Tag: Entertainment-Variety

In a significant reversal, Kaouther Ben Hania’s Oscar-nominated feature “The Voice of Hind Rajab” has been cleared by India’s Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) that had blocked the politically sensitive film’s release in March.

After weeks of controversy in India over its initial censorship of the film – which tells the real story of a 5-year-old Palestinian girl who was trapped inside a car attacked by Israeli forces in Gaza and later found dead – the CBFC has now granted “The Voice of Hind Rajab” a so-called ‘A’ certificate, meaning the film has been cleared for theatrical release without any cuts, according to Mumbai-based Jai Viratra Entertainment.

Winning this censorship battle means “The Voice of Hind Rajab” will now get a theatrical release via Jai Viratra across India on June 19.

In March, Jai Viratra chief Manoj Nandwana told Variety that he had submitted “The Voice of Hind Rajab” for censorship approval in February, intending to release the film in India on March 6. But at the time the film was not been cleared for release with Nadawana being told by a CBFC member that “if it gets released it would break up the India-Israel relationship,” Nadawana said.

The CBFC’s alleged initial reluctance to clear “The Voice of Hind Rajab” came after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi traveled to Israel in late February, where he received a warm welcome, marking the first visit by an Indian premier in the 25 years since the two countries established full diplomatic relations. The visit, which aimed to strengthen economic and technological ties between the two countries, underscored a shift in Israel-India relations under Modi, whose embrace of Israel marks a departure from India’s foreign policy that has historically supported the Palestinians.

“I told them: the India-Israel relationship is so strong that it’s idiotic to think this movie will break it,” Nadawana told Variety in March, noting that “The Voice of Hind Rajab” has been released “in the U.S., U.K., Italy, France and many other countries that have a relationship with Israel.”

“We would like to begin by expressing our sincere gratitude to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), India, for granting certification without any cut to Voice of Hind Rajab and enabling Indian audiences to engage with this important cinematic work,” Jai Viratra Entertainment said in a statement on Tuesday.

“At Jai Viratra Entertainment Limited, we firmly believe that cinema serves as a powerful medium for storytelling, dialogue, and understanding diverse human experiences. We appreciate the thoughtful consideration extended by the CBFC in evaluating the film and facilitating its release in India,” it added.

“We would also like to extend our heartfelt thanks to members of the media fraternity, industry colleagues, filmmakers, artists, and well-wishers who supported our efforts throughout this process. Your encouragement, advocacy, and belief in the importance of meaningful cinema played a significant role in helping this film reach Indian audiences,” the statement continued.

In September, “The Voice of Hind Rajab” elicited more than 20 minutes of thunderous applause when it world premiered at the Venice Film Festival and then went on to win the fest’s Silver Lion. The film has been released in the U.S. by Willa, the production partner’s distribution arm, after other U.S. distributors passed.

Karen Bass and Spencer Pratt led in early returns in the race for Los Angeles mayor on Tuesday night, with Councilwoman Nithya Raman running in third. However, it could still take days to determine which two candidates will face each other in November.

Speaking to supporters at her election party just after 9 p.m., Bass said it was “looking good so far,” and predicted that she would declare victory within a couple of hours.

“Tomorrow begins the second half of this journey,” Bass said. “You stood with me on the first half. Will you stand with me all the way?”

Pratt appeared at an election night party at a Mexican restaurant in West L.A., but the media was not allowed inside.

Bass was leading in the initial returns, with about 36.6% of the vote. Pratt was in second with 29.8%, while Raman held 20.5%.

“This is a very good night for Karen Bass,” said Conan Nolan, the NBC4 anchor, predicting that Bass would get her preferred matchup against Pratt in the runoff.

Raman told her supporters at an election night party that she had presented an uplifting vision for the city during her brief campaign.

“We believe that Angelenos were hungry for that vision — and we were right,” she said. “Here’s the reality. That vision threatens some very powerful forces. They came at us with everything they had.”

She said she had faced opposition from “City Hall insiders” as well as corporations and landlords.

