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Maggie Steffens wants to build U.S. water polo. That's where Flavor Flav comes in

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Maggie Steffens wants to build U.S. water polo. That's where Flavor Flav comes in

Maggie Steffens is the greatest women’s water polo player of all time. And it’s really not close.

If she had been born in Hungary or Greece, countries where the sport is popular, her face might be plastered on magazine covers, billboards and cereal boxes. Instead she was born in California, where she and her Olympic teammates gave up any hope of fame or fortune the first time they jumped in the pool.

“Water polo is such a hard sport, you’re definitely not doing it for money. You’re definitely not doing it for being on a Wheaties box,” Steffens said. “You’re doing it for your dream. You’re doing it for your passion.”

Sure. But when you’ve won three gold medals, five world championships and are the leading scorer in Olympic history, it would be nice if people knew your name.

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Maggie Steffens, left, celebrates after scoring for the U.S. against Hungary in the World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar, in February.

(Lee Jin-man / Associated Press)

So ahead of the Paris Games, where the U.S. opens group play Saturday and chases a record fourth straight Olympic title, Steffens has enlisted the help of two diverse musical artists in Flavor Flav, the clock-wearing co-founder of the groundbreaking rap group Public Enemy, and Taylor Swift, perhaps the most popular entertainer on the planet, to raise the team’s profile.

The unlikely pairings surfaced in May after Steffens, the team captain, lauded her teammates’ talent and dedication in a heartfelt 388-word Instagram post that ended in a plea for support.

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One of the first to respond was Flav, the Hall of Fame rapper. Earlier this month, he signed an unprecedented five-year deal to become the official “hype man” for the men’s and women’s national water polo teams. As part of the agreement, Flav, whose real name is William Drayton, will make an undisclosed financial contribution to the women’s team, appear at USA Water Polo events and leverage his massive social media presence to publicize the sport.

“I’m going to be the biggest hype man that they ever had in their life,” he told the Associated Press. “I’m going to be bigger than any cheerleader that they had in their life. I’m going to cheer this team into winning a gold medal.”

Maggie Steffens and Flavor Flav in July.

Maggie Steffens and Flavor Flav are seen on July 11 in Los Angeles.

(jfizzy / Star Max / GC Images)

Swift’s support for a self-described group of “talented and driven women” is totally on brand.

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For Flav, a 65-year-old Black rap pioneer from Long Island, however, joining a team of blond-haired, blue-eyed “twenty-somethings” from California would appear to mix as well as oil and water polo.

That’s exactly the point, Steffens said.

Some players on the Olympic team have had to work multiple jobs to support their athletic careers. Introducing the game to people outside the sport’s narrow fan base could help increase support and make that unnecessary.

“If we just stay in that water polo community, how do we grow?” Steffens said. “What Flavor Flav has helped do is open up the door to the rest of the world and say, ‘Hey, check this sport out, check these women out.’

“That’s the chance that we need. Now our job is to be the women that we are and showcase what we can do.”

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What they’ve done so far — three consecutive Olympic titles — had never been done before so a fourth gold in Paris would simply add to the record. For Steffens, every score in France will add to her Games record of 56 goals.

However, this competition could prove the most challenging for a team that has relied on age and experience. Seven of the 13 women on the Paris roster are first-time Olympians. With the Tokyo Games having been delayed a year by the COVID-19 pandemic, four years of preparation has been squeezed into three.

“There’s a lot of talk that we’re not as good as we’ve been in the past. I say it to the team all the time. And I mean it,” said coach Adam Krikorian, whose team was fifth in last year’s world championships, equaling its worst finish in a dozen years.

“I’m not trying to create motivation, it’s the reality. If you look at our roster and look at the horses that we lost, it was a big hit.”

It’s difficult to play polo without horses and among those who are no longer in Krikorian’s stable are three-time gold medalist Melissa Seideman; sisters Aria and Makenzie Fischer, who have four gold medals between them; four-time world and Olympic champion Alys Williams, and Stephania Haralabidis, who was third on the Tokyo team in scoring with 13 goals.

