Author: business

Fans of “The Traitors” have not known peace since last week’s cliffhanger that left viewers distraught on whether or not “Big Brother” star Danielle Reyes will be banished.

Yet viewers will finally have clarity after the Season 3 finale drops this week and a winner (or winners) is revealed.

The latest season of the Emmy-winning reality competition series has been called messy, impassioned, cut throat and utterly hilarious since the Jan. 9 premiere. It’s followed an extremely chaotic batch of traitors who have gone after each other more than the faithfuls they are competing against.

The finale will also reveal who is the seer, a new twist where the winner of last week’s mission will have the ability to see whether a player of their choice is a faithful or traitor.

Only six contestants remain, including traitors Reyes and fellow “Big Brother” alum Britney Haynes, who was recently recruited. Here’s what to know ahead of the finale and reunion episode.

‘The Traitors’ interview: Finalist Dylan Efron teases reunion, reveals brother Zac’s reaction to acting diss

When does ‘The Traitors’ Season 3 finale air?

“The Traitors” Season 3 finale drops Thursday, March 6 at 9 p.m. EST/6 p.m. PST on Peacock.

When is ‘The Traitors’ reunion episode?

“The Traitors” Season 3 reunion episode will drop alongside the finale on Thursday, March 6 at 9 p.m. EST/6 p.m. PST on Peacock.

Where to watch ‘The Traitors’ Season 3

All three seasons of “The Traitors,” as well as the two seasons each of “The Traitors UK” (hosted by Claudia Winkleman) and “The Traitors Australia” (hosted by Rodger Corser), are available to stream exclusively on Peacock.

Subscriptions begin at $7.99 a month.

Watch The Traitors on Peacock

How many traitors are left?

“Big Brother Reindeer Games” stars Danielle Reyes and Britney Haynes are last two traitors going into the Season 3 finale.

Reyes has been a traitor since the season premiere, while Haynes is new recruit. Three original traitors have all been banished: “RuPaul’s Drag Race” winner Bob The Drag Queen as well as “Survivor” alumni “Boston” Rob Mariano and Carolyn Wiger.

How many players are left?

There are six players going into “The Traitors” Season 3 finale, though one is expected to be banished at the episode’s start due to last week’s cliffhanger.

• Traitor: Danielle Reyes (“Big Brother”)
• Traitor: Britney Haynes (“Big Brother”)
• Faithful: Dolores Catania (“The Real Housewives of New Jersey”)
• Faithful: ​​​​​​​Dylan Efron (“Down to Earth With Zac Efron”)
• Faithful: Gabby Windey (“The Bachelorette”)
• Faithful: Lord Ivar Mountbatten (British royal)

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Neil Gaiman is responding to what he calls “sham” accusations from his child’s former babysitter who sued him last month for alleged human trafficking as well as sexual assault and battery.

In a brief in support of his defense attorneys’ motion to dismiss the case, filed in Wisconsin federal court Tuesday and obtained by USA TODAY, the “Good Omens” author denies Scarlett Pavlovich’s “outrageous” allegations and argues for her lawsuit to be dismissed on the grounds that it was filed in the wrong jurisdiction.

Pavlovich, who started babysitting Gaiman and Palmer’s son in 2022, and Gaiman “began a brief personal relationship, which involved consensual physical intimacy, not sexual intercourse,” per the filing.

“In no uncertain terms, Pavlovich’s accusations are false,” the brief continues. “The sexual scenarios she describes deliberately in graphic detail are invented. Any sexual conduct that occurred was in all ways consensual.”

His filing states that U.S. courts have “no legal authority” over the matter, as the alleged misconduct happened in New Zealand, of which Pavlovich is a citizen. His lawyers also refer to a lengthy list of witnesses who reside there as a reason “the requisite discovery in this case will be severely burdened if litigation occurs outside of New Zealand.”

Pavlovich, Gaiman’s team states, must exhaust “New Zealand’s available remedies prior to bringing a lawsuit in the United States.” His defense lawyers also note “the vast majority of non-party witnesses and evidence are in New Zealand—8,296 miles away from the Western District of Wisconsin.”

USA TODAY has reached out to Pavlovich’s attorneys for comment.

In her Feb. 3 lawsuit, she claimed Gaiman “repeatedly raped” her and “received free sexual services and labor” from her in 2022. The accusations allegedly occurred while Pavlovich was a live-in nanny for Gaiman and wife Amanda Palmer’s child in their New Zealand homes. At the time, she was around 24, while Gaiman was 61.

Pavlovich — who previously leveled these allegations in a Vulture report published Jan. 13 — also accused Palmer, who is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit, of “procuring and presenting (Pavlovich) to Gaiman for such abuse.” Palmer denied Pavlovich’s allegations in an Instagram post last month.

‘I deny the allegations’: Neil Gaiman’s ex-wife responds to sexual assault lawsuit

Neil Gaiman includes alleged text messages with his accuser

In Tuesday’s brief, Gaiman ardently denies misconduct allegations while conceding to several facts, including that Pavlovich was employed as a babysitter and also entered into a relationship of a sexual nature with Gaiman in 2022.

The filing also provides some of Gaiman and Pavlovich’s alleged Whatsapp messages, with the full record reserved for a separate filing that is under seal and inaccessible to the public.

This “correspondence reflects not only that Gaiman’s alleged conduct was consensual, but also on many occasions, it was initiated and/or encouraged by Plaintiff herself,” Gaiman’s filing says. “At no point in any of Plaintiff’s messages to Gaiman did she ever accuse him of misconduct. Any suggestion that Gaiman raped or otherwise engaged in violent or non-consensual activity with Plaintiff, at any time, is false and defamatory.”