Bass, first elected in 2022, has faced a difficult test as she tries to win a second term. Pratt, the Republican former star of MTV’s “The Hills,” galvanized anger over homelessness and the Palisades fire — which claimed his house — to build an improbably strong challenge to Bass’ leadership.

Bass has also taken fire from her left flank, as both Raman and socialist candidate Rae Huang argued it is time for fresh leadership.

Bass has touted a 17.5% decline in street homelessness as she runs for a second term, and relied heavily on labor support to fund her reelection bid. Among other unions, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and the Hollywood Teamsters are supporting her campaign.

Bass’ opponents accused her of not acting fast enough to try to stem the outflow of Hollywood jobs, while Bass touted her record of reducing permit fees and cutting red tape.

Raman, meanwhile, had financial support from many industry figures, including Tina Fey, Mike Schur, Cord Jefferson, Mindy Kaling and Colin Jost.

Pratt struck a chord with conservatives who are fed up with the Democratic Party’s control of California and the city, appearing in the final days of his campaign on Fox News, among other outlets. He has also been featured and endorsed by The California Post, a local offshoot of the Murdoch-owned New York Post.

All three candidates have called for an unlimited state tax incentive for film production, though the mayor has little influence over the state budget.

Xavier Becerra and Steve Hilton are leading the race for California governor in early returns, as they seek to advance to a November runoff, while Tom Steyer trailed in third place.

It may take days before the top two finishers in the primary are known.

Becerra, a former health secretary in the Biden administration, had led in several of the most recent polls, but Hilton, a Republican Fox News contributor, could also take the top spot. Steyer, a hedge fund billionaire, has hoped to benefit from Democrats voting strategically to prevent a Republican from making it to the runoff.

Speaking to supporters in San Francisco, Steyer urged them to sit tight as the votes are counted.

“We’ve done the hard work; we did it together,” he said. “Now we just have to be patient.”

With just over half of the state’s precincts reporting partial returns, Hilton led with 26.6% of the vote, while Becerra held 25.9%. Steyer was at 19.7%.

Each of the leading contenders has promised to enhance the California film and TV tax credit if elected, though only Hilton has pledged to eliminate the $750 million cap on the program. Last month, Becerra said he would gather industry stakeholders early in his term for an entertainment summit.

Steyer, a longtime ally of the labor movement, won the endorsement of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, the largest film union in the state.

Trailing the leading contenders were Matt Mahan, the mayor of San Jose, and Katie Porter, a former member of Congress from Orange County.

In a departure from previous elections, Democratic voters appeared to be holding onto their ballots until the final days as they waited to make up their minds.

California can take up to 30 days to certify its election results, as counties verify signatures and tabulate late-arriving mail ballots. Ballots must be postmarked by election day in order to count.

Scott Pelley said he no longer recognizes “60 Minutes” in the months following the takeover of CBS News by Paramount Skydance, and accused the executive set in charge of the news division of “incompetence and unprofessionalism” that have “wreaked havoc” for months.

Pelley, in his first statement since CBS News announced his termination Tuesday evening, said Paramount Skydance “is casting this legend aside” as it weakens the newsmagazine “apparently to curry favor with the Trump administration.”

A CBS News spokesman did not respond immediately to a query seeking comment.

CBS News terminated the “60 Minutes” veteran after the journalist and executives felt they could not find a way to work together following a heated public argument Monday between Pelley and Nick Bilton, the former tech journalist installed last week by editorial chief Bari Weiss, who also dispatched the show’s most senior producers as well as correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega. Pelley is the fourth “60 Minutes” reporter to leave the venerable newsmagazine since February, leaving just a trio — Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim — to handle assignments as the show prepares to get stories ready for its 59th season in the fall.

“Last month, 60 Minutes lost its DNA when our entire senior leadership and two of our best on-air correspondents were cruelly fired without cause. Good people were silenced because they stood up for our audience. They stood for fairness against the forces of political bias; they stood for professionalism against chaos,” Pelley said.