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Among the replacements are defender Jordan Raney, the last player cut from the Tokyo roster, and defender Emily Ausmus, at 18 the youngest women’s water polo Olympian since Aria Fischer in 2016.

For Steffens, the journey from Tokyo to Paris has been the most difficult, mentally and physically, of her career. She underwent shoulder surgery after the last Olympics and, at 31, had to work her way back onto the roster for these Games.

If she had done that in search of a fourth straight gold medal in soccer or basketball, she’d be a household name. Instead she still has to flash her driver’s license to get into the team’s Los Alamitos training facility.

If she has any regrets, she keeps them well-hidden.

“Water polo has been my choice. Water polo has been my gift,” said Steffens, whose father played water polo in three Pan American Games for Puerto Rico and was a three-time All-American at California. “It’s my whole life so I would never trade that for the world.“

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U.S. water polo player Maggie Steffens competes during the Tokyo Olympics.

U.S. water polo player Maggie Steffens competes during the Tokyo Olympics.

(Getty Images)

Plus there are some fringe benefits, apart from the opportunity to collect more gold. That’s where Taylor Swift comes in.

Two months ago the team flew to Paris for an Olympic test event at the 5,000-seat Paris Aquatic Centre, where the group-stage matches will be played. What the players really wanted to do, however, was get a look at La Défense Arena, the spacious rugby stadium where water polo’s medal rounds will be held.

“The purpose was [to] see the venue and feel it and visualize ourselves there in a quarterfinal,” Steffens said.

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Swift already had booked the stadium for her Eras Tour, so team manager Ally Beck reached out to the singer’s camp and asked if it would be OK to have a look around.

Swift did better than that, inviting the players and coaches backstage before a concert, then gifting them tickets in a special VIP area and outfitting them in tour jackets and T-shirts.

“They went beyond our wildest expectations,” Beck said.

The 3½-hour concert, Krikorian said, was more than entertaining. It was inspiring for a group of women who soon hope to be performing in that same building.

“I thought to myself, ‘This is exactly what we want to bring to the pool,’” the coach said. “What better way to get in the right mindset and to experience that energy and that joy and that love. Because those are the values that we want to play with.”

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If they get the chance to show off those values in the Aug. 10 gold-medal final, Swift, who will be two hours away in Vienna, has an open invitation to come back and cheer the team.

“I’ll be on the record,” Krikorian said. “Taylor, you have a front-row seat.”

Right next to Flavor Flav.

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Todd Meadows, ‘Deadliest Catch’ deckhand, dies at 25

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Todd Meadows, ‘Deadliest Catch’ deckhand, dies at 25

Todd Meadows, a crewmember on one of the fishing vessels featured on the long-running reality series “Deadliest Catch,” has died. He was 25.

Rick Shelford, the captain of the Aleutian Lady, announced in a Monday post on Facebook and Instagram that Meadows died Feb. 25. He called it “the most tragic day in the history of the Aleutian Lady on the Bering Sea.”

“We lost our brother,” Shelford wrote in his lengthy tribute. “Todd was the newest member of our crew, he quickly became family. His love for fishing and his strong work ethic earned everyone’s respect right away. His smile was contagious, and the sound of his laughter coming up the wheelhouse stairs or over the deck hailer is something we will carry with us always.

“He worked hard, loved deeply, and brought joy to those around him,” he added. “Todd will forever be part of this boat, this crew, and this brotherhood. Though we lost him far too soon, his legacy will live on through his children and in every memory we carry of him.”

A fundraiser set up in Meadows’ name described the deckhand from Montesano, Wash., as a father to “three amazing little boys” who died “while doing what he loved — crabbing out on Alaskan waters.”

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According to the Associated Press, Meadows died after he was reported to have fallen overboard around 170 miles north of Dutch Harbor, Alaska.