Gaiman paints Pavlovich as the initiator in their sexual relationship and concedes to her allegation that they were intimate in a bath tub together on Feb. 4, 2022, but claims they did not engage in “sexual intercourse” in that incident.

“At no point during the evening did (Pavlovich) say or do anything that gave Gaiman any indication that she was not willingly participating in these activities,” the author alleges.

On March 24, 2022, Gaiman allegedly messaged Pavlovich after hearing from Palmer that Pavlovich had accused him of sexual assault.

“Honestly, when Amanda told me that you were telling people I’d raped you and were planning to Me Too me, I wanted to kill myself. But I’m getting through it a day at a time, and it’s been to weeks now and I’m still here. Fragile but not great,” his alleged message to Pavlovich reads.

In response, Gaiman claims, Pavlovich said she was “horrified” by his text and that this was “the first time I have heard of this.” An alleged message she sent two days later shows her saying “It was consensual — how many times do I have to … tell everyone.”

The 40-page filing concludes: “Defendant Neil Gaiman respectfully demands that the Court dismiss the Complaint against him on the merits and with prejudice, award him attorney’s fees and expenses incurred in defending this action and grant him such other and further relief as the Court deems just and proper.”

If you or someone you know has experienced sexual violence, RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline offers free, confidential, 24/7 support to survivors and their loved ones in English and Spanish at: 800.656.HOPE (4673) and Hotline.RAINN.org and en Español RAINN.org/es.

There are spoilers ahead. You might want to solve today’s puzzle before reading further! Build a Snowman

Constructor: Zhouqin Burnikel

Editor: Amanda Rafkin

Random Thoughts & Interesting Things

• TEAMS (5A: Titans and Giants) The Tennessee Titans and the New York Giants are NFL TEAMS. There is also a baseball TEAM called the Giants, the San Francisco Giants. It was a clever choice to choose TEAMS whose names are synonyms.
• OLE (16A: Copa Mundial cheer) “Copa Mundial” is Spanish for “World Cup.” The FIFA World Cup is an international football (called soccer in the U.S.) competition held every four years. The next World Cup will be held in 2026, and will be hosted by Canada, Mexico, and the United States. OLÉ!
• Y CHROMOSOME (17A: One half of some genetic pairings) Hooray for science in the crossword! Y CHROMOSOMEs and their counterparts, X CHROMOSOMEs, are involved in genetic determination of sex in many organisms. 
• ALOO (37A: Saag ___ (spinach-and-potato dish)) ALOO is a South Asian term for potatoes, and is used in the names of a number of dishes.
• YETI COOLERS (56A: Insulated containers named for a mythical beast) The YETI company was founded in 2006 by brothers Roy and Ryan Selders, who were frustrated with the quality of COOLERS on the market at the time. As the clue informs us, the company is named for the YETI, a mythical creature also known as the abominable snowman.
• BAHT (3D: Currency used in a Thai bar) The BAHT is the official currency of Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia.
• TROLL (5D: Doll with wild, bright hair) We saw TROLL dolls referenced two days ago in a clue for HAIR, [Distinctive feature of “Trolls” characters].
• MGM (8D: Studio with a lion mascot)  Leo the Lion is the mascot of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) movie studio. Leo has introduced MGM movies since 1924. From 1924 to 1957, six different lions were filmed to introduce MGM movies, and only one of them was actually named Leo. The first MGM lion (and the only one that simply looked around but didn’t roar during his film appearance) was named Slats. Here’s another interesting thing about the MGM lion: since 2021, MGM’s lion mascot has been CGI animated.
• LOVE POTION (10D: Elixir that makes someone smitten) I think it’s probably a good thing that the LOVE POTION is a thing of fiction, don’t you?
• YOLO (24D: “Seize the day” acronym) YOLO = You Only Live Once
• GLOW STICKS (29D: Colorful items waved at a rave) According to Guinness World Records, the longest GLOW STICK ever made was 500 feet 3 inches long. It was created in 2018 to celebrate the University of Wisconsin’s 150th birthday, and it took over 100 volunteers to activate it.
• CRETE (32D: Greece’s largest island) CRETE is located about 100 miles south of the Greek mainland.
• PURR (38D: Content cat’s sound) and THU (34A: “Throwback” day (Abbr.)) We’re a day early for it to officially be “Throwback Thursday,” but I thought I’d take this opportunity to share a throwback photo of my cat, Willow, anyway. This photo was taken ten years ago. Willow is lying on top of a cow pillow, which makes me smile.

• DOE EYES (41D: Makeup trend that creates an innocent look) The article I found about DOE EYES trending on TikTok is from last September, so I don’t know if they’re still trending, since these things come and go quickly.
• NHL (44D: Org. for Ducks and Penguins) Here we have some more TEAMS, the Anaheim Ducks and the Pittsburgh Penguins. It was a fun choice to choose two NHL TEAMS that have bird names.
• CAPO (45D: Key-changing guitar gadget) A CAPO is a clamp-like device that is attached to the neck of a guitar (or other stringed instrument such as a ukulele or banjo). The CAPO shortens the length of the playable strings, thus raising the pitch.
• HELL (52D: “___ was the journey but it brought me heaven”) “HELL was the journey but it brought me heaven,” is a lyric from Taylor Swift’s 2020 song, “Invisible String.”
• OREO (53D: Cookie made in 18 countries) What other cookie would it be? Of course it’s our crossword friend OREO that is made in 18 countries. Although OREOs are made in 18 countries, they’re available in many more than that. You can buy OREOs in over 100 countries.
• TAU (58D: Greek letter T) TAU is the nineteenth letter of the twenty-four-letter Greek alphabet, making this a great opportunity to review the end of that alphabet. Following TAU, we have upsilon, phi, chi, psi, and omega.

