West
Julianne Moore, Natalie Portman hit back at Mary Kay Letourneau's former student lover's criticism
Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore, stars in “May December,” brushed off complaints from Vili Fualaau, whose illicit relationship and marriage with his sixth-grade teacher inspired the hit Netflix film.
Mary Kay Letourneau, 34 when she was first arrested for her sexual relationship with Fualaau in 1997, spent seven years behind bars at Washington Corrections Center for Women on child rape charges after her affair with the 12-year-old was made public.
She gave birth to his first child while awaiting sentencing, then conceived his second in violation of her parole before she was arrested again and forced to serve her full sentence.
Despite the rabid publicity surrounding their relationship, the pair married in 2005 with People Magazine in attendance to take photos. This year, Fualaau will become a grandfather at 40 after his second daughter, conceived with Letourneau, gives birth.
‘MAY DECEMBER’ MOVIE ON MARY KAY LETOURNEAU ‘OFFENDED’ STUDENT LOVER VILI FUALAAU
Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore, pictured, attended the 81st Golden Globes ceremony to accept awards for “May December.” (Getty Images)
Samy Burch, the director of “May December,” cited the Letourneau case as a starting off point for the film. Fualaau said he was “offended” the film’s crew didn’t consult him despite the fact he was still “alive and well,” calling the project a “ripoff” of his life.
Moore, who plays the character based on Letourneau, and Portman, who plays a method actress spending time with the embattled couple before starring in a film within the film, both said they were “sorry” Fualaau was disappointed.
Both were questioned about his critique in a red carpet interview with Entertainment Tonight at the 81st Golden Globes ceremony last weekend, where the film was nominated for best musical comedy or motion picture, best supporting actor, best supporting actress and best actress.
Both women stressed the film was meant to stand alone from its real-life inspiration, with Portman remarking that it is “its own story — it’s not meant to be a biopic.”
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Convicted child rapist Mary Kay Letourneau died of cancer in 2020 when she was 58, leaving behind her 37-year-old ex-husband, Vili Fualaau, and their two daughters. Georgia, the younger of the pair’s daughters, is expected to deliver a baby boy in the coming months. (Getty Images)
Moore told reporters director Todd Haynes was “always very clear when we were working on this movie that this was an original story … a story about these characters.”
“So that’s how we looked at it too,” Moore said. “This was our document. We created these characters from the page and together.”
“It’s not based on them,” Portman said. “Obviously, their story influenced the culture that we all grew up in and influenced the idea. But it’s fictional characters that are really brought to life by Julianne Moore and Charles Melton so beautifully.”
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Fualaau criticized the film for being an over-simplified representation of his life that could have been improved with his collaboration,
“I love movies – good movies. … I admire ones that capture the essence and complications of real-life events. You know, movies that allow you to see or realize something new every time you watch them,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “Those kinds of writers and directors — someone who can do that — would be perfect to work with.”
Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau posing for a photo April 9, 2005, outside their home in Seattle. (Mark Greenberg, AP)
“I’m still alive and well,” Fualaau told the outlet. “If they had reached out to me, we could have worked together. … Instead, they chose to do a ripoff of my original story.”
Fualaau stressed that he still lives in the Seattle area, where he settled with Letourneau before their divorce in 2017 and her subsequent death in 2020, and wasn’t difficult to track down.
Fox News Digital has been unable to reach him since the movie hit the streaming platform.
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Anne Bremner, the Seattle attorney who befriended Letourneau after successfully defending the Des Moines Police Department and the Highline School District against a lawsuit brought by Fualaau’s family in 2002, previously told Fox News Digital that “May December” captured the nuance of the couple’s relationship well before Fualaau spoke out against the adaptation.
“Watching that movie, I thought it did well, about the dynamics and the angst Vili and Mary felt about this,” she told Fox News Digital last month. “They had some things in there that were straight out of my case — the pink lipstick, the blush, that [Fualaau is] the seducer. [Fualaau] is so well played by Charles Melton, some people say he should get an Oscar. He’s a child raising children.”
