The ex-wife of German actor and comedian Christian Ulmen has filed a criminal complaint accusing the Berlin Blues star of creating and decimating fake sex videos and nude photos of her online.
Collien Fernandes, a well-known German actress and TV presenter, made her allegations public in an Instagram post on Friday, detailing what she alleges was a decade of systematic “humiliation” by Ulmen.
She accuses Ulmen of creating AI-generated photos and videos of her that he spread online and sent to other men in the German film and TV industry. One fake video, which she claims was sent to 21 men, depicted her being gang-raped. Ulmen, Fernandes alleges, also used AI to clone her voice for the purpose of fake telephone sex chats with other men.
Ulmen, through his lawyer, had denied all charges.
In an in-depth investigation, published in German newsmagazine Der Spiegel, Fernandes alleges that her ex-husband created fake social media profiles in her name and used them to contact men to send them pornographic photos and videos.
A media law firm, commissioned by Ulmen, has called the Spiegel report “unlawful for several reasons” and that it disseminated “untrue facts” based on a “one-sided account.”
Fernandes had been aware of the spread of the digital fakes for years. In 2024 she hosted a TV program, “The Hunt for the Perpetrator” which tried to find the people behind her fake social media profiles. Last year, she claims, she discovered her husband was behind it all.
Fernandes and Ulmen married in 2012. They separated last year and announced their divorce earlier this month. They have a daughter.
The criminal complaint, filed in Spain, where the couple have a second residence, accuses Ulmen of, among other things, alleged identity theft, violation of business or private secrets, and public insult.
Fernandes and Ulmen were one of Germany‘s best-known celebrity couples. Ulmen has been a household name in Germany for decades, first as a MTV VJ, then as a comedian and actor on hit series including Jerks and crime procedural Tatort, and in films, including Berlin Blues (2003), and Maria, ihm schmeckt’s nicht! (2009). Fernandes is a prominent TV presenter and actress who has appeared in such German comedies as Night of the Living Dorks (2004) and Ossi’s Eleven (2007).
In response to the allegations, German commercial network Pro7 pulled all episodes of Ulmen’s Jerks from its online platform Joyn. Public broadcaster ARD not yet removed Ulmen’s Tatort episodes from its on-demand service.
To quote RM, “I need the whole stadium to jump. Put your phone down, let’s get all the fun.” Or the maybe not the whole stadium, but the whole gathered crowd at Seoul landmark Gwanghwamun, which has been outfitted for the grand return of the groundbreaking K-pop group, BTS.
Fresh off the release of their fifth studio album, Arirang, the seven members of BTS — RM, Jin, Suga, J-hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook — kicked off their first group live performance in over three years, BTS The Comeback Live | Arirang, Saturday night in Seoul. The concert special, which was broadcast live around the world on Netflix, had been highly anticipated.
Starting with a sweeping shot of Seoul’s Joseon-era Gyeongbokgung Palace, the live stream kicked off eventually revealed the seven men of BTS standing in front of the palace. “Hello, Seoul,” the group’s leader RM told the crowd. “We’re back.”
The show kicked right into “Body to Body,” which ended with a group of performers in traditional Korean hanbok, playing the Korean folk song “Arirang.” They then jumped into new songs “Hooligan” and “2.0.” BTS then introduced themselves to the gathered crowd. “We are finally here, and we are seeing you again,” Jimin, 30, told the crowd. “The fact that I’m speaking here, I am so moved.”
BTS continued through the show playing some non-Arirang hits like “Butter” and “MIC Drop” before singing “Aliens,” “FYA,” their new single “Swim,” “Like Animals” and “Normal.”
“BTS 2.0 is just getting started,” J-hope, 32, told the crowd after singing “Normal.” His group member Jin, the eldest at 33, added, “Thank you for waiting, ARMY.”
The K-pop superstars closed out the night with their smash hit “Dynamite” and the fan favorite “소우주” — known as “Mikrokosmos” in English. The melodic track had the crowd energized and swaying along with the pop group.
‘BTS The Comeback Live | Arirang’ in Seoul.
BigHit Music/Netflix
While the entire group performed, RM, was said limited in his participation due to an ankle injury he suffered during rehearsals for the show, the band’s label BigHit Music announced Friday. The label said RM suffered a serious-sounding ankle injury while practicing with his bandmates on Thursday. The rapper, however, was mobile throughout the show despite his injury, using a stool at the front of the stage as his home base for the performance.
“Although there will be limitations to his performance, RM will participate on stage to the extent possible and hopes to connect with ARMY and the audience,” a statement released Friday read. “As many have waited a long time for this performance, he will do his utmost to deliver his best.”
The live stream, unsurprisingly, let the viewers at home hear the men of Bangtan Sonyeondan crystal clear, however, the in-person quality was also notably crisp. The sound at the square was truly impressive, their voices booming and echoing throughout the square.
Arirang, the group’s first album in nearly four years, served as the official return to the global stage for the boy group, who spent their years away releasing solo music and completing their mandatory military service in their home country of South Korea. Fans of the group, collectively known as ARMY, have been waiting in anticipation as each member was discharged over the last year.
BTS, a trailblazer in the globalization of K-pop, has seemingly taken over their home city of Seoul to celebrate their return. The choice to stage the first performance of the album in front of Gwanghwamun, the main gate and historic entryway to Seoul’s Gyeongbokgung Palace, is no coincidence — the album is a reflection on the group’s identity. The palace was lit up with a dynamic video projection, integrating it into the stage show; the first time that’s ever been done.
The album’s name, Arirang, pays tribute the folk song of the same name, which is the first Korean song recorded by Korean men with American ethnologist Alice Fletcher in the U.S. in 1896. Motifs from “Arirang” can be heard in the first track of the album, “Body to Body.” One of the most striking tracks on the album is “No. 29,” a minute-and-38-second recording of resonant tolling of the Divine Bell of King Seongdeok, which has been designated as South Korea’s National Treasure No. 29. Arirang sends a clear message — BTS is proud of their roots. They are, and always will be, a Korean band, even if their audience has expanded to the entire world.