“For my part, new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story. I’ve been told to include assertions that are unverified. To date, in every case, I have managed to ignore these instructions or refuse them. Recently, politicians have been invited to choose correspondents for interviews on the broadcast. Giving politicians control over 60 Minutes interviews is not how this is done,” he added. “Finally, incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management have wreaked havoc. In a case involving one of my stories, the entire program came within 19 minutes of not getting on the air at all.”

Pelley, who has been one of the most public faces at CBS News over a period of decades, anchoring both “CBS Evening News”: for a period and contributing to “60 Minutes,” indicated he hoped the storied news division that once served as home to Walter Cronkite might turn itself around. “I depart after 37 years at CBS with one emotion—a heart brimming with gratitude for the men and women of CBS News who encouraged and enriched my work, very often at the risk of their own lives. I pray for a day when those people and their ideals are honored again—a day when sanity, competence, and courage return.”

Summer is back in session! And with it comes “Love Island USA” Season 8 on Peacock, complete with host Ariana Madix, narrator Iain Stirling and a new set of single islanders looking to find love.

Things officially kick off with the arrival of marketing director and Georgia native Aniya Harvey, who says she’s looking for a husband and expects a ring by the end of the season and fellow Georgian Kenzie Annis, who finished nursing school a day before flying out to Fiji. She says she’s “revirginized because it’s been a year and a half.”

Next up is Melanie Moreno from Philadelphia/Los Angeles, who says she doesn’t use the term girl’s girl — “If you hear that shit, red fucking flag” – which may or may not be in reference to the Season 7 contestants that repeated the line throughout their run.

Rounding out the group of women is Paralympian Beatriz Hatz and Trinity Tatum. Hatz is from San Diego, runs track and field and considers herself competitive, while Tatum, who quit her hardware store job for “Love Island,” jokes that she’s “a personality hire” and is looking for a “golden retriever” type of man.

The sixth female contestant (Vasana Montgomery) was kicked off the show after a video of her singing along to racial slurs surfaced.

Once everyone got acquainted, Madix joined the group and got to the good stuff – why they’re here. Moreno says she hasn’t had much luck in the romantic department but has so much love to give; Tatum joins Harvey in the search for a husband; Annis says she’s “not a roster girl,” (which she does acknowledge is the plot of “Love Island”); Harvey says she dates a lot and won’t settle for less; and Hatz has dealt with men being insecure due to her career.

Bryce Dettloff and Sincere Rhea are the first men to arrive; Rhea does track and field (like Hatz), and is smart enough not to say he could beat a Team USA athlete in a race. Rhea says his parents would call him “a ladies’ man,” and admits to being one: “I would be selfish not to spread the love.” Dettloff, a model based in New York, says he’s “sensitive and emotional” to a chorus of “awws”—and Annis calling him “a simp.” “We’re not saying it’s a bad thing!” she adds.

Next up, Zach Georgiou — Season 7’s Charlie Georgiou’s younger brother–– walks in and introduces himself as a nepo-sibling straight off the bat at Madix’s request. The Birmingham native’s intro is “What Makes You Beautiful,” by the way, since Georgiou “loves One Direction.” In terms of women, he’s looking for a “fun, cool American girl.”

Police officer Sean Reifel (who says he was called “Officer Sexypants” by a civilian and her family) reveals he’s a dad! Papacita? Unlike Season 7’s Huda Mustafa, Reifel is quick to tell the group about his son and the fact that he moved to Pennsylvania to support his child’s mother. Reifel is joined by nursing assistant and Californian KC Chandler, who admits to liking the chase, but “would rather be a lover boy.” He loves his freedom, but would give it up for the right woman, FYI.

Madix crowns them the first 10 islanders of the season, taking them straight into a multiple-choice answer compatibility test where islanders stand behind doors, each marked with answer options. If the door opens to multiple people, contestants must kiss each person on the other side.

