Entertainment
Eric André says he was racially profiled again, this time in Australia: 'I do not feel safe'
![Eric André says he was racially profiled again, this time in Australia: 'I do not feel safe' Eric André says he was racially profiled again, this time in Australia: 'I do not feel safe'](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/e768a55/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4823x2532+0+0/resize/1200x630!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ff4%2F3d%2F0b054d1d4d4f9d287903b9798a44%2Fla-photos-1staff-737899-et-mn-eric-andre-bad-trip3-mam.jpg)
Comedian Eric André is speaking out once again about his experiences with racial profiling, this time alleging he was detained in an Australia airport over the weekend.
“It’s one of the many times I’ve been racially profiled at the airport,” he said Sunday in an Instagram video. “This is a message to all Black, brown and Indigenous people traveling through Melbourne today … please be careful.”
The “Eric André Show” and “Bad Trip” comedian, who is Black, said he was stopped at the Melbourne Aiport as he was traveling from New York City to Brisbane, where he is set to shoot an upcoming project. André said he was pulled out of a line in the airport and put in a “special line” where he was “sniffed thoroughly” by a security dog. In addition to the warning, André encouraged his fans to send him more information about the security program that uses the dogs, the officers who allegedly pulled him aside and any leads for discrimination lawyers in Australia.
He also asked anyone who might hire him to perform Down Under in the future to ensure he does not go through the Melbourne Airport without security. “Or have me fly into Brisbane or Sydney directly,” he said.
“I do not feel safe in the Melbourne Airport. I do not want to be humiliated or racially discriminated against anymore at these airports,” he added. “I don’t wanna cut my hair and wear a three-piece suit so I’m treated like a first class citizen.”
He likened the “cockamamie” security dog program to stop-and-frisk policies and claimed that the practice is “unethical” and provides a “less safe” experience for non-white fliers. He also shared a link to a study from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, that questions the effectiveness of drug-detection dogs.
The Melbourne Airport, via Instagram comments, responded to André’s allegations, noting it “does not tolerate racism in any form.” The airport also said it would address the actor’s complaint with the Australian Border Force and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, who oversee “all international arrivals at Melbourne Airport and other Australian international gateways.”
The airport statement added: “We welcome ALL passengers to Melbourne, and we expect everyone to be treated equally.”
Qantas, the Australian airline Andre names in both his video and caption, did not comment but referred inquiries to the Australian Border Force. ABF told The Times on Monday that it confirmed “this was not an ABF detector dog nor an ABF interaction with Mr Eric Andre.”
“Here at the ABF, we are really proud of our diverse workforce, especially at Melbourne Airport and the work they undertake — both human and canine — to keep Australia safe,” the ABF said in a statement.
Representatives for Andre did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment.
André detailed a similar experience with security at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. In October 2022, Andre and fellow comedian Clayton English sued the Clayton County Police Department, alleging that officers stopped, searched and asked English and André about drugs while they were waiting to board their flights in October 2020 and April 2021, respectively. The initial case was dismissed, but the comedians’ legal team filed an appeal in January.
The Emmy-nominated comedian wasn’t the only star to speak out about airport woes this weekend. Singer Bebe Rexha alleged that a worker for Lufthansa airline “threatened” her for being Albanian. She reportedly aired her grievance Saturday in since-expired Instagram stories.
“I thought the security agent was Albanian. I spoke to him in Albanian asking where to get my ticket and now he is banning me from the flight,” she wrote on social media, according to CNN. “I believe this to be a hate crime because I am Albanian.”
The “I’m Good” singer accused the guard of mentally abusing her and alleged that “not one of the women at Lufthansa” intervened. She also urged the German airline to conduct an investigation. Lufthansa said it reached out to the singer and has launched an internal review of the incident.
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Movie Reviews
Movie Review: ‘Alien: Romulus’ | Recent News
“Alien: Romulus” started out at a disadvantage with me because I haven’t liked any of the “Alien” films that came before it. I’m not just talking about the heavily-maligned third and fourth installments from the 90’s, the “Predator” crossovers from the 2000’s, or the uneven Michael Fassbender arc of the 2010’s. I mean that even the “classic” original from 1979 and beloved first sequel from 1986 have never done it for me. I find them to be little more than glorified haunted house movies with one cool creature design and some extra squishy special effects. That isn’t to say that I think they’re terrible, exactly, just not worthy of their pedestals in popular culture. Now “Alien: Romulus” is a movie that I do think is terrible, exactly.