No pop concert has previously been held in Gwanghwamun Square, because of the site’s deep historical and political significance. Netflix and Hybe raffled off 22,000 tickets for a cordoned seating area surrounding the stage, but the streamer and label were expecting at least 260,000 people to pour into the square and its surrounding streets. After the show ended, the production was extremely cautious about getting the crowd out of the area, releasing attendees in stages to lessen any overcrowding or chaos. It was still, however, quite backed up leaving the concert area.
‘BTS The Comeback Live | Arirang’ in Seoul.
BigHit Music/Netflix
BTS The Comeback Live | Arirang marks the first-ever live stream of a standalone concert for Netflix. The production is using a jaw dropping 23 camera setup to capture the live experience for fans around the world. “It was very clear from the start that this opportunity was one we could not pass up,” Netflix’s vice president of nonfiction sports and series Brandon Riegg told press at a briefing ahead of the show.
“We view these live events as an opportunity to reach fans and members around the world in a way that is becoming increasingly tough to find: singular events that really pull people together,” Reigg continued, noting it “just doesn’t get any bigger than BTS” when speaking about the live stream. “I would venture to guess this might be the biggest thing this year that we see on Netflix in terms of our live ambition.”
Saturday’s live stream concert is being directed by live television performance pro Hamish Hamilton, known for directing several Super Bowl halftime shows, including this year’s with another global icon, Bad Bunny. “BTS is the greatest band in the world, so it’s a huge honor to be asked to direct this live show in such an iconic location,” Hamilton told press at the briefing.
“Every decision we have made in terms of camera approach, stage design and production has been built around one question: how do we make the person watching at home feel like they are standing in that square?” Hamilton said. “There are big sweeping moments that convey the full scale of what is happening in Seoul, and then there are moments of real intimacy where you are right there with the band. The millions watching around the world are every bit as much a part of this night as the people on the ground in Seoul.”
With the whole arena-style gig taking place in a busy public square, staging the concert was more like a military takeover than a typical arena show, suggested Jonathan Mussman, the streamer’s vice president of production for nonfiction and live programming.
“When you do this in a stadium, you can completely control the environment and you can take your time setting up,” Mussman said during a press walkthrough of the venue the day before the gig. “We’re really pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the live concert broadcast world.”
Whereas a typical arena rock show — like Harry Styles’ recent Netflix concert — requires a few hundred crew, Netflix and Hybe employed over 1,000 local and international production pros — not including security — to pull off Saturday night’s show.
“It really takes an army of production veterans — plus BTS ARMY, of course — to make this happen,” Mussman added.
BTS will make perform for the first time in U.S. in nearly four years this coming week. The group is slated to perform at a Spotify event Monday and the members will make their return to U.S. television later in the week, appearing on two nights of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
This story will be updated throughout the performance. More details to come.
Catch up with the Hellmouth’s most beloved residents.
Sarah Michelle Gellar in ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’
20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection
In the mid-‘90s, a new channel found magic by connecting with the then-current generation of teens, Gen Y (for the youngins out there, that’s what they used to call millennials). The WB, which later became The CW, captured the emerging teenagers’ experience of coming of age at the close of the 20th century. Or at least, it provided a glossed-up version of high school: fashions rivaling Clueless’ Cher, evenings spent at under-18 clubs frequented by a parade of on-the-cusp punk and rock bands and the struggles faced by teens growing up in a single-parent home.
Among this new genre of shows The WB launched is the perennially beloved Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which ran for seven seasons from 1997 to 2003. The series centered on the trials of Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar), a cheerleader turned superhero who’s the only thing standing between the California suburb of Sunnydale and the apocalypse. Together with Willow and Xander (Alyson Hannigan and Nicholas Brendon) and the rest of her friends — affectionately called the Scooby Gang — each week Buffy balanced the totally relatable challenges of passing history exams while staking (or dating) the undead, all with her trademark irreverent sass and witty repartee.
Much like its heroine, the show wasn’t afraid to take a big swing, with peak episodes including the musical “Once More With Feeling” and the innovative, nearly dialogue-free “Hush.” But despite its cultural impact, Buffy has a complicated legacy that can’t be ignored, with several of the stars speaking out in the #MeToo era against the behavior of the show’s creator, Joss Whedon (who has denied all allegations).
That said, whether you’re Team Angel or Team Spike, get ready to find out what Sunnydale’s most beloved residents — and the ones you loved to hate — have been up to since the series wrapped.
Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy
Image Credit: 20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection; Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
In the pilot, Buffy is the new girl at Sunnydale High after having been expelled from her school in Los Angeles for burning the gym down. What no one knows, however, is that there’s a perfectly good explanation: The place was filled with vampires, and as her generation’s chosen Slayer, she was simply doing her job. Throughout the series, Buffy is faced with similar dilemmas as she tries to juggle the demands of school and a normal teenage social life with her night job.
Gellar — who got her first acting credit at age 5 and was a regular for two seasons on the daytime soap All My Children before taking on her most iconic role — made time for several films during Buffy’s run, including I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), where she starred alongside Jennifer Love Hewitt and now-husband Freddie Prinze Jr. She then played against type in 1999’s Cruel Intentions, and played into Buffy’s “Scooby Gang” reference as Daphne (with Prinze as Fred) in 2002’s live-action Scooby-Doo and its 2004 sequel.
After Buffy, Gellar took a step back from acting — apart from appearances in the Grudge horror franchise and short-lived CW series Ringer — to raise her two children and focus on other enterprises. Among them were her cooking and lifestyle company Foodstirs, which she founded in 2015 and ran until the COVID-19 pandemic fatally disrupted the company’s supply chain. She recently made her return to episodic television, this time in a mentorship role both onscreen and off in Paramount+’s Wolf Pack, where she played Kristin Ramsey for one season. “I hope that I’ve set up an infrastructure, a safety net for these [younger] actors that I didn’t have,” she told THR of the show. “My generation just didn’t have that.”