Crossword Puzzle Theme Synopsis

• Y CHROMOSOME (17A: One half of some genetic pairings)
• YE OLDE SHOPPE (24A: Quaint store name in tourist towns)
• YET HERE WE ARE (46A: “…but it still happened”)
• YETI COOLERS (56A: Insulated containers named for a mythical beast)

BUILD A SNOWMAN: As we move down the puzzle, a SNOWMAN – an abominable SNOWMAN, that is – is being built at the front of the theme answers. We start with Y, then YE, then YET, then YETI.

BUILD A word themes are fun, and this is no exception. When I filled in Y CHROMOSOME, the single Y at the beginning clued me in that we would be building a word. I admit that I didn’t catch on that we were building the word YETI until much later, making for a nice “Aha!” moment. I kept thinking of Olaf, the SNOWMAN from Frozen, even though there’s no Y in his name. Thank you, Zhouqin, for this delightful puzzle.

For more on USA TODAY’s Crossword Puzzles

When Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio get together, it’s a mutual admiration society between the two friends and co-stars. When their Marvel characters get together, you can cut the tension with a butter knife. 

“It’s not entirely unpleasant seeing you again,” D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk, New York City’s former Kingpin of crime, tells his old enemy Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) in the premiere episode of the Disney+ series “Daredevil: Born Again.” Fisk and Murdock, the blind lawyer also known as the masked vigilante Daredevil, at first toe a peaceful line at a diner, but when the conversation turns from passive-aggressive to just aggressive, bad feelings arise again, with the Big Apple at stake. 

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Yes, they’re archenemies, but they also give each other a newfound sense of purpose when they meet again. “I’m a big soccer fan,” says Cox, 42. “My team is Arsenal, and our big nemesis is Tottenham. The question becomes, would I want them to not exist? And the answer is no. I want them to be there, because I want to beat them.”

D’Onofrio adds that Murdock and Fisk are “very passionate characters. They’re struggling and they’re both broken, in a way. The metaphor could be two vampires struggling to live in the daylight.”

“Born Again” (first two episodes now streaming, then weekly on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/6 PT) is a continuation of Marvel’s Netflix “Daredevil” series, which ran three seasons from 2015-18. The revival maintains the same sense of dark, broody brutality, though now both Kingpin and Fisk are ensconced in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Cox’s character had a cameo in the movie “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and was a love interest in the more lighthearted “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” miniseries, while D’Onofrio played Fisk as the supporting heavy in two Disney+ shows, “Hawkeye” and “Echo.” 

For D’Onofrio, 65, it was all just an appetizer for the main course. “Our goal was ‘Born Again’ and for it to have that same feel (as) the Netflix show, and so I was really just sort of waiting to do that again,” he says.

The new series catches up with Fisk and Daredevil, who was responsible for tearing down Kingpin’s empire, in new phases of their life. Yet old habits die hard for these two. Fisk runs for mayor of New York City and wins, doing politics his way (and not always legally). And while Murdock retired his alter ego a year earlier after a tragedy, new anti-vigilante sentiment and Fisk’s actions have our hero back in the red leather.

“Matt Murdock is more of a lie than Daredevil is true. He’s the lawyer trying to function within ordinary rule of law, but at the same time he is deceiving pretty much everyone,” Cox says. Murdock leans into “the antithesis of what a hero is and can cross over into the darkness on numerous occasions.

“He feels like he is physically being pulled in two different directions,” the British actor adds. Working within the law while also fighting crime outside it feels “authentic to him” even though they are “in opposition of one another. And that inner conflict, it’s ironically quite relatable.”

Fisk’s menswear might not be as colorful, but “what fills the suit is more interesting than the suit itself,” says D’Onofrio, who loves playing his character in fish-out-of-water situations, both political and domestic. “The more dangerous he is and becomes, the more fun it is to see him sitting and having lunch with his wife. The things they talk about are so odd and so strange because she’s just as messed up, in a much different way. But still they make a great couple because of that.”

Marvel is in an election season: “Thunderbolt” Ross (Harrison Ford) became president in “Captain America: Brave New World,” Fisk is running New York, and neither of them are exactly heroes. So how do you keep the MCU from resembling real life when there are political divisions and divisive personalities in both? (Fisk’s story line, especially, reflects certain American leaders known for creating tribalism among constituents.)

“I approach him as a man first,” D’Onofrio says of playing Kingpin. “I never go into work that day thinking, ‘Hey, I’m playing a bad guy.’ He has all these odd things about him, but I don’t play him twirling my mustache or anything typical.

“There is a lot of us in our parts, and I think that helps make it different. But I don’t think about any politics or what’s going on in the world – only in the ‘Daredevil’ world.”

Both actors reflect on how they first crafted their characters for the Netflix series. Their bond has only grown stronger since then: “We trust each other a lot more,” D’Onofrio says. “It’s an incredible feeling to know that when I’m working on a set, that he’s somewhere in that studio working on (another) set. I know that whatever’s going on over there is good, because Charlie’s the lead and he’s not going to let anything look stupid.”

Cox recalls the filmmakers’ goal in the first season a decade ago that still lingers: “If you’ve just turned on the show in the middle of a season and you didn’t know anything about these characters, it would not be clear to you who were the good guys and who were the bad guys. As an audience, you have to work a little harder to mine the good deeds from the ultimately nefarious ones.”

Jax Taylor is opening up about his “substance issues” – and celebrating his sobriety.

The “Vanderpump Rules” star revealed on Bravo’s “Hot Mic” podcast on Tuesday that he has been dealing with addiction issues, primarily abusing cocaine, “on and off” for the past two decades.

He’s approaching three months of sobriety, including abstaining from alcohol, which he said went “hand in hand” with his cocaine habits.

“I can’t do cocaine without drinking,” Taylor, 45, said. “So I just gave up both.”