Questions range from favorite sex position (with Madix asking the contestants why they each chose said positions); if you’re a dog, cat, or plant person; if it’s okay to check your partner’s phone; and if you’re here to find love – split into no, maybe, and “hell yeah!” – which obviously results in a communal makeout, ensuring everyone has been kissed by every single contestant of the opposite gender.

After the last round, the girls get to pick which boy they want to couple up with. Tatum picks Dettloff, becoming the first couple of the season; Hatz goes for Reifel after the pair kissed in each round of the blind game; no one steps up for Chandler, who is eventually coupled up with Harvey after Rhea chooses Moreno over her; and Annis couples up with Georgiou.

The night doesn’t end there – each pair wanders off to get to know each other, and there’s a lot of talk of the Eagles, Georgiou’s “darker features,” Tatum and Dettloff’s seven-year age gap and country music, which Hatz would “rather acquire another disability” than listen to. Afterward they split into guys vs. girls for a debrief.

Day 2 begins with Tatum saying she’s never had avocado toast before (“Love Island” sacrilege) and Georgiou is unsure “if there’s a vibe” with him and Annis. There was also a makeout sesh for Rhea and Moreno, and Dettloff says he “doesn’t want to steal [Tatum’s] youth” since he’s almost 30 and she’s 22.

Madix appears at night to summon the group to the firepit, where she reveals that each islander will have to decide whether to stay with their partner or start a new connection by standing on the colour-coded green and red dots, respectively, behind yet another set of closed doors.

Before the doors open and reveal the contestants’ choices, two new bombshells enter the villa ready to kiss the contestants on red dots — Gabriel Vasconcelos, who was demoted from OG status to balance out the numbers after Montgomery was booted, ends up leading Tatum and Hatz out of the villa hand-in-hand, while Kayda Reese Bosse picks Georgiou and Dettloff, leaving the rest of the contestants shocked and unsure of what just happened.

And then there were three.

CBS News has terminated “60 Minutes” veteran Scott Pelley after the journalist and executives felt they could not find a way to work together following a heated public argument Monday between Pelley and Nick Bilton, the former tech journalist installed last week by editorial chief Bari Weiss. Pelley is the fourth “60 Minutes” reporter to leave the venerable newsmagazine since February, leaving just a trio — Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim — to handle assignments as the show prepares to get stories ready for its 59th season in the fall.

“Your antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear,” Bilton said in a letter sent to Pelley Tuesday evening and reviewed by Variety. “And I have heard you. I therefore write on behalf of CBS News to inform you that your employment with CBS is terminated effective immediately.”

Pelley could not be reached for immediate comment.

Pelley had lambasted both Bilton and Weiss during a staff meeting Monday, questioning their qualifications to manage a program like “60 Minutes,” which is one of the most respected and most watched news programs in the U.S. And he accused Weiss of “murdering ’60 Minutes.’”

Weiss had indicated last week that she wanted the program “to reach new heights through deep, revelatory journalism that breaks news, exposes wrongdoing, widens public understanding and forces accountability from every institution and every center of power.” Increasingly, however, it is unclear who will be left to accomplish the mission.

CBS News ousted a good chunk of the program’s senior managers last week, including former executive producer Tanya Simon; executive editor Draggan Mihailovich; and correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega. Anderson Cooper, who has contributed to the show for nearly 20 years, announced his exit in February.

In a memo to staff issued Tuesday evening, Bilton tried to assuage staffers. “I know how much Scott meant to you, and I don’t say this lightly. I made repeated attempts to have direct conversations with him over the weekend, and this afternoon I tried to find common ground. That was not the path Scott chose.”

Bilton said he would offer “unyielding support for each of you, the journalism that you do and what we will do together going forward.”

For many, Pelley was in recent years the heart of the newsmagazine. He had turned in segments on breaking political news as well as an emotional profile on former Senator Ben Sasse and a feature on underworld caverns in Vietnam. In 2021, Pelley presented a deeply reported three-part feature on the firefighters who tried to rescue people in the burning World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, culled from tapes of conversations made available by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Indeed, Pelley has won half of all major awards earned by “60 Minutes” during his tenure, which began in 2004.