The movie follows new heroine Rain (Cailee Spaeny) and her glitchy android “brother” Andy (David Jonsson) as they try to escape a miserable mining planet owned by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation. They get an invite from her friend Tyler (Archie Renaux) to join him on an unsanctioned mission to a floating research station that contains stasis chambers and is set to arrive at a desirable planet in nine years. Also along are Tyler’s pregnant sister Kara (Isabela Merced), his cousin Bjorn (Spike Fearn), and Bjorn’s girlfriend Navarro (Aileen Wu).
Of course, things don’t quite go to plan. There isn’t enough fuel to run the stasis chambers, so the team has to look all over the ship for more. Another little snag, as you can probably imagine, is that the ship took an alien known as a Xenomorph onboard and now the ship is infested with everything from big, cumbersome, deadly aliens to smaller, more nimble, but still very deadly aliens. Also, the aliens have acidic bodily fluids that are capable of tearing through the ship itself, not to mention any unfortunate humans. Also, the station is owned by Weyland-Yutani, a company that never misses a chance to endanger humans for its own bottom line – and it wants that precious alien DNA. All of this is explained by the ship’s android science officer, and let’s just say that one of Weyland-Yutani’s cost-cutting measures is recycling android designs.
Since the characters aren’t interesting and the action isn’t exciting, I whiled away the time waiting for cast members to get killed off. There’s a big billboard in Times Square depicting Navarro getting attacked by a face-hugging Xenomorph, she’s a goner for sure. Bjorn is rude to everybody, he’s no doubt toast. Tyler is bland even for this movie, he has “killed off somewhere in the middle” written all over him. Kara exists solely so her pregnancy can be exploited for body horror. This franchise’s affinity for heroines takes away a lot of the suspense from Rain, though Cailee Spaeny is no Sigourney Weaver. The only character whose life or death I couldn’t predict with 99% certainty was Andy, and he arguably doesn’t even have a “life” in the first place.
Walt Disney World used to have an attraction called “Alien Encounter,” unrelated to the “Alien” franchise, but certainly reminiscent of it. Guests would sit strapped in a seat and be “terrorized” by an alien animatronic in the form of wind, water, and sound effects in a darkened room. Disney got complaints that the attraction wasn’t child-friendly, so they made the lighting dim instead of dark, scaled down the intensity, and generally made the whole thing less appealing to thrill-seekers. “Alien: Romulus” reminds me of a later version of that ride. While not devoid of violence by any means, the film can’t properly pull off a thrilling or scary atmosphere to save its life. Nor does it have the dramatic or comedic chops to be an interesting movie on any other level. That was what saved the first two “Alien” movies from being terrible, the human characters were likeable, even if I didn’t like their chances of survival. I think I liked this film’s five human characters less than Paul Reiser’s intentionally-detestable corporate sellout in “Aliens.”
Grade: D
“Alien: Romulus” is rated R for bloody violent content and language. Its running time is 119 minutes.
Robert R. Garver is a graduate of the Cinema Studies program at New York University. His weekly movie reviews have been published since 2006.
Movie Reviews
'Didi' movie review with Casey T. Allen
!['Didi' movie review with Casey T. Allen 'Didi' movie review with Casey T. Allen](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/2a74a9d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/220x115+0+88/resize/1200x630!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fad%2F59%2F511647564a0193f32de5c452832a%2Fdidi-2024-film-poster.jpg)
I know this might sound like a hyperbole, but just go with me on this one. I’ve just seen my favorite new release this year so far, and I’m hoping every movie lover sees it too. This new film is called Didi, a beautifully honest, coming-of-age comedy written and directed by an exciting, young, Taiwanese-American named Sean Wang (Nai Nai & Wai Po, 2023). Didi premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January this year and was happily picked up by Focus Features and distributed to select theaters nationwide in late July.
Set in a San Francisco bay area suburb in the summer of 2008, a 13-year-old Taiwanese-American boy tries to figure out important rites of passage (like impressing a pretty girl, getting invited to parties, and getting into fights) before he starts high school. As the first narrative feature film of Sean Wang, Didi is semi-autobiographical which is partly why the whole film feels so personal, lived-in, and genuine.
This director is smart, because this semi-autobiographical film is not just about displaying and recreating his childhood memories but about exploring the emotions and experiences in the whirlwind of adolescence. We’ve enjoyed films like this before like Stand by Me (1986) and Mid90s (2018). But Didi is memorably different presenting a part of 21st century, Asian American life in the early years of social media with the nostalgia of flip phones, Instant Messenger, and MySpace. (This social media element of Didi is reminiscent of the wonderful 2018 coming-of-age comedy, Eighth Grade.)
The title character is not easily lovable or well mannered. He blows up a mailbox, talks back to his mom, and shoplifts, and that’s what gives this film more personality than if it were created by a giant film studio or an oversized committee of executives. (I’m looking at you, Disney.) It’s because of this plucky, destructive personality that makes Didi touching and sweet without being annoying.