Alyson Hannigan as Willow
Image Credit: Richard Cartwright/20th Century Fox Film Corp/Courtesy Everett Collection; Amy Sussman/Getty Images
Of all the characters on Buffy, Hannigan’s Willow takes perhaps the most surprising turns in her character development. Introduced as an almost childish, awkward teenager with a fondness for overalls, Willow sees her confidence grow across the seasons as she has a crush on her longtime best friend, Xander (Nicholas Brendon); has a romance with musician-slash-werewolf Oz (Seth Green); and finally falls in love with soulmate Tara (Amber Benson). Along the way, she becomes an increasingly powerful witch, eventually turning to the dark arts in the throes of grief and rage before fighting her way back to reality to deal with her addiction to magic.
American Pie alum Hannigan hardly took a break from network television after the Buffy finale, starring as Lily in the hit sitcom How I Met Your Mother from 2005-14, alongside Josh Radnor, Jason Segel, Cobie Smulders and Neil Patrick Harris. From 2016-23, she leveraged her good-natured personality as the host of magic showcase Penn & Teller: Fool Us, and she joined the fall 2023 season of Dancing With the Stars. She has been married since 2003 to Alexis Denisof (aka Buffy’s Wesley Wyndam-Pryce), with whom she has two daughters.
The wisecracking sidekick of his supernaturally powerful friends, Xander is perhaps the most underestimated member of the Scooby Gang. His heart is always in the right place, though, and he comes through for his friends — and the world — time and time again. Later, he finds his true love, in the form of erstwhile vengeance demon Anya (Emma Caulfield Ford).
Once a serious baseball player before being sidelined by an injury, Brendon had his big break when he was cast on Buffy. After the show, he had recurring parts on such shows as Criminal Minds and Private Practice, and starred alongside Bradley Cooper on the short-lived Fox series Kitchen Confidential, based on Anthony Bourdain’s memoir.
In the years that followed, though, he seemed to struggle. Brendon walked off the set of Dr. Phil in 2015, after revealing he hadn’t received therapy after being molested as a child and that he had been battling depression and substance abuse. He also faced health problems that required spinal surgery as well as at least two cardiac events and a diagnosis of tachycardia, a congenital heart defect.
Image Credit: 20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection; PA Images/Getty Images
Another character who has more to him than meets the eye, Rupert Giles is Sunnydale High’s British librarian, with a secret identity as the Slayer’s Watcher. Hailing from an ancient organization that mentors each generation’s Chosen One, Giles has an encyclopedic knowledge of the world’s vampires and demons, and spell books to cover anything that ever walked the streets of the Hellmouth.
Head scaled back his involvement in the show during season six, returning to his native England to spend more time with his family, particularly a young daughter. In the following years, he dabbled in the Doctor Who universe (including in 2007’s animated Doctor Who: The Infinite Quest) and seemed to quite enjoy playing a darker character as the dictatorial King Uther on Syfy’s Merlin, the Arthurian fantasy series that ran from 2008-12. He also popped up in the 2013 film Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters as the Centaur Chiron, and on such series as Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan on Amazon, Netflix miniseries The Stranger and even an episode of Bridgerton. And recently, he played another (quite different) Rupert, this time in a three-year stint as Ted Lasso’s cheating, conniving Rupert Mannion, ex-husband of AFC Richmond owner Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham).
David Boreanaz as Angel
Image Credit: 20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection; Paras Griffin/Getty Images
Angel could be described a lot of ways: tall, dark, handsome, mysterious, brooding, Buffy’s soulmate … and a cursed monster. A vampire pushing 300 years old who looks killer in a leather jacket, Angel knows right away that he should stay away from the Slayer, and yet he can’t. The star-crossed love story leads him to hell and back, literally, and when he loses his soul, it creates an almost insurmountable challenge for Buffy.
After three seasons, Angel leaves his true love and Sunnydale behind for Los Angeles, where he becomes something of a supernatural P.I. in his eponymous spinoff, which ran for five seasons. Since then, Boreanaz has stayed exceptionally busy, making about 350 episodes of television across two other popular series in which he’s starred, namely Bones (2005-17), where he played FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth opposite Emily Deschanel’s title character, and SEAL Team (2017-22), as Navy SEAL team leader Jason Hayes.
James Marsters as Spike
Image Credit: 20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection; lya S. Savenok/Getty Images
A bad-boy vampire who’s a perpetual thorn in Buffy’s side (even when they hook up), Spike makes being undead look like a lot of fun. Sired by Angel back in his evil days, Spike traveled the world for centuries, causing mayhem with Drusilla and Darla, before settling down in the Hellmouth.
Diehard fans of Spike might not be surprised to find out that Marsters is neither a natural blond nor English (the Juilliard-trained actor was born in Plumas County, California). Apart from Buffy, he also popped up frequently on Angel, and in the following years appeared over a dozen times on The WB’s Smallville as the alien Brainiac and Brainiac 5. Marsters’ other TV work includes voicing Zamasu on the anime series Dragon Ball Super and in related video games. In 2018, he was in the two-part indie dramedy A Bread Factory, which snagged a rare 100 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. And from 2017-19, he played Chase Stein’s father Victor on Hulu’s Marvel series Runaways, about a group of teens who find out their parents are supervillains. On the side, Marsters is a musician who’s released albums both solo and as a member of the rock band Ghost of the Robot.
Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia
Image Credit: 20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection; Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images
Carpenter, who played Sunnydale High queen bee Cordelia, segued to the Angel spinoff after graduation, where she starred as Angel’s “girl Friday” for most of the series’ run. She later recurred on fellow WB series Charmed and Kristen Bell-starring Veronica Mars, and played Rebecca Sewell on ABC’s The Lying Game. Carpenter made it to the big screen in The Expendables (2010) and its 2012 sequel, as Lacy, the girlfriend of Jason Statham’s Lee Christmas, and has had guest spots on procedurals like CSI, Blue Bloods and Chicago P.D.
In the #MeToo era, Carpenter went public with an accusation of years of “hostile and toxic” treatment by Buffy creator Joss Whedon, including during her pregnancy, adding that he “unceremoniously fired” her from Angel after she gave birth (her character died while in a coma). Many fellow castmembers voiced their support of Carpenter, including Michelle Trachtenberg, who said Whedon wasn’t allowed to be alone in a room with her.