He has also been known to viewers in other capacities. Pelley anchored “CBS Evening News” between 2011 and 2017. He joined CBS News in 1989, and started his career in journalism as a copy boy at the Lubbock Avalanche Journal in Texas, near his hometown of San Antonio.

“Journalism has nothing whatever to do with popularity. If we all do our jobs right, we’re probably not going to be very popular with a large segment of our audience. Hopefully, that changes day to day and everybody hears something they like eventually,” Pelley told Variety in 2017. “But, journalism has nothing to do with popularity and so therefore, criticism doesn’t bother me too much.”

Whether Bilton will be able to make longtime “60 Minutes” viewers forget about Pelley this fall remains to be seen.

Virginia Woolf herself was not the greatest admirer of her 1919 novel “Night and Day,” a complex and somewhat elusive work that wove a pensive reflection on women’s suffrage through a quasi-Shakespearean rotation of misbegotten and rearranged courtships — in a style far removed from the angular modernism of her later works. It remains perhaps the most underexposed of her books, and though it’s easy to imagine the period romantic comedy that Merchant-Ivory-style filmmakers might have made of it, it’s taken until now for anyone to attempt an adaptation. Though Tina Gharavi‘s film stresses its allegiance to the text with the title “Virginia Woolf’s Night & Day,” it’s actually quite a departure: Playing down the novel’s tangled relationships in favor of a straightforwardly empowering celebration of female agency and education, it trades some of the author’s elegance and nuance for a more crowdpleasing message.

Whether it finds many crowds to please remains to be seen. London-set and broadly accessible, “Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day” was a fitting opener for the second edition of the SXSW London multimedia fest, a few weeks ahead of its U.K. theatrical bow. But given its relatively low-profile source material and a solid cast of known names who nonetheless aren’t major big-screen draws, the film might fare better on streaming platforms internationally. For Iranian-born filmmaker Gharavi, who landed a BAFTA nomination for her punchy 2013 debut feature “I Am Nasrine,” this handsomely dressed and mounted production proves she can handle the demands of British heritage cinema, though it’s a less interesting direction for her.

An American who can seem amorphously international when required in such projects as “Cyrano” and “Widow Clicquot,” Haley Bennett is a vivacious and likable anchor for the film around her. She sports a convincing cut-glass accent as Katherine (or Kit, when the mood takes her), a spirited and intellectually curious young woman in Edwardian London with a particular passion for astronomy — one of many fields of study then barred to women, even relatively well-to-do ones like Katherine. She must disguise herself as a man to attend lectures at the Royal Astronomical Society, while her dreams of continuing her personal research at Cambridge face a patriarchal wall of opposition.

Her stuffy father (Timothy Spall) would prefer she find herself a suitable husband; she eventually accepts the proposal of her childhood friend William (comedian Jack Whitehall, easily adapting his signature posh-bozo persona to the period), a foppish and untalented poet, to get everyone off her back. Her cousin Cyril (Misia Butler), her closest male ally, is aghast at her pragmatism in this regard; in a major change from the novel, where the character unapologetically fathered children out of wedlock, here he’s a marginalized gay man, unwilling to live a lie to cut an easier path through the world. Naturally, no sooner has Katherine entered a loveless engagement than she strikes sparks with Ralph (Elyas M’Barek), a literary editor commissioned by her father to tame the unwieldy manuscript of her would-be writer mother (Jennifer Saunders) — an ostensibly kind but ultimately controlling male gesture.

Though it’s at the core of the novel, Katherine’s relationship with Ralph never comes into focus in Justine Waddell’s adaptation, as every male character bar Cyril is given pointedly short shrift in the film. More screen time is given over to her burgeoning friendship with firebrand suffragette Mary, played by singer Lily Allen in a deliberately anachronistic performance — her forthright speech and manner beamed in directly from the 21st century. The two women bond more closely here than they do in the novel, where their individualist and more community-minded stances were subtly contrasted; the film prefers a more robustly unified representation of female solidarity, driven home by dialogue that comes close to speechifying at several points. (On at least one occasion, when an incensed Katherine gives a sexist university selection panel what for, this streamlined progressive rhetoric is quite satisfying.)