On Wednesday, she said she “didn’t know [Fualaau] wasn’t consulted” about the film.
Charles Melton, who plays a character based on Vili Fualaau, and Natalie Portman, right, were nominated for best actor and actress for their roles in “May December” at Sunday’s Golden Globes ceremony. (Getty Images)
“If the movie is based on his life and the Letourneau story, I can understand his frustration in not being consulted. … From my outsider’s view, the movie did appear to be based, at least in part, on the Mary Kay Letourneau story,” she told Fox News Digital. “I can understand his frustration in not being consulted.”
She also struck back at critics online positing that Fualaau was upset because he “wanted to be paid.”
“I thought the sentiments he expressed were commendable,” Bremner said. “If the movie is based on his life, he would want to have input. He’s had a tough go of it all the way around.”
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San Francisco, CA
VIDEO: Car crashes into SF Castro restaurant, driver flees scene
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Dramatic video shows a car smashing into dining parklets and a restaurant in San Francisco. The crash happened happeend before 2 a.m. on Sunday, and no one was injured.
As of Sunday night, police are still trying to locate and identify the driver who ran away. In the video, after airbags were deployed from the crash, the driver was seen leaving the car behind.
The car crashed into Castro Indian Restaurant and bar owner Ajay Khadka says he got an alert and arrived within 15 minutes. After reviewing his security video, he says he saw people standing in the area just moments before the crash.
“People were just walking around like that second, not even a minute; no one was there. So thank god nobody got hurt; otherwise it would be devastating,” Khadka said.
Police responded to investigate but were unable to find the driver. The victimized restaurant has been part of the Castro for nearly two decades and is now boarded up.
Manager Narmela Khordians says she got a call from the landlord about an hour after closing and rushed back to the restaurant.
“I’m hurt; it was an emotional feeling last night,” Khordians said. “I hope the police will arrest him. He needs to pay the price for it because this is not fair for small businesses for people. I’m glad we were closed because it could have been worse.”
Despite damage to the front of the restaurant and its parklet, Cafe Mystique reopened Sunday.
“Normally, we are very busy for Sunday brunch, so it affected our business as you see,” Khordians said. “Even though we tried to open, we had some customers who wanted to eat. Still, it’s not what we usually do. So it did affect our business, definitely.”
The restaurant is facing repairs that may cost as much as $25,000, according to Khadka. As of now, no arrests have been made.
KRON4 followed up with police asking if the car was stolen but did not hear back in time for this report.
Denver, CO
Two Colorado smoke shops shut down for selling restricted products to minors
A smoke shop in Denver and another in Fort Collins were both ordered to cease operations this month by city and state regulators.
The Vibe Smoke Shop at 7530 East Colfax Avenue was ordered Tuesday by the City and County of Denver’s Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection to promptly close its doors and post a notice of summary suspension on the premises until further notice.
A summary suspension refers to the city immediately suspending the business’s license to operate, even if further proceedings are scheduled to determine its future.
“This is one of the worst cases of alleged illegal products sales by a business the city has ever uncovered in random inspections of convenience stores in Denver history,” stated Eric Escudero, the DLCP’s Director of Communications, in a press release. “In most licensing discipline cases, the city issues a show cause order where a business can continue to operate while the licensing discipline case plays out. A summary suspension is the most severe form of licensing discipline the city can take and is reserved for only the most serious cases of unlawful activities.”
In Denver, as in the state of Colorado, it is illegal to purchase tobacco, flavored tobacco, alcohol, recreational marijuana, kratom, or psylocibin products under the age of 21. DLCP’s Escudero stated that Vibe Smoke Shop allegedly violated city and state laws by, at different times, selling all of those items to minors.
Alleged violations by Vibe Smoke Shop date back to June 2025, according to the summary suspension order provided by DLCP. It was then that the outlet reportedly sold cigarettes and other tobacco/nicotine products to a 19-year-old person. That 19-year-old was working as part of an undercover operation to catch such activity.
