After the original “Gidget” movie, in 1959, Hollywood churned out any number of sequels.
“Gidget Grows Up.” “Gidget Goes to Rome.” “Gidget Gets Married.” And so on.
Half a century later, the onetime real-life surfer girl heroine — who was the basis of a nonfiction book and the string of fictional movies — was not hungry to produce a sequel.
But she’s getting one anyway. Today, it might be called: “Gidget Goes Homeless.” But it seems more likely in the long run to end up as: “Gidget: Queen of the Shore Again.”
Kathy Zuckerman and her surfboard at Malibu Surfrider Beach, circa 1959.
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(Courtesy of Kathy Zuckerman)
The pioneer woman surfer of the 1950s, who made the scene at Surfrider Beach in Malibu and other locales, lost her Pacific Palisades home of about six decades in last week’s wildfire.
Kathy “Gidget” Kohner Zuckerman and her husband, Yiddish scholar Marvin Zuckerman, have safely relocated to a temporary rental in Santa Monica. Aided by their two sons, they’re plotting their next move.
Not to worry, America’s original Gidget (as in girl-midget) appears to be approaching her new reality with all the pluck and good cheer that made the character she inspired an American symbol in the 1960s, and a basis for films and TV shows starring Sandra Dee and Sally Fields.
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“At my age, imagine it: The house is gone, the neighborhood is gone, the community is gone,” Zuckerman said. “But the diamond in the rough is that the Duke’s family and the surfing community have all rallied around. I am so appreciative.”
Duke’s is the Malibu restaurant that made it through the Palisades wildfire. The landmark Pacific Coast Highway eatery, at the base of Las Flores Canyon, was named after Hawaiian surfing legend Duke Kahanamoku. It employed Zuckerman for many years as its “Ambassador of Aloha.” She schmoozed with customers, pointed out photos of her in her teenage surfing days and generally tried to imbue the place with the spirit of “aloha.”
Zuckerman said Duke’s owners contacted her not long after the fire took her home, not far from Marquez Elementary School. They let her know that, as soon as they reopen, they will welcome her back to her job, one she continues despite being a couple of decades past standard retirement age.
Zuckerman and her husband sat in Palisades Park atop the Santa Monica bluffs on Sunday, catching some warm California rays. On Monday, she was having her nails done, another gambit to remain “bright and cheery” in the face of loss.
She has also heard from surfing big names such as Jack McCoy, a renowned filmmaker, and Randy Rarick, who helped found an early professional surfing league. Another surf-world friend has offered to give her a computer. John Leininger, a South Bay surfing original from the 1950s and longtime surf shop operator, came to Santa Monica to deliver clothes to his fellow surf pioneer and her husband.
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In light of that, and the support of her family, Zuckerman said she does not fear the future.
“With all these calls, I have reentered a world that I left a long time ago,” she said, “and that community has been just incredible to me.”
Forget the “video game movie” curse;The Mortuary Assistantis a bone-chilling triumph that stands entirely on its own two feet. Starring Willa Holland (Arrow) as Rebecca Owens, the film follows a newly certified mortician whose “overtime shift” quickly devolves into a grueling battle for her soul.
What Makes It Work
The film expertly balances the stomach-churning procedural work of embalming with a spiraling demonic nightmare. Alongside a mysterious mentor played by Paul Sparks (Boardwalk Empire), Rebecca is forced to confront both ancient evils and her own buried traumas. And boy, does she have a lot of them.
Thanks to a full-scale, practical River Fields Mortuary set, the film drips with realism, like you can almost smell the rot and bloat of the bodies through the screen.
The skin effects are hauntingly accurate. The way the flesh moves during surgical scenes is so visceral. I’ve seen a lot of flesh wounds in horror films and in real life, and the bodies, skin, and organs. The Mortuary Assistant (especially in the opening scene) looks so real that I skipped supper after watching it. And that’s saying something. Your girl likes to eat.