Still, sometimes Bennett’s lively, headstrong performance feels like it’s swimming not just against outdated social currents, but the film’s own staidness. As much as Gharavi tries to energize proceedings with a bobbing handheld camera and an electro-tinged score that, in the closing credits, finally bubbles over into ethereal, Ellie Goulding-style pop, “Virginia Woolf’s Night & Day” can feel talky and stiffly didactic, however sincere in its convictions. Well-meaning but ultimately familiar in both message and delivery, the film speaks much of the bolder future ahead, but the filmmaking does little to disrupt the status quo.

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for Part 2 of the Season 10 “Summer House” reunion, streaming on Peacock as of May 27.

Where will it go from here? That was the first thought running through my mind following the dramatic opening salvo to “Summer House’s” three-part Season 10 reunion. We’d already seen Ciara Miller (with an assist from Lindsay Hubbard) read Westling “West” Wilson” and Amanda Batula for filth over their illicit situationship. But, quite frankly, it does make a little bit of sense for the ex-creative director of a canned cocktail company to be dating a Complex hypebeast whose journalistic claim to fame is interviewing Hawk Tuah on a boat — so it remained to be seen how Bravo’s Andy Cohen and his gang of Hamptons interlopers would entertain us for two more hours.

Please forgive me for ever doubting you, Andy, because Part 2 delivered an embarrassment of reality TV riches, from West’s not-to-secret ex-girlfriend Meija Moreno revealing herself (!) and Kyle Cooke’s infidelity to the politics of interracial dating.

Here are the five biggest moments.

West’s Ex-Girlfriend Meija Speaks

As we learned in Part 1 of the reunion, West had a girlfriend — Meija Moreno —  up until his March 24 appearance on “Watch What Happens Live!” He even shouted her out on the show, wearing one of her horsehair ties. This occurred one week before West and Amanda publicly announced their situationship on Instagram in a mealy-mouthed statement that sounded like it was written by ChatGPT.

Kyle teases the eventual Meija reveal by calling a huddle onstage with Kyle, Ciara, Carl, Ben and Mia during a break in the action, and insinuates that West got with Amanda for publicity purposes. “The thing that I’m most focused on is West’s ease of lying,” he tells the group. “We know that he had a full-blown exclusive relationship since February of 2025. We actually have receipts. I reached out to Meija because the curiosity got the best of me. We went back and forth for a week. Everything I started learning about West made me question who he is. And I was like, Meija, with your permission, I’d like to share these notes with Ciara, because I think the two of you should talk. He knew [Amanda] was gonna have this glow-up — big breakup with ‘the bad guy.’”

Later on, during another break, Ciara has a FaceTime chat with Meija and gives her “a little recap” of what’s transpired during the reunion thus far, prompting Meija to divulge just how serious they were.

“We were literally dating last summer while you guys were filming,” she informs Ciara. “He referred to me as his ‘girlfriend’ all the time, we just weren’t in a public relationship… I literally was at his house every weekend he was filming. We knew we were in an exclusive relationship. I go over there the night before ‘Watch What Happens Live!,’ everything was so fine, he was telling me how much he loves me and everything was just totally fine.”

Meija then explains to Ciara, who’s been joined by Kyle, what West told her about why they couldn’t go public with their relationship: “[West] thinks he’ll get fired from the show if he’s in a relationship with someone who’s not from the Bravosphere.” (Kyle immediately calls BS on this.) “The other reason he would use, too, is if I bring you into this, obviously that’s putting you in a situation where people have eyes on you and they’ll have opinions about you. In hindsight, I’m like, OK, so you were concerned about people maybe pitting me against Ciara if I ever came on the show as your public girlfriend, but you’re very comfortable dumping me and then all of a sudden popping out the next day in a new relationship with Amanda, and I’m just left on my own to figure that out by myself? That’s just so fucking hurtful. I didn’t ask to be thrown in this situation. Our relationship is that easy for him to discredit?!”