Dushku played Faith, a rebellious and unmoored Slayer who’s introduced when Buffy briefly dies. After leaving the series, the actress — who was already known for True Lies (1994), Bring It On (2000) and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) — starred in the two-season Fox supernatural drama Tru Calling, as well as the horror film Wrong Turn (2003) and R-rated comedy Sex and Breakfast (2007). She played a California wine country bar owner in 2008’s Bottle Shock, alongside Chris Pine, Alan Rickman and Bill Pullman, and starred opposite Cary Elwes in The Alphabet Killer (2008). She followed that up with a starring turn in another Whedon series, Dollhouse (which ran for two seasons on Fox from 2009-10), as a trained killer whose memory is erased between each assignment.
In 2018, Dushku was awarded $9.5 million in a legal settlement after claiming Bull star Michael Weatherly sexually harassed her on the set of the show, on which she had a recurring role.
When Trachtenberg was introduced as Buffy’s kid sister, Dawn, in season five — with no immediate explanation for where this as-yet-unheard-of character came from — the actress was already known for her starring turns in kids fare like Harriet the Spy (1996) and Inspector Gadget (1999). Eventually, it became clear that Dawn was more than just a girl: She was a mystical “key,” and the fate of the world hinged on keeping her safe.
After Buffy, Trachtenberg starred in a string of films including EuroTrip (2004), Ice Princess (2005), Black Christmas (2006) and 17 Again (2009). On TV, she notably played the manipulative socialite Georgina Sparks on Gossip Girl; had recurring parts on Six Feet Under, Love Bites and Weeds; and starred in Mercy, an NBC medical drama that lasted only one season in 2009. In 2014, she co-starred in R-rated The Scribbler, then in 2018 voice-starred in extraterrestrial animated series Human Kind Of, and in 2022 returned to Gossip Girl in a guest spot on the show’s reboot.
Green, who previously had a bit part as a vampire in the Buffy movie, joined the series as Oz in the season two episode “Inca Mummy Girl.” A guitarist in the band Dingoes Ate My Baby, which frequents The Bronze, Oz soon finds out that he’s a werewolf, but that doesn’t stop his budding romance with Willow. After departing the series in season four, the Austin Powers actor played Lyle, aka “the Napster,” in the 2003 remake of The Italian Job. Among his numerous later roles, he starred in Fox’s Dads, which ran for one season in 2013, and voiced Howard the Duck in the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise. Most notably, though, Green co-created and starred in Adult Swim’s long-running stop-motion sketch comedy Robot Chicken (2001-22).
After playing Anya, a vengeance demon who loses her powers and becomes human again, one of Caulfield’s next roles was a guest spot on Monk, as a writing teacher who tries to gaslight Monk’s assistant Sharona in order to get away with murder. In 2010, she joined The CW’s short-lived Life Unexpected, as well as Gigantic, a TeenNick series created by fellow Buffy alum Marti Noxon. Also around that time, the actress also known for Beverly Hills, 90210 co-created and starred in Bandwagon: The Series, a satire in which she played a version of herself. More recently, she appeared in Marvel’s WandaVision as Dottie, a role she reprised in 2024’s Agatha All Along. Caufield married actor Mark Leslie Ford in 2017, and together they have a daughter. In 2022, she announced that she had been fighting MS for about a decade.
Benson’s Tara is a soft-spoken but powerful good witch, whose death sets girlfriend Willow on a tumultuous journey of grief. After leaving the show, Benson produced, directed and starred in films including Chance (2002) and Lovers, Liars & Lunatics (2006). She also played a vegetarian vampire in two episodes of Supernatural. Outside of acting, she has collaborated with Christopher Golden to produce multiple Ghosts of Albion projects and write several novels. Benson and Golden also co-wrote the 2023 Audible original series Slayers: A Buffyverse Story, in which Carpenter’s Cordelia is the Slayer, joined by other castmembers including Marsters, Caulfield Ford and Head.
Kristine Sutherland as Joyce
Image Credit: Richard Cartwright/UPN/Courtesy Everett Collection; Mat Hayward/Getty Images
Sutherland (born Kristine Young) was perhaps best known for her part as the neighbor Mae in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989) before taking on the mantle of Buffy Summers’ mom. She has acted sporadically since departing the show with a heartbreaking un-Hellmouth-related death, in such projects as the 2008 miniseries Comanche Moon and most recently the 2020 dramedy Before/During/After (in which her longtime husband, John Pankow, also starred). In recent years, she has reportedly focused her efforts on other interests including photography.
As Jonathan, a nerd who turned a little evil when he’d been pushed too far, Strong was a relatively small player in the Buffy universe. But that was nowhere near his career peak. He later joined Gilmore Girls as Doyle McMaster, a romantic interest of Paris, but it was in writing that Strong really hit his stride. He’s been nominated for six Primetime Emmys, winning two in 2012 for his work writing HBO’s Game Change, about Sarah Palin’s impact on John McCain’s presidential campaign. He then co-wrote The Butler (2013) and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 and 2 (2014 and 2015), co-created Fox’s Empire and created Hulu’s Dopesick. He’s still acting, too, including on Billions (2017-23) as Todd Krakow.
Feb. 26, 2025, 12:39 p.m.: This story was updated with the death of Michelle Trachtenberg. (It was originally published in 2023.)
March 20, 2026, 5:44 p.m.: This story was updated with the death of Nicholas Brendon.
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[This story contains mild spoilers from the Neighbors finale.]
A few days ago, 72-year-old Danny Smiechowski left his house to greet his chauffeur. There was a limousine parked outside, waiting for him. For much of his life, Smiechowski had been an outcast in his San Diego neighborhood, insulted and ostracized for his penchant for wearing nothing but yellow briefs while exercising in his driveway. He describes the treatment as “emotional abuse.” But here he was a local celebrity, the star of a hot HBO/A24 series getting picked up for a splashy finale event in Hollywood.
“The neighbors were looking out their window, going, ‘Oh my God, that guy,’” Smiechowski says over coffee (well, he just drinks water) in West Hollywood, acting out their disbelief. “You can’t really believe it could be true, but it’s true.” He’s wearing an A24 sweatshirt as Harrison Fishman and Dylan Redford, the creators of the show, Neighbors, sit on either side of him. They crack up at the story. “Amazing,” Fishman says. “They must be like, ‘What’s going on?!’”
