor Hannah Marks at the Festival of Books

Actor Hannah Marks at the Festival of Books.

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Actor Cree at the Festival of Books in Los Angeles.

Actor Cree at the Festival of Books in Los Angeles.

Actor Felix Mallard at the Festival of Books.

Felix Mallard at the Festival of Books.

Judy Reyes in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio

Judy Reyes in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio at the Festival of Books.

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Jennifer Baker in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio

Jennifer Baker in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio at the Festival of Books.

Sarah Myer in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio

Sarah Myer in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio at the Festival of Books in Los Angeles.

Melania Luisa Marte in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio.

Melania Luisa Marte in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio.

Tiffany Chang in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio at the Festival of Books.

Tiffany Chang in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio at the Festival of Books.

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Natasha Deon in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio

Natasha Deon in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio at the Festival of Books.

Heather Scott Partington in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio

Heather Scott Partington in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio at the Festival of Books.

Lois Lowry in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio

Lois Lowry in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio at the Festival of Books.

Robin Benway in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio

Robin Benway in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio at the Festival of Books.

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Aida Salazar in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio

Aida Salazar in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio at the Festival of Books.

Sophia Bush in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio

Sophia Bush in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio at the Festival of Books.

Kim Johnson in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio

Kim Johnson in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio at the Festival of Books.

Molly McGhee in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio at the Festival of Books.

Molly McGhee in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio at the Festival of Books.

Airea D. Matthews in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio.

Airea D. Matthews in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio at the Festival of Books.

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Karin Slaughterher in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio

Karin Slaughterher in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio at the Festival of Books.

Roda Ahmed in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio

Roda Ahmed in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio at the Festival of Books .

Kristen Kiesling in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio

Kristen Kiesling in the Los Angeles Times Portrait Studio at the Festival of Books.

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Alannah Keyser is latest fired ‘Love Island USA’ contestant to apologize for using a racist slur

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Alannah Keyser is latest fired ‘Love Island USA’ contestant to apologize for using a racist slur

Another former bombshell has apologized for past use of a racist slur that got her ousted from the villa.

Fired “Love Island USA” contestant Alannah Keyser posted a video to TikTok on Saturday addressing a past video that showed her using the N-word as she sang along to the Roddy Ricch song “The Box.” On Friday, Peacock confirmed to The Times that Keyser had been dismissed from the hit reality dating show after the resurfaced video began circulating online.

“I do want to begin by addressing the video of me singing along to a Roddy Ricch song that contains a racial slur,” Keyser says in her video. “I’m sorry to whoever has seen that video and has been offended by it; that was never my intention. The video is from six years ago, and that word is just not in my vocabulary anymore.”

A USC film student from Miami, Keyser also addressed some of the other social media chatter about her that had been making the rounds prior to her dismissal. Included were accusations of racism due to screenshots of her alleged use of the racist slur on Snapchat and Instagram as well as observations that alleged she had interacted less with Black men on the show.

She said those screenshots had been “falsified.”

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“What has been shared does not reflect the truth, and it’s never been in my character to discriminate against anybody’s skin color,” Keyser said. “I do want to say directly that I do not support racism or discrimination of any kind, and I never have.

“When I first found out that these things were going around online, it really broke my heart, and I couldn’t do anything about it. But this has definitely been a learning lesson for me, and it sucks that I didn’t get a chance to really show my personality and who I am,” she added.

In the caption of her TikTok video, Keyser wrote that “reality tv is HEAVILY edited & [her] chats/kisses with the other boys were unfortunately not aired.”

Keyser was the second “Love Island USA” contestant who was dismissed from the show this season after video of them using the N-word surfaced on social media. Earlier this month, Peacock axed Oregon-based beauty technician Vasana Montgomery just days after it announced its slate of Islanders for the show’s eighth season. She has since apologized, saying, “There is no excuse” for her use of the slur.

Last year, contestants Cierra Ortega and Yulissa Escobar were dismissed from the show for their use of racist slurs. Ortega had been caught repeatedly using a derogatory slur for Chinese people (and Asian people in general) on social media, while Escobar had used the N-word in a couple of podcasts. Both have since apologized.

