Lifestyle
‘School of Rock’ Cast Reunites for Caitlin Hale and Angelo Massagli’s Wedding
Angelo Massagli and Caitlin Hale met as co-workers. They were 10 years old.
The pair, former child actors, were both cast in the 2003 film “School of Rock” in which Jack Black plays a substitute teacher who creates a rock band out of his classroom of musically gifted elementary-aged prep schoolers. Ms. Hale’s character was a braided pigtail-wearing backup singer named Marta. Mr. Massagli played Frankie, who was part of the band’s peewee security detail.
Mr. Massagli recalled being spontaneously asked to sing at his audition for the film in New York City. He was nervous to perform after Ms. Hale, who had just impressed the production team with her voice, including a rendition of “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” in which she changed the lyrics to be about the film’s director.
“I was like, ‘wow, that girl’s really, really, really something else,’” Mr. Massagli said. He performed the only song he knew the words to at the time: “Crazy Train” by Ozzy Osbourne.
A year later, the pair and the other children cast in the film spent several months shooting the movie in New York. The group bonded quickly, Ms. Hale said, attending real school on set and having meals at Benihana. Mr. Black, the film’s adult star, would eat lunch with the group and play games between scenes. Their moms, often present on set, also became close during this time.
Back then, there was not even a hint of a youthful crush between them, the couple said. After the film’s release, the cast stayed in touch through a long-running group chat.
Eventually, Mr. Massagli and Ms. Hale both left show business to pursue other careers.
Ms. Hale, now 33, has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and public relations from Arizona State University. Mr. Massagli, 32, graduated from Northeastern University, majoring in English. After completing their undergraduate studies, both Mr. Massagli and Ms. Hale pursued further degrees, coincidentally both finding their way to schools in Florida, where they reconnected in 2018.
At the time, Mr. Massagli was a law student at the University of Miami. Ms. Hale was completing a bachelor’s of science and a master’s degree in health leadership at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale. (Both eventually graduated from their respective programs. Mr. Massagli is now a lawyer for TikTok where he works as music product counsel. Ms. Hale is an Ob/Gyn sonographer.)
After realizing their proximity, the pair got lunch and caught up. They even sent a selfie to their moms.
“We thought that was kind of it,” Mr. Massagli said. “But we just kept grabbing dinners and going out for the weekends. We were like, ‘something’s brewing here.’”
On an early date, Ms. Hale recalled going to the bathroom and returning to the restaurant table to find Mr. Massagli had ordered coconut cake for dessert, a flavor she’d previously mentioned was one of her favorites. She appreciated his close listening, she said.
Their relationship moved quickly, the years spent as childhood friends offering a strong foundation.
“Even though it wasn’t romantic, that familiarity we had and our families had when we were younger, really cut through some of those early relationship hurdles,” Mr. Massagli said.
“I knew very early,” Ms. Hale said. “I actually said to one of my close friends, I remember being in an Uber on the way down to Miami one weekend and we were going out and I was like, ‘I think I’m gonna marry this guy.’”
The first time Mr. Massagli told Ms. Hale he loved her his exact words were, “I think I love you.”
“You think?!” Ms. Hale exclaimed in pseudo-exasperation.
Later that year, Mr. Massagli offered up his home as a short-term stay to help Ms. Hale cut down on the commutes between her home in Fort Lauderdale and a residency program in Miami. He was going out of town for a week and gave her a key and permission “to crash.” By the time he returned, she had moved in.
The couple moved to Brooklyn in 2019 and got engaged in June 2023 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Mr. Massagli proposed in front of the Temple of Dendur, the light-filled gallery featured in the film “When Harry Met Sally…” Dinner at Nino’s, an Upper East Side Italian restaurant, and champagne at the Carlyle followed. Upon hearing the news via FaceTime, Mr. Massagli’s mother burst into tears.
For their wedding, the couple knew they wanted to “go all out,” Ms. Hale said. On Jan. 4, they celebrated their wedding at Park Château Estate & Gardens, a Versailles-like wedding venue in East Brunswick, N.J. (They had previously made things legal on Aug. 30 at Brooklyn Borough Hall. Waldo Ramirez, a staff member of the City Clerk’s Office, officiated.)
Ms. Hale started her day at 8:30 a.m. getting glammed up for the evening celebration. Ms. Massagli had a more leisurely morning, including a massage.
The couple, who now live in Long Branch, N.J., had read private vows to each other the night before the main event. Ms. Hale’s father, Gary Hale, officiated a brief ceremony before the party began.
Binge more Vows columns here and read all our wedding, relationship and divorce coverage here.
Guests were then whisked into cocktail hour where they sipped the couple’s signature drinks: a Bellini for her and a dirty martini with blue cheese olives for him. The venue was decorated with exclusively white flowers and, per Ms. Hale’s vision, many, many white candles.