Each of the six episodes in the first season of Neighbors, billed as a late-night documentary series,depicts random but intense disputes within local communities across the country. Filmed in an immerse, chaotic style that recalls the work of executive producers Josh Safdie, Ronald Bronstein and Eli Bush (Marty Supreme), the installments intercut between multiple feuds at a time — except for the finale, which is both supersized and focused exclusively on Smiechowski. It follows him from his initial unhappy state in California to the Florida nudist community he decides to move into. He winds up back in San Diego, though, after realizing that home is home, for better or worse — a fitting final note for a series dedicated to the brutally funny daily indignities that, for many of us, come with simply coexisting with others.
“The best revenge is success, so that’s the nail in the coffin with [my neighbors] — and now they ignore me,” Smiechowski says. “There’s this French guy who was horrible to me during my [mayoral] campaign. He betrayed me with money, he told me that I was a crook. And now, he called me a couple days ago and left a message. He goes, ‘Wow, congratulations. Can I go to LA with you?’ Like, oh my God — what are these people thinking?”
It’s the result Smiechowski had hoped for when he first responded to a Craigslist ad put out by Neighborscasting director, Harleigh Shaw, several years ago. “I just wanted to do it to get the word out,” he says. After an initial conversation, he didn’t hear anything for more than a year and grew incredibly frustrated — so he blocked the phone numbers of almost everyone associated with the show. Fortunately, producer Rachel Walden was not one of them, and she got in touch with him when they were ready to officially bring him in.
HBO
“We had come across a couple disputes in nudist communities…and Harleigh had the idea of, ‘Would Danny be interested in living in a place like this?’” Fishman says. Redford adds, “He had considered moving at various points, so it felt like a natural experiment that Danny was interested in doing and wanted to try.”
They spent a month together all told, with dozens of hours of footage left on the cutting-room floor. What we do see in Neighbors is an awfully compelling character study, though. We meet Smiechowski in San Diego as locals call him out in front of the cameras for showing so much skin, and he’s baffled by their criticisms. “I do it to be happy, I do it because I feel good inside — I feel younger,” Smiechowski says now of why he prefers not to wear much clothing. “What’s so ironic about this is that for the people who were abusing me — and are abusing me — this is almost impossible for them to believe.” (Smiechowski says that since filming the show and returning home, his situation is “about 90% better.”)
Once he gets to the Florida nudist community, called Eden, Smiechowski is taken aback by the feeling of liberation. He meets a welcoming group of people. He lets loose at karaoke. He falls hard for a much younger woman who shows, at least initially, a glancing interest in him. In other words, it’s a rather naked — pun sort of intended — presentation of Smiechowski, and a seemingly vulnerable one. He didn’t see it that way.
“I just threw caution to the wind — if they say jump, I say how high, and that’s what we did,” he says. He committed to the nature of doc production: “I would repeat something literally 20 times until I got it right, and then I would go, ‘Well, let’s do it again’ — because I had that Iron Man in me.” He believes this all speaks to his unique constitution: “Dr. Michael Dean was known all over the world as a hypnotist in San Diego. He tried to crack me. He couldn’t do it, and he became frustrated because he was hypnotizing everybody in the room. I was the only one. So I’m one of the few people in the world who cannot be hypnotized.”
After filming concluded, Smiechowski started taking drama classes and has been attending consistently in the run-up to the episode’s airing. “People are going to call me a freak, but they don’t understand…. Even my drama teacher said to me, ‘Danny, I’m really sorry for you. You’re going to take a lot of abuse,’” he says. “I said, ‘George, don’t even worry about it, man. Water off the duck’s back. Just forget about it.’” Fishman turns to his subject with a smile and says, “It’s rare to find somebody who is so truly themself. You’re, like, aggressively yourself.”
HBO
Fishman and Redford grew increasingly interested in nudist communities the more they learned about them. “Once we got in there, we saw that a lot of these communities were actually functioning much at a much higher and more forgiving level than many of the neighborhoods that we had been to throughout the country,” Redford says. “Everyone there really wanted these communities to work. They didn’t want to lose it. They didn’t want the infighting or whatever conflict existed within there to get to a point where they would lose this place that they love so much.”
Fishman adds, “People were so happy there. It was insane.” This is very clear in what Neighbors shows. “There’ll be a minority that will, what’s the word to use, gravitate or become interested,” Smiechowski says. He is less confident it will lead to significant changes in perception.
“For most people, it’s too socially dangerous. They would be embarrassed. Most people couldn’t do it,” he says. Does he still consider himself a part of the nudist community while living outside it? “Kind of an existential question,” he replies. “My behavior, where I live, is somewhat related to that community.”
Neighbors has been officially renewed for a second season, and while it seems obvious Smiechowski would be up for another round — perhaps for the best that it’s unlikely, since he’s at relative peace on his block now — Fishman and Redford see a ton of runway for where they can go next.
“There’s so many subjects and places that we didn’t get to explore in season one for a bunch of different reasons, so we’re just so excited to get back and see what’s out there,” Fishman says. “The more we’re painting this portrait of America, in a way, and the more that we add to it, the more exciting it gets.”
The first season of Neighbors is now streaming in its entirety on HBO Max. Read THR‘s in-depth feature on making the series.
The stage is being set for the 13th annual Platino Awards Xcaret, a ceremony that honors the best of Ibero-American film and TV.
Leading the film nominations with 11 each are Dolores Fonzi’s Belén (Argentina) and Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s Los Domingos (Spain), followed by Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent(Brazil) and Oliver Laxe’s Sirât (Spain) with eight and seven, respectively. On the TV side, Bruno Stagnaro’s The Eternaut (Argentina) leads the nominees with 13 noms followed by the Rafael Cobos, Fran Araujo and Alberto Rodriguez-created series The Anatomy of a Moment (Spain) with 12.
For a fourth time in its 13-year history, the Platino Awards will take place inside the Gran Tlachco Theater at Xcaret Park in Riviera Maya on May 9. Xcaret, a luxury enclave home to hotels, restaurants, experiences and adventure in the heart of the resort town, welcomes the awards back after a year away in the event’s other home base of Madrid, Spain. The show will be broadcast across the Americas. Nominations were unveiled today at the Telemundo Center in Miami.