It’s hilarious without being predictable, and it’s heartbreaking without being maudlin. Some of the most tear jerking moments show just a computer screen while the 13-year-old boy types in his feelings and his internet questions. No other film in recent memory captures the everyday importance of the internet and social media (and the connections it promises) for young kids than this one.
This film made me so happy and reminded me of the importance of family and finding your people. The dialogue is simple, so it doesn’t try too hard in creating the perfectly relatable progression of the story’s themes of friendship, belonging, loneliness, and shame. Many of us have memories of being left out of parties or being ridiculed for our appearance, and Didi touches this nerve of teenage disgrace/contempt with startling, contemporary, and direct clarity.
Izaac Wang’s (Raya and the Last Dragon, 2021) role of the hormone-fueled awkwardness and angry exuberance of teen boyhood is both endearing and shocking (much like the boys his age in real life). One moment you want to hug him tightly, and the next moment to want to scream at him for being so awful. The teenage boy’s mother is played with silent frustration by established Chinese actress Joan Chen (Lust, Caution, 2007). Her performance is Oscar worthy with her tired eyes, soft voice, and isolated determination. The world could be more peaceful with mothers like her.
This film received the Audience Award and Special Jury Award at Sundance this year, and I can’t wait to see what other awards it receives next year. Please put this title on your list. You will finish it with a smile.
Entertainment
Michael Oher speaks out for the first time amid legal battle with the Tuohy family
![Michael Oher speaks out for the first time amid legal battle with the Tuohy family Michael Oher speaks out for the first time amid legal battle with the Tuohy family](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/54326c4/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3831x2011+0+0/resize/1200x630!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F73%2F27%2F0cde96d440ffabfac01d1f644717%2Fpanthers-oher-football-75855.jpg)
Retired NFL player Michael Oher, whose life story inspired the Oscar-winning film “The Blind Side,” has spoken out for the first time following his lawsuit against the Tuohy family.
Oher alleges the Tuohys tricked him into signing a conservatorship when he was 19, claiming it was the same as adoption. He says the family exploited him, using his “name, image and likeness to promote speaking engagements” from which they collected millions, according to the New York Times Magazine.
“For a long time, I was so angry mentally. With what I was going through,” the 38-year-old told the magazine about his strained relationship with Sean and Leigh Ann Tuohy. “I want to be the person I was before ‘The Blind Side,’ personality-wise. I’m still working on it.”
In the film, Quinton Aaron plays Oher, who was an unhoused Black teenager. Leigh Anne, portrayed by Sandra Bullock, and her husband Sean, played by Tim McGraw, take him in and eventually become Michael’s legal guardians, dramatically changing all their lives. They provide him tutoring and other support, and Michael succeeds at school and at his sport. The Times’ 2009 review of the movie called it “high on hope, low on cynicism and long on heart.” But Oher claims the film and the 2006 book it was based on don’t tell the truth of his life.
He filed a petition in a Tennessee court last year claiming that the couple who said they’d adopted him never actually did. On Aug. 14, he submitted a 14-page document to the Shelby County Probate Court, alleging the Tuohys tricked him into signing the conservatorship, which he thought was part of an adoption when they took him in. This document gave the Tuohys the power to make business deals using his name, including those related to the film. Oher says the couple kept nearly two decades’ worth of financial information from him. He accuses the Tuohys of ignoring their legal and financial responsibilities to him.
Oher said he chose not to speak out when the 2009 film was released because he was focused on the start of his professional career with the Baltimore Ravens.
“Pro football’s a hard job,” Oher said in the interview with the magazine, published Sunday. “You have to be locked in 100 percent. I went along with their narrative because I really had to focus on my NFL career, not things off the field.”
The former first-round draft pick also addressed accusations made last year by the couple that Oher had attempted to shake them down for $15 million. The allegation came after Oher filed his suit. Martin D. Singer, the Tuohys’ attorney, said at the time the couple “will not hesitate to defend their good names, stand up to this shakedown and defeat this offensive lawsuit.”
“I worked hard for that moment when I was done playing, and saved my money so I could enjoy the time,” Oher said. “I’ve got millions of dollars. I’m fine.”
Although Oher didn’t attend the movie’s official premiere, he was persuaded to watch it a month after its release. He said it was like watching “a comedy about someone else.” Oher said the film underplayed his intelligence to such a degree that it made his new co-workers question his capabilities.
“The NFL people were wondering if I could read a playbook,” he said. “I started seeing stuff [online] that I’m dumb. I’m stupid. Every article about me mentioned ‘The Blind Side,’ like it was part of my name. … If my kids can’t do something in class, will their teacher think, ‘Their dad is dumb — is that why they’re not getting it?’”
The next hearing in the lawsuit is set for October.
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