Entertainment
Cindyana Santangelo, actor and model who lived the 'party rock star life' before getting sober, has died
Cindyana Santangelo, a philanthropist, model and actor who made memorable appearances in music videos for Young MC and Jane’s Addiction and had roles in “ER” and “CSI: Miami,” died Monday at a hospital near her Malibu home, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department confirmed to The Times.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department was called to a home on Westlake Boulevard in Malibu for a medical emergency around 7:15 p.m. Monday, the sheriff’s department said in an alert. She was taken by paramedics to a hospital where she was pronounced dead. The cause of death is unknown; an autopsy is pending. Sheriff’s homicide investigators are assisting deputies from the Los Hills Sheriff’s Station with the continuing investigation, as is routine when the cause of death is unknown.
Born Cindy Lehrer in 1967 in Manhattan, per IMDb, she was raised in Los Angeles. She started out as a dancer, appearing in various music videos in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including Young MC’s “Bust a Move” video. She also delivered the Spanish-language introduction to the “Juana’s Adicción” tune “Stop” in a Jane’s Addiction video, leading frontman Perry Farrell to later describe her to Spin magazine as “the Latin Marilyn Monroe.”
As Cindyana Lair, she appeared on “Married … With Children” as Jiggly Room dancer Sierra Madre.
She married Frank Santangelo in 2001 and was the mother of two boys. Her LinkedIn page lists her as the director and chief executive of Mermaids Cove Malibu, described as an all-women’s luxury sober living facility. In what appear to be documentary or reality-show promos based on Mermaids Cove, Santangelo described herself while discussing why she chose to help others.
“I’m Cindyana. I’m a great mommy, a wife, a daughter, a friend, a CEO — and a recovering addict,” she says in one video, adding later, “I had kind of the party rock star life, but I ended up as sort of, everybody knows, a low-bottom junkie.
“When I had the blessing to get clean and sober this time,” she says, “I realized that there was a niche in this market of recovery for people like me. That someone like me could touch only a certain ilk of women, that they would believe it and hear it only from me.”
Santangelo spoke with The Times in 2008 when she was offering up what was then her home in Malibu Cove Colony as an August rental, asking $55,000 per month. Regis Philbin and his wife, Joy, were interested, she said at the time.
Cindyana Santangelo sits in the ocean-view primary bedroom of her Malibu Cove Colony home in 2008.
(Los Angeles Times)
Santangelo’s friends remembered her online Tuesday and Wednesday.
“My heart aches as I write this. I’m still in shock and disbelief. How can you be gone??? … Malibu was your paradise, where your soul danced with the tides and your laughter blended with the sound of the waves,” Cynthia Banuelos wrote on Instagram in a post mourning Santangelo’s passing. “You had a heart as vast as the ocean, a spirit as free as the wind, and a love that ran deeper than the blue depths you adored. Frank and the Boys (Dante & Lucci), were your reason for living.”
“Swim free, my beautiful mermaid. Until we meet again,” she added.
“Head of the Class” actor Kimberly Russell chimed in on Banuelos’ post, writing in comments, “my beautiful Cindyana …. an angel in life …. this is shocking rest in peace …”
“No no no! This is impossible,” German actor Xenia Seeberg wrote in comments. “We just spoke a few days ago and planned together for Thailand and Istanbul and how we would see each other again much more often…! I am in complete shock. What happened to my beautiful sister??? Much too early to rest in peace.”
“I am devastated of this horrific news,” Samantha Bennington, wife of the late Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington, said in comments. “We were just about to celebrate her for her birthday!!!! This is a huge loss, not only for us as her family and friends, but for the entire community!!!! You will forever be in our hearts and we’re here for you all Frank and the kids. We are here for you.”
Bennington also put up her own Instagram post where she thanked Santangelo, saying, “you wrapped your arms around me and accepted me and loved on me as a friend the very first moment you met me I’ll never forget you for welcoming me into your tribe … heartbroken.”
Entertainment
Lucas Museum to give free annual passes to South L.A. neighbors, host community preview day
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which is moving at light speed toward its Sept. 22 opening, announced Thursday that it will give free annual passes to its South L.A. neighbors living in the 90037 ZIP Code. The 300,000-square-foot, $1-billion museum located in Exposition Park will also host a special community preview day on Sept. 13, more than a week before the general public gets to step inside.
The 90037 ZIP Code has a population of more than 65,000 and is bordered roughly by the 110 Freeway to the west, Slauson Avenue to the south, Central Avenue to the east and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to the north. Residents can register for passes at lucasmuseum.org/lm37 and will be alerted in August when the program launches. Pass holders can reserve tickets for themselves and one guest.
Tickets for non-pass holders go on sale July 21. They cost $25 for adults and $21 for seniors. Kids 17 and under are free.
“Storytelling has the power to bring people together and create a sense of community,” said Lucas Museum Chief Executive Tracey Bates in a news release about the program. “Through LM37, we are inviting our South Los Angeles neighbors to make the museum part of their lives and take their own path of discovery through the art, programs and experiences that will help shape this new cultural hub for Los Angeles.”
The community preview day is designed to give local business owners, community partners, civic leaders and registered LM37 pass holders a sneak peak of the 10,000 square feet of exhibition space, as well as the expansive gardens with 11 acres of park space.
The opening programming, curated by co-founder George Lucas, features 20 inaugural exhibitions across more than 30 galleries, including one titled “Star Wars in Motion,” containing vehicle designs, high-speed racers, flying vessels, props, costumes and illustrations from the first six films in the beloved franchise.