“This year, we return to Mexico, a beloved country that has shared so many adventures and successful initiatives with these awards. After 13 years, having the honor and responsibility of recognizing the best in Spanish and Portuguese-language film and television is a challenge we gladly embrace with commitment, year after year,” said Enrique Cerezo, who serves as executive president of the Platino Awards and president of EGEDA. “The privilege of bringing together all the talent from the world’s largest region in a joyful, diverse, enriching, and festive gathering is also a reward for everyone who makes up the great Platino family.”
Competing for best film are It’s Still Night in Caracas (Venezuela), Belén (Argentina), Los Domingos (Spain), The Secret Agent (Brazil) and Sirât (Spain). Nominated in the best miniseries or TV series category are Anatomy of a Moment (Spain), Chespirito: Unintentionally (Mexico), The Eternaut (Argentina), and The Dead Women (Mexico). Best long-form series nominees are Fatal Beauty (Brazil), The Promise (Spain), Dreams of Freedom (Spain), and Velvet: The New Empire (United States).
Vying for best director are Alauda Ruiz de Azúa (Los Domingos), Dolores Fonzi (Belén), Kleber Mendonça Filho (The Secret Agent), and Oliver Laxe (Sirât). Best documentary film award nominees include Apocalypse in the Tropics (Brazil), Under the Flags, The Sun (Paraguay/Argentina), Flores para Antonio (Spain) and Afternoons of Solitude (Albert Serra, Spain).
Nominated for best actor on the film side are Alberto San Juan (The Dinner), Guillermo Francella (Homo Argentum), Ubeimar Ríos Gómez (A Poet), and Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent). Singled out as best actress are Blanca Soroa and Patricia López Arnaiz (Los Domingos), Dolores Fonzi (Belén), and Natalia Reyes (One Night in Caracas).
Álvaro Morte (Anatomy of a Moment), Javier Cámara (Jakarta), Leonardo Sbaraglia (Menem) and Ricardo Darín (The Eternaut) heard their names mentioned for best male performance in a miniseries or TV series, while Candela Peña (Fury), Carla Quílez (Jakarta), Griselda Siciliani (Envious) and Paulina Gaitán (The Dead Women) got nominated on the female side in the same category.
Best supporting actor nominees include Álvaro Cervantes (Deaf), Edgar Ramírez (One Night in Caracas), Juan Minujín (Los Domingos) and Rodrigo Santoro (The Blue Trail), while best supporting actress nominees are Camila Pláate and Julieta Cardinali (Belén), Dira Paes (Manas) and Nagore Aranburu (Los Domingos).
The 13th edition of the Platino Awards Xcaret is presented with support from Quintana Roo, Riviera Maya and Grupo Xcaret. Additional support comes from UN Tourism, the Ibero-American Film Academies and Institutes, WAWA and ICAA with sponsors AIE, Hertz, CREA SGR, L’Oréal, Mrs Greenfilm, Telemundo, Universo, TNT and HBO Max.
Lindsay cut her two co-hosts off to share the news, admitting she had “chills.” She also explained that she thought the season was “over” after the video was released.
“I think it’s over. I was trying to think of a scenario where it could be different. Because this isn’t just, ‘Oh, we put it all on a person. This person did this.’ This is the system that allowed this to happen,” she said. “The name Bachelorette, Bachelor is tainted at this point. How do you move forward past that? You can’t.”
ABC yanked Paul’s Bachelorette season on Thursday after a 2023 video of Paul engaging in a domestic dispute with her on-again, off-again boyfriend Dakota Mortensen was posted by TMZ. “In light of the newly released video just surfaced today, we have made the decision to not move forward with the new season of The Bachelorette at this time, and our focus is on supporting the family,” a Disney Entertainment Television spokesperson said in a statement.
Before the TMZ video, it was confirmed Monday that production on season five of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives was paused amid a separate domestic incident involving Paul and Mortensen. A spokesperson for the Draper City Police Department told People there is an open “domestic assault investigation” between Paul and Mortensen. They added that “allegations have been made in both directions” and “contact was made with involved parties on [Feb.] 24th and 25th.”
As of Friday, filming on season five of Mormon Wives is still paused until production’s investigation into the February incident between Paul and Mortensen, which is separate from the law enforcement investigation, concludes, which is expected to be by the end of next week, a source close to the situation told The Hollywood Reporter.
The Bachelorette season 13 star noted that there was prior backlash to Paul being named the next franchise lead, and that while “there was excitement, there was going to be a new audience, the traditional Bachelor viewers were already upset by this decision.” Lindsay pointed out that that hesitancy, combined with the ongoing controversy, may lead viewers to lose trust in the franchise as a whole.
“So how do you trust this name — Bachelor, Bachelorette — that has meant something to people, moving forward? You don’t,” Lindsay explained. “You already questioned it when you moved Taylor Frankie Paul over [from Mormon Wives.] Now it is completely destroyed. Like, why did you guys think this was okay? That’s the question that needs to be answered. We’re never gonna get that from Taylor at this point.”
“There’s no way under any brand, but particularly Disney, that you can proceed when this video comes out,” she explained earlier in the podcast, adding that she was originally keen on Paul’s casting. “It makes me go back to, there was a lot of outrage when she was cast, and I have to get onto myself for this. When she was cast, I was invigorated by it.”
“We know that the typical Bachelorette, and I’m assuming they did this for her, goes through an STD background test, a psychological test and a criminal background test,” Lindsay added. “This is where I say I take blame. If you had asked me prior to this to explain, even though we saw episode one of season one that this domestic violence dispute happened, we didn’t see what we saw today that was released by TMZ, but we knew it happened. I didn’t do more research.”
On Friday, an NBC News report revealed that Paul’s Mormon Wives co-stars had a 30-minute Zoom call with three Disney executives including Rob Mills, executive vp unscripted and alternative entertainment at Walt Disney Television, on March 7. There, they voiced concern about the alleged incident that took place in February between Paul and Mortensen.