“He was recovered unresponsive by the crew approximately ten minutes later,” Chief Petty Officer Travis Magee, a spokesperson with the Coast Guard’s Arctic District, told the AP. The Coast Guard is investigating the incident.

Meadows was a first-year cast member of “Deadliest Catch,” the Discovery Channel reality series that follows crab fishermen navigating the perilous winds and waves of the Bering Sea during the Alaskan king crab and snow crab fishing seasons. The show debuted in 2005. No episodes from Meadows’ season has aired.

Deadline reported that the show was in production on its 22nd season when the incident occurred, with the Shelford-led Aleutian Lady being the last of the vessels still out at sea at the time. Production has subsequently concluded, per the outlet.

“We are deeply saddened by the tragic passing of Todd Meadows,” a Discovery Channel spokesperson said in a statement that has been widely circulated. “This is a devastating loss, and our hearts are with his loved ones, his crewmates, and the entire fishing community during this incredibly difficult time.”

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Meadows is the latest among “Deadliest Catch” cast members who have died. Previous deaths include Phil Harris, a captain of one of the ships featured on the show, who died after suffering a stroke while filming the show’s sixth season in 2010. Todd Kochutin, a crew member of the Patricia Lee, died in 2021 from injuries he sustained while aboard the fishing vessel, according to an obituary. Other cast members have died from substance abuse or natural causes.

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‘Hoppers’ review: Pixar’s best original movie in years

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‘Hoppers’ review: Pixar’s best original movie in years

“So it’s like Avatar?” one character quips in Disney and Pixar’s “Hoppers,” bluntly translating the film’s high-concept premise for the sugar-fueled kids in the audience. And yes, the comparison is apt. The story follows a nature-obsessed teenage girl who manages to quite literally “hop” her consciousness into the body of a robotic beaver in order to spark an animal rebellion against a greedy mayor determined to bulldoze their forest for a freeway. 

It’s a clever hook. The kind of big, elastic idea Pixar used to make look effortless. “Hoppers” does not reach the rarified air of “Up,” “Wall-E,” or “Inside Out,” but after a stretch of uneven originals like “Turning Red” and “Luca,” and outright misfires such as “Elemental” and “Elio,” this feels like a genuine course correction. The environmental messaging is clear without being preachy, the animals are irresistibly anthropomorphized, and the studio’s once-signature emotional sincerity is back in sturdy form.

Pixar can afford to gamble on originals when it has a guaranteed cash cow like this summer’s “Toy Story 5” waiting in the wings, but “Hoppers” earns its place in the catalogue. Director Daniel Chong crafts a warm, heartfelt film that occasionally strains under the weight of its own ambition, yet remains grounded by character and theme. Its meditation on conservation and animal displacement feels timely in a way that never tips into after-school-special territory.

We meet Mabel, voiced with bright conviction by Piper Curda, as a child liberating her classroom pets and returning them to the wild. Her moral compass is shaped by her grandmother, voiced by Karen Huie, who imparts wisdom about nature’s sanctity. True to both Pixar tradition and the broader Disney playbook, this beacon of guidance does not survive past the opening act. Loss, after all, is Pixar’s favorite inciting incident.

Years later, Mabel is still fighting the good fight, squaring off against the smarmy Mayor Jerry, voiced with slick menace by Jon Hamm. He plans to flatten the glade where Mabel and her grandmother once found solace. Mabel’s resistance feels noble but futile. The animals have already mysteriously vanished, the machinery is coming, and her last-ditch plan involves luring a beaver back to the abandoned forest in hopes of jumpstarting the ecosystem.

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That’s when the film gleefully pivots into mad-scientist territory. At Beaverton University, Mabel discovers her professor, voiced by Kathy Najimy, has developed a device that can project human consciousness into synthetic animals. The process, dubbed “hopping,” allows Mabel to inhabit a robotic beaver and infiltrate the forest from within. It’s an inspired escalation that keeps the film buoyant even when the plotting grows predictable.