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‘The Invite’ Movie Review – Spotlight Report

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‘The Invite’ Movie Review – Spotlight Report

The Invite is a remake of the Spanish film The People Upstairs, itself based on a play by the same director Cesc Gay. With all remakes, the question is: What’s this version bringing to the table. In this case, it’s a rock solid cast with great chemistry and some very snappy direction by Olivia Wilde.

Joe (Seth Rogen) and Angela (Olivia Wilde) are a dysfunctional couple with some noisily amorous upstairs neighbours. They invite Hawk (Edward Norton) and Piña (Penélope Cruz) to dinner and hijinks ensue.

There’s a lot to like about The Invite. Each member of the cast is funny in their own way. Rogen plays his usual schlub but his character is more nuanced than usual, with the rapid-fire jokes masking a deep frustration and melancholy. Wilde‘s Angela is a persnickety neurotic, but it’s not hard to see why. Cruz plays a sultry therapist who’s in permanent flirt mode but is also holding something back. Norton steals the show with a quietly hilarious performance as a retired firefighter who is all too eager to share his new age insights. The way each person interacts with the other results in a rollercoaster of cringe comedy, acerbic satire and genuine gut-busters. This is a film that relies entirely on performance and actually succeeds.

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The story itself is a little masterpiece. Adapted from Gay’s original by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack, the dialogue is quick, laden with not-very-subtextual motivations and always up to something. It’s very even-handed, and all the characters are sympathetic but flawed in amusing ways. Watching the increasingly desperate Joe and Angela bouncing off the Hawk and Piña is both funny and excruciating. Joe’s attraction to Piña is played fairly straight, but Angela’s attraction to Hawk becomes side-splitting as she pours out her soul to his Zen-calm ears and gets responses that make her even more attracted to him and by the end she’s practically hyperventilating.

The Invite does take something of a turn towards the end, although the film is in a state of continual twist throughout. This final shift throws the couples’ dysfunction into stark terms but doesn’t ruin anything. In the end, it moves from a somewhat misanthropic tone to a sincere and compassionate one. It skillfully makes you complicit in Joe and Angela’s spatting and then forces you to reconsider. The comedy is so intense throughout the film that when this happens it might lose some viewers, but it’s well-earned, true to the characters and it’s a very satisfying payoff.

The Invite is a small film that feels like a return to a better era in cinema. It’s a remake that is worth watching for its performances, and it’s very, very funny. It’s the sort of film that can be watched at home given its confined setting, but it generates enough laughs that seeing with an audience is a real pleasure.

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Jesús Ortiz Paz and Jimmy Humilde took their legal dispute to Instagram. Here’s the breakdown

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Jesús Ortiz Paz and Jimmy Humilde took their legal dispute to Instagram. Here’s the breakdown

What started off as a trailblazing music partnership between música mexicana band Fuerza Regida and L.A. label Rancho Humilde has now fizzled into a sticky online drama.

On Saturday, Fuerza Regida frontman Jesús Ortiz Paz, better known as JOP, took to his personal Instagram account to post a statement addressing the band’s ongoing legal battle with the independent label led by music mogul Jimmy Humilde, who signed the band in 2018.

“To everyone who supports Fuerza Regida, you deserve to hear our music,” Ortiz Paz wrote in a public statement. “You deserve to see us perform at the World Cup. You deserve to listen to us on the MLB [Major League Baseball] album.”

This statement, which has since disappeared from JOP’s Instagram post, alleged that music created by the música mexicana group “keeps disappearing.”

Among the songs that have been taken down from streaming platforms by Rancho Humilde are “Triston,” “Todos nos Shipean” and “67,” according to the band’s publicist.

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In September 2025, Rancho Humilde filed a lawsuit against Fuerza Regida, alleging breaches of contract for unilaterally collaborating with artists outside the label — such as Chino Pacas and Drake — and signing exclusive live performance deals with Apple Music and Live Nation.