For the reception, Ms. Hale changed into a pair of custom-made rhinestone-studded, thigh-high Berta boots that peeked out of the slit of her strapless gown.
“Once I saw those boots, I was like, I need to do whatever I can to make sure to have those,” she said. “The dress can follow.”
The couple entered the reception to “Through the Wire” by Kanye West, which transitioned into Chaka Khan’s “Through the Fire” for their first dance. They asked their D.J. to play songs that felt like “if Studio 54 never closed,” Mr. Massagli said. A live saxophone player roamed the party riffing over the piped-in music.
During “Edge of Seventeen” by Stevie Nicks, the duo danced with their castmates from “School of Rock,” a nod to a bar scene from the film. Nine cast members were there, as well as more than a dozen of the actors’ parents and siblings. (Jack Black politely declined, citing an ongoing film project, but “was so nice and generous with his words and definitely commemorated it privately,” Ms. Hale said.)
Not wanting to throw off the party vibe, at one point Ms. Hale and Mr. Massagli stepped away for a private cake cutting where they fed each other “delicate, small bites,” Ms. Hale said, laughing.
Ms. Hale recalled another moment on the dance floor with her fellow former “School of Rock” backup singers as a “time capsule moment.”
“We were just dancing together to some old-school disco and then there was some sort of ad lib in the song and we all just hit it,” she said. “We looked at each other and we’re like, ‘That just happened. We still got it.’”
On This Day
When Jan. 4, 2025
Where Park Château Estates and Gardens, East Brunswick, N.J.
The Family Stone Both the bride and groom wore sentimental rings. Mr. Massagli’s wedding band was passed down from his grandfather. “He’s big Ang, I’m little Ang,” Mr. Massagli said. Ms. Hale’s oval diamond engagement ring was a repurposed ring from her mother.
Late Night Snacks In addition to a three-tiered wedding cake — each tier was a different flavor — guests were served cannoli on the dance floor. When the night ended, guests walked out past a food truck handing out McDonald’s.
Lifestyle
Mundane, magic, maybe both — a new book explores ‘The Writer’s Room’
There’s a three-story house in Baltimore that looks a bit imposing. You walk up the stone steps before even getting up to the porch, and then you enter the door and you’re greeted with a glass case of literary awards. It’s The Clifton House, formerly home of Lucille Clifton.
The National Book Award-winning poet lived there with her husband, Fred, starting in 1967 until the bank foreclosed on the house in 1980. Clifton’s daughter, Sidney Clifton, has since revived the house and turned it into a cultural hub, hosting artists, readings, workshops and more. But even during a February visit, in the mid-afternoon with no organized events on, the house feels full.
The corner of Lucille Clifton’s bedroom, where she would wake up and write in the mornings
Andrew Limbong/NPR
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Andrew Limbong/NPR
“There’s a presence here,” Clifton House Executive Director Joël Díaz told me. “There’s a presence here that sits at attention.”
Sometimes, rooms where famous writers worked can be places of ineffable magic. Other times, they can just be rooms.
Princeton University Press
Katie da Cunha Lewin is the author of the new book, The Writer’s Room: The Hidden Worlds That Shape the Books We Love, which explores the appeal of these rooms. Lewin is a big Virginia Woolf fan, and the very first place Lewin visited working on the book was Monk’s House — Woolf’s summer home in Sussex, England. On the way there, there were dreams of seeing Woolf’s desk, of retracing Woolf’s steps and imagining what her creative process would feel like. It turned out to be a bit of a disappointment for Lewin — everything interesting was behind glass, she said. Still, in the book Lewin writes about how she took a picture of the room and saved it on her phone, going back to check it and re-check it, “in the hope it would allow me some of its magic.”
Let’s be real, writing is a little boring. Unlike a band on fire in the recording studio, or a painter possessed in their studio, the visual image of a writer sitting at a desk click-clacking away at a keyboard or scribbling on a piece of paper isn’t particularly exciting. And yet, the myth of the writer’s room continues to enrapture us. You can head to Massachusetts to see where Louisa May Alcott wrote Little Women. Or go down to Florida to visit the home of Zora Neale Hurston. Or book a stay at the Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald Museum in Alabama, where the famous couple lived for a time. But what, exactly, is the draw?

Lewin said in an interview that whenever she was at a book event or an author reading, an audience question about the writer’s writing space came up. And yes, some of this is basic fan-driven curiosity. But also “it started to occur to me that it was a central mystery about writing, as if writing is a magic thing that just happens rather than actually labor,” she said.
In a lot of ways, the book is a debunking of the myths we’re presented about writers in their rooms. She writes about the types of writers who couldn’t lock themselves in an office for hours on end, and instead had to find moments in-between to work on their art. She covers the writers who make a big show of their rooms, as a way to seem more writerly. She writes about writers who have had their homes and rooms preserved, versus the ones whose rooms have been lost to time and new real estate developments. The central argument of the book is that there is no magic formula to writing — that there is no daily to-do list to follow, no just-right office chair to buy in order to become a writer. You just have to write.
