AP California News

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer Barbie, the doll, may be 64 years old, but “Barbie,” the movie, is a pandemic baby. Greta Gerwig, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker behind “Little Women” and “Lady Bird,” started dreaming it up at a time when she wasn’t sure movies would ever come back. “I wanted to channel something that

By AMANCAI BIRABEN Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Award-winning director Sally Potter has challenged British society throughout her 50-year career, in films like “Orlando,” “The Party,” and “Ginger and Rosa.” Now, at 73, Potter’s creative resolve forges on with her first studio album, “Pink Bikini.” The LP, self-released Friday, is a semi-autobiographical collection of

By ANDREW DALTON AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Some of the nation’s top movie stars could be on the picket lines Friday when striking screen actors protest alongside writers on the first full day of a walkout that has become Hollywood’s biggest labor fight in decades. The picketing comes a day after the

By BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Kevin Spacey denied that grabbing men by the crotch was his “trademark” pickup move as he became testy under questioning Friday by the prosecutor at his sexual assault trial in a London courtroom. In a heated exchange that required intervention by the judge, Spacey was asked about

By TY O’NEIL Associated Press DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — As uninviting as it sounds, Death Valley National Park beckons. Even as the already extreme temperatures are forecast to climb even higher, potentially topping records amid a major U.S. heat wave, tourists are arriving at this infamous desert landscape on the California-Nevada border.

By ANDREW DALTON AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hollywood actors are joining screenwriters in the first dual strike from the two unions in more than six decades, with huge consequences for the film and television industry. Here is a look at how it has played out, why it’s happening, and what could come

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN AP Business Writer China’s fast fashion retailer Shein is facing a lawsuit that claims the clothing maker’s copyright infringement is so aggressive, it amounts to racketeering. The filing this week claims that Shein is in violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, better known as RICO, a law originally crafted

By KRYSTA FAURIA Associated Press SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) — Robert Downey Jr. said he came away from Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” thinking about how important context is to understand significant moments in history. The film tells the story of the controversial theoretical physicist, J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), who oversaw the development of the first

By MIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Disney is asking a Florida judge on Friday to toss out a lawsuit against the company’s efforts to neutralize a takeover of Disney World’s governing district by Gov. Ron DeSantis and his appointees. The hearing scheduled for an hour in state court in Orlando involves one

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Wildlife officials were trying to capture a wayward sea otter Thursday that has been wresting surfboards away from surfers and aggressively approaching kayakers off the coast of Santa Cruz, California. The 5-year-old female otter has shown aggression toward people for several weeks and poses a

By STEFANIE DAZIO and LARRY FENN Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Slain at the hands of strangers or gunned down by loved ones. Massacred in small towns, in big cities, inside their own homes or outside in broad daylight. This year’s unrelenting bloodshed across the U.S. has led to the grimmest of milestones: The