Taylor said he has been “waiting a long time” to make this admission, but felt with the new season of “The Valley” – a “Vanderpump” spinoff – coming up later this month, it was a good time to do so.

“I wanted everyone to know, this is what happened,” he said, adding production on the show did not know. “I think a lot of people who watch ‘Vanderpump Rules’ over the years, could kind of tell that I was on something.”

He continued: “This is the longest I’ve gone since I was 21 without anything. This is a really, really tough disease. I’ve been doing it for so long, and you can say hiding it, lying about it, forever. And I just had it, enough’s enough.”

In response, Taylor’s ex, Brittany Cartwright, told People that she was “glad that he finally admitted to what was really going on.”

“For the first time, I can speak openly about the extent of trauma he’s instilled on our family over the years,” Cartwright, 36, added. “I’ve tried desperately to help him without success. I pray that one day he completely knocks this addiction, but I’m skeptical. His behaviors are still alarming and his treatment plan seems to be the bare minimum.”

USA TODAY has reached out to Taylor and Cartwright’s reps for comment.

Cartwright filed for divorce from her “The Valley” co-star in August after five years of marriage. The couple share a 3-year-old son, Cruz. Cartwright petitioned for legal and physical custody of Cruz and asked for Taylor to be granted visitation.

“I’m trying to navigate this as best as I can for my son and I, but every day is still a challenge and very difficult,” Cartwright continued. “Jax has caused an enormous amount of damage and I have very little trust in him at this point. My only hope is that one day, he will be a better person for his son.”

Cartwright announced their separation on their podcast, “When Reality Hits,” in February 2024, a month after the separation date stated in her filing.

“Jax and I are taking time apart and I made the decision to move into another home to take some space for the sake of my mental health,” Cartwright said in the episode. “Yes, marriages in general are very hard and I’ve had a particularly rough year this past year.”

Noting the situation was “still very hard to talk about,” Cartwright said, “I’m taking one day at a time.”

News of their separation came a month before their latest TV venture, “Vanderpump” spin-off “The Valley,” made its debut with a cast that also includes Kristen Doute, Luke Broderick, Danny and Nia Booko, Janet and Jason Caperna and Jesse and Michelle Lally.

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental and/or substance use disorders, you can call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s free and confidential treatment referral and information service at 1-800-662-HELP (4357). It’s available 24/7 in English and Spanish (TTY: 1-800-487-4889).

Contributing: KiMi Robinson and Jonathan Limehouse, USA TODAY

Congratulations are in order for little Miss Guided. Dylan Efron is one of four remaining faithful who made it all the way to “The Traitors” finale.

The third season of the Peacock series, based on a Dutch format, airs its finale and reunion Thursday (9 p.m. EST/6 PST).

Efron, four years younger than actor brother Zac Efron, emerged as an early fan favorite after producers positioned him as scrumptious eye candy. The “Down to Earth” producer, who’s also worked as a stuntman and in film production, is among those gathered in a Scottish castle, duking it out to determine who among them are traitors ‒ masterfully pulling off “murders” undetected ‒ and who are honest faithful. The last player(s) standing are awarded a cash prize of up to $250,000.

“I’m all for that,” Efron, 33, says of his ab-baring onscreen moments. “If you see my Instagram, I have my shirt off 90% of the time.”

Efron, a staunch “faithful,” grew up fantasizing about taking home the $1 million payday on “Survivor” and jumped at the chance to appear on “Traitors.” This season has already purged 2011 “Survivor” champ Rob Mariano (traitor); Britney Spears’ ex-husband, model Sam Asghari (faithful); and “RuPaul’s Drag Race” winner Bob the Drag Queen, who dubbed Efron “Miss Guided” in an attempt to throw Efron off his traitorous scent.

Efron loves the moniker and even added it to his Instagram bio. “I wasn’t expecting it to be such a moment,” he says. But “watching it, I was like, ‘Oh, wow! That’s a nickname.’”

Bob, born Christopher Caldwell, also stunned those gathered for deliberation when he said Zac Efron is “not a good” actor.

Dylan Efron says he and Bob have not talked about the moment but is confident it will be addressed at the reunion. “He’s just an entertainer,” Efron says of Bob, appearing to hold no grudges. “I don’t think he meant it.”

Dylan adds that Zac laughed off the remark and has been “enjoying” the show, teasing, “I’m saving for the reunion what he told me” about Bob’s comment.

The Feb. 27 episode concluded before the results of the roundtable were revealed. Traitors Danielle Reyes and the recently recruited Britney Haynes, both former “Big Brother” contestants, piggybacked off faithful Dolores Catania’s (“The Real Housewives of New Jersey”) suspicions of faithful Ivar Mountbatten, an extended member of Britain’s royal family. Efron, Mountbatten and their fellow faithful Gabby Windey (“The Bachelorette”) voted to banish Reyes. Reyes and Mountbatten were excused from a tie-breaking vote in which Efron and Windey doubled down on Reyes, while Catania locked in on Mountbatten. The episode ended before Haynes could reveal her vote.

Efron predicts Reyes will have the most to answer for at the cast reunion. She has been criticized for comparing fellow traitor Carolyn Wiger to Forrest Gump (a move Efron deems “below the belt”) and allegedly swearing on her grandchildren that she was a faithful.

“When you sign up to play that role, you’re going to get a lot of backlash and a lot of people want to put their two cents in,” Efron says. “But she did it and she did a great job being the villain.”

Efron attributes his longevity in the game to being able to play the part of “naïve rookie” and developing genuine relationships with his cast.

Alan Cumming spills on his ‘stern castle daddy’ persona for ‘The Traitors’ Season 3

He’s open to doing more competition reality TV and continuing to document his global travels for YouTube and the small screen. He’s even ready to try his hand at acting, which frightened him before.