Co-written by the game’s creator, Brian Clarke, the movie dives deeper into the demonic mythology. Whether you’ve seen every ending or don’t know a scalpel from a trocar, the story is perfectly self-contained. If you’ve never played the game, or played it a hundred times, the film works equally well, which is hard to do when it comes to game adaptations.
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Nailed It
This film does a lot of things right, but the isolation of the night shift is suffocating. Between the darkness of the hallways and the “residents” that refuse to stay still, the film delivers a relentlessly immersive experience. And thankfully, although this movie is filled with dark rooms and shadows, it’s easy to see every little thing. Don’t you hate it when a movie is so dark that you can’t see what’s happening? It’s one of my pet peeves.
The oh-so-awesome Jeremiah Kipp directs the film and has made something absolutely nightmare-inducing. Kipp recently joined us for an interview, took us inside the film, discussed its details and the game’s lore, and so much more. I urge you to check out our interview. He’s awesome!
The Verdict
This isn’t just a cash-grab; it’s a high-effort adaptation that respects the source material while elevating the horror genre. With incredible special effects and a powerhouse cast, it’s the kind of movie that will make you rethink working late ever again. Dropping on Friday the 13th, this is a must-watch for horror fans. It’s grisly, intelligent, and genuinely terrifying.
A former executive at Live Nation, the world’s largest live entertainment company, is suing the company, alleging that he was wrongfully terminated after he raised concerns about alleged financial misconduct and improper accounting practices.
Nicholas Rumanes alleges he was “fraudulently induced” in 2022 to leave a lucrative position as head of strategic development at a real estate investment trust to create a new role as executive vice president of development and business practice at Beverly Hills-based Live Nation.
In his new position, Rumanes said, he raised “serious and legitimate alarm” over the the company’s business practices.
As a result, he says, he was “unlawfully terminated,” according to the lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
“Rumanes was, simply put, promised one job and forced to accept another. And then he was cut loose for insisting on doing that lesser job with integrity and honesty,” according to the lawsuit.
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He is seeking $35 million in damages.
Representatives for Live Nation were not immediately available for comment.
The lawsuit comes a week after a federal jury in Manhattan found that Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary had operated a monopoly over major concert venues, controlling 86% of the concert market.
Rumanes’ lawsuit describes a “culture of deception” at Live Nation, saying its “basic business model was to misstate and exaggerate financial figures in efforts to solicit and secure business.”
Such practices “spanned a wide spectrum of projects in what appeared to be a company-wide pattern of financial misrepresentation and misleading disclosures,” the lawsuit states.
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Rumanes says he received materials and documents that showed that the company inflated projected revenues across multiple venue development projects.
Additionally, Rumanes contends that the company violated a federal law that requires independent financial auditing and transparency and instead ran Live Nation “through a centralized, opaque structure” that enables it to “bypass oversight and internal checks and balances.”
In 2010, as a condition of the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger, the newly formed company agreed to a consent decree with the government that prohibited the firm from threatening venues to use Ticketmaster. In 2019 the Justice Department found that the company had repeatedly breached the agreement, and it extended the decree.
Rumanes contends that he brought his concerns to the attention of the company’s management, but his warnings were “repeatedly ignored.”
At the centre of Madhuvidhu directed by Vishnu Aravind is a house where only men reside, three generations of them living in harmony. Unlike the Anjooran household in Godfather, this is not a house where entry is banned to women, but just that women don’t choose to come here. For Amrithraj alias Ammu (Sharafudheen), the protagonist, 28 marriage proposals have already fallen through although he was not lacking in interest.
When a not-so-cordial first meeting with Sneha (Kalyani Panicker) inevitably turns into mutual attraction, things appear about to change. But some unexpected hiccups are waiting for them, their different religions being one of them. Writers Jai Vishnu and Bipin Mohan do not seem to have any major ambitions with Madhuvidhu, but they seem rather content to aim for the middle space of a feel-good entertainer. Only that they end up hitting further lower.