More than 1,200 objects will be on display from Lucas’ personal collection of narrative art. Highlights include work by Norman Rockwell and Dorothea Lange, as well as a variety of manga, children’s book illustrations and comics.
Movie Reviews
Movie review: Supergirl is a blast
Last year’s “Superman” ended with Iggy Pop singing “Because I’m a punk rocker, yes I am” — an ironic coda for a superlatively square hero. But it rings straightforwardly true for Superman’s cousin.
Milly Alcock’s Kara Zor-El, or Supergirl, sports not a spandex suit but a Blondie T-shirt. When we meet her in Craig Gillespie’s “Supergirl,” she’s been on an interstellar bender for days. She’s more Courtney Love than Clark Kent.
Nonchalant and sarcastic, Kara is also a little Han Solo-ish, you might say, given that she moves capriciously through the galaxy in her junky spaceship while getting in fights in extraterrestrial bars. She’s a welcome, jagged riff on more buttoned-up superheroes, and Alcock is terrific in the role. If only “Supergirl” was as good as she is.
While the latest DC release, and second under James Gunn’s stewardship, has its moments, “Supergirl” struggles to match Kara’s punk-rock energy with an equally spirited supporting cast and story.
Skepticism seems to have gathered for “Supergirl” ahead of its release. Many fans have argued it wasn’t the right next step for DC Universe. But I’m not so sure. Alcock’s breezy cameo in “Superman” was one of that movie’s highlights. Handing the follow-up to her, and her faithful floating dog Krypto, strikes me as an extremely natural next step. When in doubt, follow the dog.
And much of “Supergirl” is winning. It resides almost entirely in space, touching down only momentarily on Earth. In its consistently creative production design, clever needle drops and underdog story arc, “Supergirl” resides a little closer to Gunn’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies than other DC entries. Its outer space is filled with cosmic detritus, mean characters and cute critters. Seth Rogen as the voice of a tiny alien co-piloting a space bus is an inspired concoction, as is a shabbier sci-fi realm with rest stops along the intergalactic highway.
Entertainment
Justin Baldoni and wife break silence after ‘It Ends With Us’ legal battle with Blake Lively
Justin Baldoni has broken his silence after reaching a settlement in a lengthy and highly publicized legal dispute with Blake Lively.
Baldoni and his wife, Emily Baldoni, presented a united front in an Instagram video the couple shared Wednesday that began, “So we have not spoken publicly for the better part of the last two years, and it’s not because we haven’t had anything to say, because Lord knows we have.”
The “It Ends With Us” actor and director said that although they’d wanted to address the debacle that involved dueling lawsuits with Lively, nearly two years of tit-for-tat fodder and culminated in a confidential settlement, “something was telling us not to.”
The couple said they prayed about when to make a public statement. “This feels like the moment,” Emily said.
“What does feel important,” she continued, “is that we can genuinely say that we are sitting here today feeling immense gratitude for so many things and so many people and so many things that have happened to us.”
“Gratitude has saved us,” Justin added.
“I also feel that it’s important as we say that — in that gratitude — it doesn’t negate the injustice and the pain that we have also felt in the last few years, and we’ve had to wrestle with so many things and try to understand so many things,” Emily said. “How could something like this even happen? Let alone disguised as a fight for women. So much to unpack. And the truth is, reality is, is that there’s been a lot of trauma for us to move through as a family, which also makes it hard to speak.”
“We don’t even know this is the right thing to say, but we just know we need to share something,” Justin said. “What I will say is that there have been so many painful things that have been spoken into existence — “
“Untruthful,” Emily broke in.
“We didn’t want to add to the noise, so we just wanted to let the justice system run its course,” he said.
“And the truth and the facts have spoken for themselves,” Emily said.
The couple’s statement comes a year and a half after Lively filed a bombshell lawsuit against Baldoni alleging sexual harassment, retaliation and several other charges on the heels of a messy “It Ends With Us” summer release and press tour that fueled rumors of on-set turmoil.
Less than a month after the allegations against Baldoni rallied Hollywood against him, he countersued Lively, her publicist Leslie Sloane and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, for $400 million in damages, claiming they’d smeared his name in the press and wrestled away his control of the film. His suit was later dismissed.
In May, two weeks ahead of the trial, Lively and Baldoni reached an agreement to resolve their legal dispute, bringing an abrupt end to the contentious battle.
“The parties in the Blake Lively and Wayfarer Studios litigation have reached an agreement to resolve the matters,” lawyers for both sides said in a joint statement.
“The end product — the movie ‘It Ends With Us’ — is a source of pride to all of us who worked to bring it to life. Raising awareness, and making a meaningful impact in the lives of domestic violence survivors — and all survivors — is a goal that we stand behind. We acknowledge the process presented challenges and recognize concerns raised by Ms. Lively deserved to be heard. We remain firmly committed to workplaces free of improprieties and unproductive environments. It is our sincere hope that this brings closure and allows all involved to move forward constructively and in peace, including a respectful environment online.”
In June, a federal judge ordered Baldoni and his production company to pay Lively’s attorney fees related to his unsuccessful defamation lawsuit against her, but rejected her bid for additional damages.
“So, how are we doing?” the filmmaker said in the Instagram video. “We are healing, and if you’ve ever been through something traumatic, you know that healing isn’t linear. It lives different every day, and we have had to rethink for ourselves what is real. What matters, and it’s this. It’s our family. It’s our friends. It’s our community. It’s our faith.”
Times staff writer Josh Rottenberg contributed to this report.
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