“As a kid, I was a little shy to step into those (roles) and said, ‘No, my brother is the actor; I couldn’t act,’” Efron recalls. “But as I gain more confidence, I think I can do a lot of things, and it’s fun to constantly prove to myself what I can do.”

One week after Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were found dead, an investigation continues with key questions still unanswered.

Authorities in New Mexico found Hackman, his wife and their dog dead on the afternoon of Wednesday, Feb. 26. A search warrant said that the “French Connection” star was discovered in a mudroom near his cane, while his wife was in an open bathroom near a space heater. An open prescription bottle and pills were scattered on a countertop nearby, and Arakawa had “body decomposition, bloating in her face” and mummification of her hands and feet.

Authorities are continuing to investigate the mysterious deaths, and no cause has been released, though the findings from a probe for gas leaks and carbon monoxide has been revealed.

Here’s all the latest on the investigation.

Gene Hackman death March 4 updates: Conflicting details emerge on dogs, health

Results of gas leak, carbon monoxide testing revealed

On Tuesday, the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office shared the results of the New Mexico Gas Company’s “extensive investigation for gas leaks and carbon monoxide at Gene Hackman’s home,” conducted on Feb. 26. The investigation appeared to definitively rule out the possibility of a gas leak inside the home.

Gene Hackman’s life in Santa Fe: How actor pursued anonymity

“There were no significant findings,” a news release said. “NMGC did issue five (5) red tags. One red tag was for a minuscule leak (0.33% gas in air – not a lethal amount) at one of the stove burners. The other four red tags were for code enforcement violations – not involving gas leaks or carbon monoxide – involving a water heater and gas log lighters installed in three fireplaces.”

Gene Hackman, wife’s deaths ‘suspicious’: Grim details emerge in search warrant

The sheriff’s office said these results “are not believed to be a factor in the deaths of Gene Hackman, Betsy Arakawa or their dog,” though the findings were still sent to the Office of the Medical Investigator “for consideration.”

The sheriff’s department previously ruled out carbon monoxide poisoning as a cause of death after negative test results. Hackman’s pacemaker showed that “his last event was recorded on Feb. 17, 2025,” indicating this is likely when the actor died.

Hackman’s nephew doesn’t ‘want to speculate’ on cause of death

The actor’s nephew, Tim Hackman, spoke with Us Weekly in an interview published Tuesday and said the family does not want to speculate about his death before all the facts are available.

Gene Hackman’s refuge – and mysterious death – at his Santa Fe home with wife Betsy Arakawa

“We’re waiting on toxicology. That will tell us everything,” he said. “It’s hard to theorize. There are lots of theories out there and I don’t want to speculate. It’s easy to speculate negative theories.”

He added, “The family wants to keep it positive for now and when we know the truth we will deal with it.”

Exclusive details: Sheriff’s office makes error about Gene Hackman’s dog

But Tim Hackman told Us Weekly that the description of the scene where his uncle was found has raised questions. “My uncle was 95 years old at an age where you think about, ‘OK, it’s time,’” he told Us Weekly. “But from the circumstances now things have changed a bit. It’s a major change.”

In a previous statement to USA TODAY, Hackman’s daughters, Elizabeth and Leslie Hackman, and granddaughter Annie said they were “devastated” by his death.

“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our father, Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy,” they said. “He was loved and admired by millions around the world for his brilliant acting career, but to us he was always just Dad and Grandpa. We will miss him sorely.”

Hackman and his ex-wife Faye Maltese shared three adult children: Christopher, Elizabeth and Leslie.

Hackman and wife were ‘joined at the hip,’ flight instructor says

Andy Wells, a flight instructor who flew with Hackman, spoke about the couple’s close relationship in an interview with Fox News published Wednesday. He said he first met Hackman and Arakawa in 1987, four years before they married in 1991, though he had not seen them for years.

“The two of them were joined at the hip practically,” Wells said. “So, if he became reclusive, I think she did, too. And she was very quiet. Anyway, if she went out on her own and was in the same grocery store with me, it would be easy to not see her. She was small and quiet and very, very focused. I thought she was great.”

Wells also remembered Arakawa as “so sweet and beautiful and smart.”

In the middle of a family farm of cork and olive trees in Portugal’s remote agricultural region of Alentejo an extraordinary site is under construction: a mazelike complex of concrete walls that look as if they were made of rammed earth, inspired by those historically built in the area to protect both plants and animals.

While currently resembling a massive Roman ruin, it is conceived as the energy centre for a small international community. “It will be a place for people to gather to take part in the rituals of agriculture,” says the Portuguese pilot and hospitality pioneer João Rodrigues, “from cheesemaking to breadmaking to winemaking to the harvesting of honey and the preserving of vegetables.” The project, Herdade No Tempo, is conceived as something of a modern utopian development, an opportunity, says Rodrigues, to reconnect with the land and each other, and “elevate what we inherit”. 

Architectural and ideological projects like his, which allow nature and craft to dictate the design and community ethos, are growing in number, and attracting people from around the world. Many with the privilege of means or jobs that allow mobility are seeking that quality of life in Portugal and moving there full-time, facilitated first by the golden visa programme (introduced in 2012, it was so popular that the government revamped it in 2023 so that property is no longer a qualifying investment) and then the digital nomad visa. (It also doesn’t hurt that non-residents only pay a 25 per cent flat tax on income earned in the country.) In September 2024 alone, 1,554 families were awarded residence permits; 567 permits were given to Americans and 234 to those from the UK.  

“Many people are unhappy with the state of the world — politically and socially — and that there is a lack of integrity, morals and respect for the environment,” says Rodrigues. “More and more, people are feeling the need to live in harmony with nature.” And more people are also seeking to build communities to accommodate that need, seeing it as both a challenge and an opportunity. 

