Guilty Pleasures
By Associated Press
Prince Harry says his crusade against British tabloids has contributed to royal family rift
LONDON | Prince Harry said his crusade against the British tabloids has contributed to his royal family rift, according to a documentary airing Thursday.
In his most extensive comments since he won a major victory last year when a judge found phone hacking was “widespread and habitual” at the U.K.’s Mirror Group Newspapers, the Duke of Sussex told the broadcaster ITV that he wished his family had joined him in his invasion of privacy litigation.
Harry said his ongoing battle with the tabloids in public — becoming the the first senior royal in over a century to testify in court — was a “central piece” to his family fallout.
“The mission continues, but it has, yes, it’s caused, as you say, part of a rift,” Harry said in “Tabloids On Trial.”
Harry, 39, the younger son of King Charles III, broke with the family’s attitude of “never complain, never explain” by taking the press to court.
His father opposed his litigation, Harry said in legal filings. He also revealed that his older brother William, Prince of Wales and heir to the throne, had secretly settled a complaint against Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers for a “huge” sum.
The lawsuits, however, are not the only source of family friction.
Harry literally distanced himself from his kin when he and his wife, Meghan, opted to leave royal life for the U.S. in 2020. They cited intrusions and a racist attitude by the media toward Meghan, who is biracial. The couple later suggested there was racial bias within the royal family, an allegation likely to have further alienated Harry before his memoir, “Spare” removed all doubt there was a division.
The duke said it was difficult to answer a question about his strained bonds “”because anything I say about my family results in a torrent of abuse from the press.”
The program also features actor Hugh Grant, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and England soccer great Paul Gascoigne.
Grant, who is involved with the group “Hacked Off” to expose the impact from the widespread phone hacking scandal that sank Murdoch’s News of the World in 2011, recently settled his lawsuit against News Group for what he called “an enormous sum of money.”
Grant said he reluctantly settled because a court policy that discourages lengthy trials could stick him with a 10 million pound ($12.9 million) legal bill if he was awarded anything less than the settlement offer.
Grant accused The Sun tabloid of unlawfully tapping his phone, bugging his car and breaking into his home to snoop on him, among other intrusions.
“I don’t hold massive grievances against the foot soldiers, or these guys who did this stuff, not against them,” Grant said in the documentary. “But I remain bitter and determined to exact justice on the executives who commissioned this stuff.”
Harry continues in his fight. His lawsuit against News Group is ongoing and he has a similar case pending against the publisher of the Daily Mail, which disputes his claims.
News Group issued an unreserved apology in 2011 to victims of voicemail interception by the News of the World, which closed its doors after a phone hacking scandal. NGN said it has settled 1,300 claims for its newspapers, though The Sun has never accepted liability.
Harry said he wished his family had taken a stand against media offenses for “the greater good.”
“But, you know, I’m doing this for my reasons,” he said. “I think everything that’s played out has shown people what the truth of the matter is.”
New York’s Public Theater to celebrate reopening of Central Park stage with all-star cast
NEW YORK | A starry group of veteran Public Theater actors — including Lupita Nyong’o, Peter Dinklage, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Sandra Oh — will help reopen the newly revitalized Delacorte Theater in Central Park in a free production of “Twelfth Night.”
“To say that we are reopening this next phase of the Public and we’re doing it with these four performers who have history and roots at the Public Theater just felt like an extraordinary way to imagine the production,” said Saheem Ali, the Public’s associate artistic director and resident director.
Ali picked William Shakespeare’s romantic comedy “Twelfth Night” to christen the return in the summer of 2025 and will set the action in Harlem, featuring immigrant characters among the shifting identities and revenge plots.
“I wanted something with life and joy and vitality that celebrated the city of New York,” he said. “The different levels of identity that the play operates under — I’ve always been fascinated by that.”
There’s also a personal reason: “Twelfth Night” in Central Park was the first show Ali saw in New York when he first arrived from Boston in 2002. It was a Monday — the day Broadway traditionally is dark — so he went to Central Park.