Kyle’s Cheating Takes Center Stage

Amanda’s recent carelessness should not excuse the way Kyle treated her throughout their 10-year relationship (and four-year marriage), including the cheating rumors that constantly followed him around. First, Kyle accuses Amanda of “setting the tone” for the summer by jokingly remarking that he got into DJing to spite her after she proposed doing a swimsuit line (which we all saw happen). “The tone was set when you slept at a fan’s apartment,” Amanda fires back. “And I went into the summer frustrated with you.”

When Kyle and Andy press Amanda on why she’s sorta-dating a party boy now after Kyle’s partying was such a problem for her, she exclaims, “I’m single! It’s a different world.” She then adds, “It wasn’t that he was out every night, it was that he would come home blacked out, and there would be rumors about him all the time… I hated going out with Kyle. He would get so drunk, and we’d get in fights.”  

After branding West “a kid” and “the most fraudulent phony I’ve ever met,” Kyle shares that he and Amanda split the very day they put their statement out in January, and that he didn’t even have a chance to warn his entire family before. “You were like, we’ve gotta push to send [the announcement] within the hour,” he says.

“The nail in the coffin was New Year’s Day for me,” Amanda counters, sharing her side. “Kyle and I were bickering. I didn’t go to New Year’s with him. I spent it myself; he spent it DJing at a restaurant. I woke up the next morning, [and] I saw that he was in a hotel at Hoboken. I’m going into 2026 wanting to have a fresh start, and he’s doing the same shit that he was doing that was pissing me off before. So, I waited until everyone was back in the office and I contacted Bravo PR immediately and I said, ‘I’m gonna put out a statement because I don’t want people watching this season thinking that Kyle and I are still together after I was treated this way the whole time.’”

Then, Kyle sorta confesses to cheating on Amanda: “There have been times where I’ve been out and I’ve been inappropriate. I will own it. Did I ever have an affair? No. Did I ever sleep with someone? No. Have I been completely starved and deprived of anything and everything from you? Yeah, and I’ve acted out.”

“He has stepped out of the marriage while we were together,” replies Amanda. “After we were married, there was a time that you were at a party asking a girl if you’d could kiss her and make out with her. She DM’d me on a personal level. That was my point. That was my issue with you going out, was you putting yourself in these positions.”

Amanda says she was sent a video of Kyle making out at the club one night while he was out with Shep and Taylor, which we can assume is Shep Rose and Taylor Ann Green from “Southern Charm.” We also learn that Kyle made out with Salley Carson (also from “Southern Charm”) the night before the “Summer House” premiere because of course they did. And Kyle hilariously argues he was not on his tippy-toes while kissing former “Real Housewives of Orange County” cast member Meghan King after a Page Six party: “My heels never left the ground — analyze the tapes.”

Ciara and Interracial Dating in the Bravosphere

The most thought-provoking moment of the episode concerned the online minefield that is interracial dating in the Bravosphere, a network that features predominantly white casts. And it’s none other than KJ, arguably the most empathetic and sensitive cast member, who broaches the topic while upbraiding West. “My dad was a very womanizing player and my mom had to deal with so much shit, so that’s why I am hurting, West, because I don’t like that shit,” KJ tells West. “I grew up watching that firsthand, and it destroyed my family. My dad is a habitual liar. He lies to everyone, but then he puts on this persona like he’s got everything together and he makes people feel good, so it’s just, like — I’m seeing a correlation.”

KJ adds, “Also, too, the discussion we had over the summer when we talked about race, that was a very serious thing. And I don’t like to see Ciara being treated the way that she’s being treated.”