Fifteen years ago, when Rodrigues asked the now award-winning architect Manuel Aires Mateus to help him design a family retreat in Comporta, he could not have foreseen that it would lead to master planning this development. That first project — which he dubbed Casas na Areia (“Houses in sand”) — featured a surreally beautiful living room and kitchen with a floor of fine sand that captured the attention of the design world; in 2010 it was selected to represent Portugal in the Venice Architecture Biennale. 

When people asked to rent Casas na Areia it sparked the launch of boutique hospitality company Silent Living, which now includes several other properties, including Casa No Tempo, a house on 1,000 acres of farmland that Rodrigues inherited. 

Later, after guests began to ask them to help them build their own houses, Rodrigues and Aires Mateus started to dream up a bigger, more permanent community on the farm, Herdade No Tempo. (Herdade means “homestead” in Portuguese). They carefully chose 14 lots where nature would not be disturbed. “The rocks and trees have been on this land for centuries, so we [wanted to] build around them,” says Rodrigues. 

Each of the families that buys a house will have to contribute to farm responsibilities and as the word ‘tempo’ expresses, commit to [giving] what is most precious to all of us — our time

Halfway through designing the project, Covid happened, and the ethos behind Rodrigues’ Silent Living community became even more relevant; the waiting list for the 14 houses doubled. While project completion is set for 2028, later this month Rodrigues plans to send the people on the list two books he has self-published about the past, present and future of Herdade No Tempo, in order to communicate the project’s manifesto of regenerative agriculture and community.

Active monthly contributions to farm responsibilities will include those pertaining to carbon retention, biodiversity, water protection, food production, soil health, animal wellbeing and waste and energy management. “Each of the families that buys one of the nine big houses will have to work alongside our team on these areas and, as the word ‘tempo’ expresses, commit to [giving] what is most precious to all of us — our time.” Serviced homes these are not.

He hopes the books will help interested buyers understand that they are signing on as caretakers of that land, not real estate speculators. 

While he understands that most owners will not be living here all year round (Silent Living can rent the homes out to guests if the owners like), he says he will choose buyers based on their skills and enthusiasm to support the project. “Any potential homeowner should understand that we are building a community, as well as a blueprint for a healthier and nature-forward way of living.”

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Seven years ago, American tech investor Andrew Rosener moved to Lisbon with his young family. For him, at first, Portugal’s appeal was that it’s an ideal place to raise children. “I have lived all over the world — Germany, Panama, Australia — but Portugal represents to me classic family values. People don’t come here to work, they come to live.” He adds, “Now I can see what’s happening: creatives and entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds come here searching for something intangible. Eventually, many of us find exactly what we were looking for, which is deep authenticity: 2,000-year-old olive trees; like-minded people that value wine made like it was 500 years ago and textiles made by hand that took 80 hours to weave; and undeveloped coastline and pristine nature.”

During the pandemic, Rosener and his family spent much of their time at São Lourenço do Barrocal, a historic farm estate of just over 2,000 acres near the ancient hilltop settlement of Monsaraz, which over 14 years was thoughtfully transformed into a resort with 24 rooms and suites and 16 cottages. Rosener recently bought the first of 25 houses that will eventually be built on the property. (Two, including Rosener’s, will be completed this summer.) 

I have lived all over the world — Germany, Panama, Australia — but Portugal represents to me classical family values. People don’t come here to work, they come to live

Barrocal’s original designer and co-owner, José António Uva, who, along with his architect wife Ana Anahory runs Estúdio Lisboa, has spent the past decade applying for permits, choosing lots and designing the houses that will be built, like the resort, from local materials; all of the houses, due for completion across the next seven years, have already been sold at an average price of €400,000 per plot (most plots are about 7,000 sq m, with house construction costs averaging at around €1.2mn).

Uva describes the design as being “born among stones and trees, and like them, simple, stripped, and vernacular in their essential forms: from handmade bricks to the use of lime and local stone (granite, limestone and shale), to the inclusion of salvaged tiles, roof terraces, deep recesses and big chimneys.” His inspiration, he shares, is the utopian Sea Ranch community in northern California, built by a group of architects overseen by Lawrence Halprin in the 1960s. 

“Portugal has become the new California,” says Claus Sendlinger, founder of Design Hotels, who, in 2019, moved from Ibiza to Portugal with his two boys. In the past 10 years or so, the country has attracted a mix of tech entrepreneurs and creative dreamers who are drawn to “the golden light, the laid-back beach lifestyle and the mild climate”, he says. Pair that, he says, with the fact that Portugal still has large swaths of abandoned agricultural land, and you have fertile ground for experimental developments. 

He should know. Sendlinger’s latest enterprise Slowness is very much focused on community-based projects, from the Flussbad campus in Berlin to the upcoming Casa Noble hotel and cultural salon in Lisbon that will act as a meeting house for a farm estate they are trying to develop on the Arrábida Peninsula. Trying, he says, because, “When you come to Portugal to build something, patience is key.” But he believes that ultimately that is a positive thing because it encourages more thoughtful, sustainable development. 

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In the semi-abandoned agricultural village of Barrosinha, part of the municipality of Alcácer do Sal, the foundations for a similar ideological development are being laid.

A little over a decade ago, former corporate financier Mircea Anghel, who was living in Lisbon, went searching for a woodworker to learn how to build a tiny house. “I didn’t really know what I was doing. I only knew that I needed to find a new way for my life, that in some ways I was searching for freedom,” he recalls. 

He found a boat builder in Barrosinha, and worked with him in his free time. “I was so inspired by the people I met making things with their hands, so it became harder and harder to return to my computer.” He eventually gave up finance for furniture design and, six years ago, moved his studio from Lisbon to an old sawmill in Barrosinha.