“I stood in line. It was late in the day. I got one of the last tickets, and that was the first show that I ever saw in New York,” he recalled.
While “Modern Family” star Ferguson has performed in Central Park before, the revival will mark the Delacorte debuts of Nyong’o, Dinklage and Oh.
The Public’s free Shakespeare in the Park program is a beloved staple for both actors and audience, a place where you can hear a line like “My stars shine darkly over me,” delivered by an actor by moonlight.
“The best thing about that space is just being outdoors and being able to see the backdrop,” says Ali. “So, we’re preserving all the things about it that are magical in terms of the audience experience and making sure that the insides are as in top shape as they could be.”
The Delacorte opened in Central Park on June 18, 1962, with “The Merchant of Venice” starring George C. Scott. Since then, there have been usually two productions each summer, featuring stars such as James Earl Jones, Kevin Kline, Meryl Streep, Natalie Portman, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Anne Hathaway.
“It’s at the heart of what we do at the Public,” said Ali, who earned a Tony Award nomination for directing “Fat Ham” on Broadway in 2023. “Once a year, you get to see the highest caliber of theater performers and designers and storytellers, and you get to do it for free.”
The $110 million venue overhaul is the first significant remodeling since the venue’s initial development. It will keep the theater’s current footprint and 1,872 seats, but upgrade them and the backstage, add durable and sustainable materials, improve the lights and audio systems, allow access for wheelchairs and reposition bathrooms. The changes could extend the season’s programing into the fall.
Ali calls it a “gut renovation,” and one long overdue. “It’s been kind of duct tape and spit holding it together. So, it’s really extraordinary to have this opportunity to just really anchor it for the next few decades.”
Roz Chast to be honored at the Brooklyn Book Festival
NEW YORK | Lorrie Moore, Attica Locke and Edwidge Danticat will be among hundreds of writers attending this September’s Brooklyn Book Festival, for years one of the literary world’s most anticipated gatherings.
Others expected range from poets Jenny Xie and Terrance Hayes to detective novelist George Pelecanos and children’s author R.L. Stine. Cartoonist Roz Chast will receive the festival’s annual BoBi (Best of Brooklyn) award, given to those who best exemplify the spirit of the New York City borough. Previous BoBi winners include Lynn Nottage, Colson Whitehead and Paul Auster.
The festival runs from Sept. 22-30, with events including a day dedicated to children’s literature and a “Literary Marketplace” featuring more than 200 publishers.
“The Brooklyn Book Festival has gone from a small one day event to a 9-day international celebration of authors that welcomes readers from across the city and region. We bring authors together for unique conversations about books and contemporary issues, almost like you were enjoying their conversation at the kitchen table,” festival producer Liz Koch said in a statement Wednesday.
The Brooklyn festival was started in 2006, and has a mission to “nurture a literary cultural community through programming that cultivates and connects readers of diverse ages and backgrounds with local, national and international authors, publishers and booksellers.”
Publisher plans massive ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ reprints to meet demand for VP candidate JD Vance’s book
NEW YORK | Former President Donald Trump’s selection of JD Vance as his running mate has led to a surge in sales for “Hillbilly Elegy,” his best-selling memoir that came out in 2016.
A spokesperson for HarperCollins told The Associated Press that more than 650,000 copies have been sold since Trump’s announcement on July 15. The total includes physical books, audio books and e-books.
“We are printing hundreds of thousands of copies to fill the demand at our retail partners,” the publisher announced Thursday.
Vance’s book already had sold more than 3 million copies before Trump chose him for the Republican ticket. “Hillbilly Elegy,” which Ron Howard adapted into a feature film released in 2020, tells of Vance’s childhood in Ohio and his family’s roots in rural Kentucky. After Trump’s stunning victory in 2016, the book was widely cited as essential reading for Trump opponents trying to understand his appeal to working class whites, even as some critics faulted it at as a narrow and misleading portrait of Appalachia and of poverty in the U.S.
—From AP reports