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Disney: Winnie the Pooh: The Hundred-Acre Wood Cookbook
Pre-order here. Written by James Asmus, Liz Tarpy and Vivian Jao,
The official cookbook is filled to the brim with honey-forward recipes — both sweet and savory, plus tips, trivia, full-color photos and character illustrations. Looking for a healthier meal? There’s a special selection of extra-fresh recipes inspired by Rabbit’s garden. Other featured characters include Eeyore, Kanga, Roo, Tigger, Rabbit, Piglet and Owl. The 176-page hardcover book was created in partnership with best-selling book publisher and pop culture collectible manufacturer Insight Editions.
See below for additional standouts from Winnie the Pooh’s 100th anniversary collection, and check out the full selection, while supplies last, at Amazon and disneystore.com.
Thoughtfully Winnie-the Pooh Tea Collection Gift Set
60 count.
This set of 60 premium tea bags includes Lemon Honey, Honey Hibiscus, Jasmine, English Breakfast, Mint and Chamomile, each containing a nostalgic quote on the packaging.
Lego Disney Winnie The Pooh Building Set
1,399 pieces.
Created for adults ages 18 and up, this highly-detailed 1,399-piece Lego set includes tons of hidden details: multiple poses for Pooh, a bee-covered “Hunny” pot that opens up to reveal two rooms with Winnie the Pooh and Eeyore minifigures, plus surprises behind Pooh Bear’s t-shirt and inside the top of his head.
Funko Pop! Disney Winnie The Pooh: Pooh with Balloon
Approximately 3.75 inches tall.
Finally, with an official release date of Sept. 22, Disney’s Winnie the Pooh 100 Mindful Moments: Finding Balance in the Everyday is currently available to pre-order on Amazon for $22.99. Each day, for 100 days, the book includes mindfulness-centered prompts, activities and recipes, along with illustrations of Pooh and his friends.
Disney Winnie the Pooh 100 Mindful Moments: Finding Balance in the Everyday
By Nancy Parent (Author), Gonzalo Kenny (Illustrator) and Mike Wall (Illustrator).
Check out more limited-edition anniversary merchandise at Amazon and disneystore.com.
Seven-time Oscar nominee Richard Burton continues to have an intriguing afterlife, four decades following his death. At this year’s BAFTA awards, a movie about his early life, Mr. Burton, earned a nomination for best British Film. Mr. Burton, directed by Marc Evans, was also one of the audience favorite films at January’s Palm Springs International Film Festival. It opens in theaters this week and, aided by a strong cast, should appeal even to audiences who have fuzzy recollections of the once notorious actor.
The film begins with a quotation from Elizabeth Taylor (who married Burton twice after a scandalous, heavily publicized affair that began during the shooting of Cleopatra in 1962). In it, Taylor states that Richard never would have found fame and fortune without the efforts of his adoptive father, Philip Burton (superbly played by Toby Jones in the film). Richard (Harry Lawtey of Industry) was actually born Richard Jenkins, the son of a Welsh miner who abandoned the family after the death of Richard’s mother. Richard was then raised by his older sister and her husband, but his talent was spotted by his teacher, Philip Burton, who recognized the young man’s appreciation of literature and drama.
Mr. Burton
The Bottom Line
An incisive origin story.
Release date: Friday, March 20
2 hours 4 minutes
Philip Burton was himself an aspiring writer who penned some dramas for the BBC and had a number of contacts in the theater. But the film suggests that he felt disappointed by his progress and may have compensated in part by playing a mentorship role to Richard. Whether he also felt a physical attraction to young Richard is treated subtly and never definitively answered in the film.
Opening scenes contrast the comfortable but modest living conditions of Philip, who resides in a boarding house owned and overseen by a sympathetic landlady (trenchantly played by Lesley Manville), and the tension in Richard’s household. His brother-in-law demands that Richard drop out of school to contribute to the family finances; the boy resists following his father into the mines but gets a job at a clothing store instead.
Eventually Burton comes up with the idea that Richard can move into the boarding house and return to school, but this may require Burton adopting Richard as his son. Richard is comfortable with this arrangement, and Philip suggests that Richard may have an opportunity for a fellowship to study acting at Oxford. But when Richard’s father and fellow students suggest that Philip may have something more than a paternal interest in the handsome young aspiring actor, Richard flees in terror.
It is to the film’s credit that it refuses to come to any definitive conclusion about Philip’s interest in Richard. There was never anything overtly untoward about their close bond, and until the end of his life, Richard continued to express gratitude for Philip Burton’s mentorship. Yet it may be significant that we never see any hint of Philip’s romantic or sexual interest in women. Richard did leave Burton’s household for several years, but when he had his breakthrough role in Stratford in 1951, portraying Prince Hal in Shakespeare’s Henry IV plays, Philip returned and (at least in this telling) helped Richard to a triumphant opening night.
Richard Burton quickly moved on from there. He earned his first Oscar nomination in 1952 for My Cousin Rachel, and in 1954, he starred in the first Cinemascope epic, The Robe. (Other memorable roles included Becket and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, his finest collaboration with Taylor.) Burton also continued acting in theater, and the 1964 production of Hamlet, in which he starred under the direction of John Gielgud, remains perhaps the most phenomenally successful production of the play in modern theatrical history.
Since unknown backstories behind startling successes always compel, Mr. Burton has a lot going for it. Lawtey doesn’t quite match Burton’s thrilling vocal delivery (who could?), but he convinces us of the young actor’s talent and potential instability. But it is really Jones, in one of the finest performances of his long career, who holds our attention throughout the movie. The subject of mentorship is not treated frequently onscreen, but Mr. Burton may be remembered as one of the definitive explorations of the theme. All the technical credits help to ground the film — cinematography by Stuart Biddlecombe is especially striking — but it is the performances that truly mesmerize.
Money, power, art, fraud allegations and a business partnership, maybe even a friendship, gone awry make for an explosive cocktail in The Oligarch and the Art Dealer. The story that has all sorts of Shakespearean flavors is a drama, but not a play. What may sound like a James Bond film isn’t served up shaken or stirred. And yes, it has elements of Succession but isn’t a fictional series. It is a three-episode documentary series. All three hours are screening at the ongoing CPH:DOX, the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, after the first episode was shown at Sundance. And it makes the series the only one featured at the fest, which has been very selective about the shows it features in its lineup.