Those old people are the biggest hipsters I had ever met, with their seasonal and local eating, how they conserve things and deal with waste and how ultimately ecological they were

“During Covid I moved my family into a neighbouring farmhouse,” Anghel says, adding that he was inspired by the elderly workers who remained in the village even after it went bankrupt in 2009. “They were all over 80. It’s kind of like a Blue Zone,” he laughs. “Those old people are actually the biggest hipsters I had ever met in my life, with their seasonal and local eating habits, how they conserve things and deal with their waste and how ultimately ecological they were.”

Soon after moving to Barrosinha, Anghel met Lionel Jadot. The Belgian designer has spent the past decade building Zaventem Ateliers, an old paper factory transformed into workshops now inhabited by a collective of artisans. Together, the two designers recognised the potential of reviving this agricultural village of almost 5,000 acres with a community of skilled craftspeople and artists. “I thought it could be a Zaventem 2.0,” he says.

In the summer of 2023, they, along with their third partner, the real estate developer and investor Edouard Fernandez, secured a 10-year operating agreement to develop part of the property; renovating several of the main industrial buildings, and regenerating the land, bringing back the vineyards (this past December they sold their first 1,000 bottles at a fundraising event in Brussels). They also opened a café and restaurant and built several workshops; their first artists — Lisa Egio and Elliot Kervyn — the artist duo behind Frizbee Ceramics moved in last autumn.

Currently they are in the middle of bringing on a stable of investors to help fund the next steps. Phase two, which will begin once the next round of investment is completed, involves bringing in innovative architects and landscape architects, such as Bas Smets, to redesign and regenerate the land and build sustainable homes “in harmony with the land and nature”, says Jadot. 

“We are spearheading a different kind of business model,” says Pierre Rousseau, former head of global markets for BNP Paribas Asia Pacific, and one of Barrosinha’s early investors. “Most people want a return immediately and they don’t grow their business right and their assets collapse. But when you do things right — by creating value over a long period of time — you create resilience and ultimately, end up more profitable.”

Fernandez, who helped master plan the Diagonal Mar community project in Barcelona, which transformed a depressed industrial area into a vibrant hub, says that while there are quite a few visionaries currently working on what he dubs “place-making regenerative developments” around the globe, Portugal is most interesting to him and others because in the past several decades it hasn’t been developed as much as other Mediterranean countries. And because it has “an ideal climate for hospitality-related projects focused on nature-based solutions, a great underlying culture of warmth and acceptance and, in the past 10 years, an influx of residents from abroad and tourists who are looking to be more in touch with nature”.

Like the Herdade No Tempo development, Barrosinha’s master plan is designed with nature and regenerative land management at its centre, but it also prioritises arts and crafts. Its founders believe that they can grow a model of a community that repairs and resets our current value systems. “The issue with our current western society is that we are paying money for things that are essentially bad for us and not paying for things that are good for us — nature, fresh air, biodiversity, social impact — and because the value of those things is not measurable, we end up not being able to protect them,” says Anghel.

“For me the essence of creativity is to impact the world around you, making situations and spaces more fun and liveable, to inspire people to dream,” says Elliot Kervyn. “Artists do this all the time but are rarely given credit. Here at Barrosinha we have a chance to be the main actors, to show the value of artists and makers beyond what we make.”

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In HBO’s “White Lotus,” shady Greg Hunt (Jon Gries) plotted successfully to kill his rich heiress wife, Tanya McQuoid (Jennifer Coolidge). But Gries, 67, and two-time Emmy winner Coolidge, 63, won’t let a dark storyline end their real-life friendship.

Gries and Coolidge are BFFs. He promises.

“We’re always in touch with each other,” Gries tells USA TODAY, offering the best, only-in-Hollywood proof that involves “Saturday Night Live” original player Garrett Morris: “We just spent Christmas together. We went over to Garrett Morris’ house. It was an amazing day.”

Walton Goggins on ‘White Lotus’ Ep. 3 Why he was really terrified of snakes, but why Rick freed his ‘spirit animal’

How are Jon Gries and Jennifer Coolidge connected to Garrett Morris

What’s the connection between Gries, Coolidge and Morris, 88? Gries played scatterbrained producer Shawn McDermott on TV’s “Martin” from 1992-94, when Morris played Martin’s (Martin Lawrence) first boss Stan Winters. And Coolidge starred as Polish businesswoman Sophie on “2 Broke Girls,” in which Morris co-starred as Earl, the Williamsburg Diner cashier.

“So we all go way back,” says Gries. “We picked up a box of donuts and went to Garrett’s house with coffee in the morning. We just sat around and laughed. It was an incredible Christmas.”

Onscreen, the relationship between Greg and Tanya started after they met in Hawaii, the setting of the first season in 2021. Tanya fell to her death in a yacht disaster off the coast of Italy in Season 2, among a gang with suspicious links to Greg, her new hubby. In the current third season (Sundays, 9 ET/PT), Greg calls himself Gary and lives a billionaire life in Thailand. However, White Lotus Hawaii therapist Belinda (Natasha Rothwell), who was supposed to go into business with Tanya, is visiting Thailand and has spotted Greg/Gary.

Coolidge wants to see Greg/Gary punished on the show, telling Forbes, “I hope he gets it!”

The last time I visited Shigeru Ban’s office, it was on top of the Pompidou Centre. The Japanese architect had just won a competition to build a new Pompidou Centre, in Metz, but didn’t have the money to rent a studio in Paris. So he did a deal, marking out a little real estate overlooking the city’s zinc rooftops from amid the huge trusses and tubes of the original Pompidou.

It looked oddly at home there, although it was made not of steel and glass but of cardboard tubes and paper, like a model of an aeroplane fuselage knocked up by talented students using wrapping paper rolls, glue and cheap timber. It was one of the most thrilling architect’s offices I have ever seen, and certainly in one of the best spots.