Fuerza Regida countersued, alleging that Rancho Humilde withheld millions in royalties and attempted to “sabotage” the band’s success, including by neglecting to submit its music for consideration ahead of the 2024 Latin Grammys.

The case is still making its way through the courts.

“Everyone knows [what’s] going on[.] [You see] it [in the] media, [that’s] why I’m going to let justice do its job, everyone is going to know who you really are,” the post by JOP continued in both English and Spanish. “[He who has nothing to hide has nothing to fear], go let [Jimmy Humilde] & [Rancho Humilde] know how you feel, make your voice heard. Our story isn’t over I promise.”

Humilde responded to the artist in the comment section shortly after the post was made public.

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“You asked me for a bigger [deal], I got it done. You asked me for your [masters], I fought to make it happen. You wanted to become one of the biggest artists in the [world], I have everything I had to help build that dream,” wrote Humilde.

“When you needed help, I didn’t just bring business. I brought my lawyers, my doctors, my relationships, my time, and my heart. I stood by you when it mattered the most,” Humilde continued. “You walked away with the biggest check of your [life,] over $50 million. I never complained. I was happy to see you win because your success was our success.”

“What hurts is seeing everything we’ve built together reduced to a public narrative that doesn’t tell the whole story. If you believe people deserve the truth, then honor the agreement we made. Complete the contract the same way I honored every commitment I made to you. I never stopped looking out for you. I only ask that you do the same. [He who has nothing to hide has nothing to fear].”

In a separate comment — which Humilde uploaded to his own Instagram account with Fuerza Regida’s own song “El Dinero Los Cambio” (which describes how money can change someone) — the label head pushed back on allegations of robbery: “I robbed you? Robbed you of what, fool. You didn’t even have a dollar for me to rob.”

The music mogul also accused JOP — who founded his own label Street Mob Records in 2018 — of sabotaging his own bandmates. “Let’s talk about [how] your own band members went from partners to being employees. They didn’t have much of a choice.”

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“And let’s not forget I helped you land a $15 million deal for your label. After that, how you choose to take care of your artists is on you. [Let’s] ask Chinito [Pacas], Calle [24] and Armenta!!” added Humilde, including the names of artists signed to Street Mob Records.

JOP of Fuerza Regida performs at South By Southwest on March 13 in Austin, Texas.

(Cat Cardenas / For De Los)

In an email to De Los, Humilde’s lawyer, Mike Trauben, pushed back on claims that Rancho Humilde is trying to stop Fuerza Regida from making music and obtaining other opportunities.

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They cite two recent deals that were approved by Rancho Humilde, including Fuerza Regida’s appearance on “Grand Theft Auto” and in the online video game “Fortnite,” which aligns with the contractual framework both parties had negotiated.

With regards to the proposed MLB and FIFA collaborations, Humilde’s council said that Fuerza Regida sought to prevent Rancho Humilde from exercising its claimed contractual rights, which was ultimately denied by a federal court.

The reason certain songs were removed from streaming platforms is because Fuerza Regida chose to release music outside the agreed Rancho/Sony distribution structure and without the approvals required under the parties’ agreements, per Humilde’s lawyers.

“Ultimately, this case is not about stopping an artist from succeeding,” wrote Trauben to The Times. “It is about whether sophisticated parties are required to honor the agreements they voluntarily negotiated after success had already arrived.”

According to Trauben, Rancho Humilde and Fuerza Regida, both parties entered a completely new agreement in 2022 that fundamentally restructured their entire business relationship, fully terminating the initial 2018 contract in place. As a result, Fuerza Regida received a flat million-dollar bonus, Rancho Humilde converted its ownership of existing masters into a 50/50 structure and the two entered into a new agreement, which Humilde’s lawyers claim favors Fuerza Regida.

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“This case is not about whether artists should have rights. They absolutely should. Nor is it about preventing Fuerza Regida from making music,” wrote Trauben. “Rather, this case asks a much broader question that affects the entire music industry: Do contracts still matter after artist success arrives?”

The Times reached out to Fuerza Regida’s attorney but did not hear back as of this publication.

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