Vibe Smoke Shop’s ownership was cited for the infraction, according to the order. But the monetary penalty for the citation has not been paid and is in collections, per DLCP.
Later that year, a Denver Police Department school resource officer was reportedly told by a student that other underage students were buying marijuana products from the same smoke shop and were re-selling them on school grounds throughout the day, “especially during lunch hours,” as stated in the order.
Denver PD and the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment joined DLCP for further undercover operations and enforcements. Meanwhile, a parent of an underage Vibe customer also complained to authorities that his 17-year-old son and his son’s friend were able to purchase kratom products with a fake ID and, at times, without an ID at all. That parent said both boys required addiction treatment services as a result of their kratom use.
In March of this year, another complaint was received about the business hosting after-hours parties for minors, as alleged in the DLCP order. When phoned by a DLCP inspector, Vibe’s ownership reportedly refused inspection of the business and hung up, per the order. An unannounced inspection was nevertheless conducted less than a week later, and a back room in the business was allegedly found to have cases of beer and alcoholic lemonade, bottles of beer and liquor in the refrigerator, and more than a dozen hookahs. Vibe ownership did not have a liquor license, per DLCP.
That inspection, and later ones, uncovered numerous non-compliant or improperly labeled marijuana, kratom and mushroom product, according to the DLCP order. A subsequent Notice of Violation from the health department determined some of those products “constituted an imminent health hazard” and ordered them destroyed.
The DLCP scheduled a hearing on June 26 in the case. Then, Vibe Smoke Shop ownership will have the chance to explain why its business license should not further suspended or revoked entirely, as explained by DLCP’s order.
According to the Colorado Secretary of State’s database, Vibe Smoke Shop LLC is owned by an Aurora resident, Desalegn Berhane Weldegebriel. CBS Colorado left a voicemail message at the only publicly listed phone number for Weldegebriel requesting comment.
In Fort Collins, the Smokin’ Genie was ordered May 20 to close at the end of the month. An investigation by Fort Collins Police Services and the Colorado Attorney General’s Office found that the business did not properly label its kratom products and allegedly sold kratom to a person younger than 21 years of age.
Smokin’ Genie’s owner, Ambreen Vazir of Florida, reached a settlement with the state. The business must cease operations on May 31 and destroy any remaining inventory. Vazir is also banned from conducting “any business in Colorado related to the advertising, marketing, cultivation, processing, manufacturing, handling, labeling, packaging, distribution, and/or sale of Restricted Products,” as stated in the settlement agreement. If Vazir chooses to re-open such a Colorado business after May 31, 2031, he must pay the attorney general’s office $20,000.
Furthermore, if Vazir’s future business violates state law regarding the import, manufacture, storage, assembly, handling, distribution, or sale of restricted products, the agreement states Vazir will be penalized a total of $200,000.
The Colorado Attorney General’s Office stated in a press release that its settlement with Vazir is the first action it has taken under recently passed legislation which regulates the sale of kratom products in Colorado.
CBS Colorado was unable to reach Vazir for comment.
Seattle, WA
WEST SEATTLE SCHOOLS: Graduation season begins Monday
(WSB file photo. No outdoor cap tosses this year!)
Tomorrow (Monday, June 1) brings not only a new month but also the first graduation ceremony of the season for West Seattle’s three biggest high schools. And all are graduating at new venues this year. Summit Atlas, which after nine years remains West Seattle’s only charter school, will graduate 55 seniors in a ceremony at Highline Performing Arts Center in Burien at 6 pm Monday. West Seattle’s two major public high schools, Chief Sealth International HS and West Seattle HS, both have graduation ceremonies on Wednesday, June 17, at McCaw Hall (hosting graduations while Memorial Stadium is being rebuilt) – CSIHS at 5 pm, WSHS at 8 pm. The Seattle Public Schools webpage for graduation info also lists where and when ceremonies are planned for its alternative programs, some of which hold classes in West Seattle.
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