This time when I visit, the offices are in a rather more conventionally Parisian building at the back of a courtyard. Most of the interior is still made of cardboard tubes, though, including the shelves behind Ban, which are packed with models and books, including Taschen’s huge blockbuster Shigeru Ban: Complete Works 1985-Today (almost an architectural component itself). We talk in a garret studio, the rain beating down outside.

In September, Ban won the Praemium Imperiale, one of culture’s biggest prizes, sponsored by Japan’s imperial family on behalf of the Japan Art Association. Previous architecture awardees have included Zaha Hadid, David Chipperfield, Frank Gehry, Norman Foster and Tadao Ando.

Ban is in esteemed company, then, yet he is a curious kind of success. Despite global acclaim, he remains remarkably unstarry, a little shy and impeccably modest. He carries out much of his work not in cultural quarters and upmarket urban neighbourhoods, but in the mud and misery of refugee camps and disaster zones.

How, I wonder, looking at the shelves behind him, did he alight on those cardboard tubes as his wonder material? “It was initially because I hated to waste anything,” he says, almost sheepishly. “We did drawings on tracing paper and it came in huge rolls and I didn’t want to throw the cardboard tubes away. The same with the tubes for the fax paper. And then we were commissioned to do this exhibition on Alvar Aalto [the Finnish architect and designer] and we couldn’t afford to use wood. We found the cardboard tubes worked fine. One critic called me an ‘accidental environmentalist’.”

I was disappointed because what we do is we serve power and money. I wanted to use my profession for the general public

From those beginnings as a hoarder — his word — Ban moved to ever larger structures, from expo pavilions (notably the undulating Japanese Pavilion at Hanover in 2000) to a “Cardboard Cathedral”, created for Christchurch in New Zealand in the wake of the devastating earthquake in 2011. It is one of the most remarkable, uplifting and joyful churches I have seen, one that takes an almost childlike pleasure in its chunky tubes, elemental, building-blocks form and translucent surfaces.

More impressive still is the emergency housing that Ban has been designing and building in the world’s disaster zones since the mid-1990s, also using cardboard tubes. How did the humanitarian work that now occupies so much of his time begin? “I’d come back to Japan from studying in the US in 1984 and started my own practice with no experience,” he says. “After 10 years, I had a little more freedom to think about what I was doing, what architecture is, and I was disappointed because what we do is we serve power and money. I wanted to use my profession for the general public.”

Ban first designed emergency housing for Rwanda in 1995, following the civil war and genocide against the Tutsi, using a series of simple paper-tube structures covered by standard UN plastic sheeting. It looked like a rigid tent. He gradually refined the designs, working in the wake of the Kobe earthquake back home in Japan in 1995 and another in north-west Turkey in 2000. “Earthquakes don’t kill people,” he tells me, as an aside, “buildings kill people when they collapse; architects are responsible for that too”.  

Paper, you might think, is a profoundly impermanent material, but Ban proudly points out that one of the “Paper Log Houses” he erected in Gujarat after the 2001 earthquake (made of paper tubes, bamboo, plywood and rubble) is still being used 23 years later, as a health centre.

In parallel, Ban was building a name for himself as an adventurous, often eccentric architect of some of the era’s most remarkable buildings. His Curtain Wall House (Itabashi, 1995), for instance, saw him play with ephemerality, as solid walls were replaced by curtains and rooms made to theatrically open up to the elements, while the Wall-less House (Nagano, 1997) took the idea even further with disappearing sliding walls, so that the interior appears defined only by a roof. 

Slowly, there came higher-profile international commissions. A Nomadic Museum (2005) on Manhattan’s Pier 57 was made of shipping containers, tarpaulins and cardboard tubes, and designed to be easily reassembled in other cities around the world. The rather lumpy Pompidou-Metz (2010) coincided with radical designs in cardboard for everything from schools to bridges, luxury villas, condos and pop-up pavilions for fashion brands including Hermès.

Currently on Ban’s drawing board is a tower for Tirana, Albania; a continuation of the huge Liangzhu Museum in Hangzhou, China, and a small cabin for victims of the recent floods in Pakistan. “There is also a hospital I’m designing for Lviv [Ukraine]. Their existing hospital is operating over capacity. I started working with the mayor designing emergency housing and it led to this.”

When, incidentally, Ban says “I’m designing . . .”, he is not being arrogant, denigrating the others in his office. His colleagues tell me he designs every last detail of every building. And draws them, too. “Oh yes, we still do hand drawings,” he says. “Technology does not make architecture better. The computer is a tool to save time, but as architects we should be spending more time on architecture, not less.” 

After our meeting I chat to one of Ban’s colleagues at the Paris office. When I ask how they manage to fund the disaster relief work, which, I suggest, must be incredibly time-consuming, a slightly pained expression crosses his face. “Mr Ban is really not that interested in money,” he says, which means, I think, that maintaining the balance is difficult.

The computer is a tool to save time, but as architects we should be spending more time on architecture, not less

Ban’s true enthusiasms clearly reside with the displaced. But when I raised the difficulty of reconciling these parallel careers with Ban himself, he said: “We are experimenting in both. We have to always try new things, otherwise we will never learn anything. For me there is no difference between the emergency work and the other projects . . . except whether I’m being paid or not.” 

Forty years or so ago, a label emerged for a particular type of architect who drew with visionary flair, but whose buildings were deemed too fantastical to build, or were never conceived for the world beyond the page: “paper architects”. Ban has completely subverted the label. He draws on paper, he builds with paper and from that cheap, sustainable material he has fabricated an oeuvre that is useful and beautiful; physically present and yet still, somehow, fantastical.

‘Shigeru Ban: Complete Works 1985-Today’ is published by Taschen

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