Her new posse includes King George, a lovably beaver voiced by Bobby Moynihan with distinct Bing Bong energy; a sharp-tongued bear voiced by Melissa Villaseñor; a regal bird king voiced by the late Isiah Whitlock Jr.; and a fish queen voiced by Ego Nwodim. As is often the case with Pixar, even in its lesser efforts, the world-building is meticulous. The animal hierarchy, complete with titles like “paw of the king,” is layered with jokes that play for kids while slyly winking at adults.

The plot ultimately follows a familiar template. Scrappy underdog rallies community. Corporate villain twirls metaphorical mustache. Emotional third-act sacrifice looms. At times, you can feel the machinery working a little too cleanly. Pixar, and Disney at large, has grown increasingly reliant on sequels and established IP, and “Hoppers” does not radically reinvent the wheel. In an animated landscape where films like “K-Pop: Demon Hunters,” “Across the Spider-Verse,” and “Goat” are pushing stylistic and narrative boundaries, being safe and sturdy may not always be enough.

And yet, there is something refreshing about a Pixar original that remembers how to tug at the heart without squeezing it dry. “Hoppers” is playful, peppered with cheeky needle drops, and builds to a sweet emotional catharsis that may or may not have left this critic a little misty-eyed. It feels earnest and engaged. 

“Hoppers” may not be top-tier Pixar. But it is a welcome return to form, a reminder that the studio still knows how to marry big ideas with a bigger heart.

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HOPPERS opens in theaters Friday, March 6th.

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How a mural of Altadena became a symbol of resilience for one small store, through fire and flood

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How a mural of Altadena became a symbol of resilience for one small store, through fire and flood

Every time Adriana Molina drives up Lake Avenue to her retro-style women’s clothing shop Sidecca in Altadena, she sees the new outdoor mural she commissioned for the store by muralist and illustrator Annie Bolding. It gives her hope.

“I’m here to stay, and this mural solidified my decision to reopen my business,” said Molina on a recent winter day, sitting next to Bolding inside the boutique. “I grew up in Altadena. The community has motivated me this whole time, and I want them to drive by this mural and smile.”

“ALTADENA.” The word — in big white letters, set against layers of blue — appears toward the top of the mural, on the store’s brick wall facing Lake. Above are the San Gabriel Mountains, painted a deep brown, California poppies and Mariposa Street and Lake Avenue street signs. Below are green grass, a monarch butterfly and Altadena’s Christmas Tree Lane. A bright blue house is on a multicolored striped path in the middle of the mural. Next to it, on a hiking trail, a sign says, “Welcome Home Altadena… With Love, Sidecca.”

For Molina and Bolding, the mural is a personal ode to the Eaton fire-ravaged community — art as a message of optimism and healing.

A car passes by the new Altadena mural on the side of Sidecca apparel shop, which commissioned the piece after fire and floods devastated the community.

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(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

When the fire tore through Altadena in January 2025, Sidecca and a few other stores on the north side of Mariposa Street’s bustling Mariposa Junction survived, while the other half-block of businesses burned to the ground. The fire leveled Bolding’s parents’ house off Lake and the home of one of Molina’s close relatives.

Molina staged pop-ups and sold merchandise online during months of remediation, and officially reopened Sidecca’s doors in November as part of Mariposa Junction’s larger comeback. Then the store suffered another blow: flooding and damage during rainstorms in late December. While Molina prepped to temporarily close her store yet again for renovations, Bolding began work on the mural. She started painting on the one-year anniversary of the fire and finished eight days later.

“On the day I started it, it was so cold and windy, and I was scared being up on the ladder,” said Bolding. “But getting to talk to community members while I was painting was very special. People were excited and honking as they drove by. That night, I drove up to the lot where my parents’ place was, and I stood there and all the feelings flooded back.”

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The mural’s origin story is that of two creative women bound by strength and a desire to give back.

