Lifestyle
'Survivor' Season 1 Contestant Sonja Christopher Dead at 87
Sonja Christopher — the first person ever voted off the show “Survivor” — has died … this according to a current contestant on the show.
Liz Wilcox — who stars in season 46 of “Survivor,” which is underway right now — announced the sad news on X Friday … saying she met Sonja over Christmas and shared a photo of the two talking on FaceTime on her account.
She writes, “Today, the legend herself Sonja Christopher of Season One passed away. I had the pleasure of meeting her on Christmas. She had so much spunk + love for Survivor and what the show brought to her life. I hope you’re singing + playing your heart out somewhere beautiful, Sonja.”
On behalf of the family, Liz says people shouldn’t send flowers … but, instead donations to Mt. Diablo Unitarian Universalist Church in Walnut Creek, CA, the Cancer Support Community in SF, or the Sjogren’s Foundation. She did not provide a cause of death.
Sonja competed on “Survivor: Borneo” in 2000 and, despite getting along well with her teammates, got ousted after several missteps led to her team losing that first week. She received the boot because of it, making her the first person ever to be voted off the island.
In a sense, her appearance on the series was historic … and many still remember her.
Christopher’s known for playing her ukulele on the show — and, she seemed to remember her time fondly on “Survivor” despite her early exit … telling EW in 2020 the whole experience gave her a platform to raise money for causes she believed in.
Sonja was 87.
RIP
Lifestyle
Miami Beach charter boat owner arrested in alleged teen sex trafficking case
A Miami Beach charter boat owner was arrested in a sex trafficking case involving a 17-year-old girl, authorities said.
Kutay Satiroglu, 45, was arrested Wednesday on charges of human trafficking, lewd and lascivious battery on a child, and contributing to the delinquency of a child, Miami-Dade jail records showed.
Miami-Dade Corrections
Miami-Dade Corrections Kutay Satiroglu
According to an arrest report, Miami Beach Police officers began their investigation after the teen’s mother said she received a call from her older daughter that the teen was at Satiroglu’s house being held against her will and physically and sexually abused.
The teen later told investigators she met Satiroglu at a nightclub in April and at first told him she was 21 but by the end of the night confessed that she was only 17, the report said.
Satiroglu is the owner of a charter boat business and offered her a job as a boat steward, and the two began a sexual relationship, the report said.
While they were in a relationship, the teen said Satiroglu would have her engage in sex with his friends in exchange for money, charging anywhere between $200-$800 per meeting, the report said.
She also said he would advise her how to collect the money in advance and that the money was used to fund their household, the report said.
Satiroglu also gave her drugs during the sessions and whenever they would throw parties, and would also force her to call her girlfriends to come over and have sex with him, and if she didn’t comply, he would “discipline her by physically harming her,” the report said.
The teen said he was physically abusive toward her on numerous occasions, often beating her whenever he was in a bad mood, the report said.
She said that two days earlier they’d been involved in a physical altercation, and that there were two other females in the yacht who did sex work on his yacht charters, the report said.
The teen said she complied with Satiroglu because she was in love with him and wanted to make him happy, the report added.
Satiroglu refused to speak with detectives before he was arrested and booked into jail, the report said.
At a hearing Thursday, a Miami-Dade judge ordered Satiroglu would be held without bond.
In a statement Thursday, Miami Beach Police credited the teen’s older sister for coming forward with information.
“Due to her bravery and coordinated response of our detectives, a minor was rescued from a dangerous situation, and the suspect was taken into custody without incident,” the statement read. “The Miami Beach Police Department remains steadfast in its commitment to protecting the most vulnerable members of our community and will continue to aggressively investigate and prosecute all acts of human trafficking and exploitation.”
Lifestyle
‘The Running Man,’ a new ‘Now You See Me,’ and George Clooney are in theaters
Dave Franco as Jack Wilder, Jesse Eisenberg as Daniel Atlas, and Isla Fisher as Henley Reeves in Now You See Me: Now You Don’t.
Katalin Vermes/Lionsgate
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Katalin Vermes/Lionsgate
There’s yet another Now You See Me in theaters this weekend, along with yet another Stephen King adaptation. George Clooney plays a charming Hollywood star in Jay Kelly, while a warm, funny and goosebump-raising documentary streams on Apple TV. Here’s what to watch.
Now You See Me, Now You Don’t
In theaters Friday
YouTube
The cast keeps expanding in this magic-centric rob-from-the-rich-give-to-the-poor heist franchise, as if the writers saw Ocean’s Eleven through Thirteen and thought, “we could do that.” New kids Justice Smith, Dominic Sessa and Ariana Greenblatt join original Horsemen (and hangers-on) Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Morgan Freeman and Isla Fisher in pursuit of a priceless diamond held by a money-laundering arms dealer (Rosamund Pike). That fits the aesthetic of the first two Now You See Me’s (shouldn’t this one really be called Now You Three Me?) — but where the earlier films seemed to want you to believe the on-screen magicians were pulling off their tricks, this one mostly settles for CGI and cinematic trickery, so that even card tricks fall slightly flat. Eisenberg’s prickly snark is still fun, but with the tricks getting less convincing and the scripts more exhausting, it might be time for this franchise to go up in a puff of smoke. — Bob Mondello
The Running Man
In theaters Friday
This trailer includes instances of vulgar language.