Created by producer Christoph Jörg and director Andreas Dalsgaard, who co-wrote the series with Kevin Lincoln and previously collaborated on the feature The Lost Leonardo, the series tells the story of one of the 21st century’s most sensational art scandals that turned into a 10-year war over billions. The CPH:DOX website highlights its “cast of colorful characters that one could hardly invent even in the wildest imagination.”
The protagonists move in a secretive world of the super-rich that is typically shielded from the public’s view. The Russian oligarch is Dmitry Rybolovlev. The Swiss art dealer is Yves Bouvier.
Initially a discreet adviser, Bouvier becomes “a global power broker and manager of Rybolovlev’s investments in one of the world’s most closed and enigmatic markets,” highlights a synopsis. Said market is “the part of the art world where the sums are staggering and the value of artworks is something agreed upon by a narrow elite of connoisseurs and ultra-rich tycoons.”
But eventually, the gloves come off. “When the friendship between Bouvier and Rybolovlev suddenly explodes, a web of lies is revealed,” reads the synopsis. “The question is: who is really in the right?”
Miriam Norgaard is also a producer on The Oligarch and the Art Dealer, with co-producers Ines Bensalem, Philippe Coeytaux, Lea Fels, Lucy Sexton and Isidoor Roebers. The series is produced by Dalsgaard’s Elk Film and Jörg’s Vestigo Films in co-production with Scenery, Akka Films and Words + Pictures.
On the sidelines of the 23rd edition of CPH:DOX, which runs through Sunday, the two creators tell THR that they are happy to leave it to viewers to make up their minds, but wanted to invite them to take a peek behind the curtains of a world that most of us will never experience.
“We wanted to understand how this secretive world that these two people live in works,” Jörg tells THR. ”They had the same goal. But then what always happens in this kind of relationship is that greed shows up, ego shows up, human behavior shows up, and then things go wrong and explode.”
‘The Oligarch and the Art Dealer’
Courtesy of Elk Film
Dalsgaard highlights the Hollywood feel of the whole affair. “What partly drew me to this is that we are in a universe that resembles what we see in series like Succession or Billions,” he tells THR. “It’s almost like a James Bond universe, or Tenet. We see that stuff in fiction, but we never see it in a documentary. That’s because it’s so secretive and it’s so hard to get access. No one in this world wants to talk, because that makes you vulnerable, and only because these two guys went to war and fought it out in courts all over the world, we as a public can access what actually went on inside.”
Indeed, the team behind The Oligarch and the Art Dealer had thousands of documents to explore, including emails.
Dalsgaard compares the impact of the materials to “the shock that’s happening right now around the world with the release of the Epstein files,” explaining: “Suddenly we get an insight into all these networks and all the ways that these people are dealing with each other and using each other.”
One of the many insights of the series is on private auctions, “where an auction house puts these billionaires together, and then they are sitting there and fighting over a Klimt or whatever,” explains Jörg.
The series also shows a freeport in Geneva that has been called the largest art museum that you will never get into. “If you remember the end shot in Indiana Jones, where The Ark of the Covenant is put in a box and moved into this endless storage space, that’s pretty much what a freeport is,” explains Dalsgaard.
Given all the intrigue and power players involved, the duo behind the series emphasizes how much careful work, fact-checking and legal reviews the work on the project involved.
‘The Oligarch and the Art Dealer’
Courtesy of Elk Film
With all the makings of a Hollywood drama, who will show The Oligarch and the Art Dealer in the U.S.? The creators tell THR that no deal is in place – yet.
Asked about the series’ clear global appeal, Jörg offers: “It has some of those [ingredients] that also make Shakespeare universal. He wrote stories about kings and dukes and princes, and oftentimes they end up getting in trouble due to the faults that they have as human beings – their greed, their ego, their jealousy. And that ends up eating them from the inside. I think we see something very similar in this story.”
Concludes Dalsgaard: “This story is, of course, about art. But it’s really a story about how money and power wield their influence in the world, which is a timely [theme]. And art plays a big role in that. What I’m personally really fascinated by here is what makes this unique: There’s almost no other situation where we’ve ever had this kind of insight into the circles of money and power.”
The local TV giant Nexstar closed its $6.2 billion takeover of rival Tegna on Thursday, creating a TV station behemoth after the Department of Justice and FCC signed off on the mega-deal.
“This transaction is essential to sustaining strong local journalism in the communities we serve,” Nexstar founder and CEO Perry Sook said in a statement. “By bringing these two outstanding companies together, Nexstar will be a stronger, more dynamic enterprise — better positioned to deliver exceptional journalism and local programming with enhanced assets, capabilities, and talent. We are grateful to President Trump, Chairman Carr, and the DOJ for recognizing the dynamic forces shaping the media landscape and enabling this transaction to move forward.”
The deal is being challenged by eight states, led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, and had been opposed by a variety of companies and groups: From DirecTV and Newsmax to the Communications Workers of America.
Still, with federal approval, the deal was allowed to close, and now Nexstar will be able to take advantage of the combined scale.
Under federal law, the TV station ownership cap is limited to 39 percent of homes per company. The combined company will now reach roughly 80 percent of American homes, by owning 265 TV stations across 44 states and Washington, D.C.
“The FCC has been focused on empowering broadcast TV stations to serve their local communities, consistent with their public interest obligations,” FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in a statement. “Today’s agency decision does exactly that as both the record and Nexstar’s enforceable commitments demonstrate.
“For too long, the FCC stood by while newspapers closed by the dozen in communities all across the country,” he added. “Those trusted sources of local news and information shuttered while the FCC dithered. If you care about local news, you should care about the future of local broadcast TV stations. Often, they are the ones in a market doing the gumshoe reporting that citizens value and need. By approving this transaction, which allows Nexstar to own less than 15% of television stations, the FCC acts mindful of the media marketplace that exits today—not the one from decades past—and the agency ensures that these broadcasters have the resources to continue investing in their local news operations.”