Molina, who has worked in the fashion industry for more than 30 years, opened Sidecca’s Altadena spot in 2023, after closing its longtime Pasadena location. Voted Pasadena’s best women’s clothing store five times by Pasadena Weekly, Sidecca sells fun vintage-inspired merchandise and clothes, from ‘50s style dresses to snazzy magnets, tote bags and sunglasses. A big rainbow zips across the top of one of the store’s walls.

A display in a clothing shop.

A display in Sidecca in 2023, two years before the Eaton fire devastated Altadena.

(Alejandro R. Jimenez)

“A few months after Sidecca opened in Altadena, my mom walked in and saw how colorful it was, and said, ‘This reminds me of my daughter,’ ” Bolding said. “With zero hesitation, my mom said to Adriana, ‘Here’s her Instagram. This is my daughter’s stuff.’ ”

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Bolding, who goes by Disco Day Designs, calls herself “a joyful creator who loves to intentionally transform spaces.” Known for the bright murals she creates for brands and shops, Bolding gained attention on social media for a trash bin she painted with palm trees and stripes. She brought it to the 2024 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival as part of a contest organized by the festival’s sustainability partner, Global Inheritance.

“I fixated on the trash can,” said Molina. “I looked at Annie’s murals and was like, ‘Oh, she has to do something in here for us.’ ”

“Game recognizes game,” added Bolding, smiling.

Molina wanted to rebrand Sidecca with a new logo, bags and art, and connected with Bolding about that and a possible mural inside the store. “I wanted ‘Sidecca’ painted across a wall as an acronym that stands for style, individuality, diversity, expression, community, culture and art,” she said. “That’s who we are.”

Then came Jan. 7, 2025.

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The store was closed all day for a holiday lunch. Then the winds picked up and the flames roared. Molina, who lives with her husband and two children on the Altadena-Pasadena, evacuated with her family to Long Beach and came back days later. She knew the store was OK because she’d seen it — intact — on the news.

“As soon as we could come up to the shop, we went,” Molina said. “There were ashes all over.”

Bolding and her husband were in Palm Springs fixing up an AirBnb they cohost when Bolding got a call from her mom about the fire in Altadena. She urged her mom, dad and younger brother to evacuate. After they did, their home burned down. Her parents now live in a Pasadena apartment.

When Molina started selling Altadena-themed merch on Sidecca’s website, Bolding donated three designs, including one with lively retro daisies. In July, she wrote an email to Molina reviving the idea of a mural, but outside versus inside, as an ode to Altadena.

“It felt like anything I could do to bring joy, let’s go,” said Molina. “And I really wanted a little house in there, and for it to say, ‘Welcome home.’ ”

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The mural would be Bolding’s first public piece of art on a main street.

“Lake always felt like the road going home,” she said. “That rainbow road in the mural, leading to the mountains, is so symbolic. Very ‘Wizard of Oz.’ The mountains, their silhouette, have always felt majestic, safe, and why it was so heartbreaking anytime to see them burn. To me, they feel like mother.”

A woman in front of a colorful mural.

Muralist Annie Bolding stands in front of her new Altadena mural on the side of the Sidecca apparel shop. The work is Bolding’s first piece of public art on a main street.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Bolding’s joyful daisies decorated the Sidecca tote bag given to customers at November’s reopening, just before December’s intense rainstorms. Water gushed through Sidecca’s ceiling. Molina and her employee Manisa Ianakiev were overwhelmed.

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“We were like, ‘Is this really happening?’ ” said Molina. “Then people started bringing tools and towels. It was an example of community.”

Bolding planned to start painting the mural Jan. 4, during the Altadena Forever Run, but rain swept through. After Molina’s landlord installed a plywood base, Bolding started on the mural several days later.

Since then, the shop’s ceiling has been replaced, and Molina is working on trying to replace the floor — while continuing to stage pop-ups and sell merchandise online — before fully reopening the bricks-and-mortar boutique this spring.

“People say, ‘Every time I go into your store, I just get happy. I’m in a better mood,’ ” said Molina. “I get that all the time. And what Annie has done, this mural, is beautiful. It makes me happy.”

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