YouTube
One tricky thing about writing dystopian fiction with staying power is that the future eventually catches up with you. Stephen King’s 1982 novel The Running Man takes place in 2025. In his vision of, well, now, there is widespread poverty, rule by giant corporations, and exploitative entertainment that takes advantage of people who are suffering and tries to force ordinary people to despise each other. There is environmental destruction, mass surveillance, and even the resurgence of polio. Just imagine.
The story follows a man named Ben Richards, who tries to provide for his family and his sick kid by going on a game show also called The Running Man. On the show, he has to survive on the streets for 30 days while professional assassins pursue him. If he makes it, he wins a billion dollars. But, of course, nobody has ever survived. In the new adaptation, directed by Edgar Wright, Richards (played by Glen Powell) auditions for the game shows run by the megacorporation known as The Network because his daughter has the flu, and Richards and his wife can’t afford a doctor for her without a big prize.
The biggest problem with this adaptation is that if you read the book, you probably know there are a couple of things about the ending that a major studio movie released in 2025 is unlikely to replicate. As an action movie that hits the gas, gets the running man running, and doesn’t let up, it works quite well, and it’s a lot of fun. But some of King’s sharper-elbowed commentary about what it might take to escape this kind of oppressive society is blunted a bit, making it a less effective critique of its world than the book was. — Linda Holmes
Jay Kelly
In limited theaters Friday; on Netflix Dec. 5
YouTube
Hollywood star Jay Kelly — handsome, affable, debonaire, sixty-something … in short, George Clooney — reconsiders his life choices on a trip to Tuscany in Noah Baumbach’s bland mid-life crisis dramedy. Estranged from one daughter (Riley Keough), and distressed by the growing distance of another (Grace Edwards) who’s off on a trip to Europe before college, he’s feeling alone in a crowd of paid companions, including his faithful manager (Adam Sandler, excellent) and publicist (Laura Dern, whose talents are mostly wasted). After a public altercation with a college buddy, he opts to avoid the PR blowup and possibly find some catch-up time with his daughter by taking an impromptu trip to Italy for a career tribute he’d previously turned down.
Minor misadventures ensue — a train trip punctuated by a purse snatching incident, a reunion with his coarse dad (Stacy Keach), a fight with his increasingly put-upon manager. Not sure I was feeling anyone’s pain about the loneliness of stardom, the heartbreak of success, the … whatever the hell else this was about. Baumbach has wandered into the territory of 8½ and Stardust Memories and he gets a bit lost in the woods, but Clooney’s magnetism goes a decent way to making things palatable, the cinematography is pretty and Sandler dominates whenever he’s on screen. — Bob Mondello
The Things You Kill
In limited theaters Friday
YouTube
Iranian-Canadian director Alireza Khatami’s Turkish-language thriller follows Ali, a university professor, as his life unravels. His mother’s sick, his father’s a bully, his wife wants a child (he hasn’t told her his sperm count is low), and his only safe place is an arid farm (“garden”) to which he retreats whenever possible. The arrival of Reza, a stranger who is game to do the things Ali won’t (bribe bureaucrats to deepen his well, maybe even kill his father) complicates things, and also, in a sense, solves them. The filmmaker’s first name provides a not-insignificant clue as to what’s going on, as his filmmaking deconstructs the story and his protagonist in initially confusing, and then riveting ways. — Bob Mondello
Come See Me In the Good Light
Streaming on Apple TV starting Friday
YouTube
There’s no way to make this documentary sound like the upbeat, rousing and often downright hilarious romp it is, but here goes: At the urging of comedian Tig Notaro, poet and spoken-word star Andrea Gibson and life partner and fellow poet Megan Falley invited filmmaker Ryan White and his crew into their home in 2021. It was mid-pandemic, and the crew was allowed full access to the couple’s every thought and action as they dealt with turtledove love, mailbox madness, and – here’s the part where you say, “no, this does not sound like a good time” — Gibson’s Stage 4 ovarian cancer journey. At the Middleburg Film Festival screening I attended in October — three months after Gibson’s death — the director spoke beforehand, giving the audience “permission to laugh,” which it definitely did. It also sniffled a bit, but less than you might expect, because Gibson’s vibrant, assertively affirmative outlook doesn’t really brook tears, and the filmmaker’s warmth and humor, even in times of despair, gives the story a radiance that makes mundane moments feel precious, while allowing hopeful moments to raise goosebumps. — Bob Mondello
Lifestyle
Jimmy Kimmel’s Band Leader Cleto Escobedo III Cause of Death Released
‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’
Band Leader Cleto Escobedo III Cause of Death Revealed
Published
Jimmy Kimmel’s longtime bandleader, Cleto Escobedo III, died because his heart couldn’t pump enough blood to keep him alive, TMZ has learned.
We obtained Cleto’s death certificate and it lists cardiogenic shock as the immediate cause of death … with vasodilatory shock, disseminated intravascular coagulation and alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver as the underlying causes.
The document also says other conditions that contributed to Cleto’s death include sepsis, graft versus host disease, immunosuppressed, chronic kidney disease and pneumonia.
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Cardiogenic shock is a life-threatening condition that happens when the heart suddenly can’t pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs … according to the Mayo Clinic.
The doc says Cleto was cremated and the certificate makes note that he was an entertainer who played music for 40 years.
Escobedo had been noticeably absent from “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” for months after falling ill — before Jimmy confirmed his passing in an emotional Instagram tribute.
Cleto and Jimmy go way back — they grew up together in Las Vegas, and when Kimmel landed his late-night gig in 2003, he fought hard to make Cleto the leader of Cleto and the Cletones, saying he didn’t have better chemistry with anyone else.
Cleto was 59.
RIP
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