Lifestyle
Bruce Johnston Retiring From The Beach Boys After 61 Years
Bruce Johnston
I’m Riding My Last Wave With The Beach Boys
Published
Bruce Johnston is riding off into the California sunset … at least for now.
The Beach Boys legend announced Wednesday he’s stepping away from touring after six decades with the iconic band. The 83-year-old revealed in a statement to Rolling Stone he’s hanging up his touring hat to focus on what he calls part three of his long music career.
“It’s time for Part Three of my lengthy musical career!” Johnston said. “I can write songs forever, and wait until you hear what’s coming!!! As my major talent beyond singing is songwriting, now is the time to get serious again.”
Johnston famously stepped in for co-founder Brian Wilson in 1965 for live performances, becoming a staple of the Beach Boys’ touring lineup ever since. Now, he says he’s shifting gears toward songwriting and even some speaking engagements … with occasional touring member John Stamos helping him craft what he’ll talk about onstage.
“I might even sing ‘Disney Girls’ & ‘I Write The Songs!!’” he teased.
But don’t call it a full-on farewell tour just yet. Johnston made it clear he’s not shutting the door completely, saying he’s excited to reunite with the band for special occasions, including their upcoming July 2-4 shows at the Hollywood Bowl as part of the Beach Boys’ 2026 tour. The run celebrates both the 60th anniversary of “Pet Sounds” and America’s 250th birthday.
“This isn’t goodbye, it’s see you soon,” he wrote. “I am forever grateful to be a part of the Beach Boys musical legacy.”
Lifestyle
On the brink of death, a woman is saved by a stranger and his family
In 1982, Jean Muenchrath was injured in a mountaineering accident and on the brink of death when a stranger and his family went out of their way to save her life.
Jean Muenchrath
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Jean Muenchrath
In early May 1982, Jean Muenchrath and her boyfriend set out on a mountaineering trip in the Sierra Nevada, a mountain range in California. They had done many backcountry trips in the area before, so the terrain was somewhat familiar to both of them. But after they reached one of the summits, a violent storm swept in. It began to snow heavily, and soon the pair was engulfed in a blizzard, with thunder and lightning reverberating around them.
“Getting struck and killed by lightning was a real possibility since we were the highest thing around for miles and lightning was striking all around us,” Muenchrath said.
To reach safer ground, they decided to abandon their plan of taking a trail back. Instead, using their ice axes, they climbed down the face of the mountain through steep and icy snow chutes.
They were both skilled at this type of descent, but at one particularly difficult part of the route, Muenchrath slipped and tumbled over 100 feet down the rocky mountain face. She barely survived the fall and suffered life-threatening injuries.

This was before cellular or satellite phones, so calling for help wasn’t an option. The couple was forced to hike through deep snow back to the trailhead. Once they arrived, Muenchrath collapsed in the parking lot. It had been five days since she’d fallen.
”My clothes were bloody. I had multiple fractures in my spine and pelvis, a head injury and gangrene from a deep wound,” Muenchrath said.
Not long after they reached the trailhead parking lot, a car pulled in. A man was driving, with his wife in the passenger seat and their baby in the back. As soon as the man saw Muenchrath’s condition, he ran over to help.
”He gently stroked my head, and he held my face [and] reassured me by saying something like, ‘You’re going to be OK now. I’ll be right back to get you,’” Muenchrath remembered.
For the first time in days, her panic began to lift.
“My unsung hero gave me hope that I’d reach a hospital and I’d survive. He took away my fears.”
Within a few minutes, the man had unpacked his car. His wife agreed to stay back in the parking lot with their baby in order to make room for Muenchrath, her boyfriend and their backpacks.
The man drove them to a nearby town so that the couple could get medical treatment.
“I remember looking into the eyes of my unsung hero as he carried me into the emergency room in Lone Pine, California. I was so weak, I couldn’t find the words to express the gratitude I felt in my heart.”

The gratitude she felt that day only grew. Now, nearly 45 years later, she still thinks about the man and his family.
”He gave me the gift of allowing me to live my life and my dreams,” Muenchrath said.
At some point along the way, the man gave Muenchrath his contact information. But in the chaos of the day, she lost it and has never been able to find him.
”If I knew where my unsung hero was today, I would fly across the country to meet him again. I’d hug him, buy him a meal and tell him how much he continues to mean to me by saving my life. Wherever you are, I say thank you from the depths of my being.”
My Unsung Hero is also a podcast — new episodes are released every Tuesday. To share the story of your unsung hero with the Hidden Brain team, record a voice memo on your phone and send it to myunsunghero@hiddenbrain.org.
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