Earlier in Season 10, in the conversation KJ is citing, Ciara opened up to her castmates about the criticism she’s received online after being repeatedly clowned by white guys (West and Austen Kroll) on “Summer House,” “Winter House” and “Southern Charm.” “I get a lot of blowback that’s very racial, obviously, being in this position,” she said. “I was the first Black person in this house, and then dating white guys publicly, it’s a whole contraption that I don’t think you guys even understand or can even empathize with.”

West issues another one of his empty apologies to KJ and Ciara — wherein his voice de-crescendos to feign sincerity — and Ciara expands on KJ’s piece and why she addressed the topic of interracial dating during the season.

“It’s a whole other part that I have to endure and experience that my other castmates don’t have to. I just hit the point where I was like, I’m not going to sugarcoat things anymore,” she says, adding, “There are a lot of racial dynamics that happen in this group — that’s a part of having interracial relationships, interracial friendships, intercultural relationships and friendships. If I’m having white friends, in this day and age, we’re talking about race. How can we not? Politically speaking, it’s turmoil outside. I actually don’t want to be friends if we’re not talking about the political climate of this world, because there’s a whole other layer that we experience it in, so the conversations are vital.”

Amanda Leaves the Stage and West Doesn’t Go After Her

One of my personal highlights from Part 1 of the reunion was Lindsay berating West by calling him a “toddler.” It was Lindsay at her fiery best, and we got more of that in Part 2.

After Amanda rushes off the stage in tears and decamps to her dressing room, West declines to go after her, sitting around onstage like a deer in headlights. For West, optics and public sentiment are always paramount, so decisions like this tend to leave him catatonic as he ponders all the variables: “What will they think of me if I did X?”

Cue the inimitable Lindsay Hubbard: “Why isn’t her boyfriend going after her?” she wonders, before laying into him, “You should go after your fucking girl! Get up and go after her, West! Be a fucking man!”

“I would go after her to make sure she’s OK,” chimes in Kyle, and then West finally does. We can hear him comforting Amanda on a hot mic and telling her, “If you have to cry onstage, cry onstage.” Again, optics and public sentiment all day, all the time.

A Lindsay and Carl Lovefest

My favorite moment from the “Summer House” Season 10 finale went down in an igloo. There, Lindsay and Carl buried the hatchet, with Carl sincerely apologizing for dumping Lindsay on national television and Lindsay gaining the closure she’d been searching for. That emotional tête-à-tête, as well as Lindsay showing up to support Carl at the opening of Soft Bar, are brought up by Andy during Part 2.

“Yeah, I think deep-down, I know even before we dated, Lindsay was always a champion of wanting me to do well in my career and wanting me to be happy. Her walking in the door that day meant the world to me,” Carl says. “I really appreciate you showing up. It was just cool to have you there, because I care about you and always will. Having her show up for something like that, given everything that’s gone on and my behavior to her and how things unfolded, it just shows who Lindsay is and her character, and it was really cool. So, thank you.”

“Thank you for saying that,” Lindsay responds. “You seem more in your skin —  you seem more confident — and that is such a beautiful thing to see. Knowing you for as long as I’ve known you, I do think that you are finally the person you’re supposed to be and always wanted to be, and that’s a beautiful thing to see.”

Aww.

Carl and Lindsay reunited for a timely Uber Eats ad riffing on the viral Kyle line “Carl’s a mess,” which Lindsay says they did to “bring a lighthearted energy to a seemingly dark situation.” When Andy asks Amanda and West how they feel about their friends “monetizing their situation,” Amanda weighs in: “I would have never done that to them during their breakup, and it did hurt a little bit.”

Enter Ciara: “Please… Please… Please!” she exclaims, adding, “You would never monetize something but you would fuck your friend’s ex? We don’t know where your bar is.”

“Also, we’ve been here for 10 years. I’m sorry, but I can do whatever the fuck I want,” says Lindsay.

“I’ve been here for just as long,” shoots back Amanda.

And then Lindsay, for the win: “OK, well I’m not fucking my friend’s ex.”

Whew. Can’t wait for Part 3.