Guilty Pleasures
By Associated Press
Taraji P. Henson to receive honorary AARP Purpose Prize
LOS ANGELES | Taraji P. Henson will receive an honorary AARP Award for eradicating the stigma around mental health within marginalized communities through her foundation that was created in honor of her father.
The organization announced Tuesday that Henson will receive the honorary AARP Purpose Prize during the ceremony on Oct. 1 in Washington, D.C. The Oscar-nominated actor will be recognized for her work through the Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation.
Henson said she is honored by AARP’s recognition of her foundation’s efforts. She hopes the organization’s platform will put a spotlight on mental health and encourage people to be “open about discussing their struggles and ultimately receiving help.”
Henson’s foundation, which launched in 2018, honors the legacy of her father, who battled untreated mental health issues after returning from the Vietnam War. The foundation focuses on providing mental health resources and encouraging members of marginalized communities to seek help and support without fear and shame.
The actor said her foundation’s mission has been to “eradicate the stigma around mental illness.”
Last year, Henson’s foundation partnered with Alabama State University on mental health wellness. She was honored by the Boston-based Ruderman Family Foundation in 2000 for her work to end the stigma around mental illness.
Henson was nominated for an Oscar for 2008’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” She co-starred in the 2016 film “Hidden Figures,” which followed three African American mathematicians at NASA who played a key role in the early days of the U.S. space program. Henson won a 2016 Golden Globe for her role as Cookie Lyon in television’s “Empire” series.
Seven individuals will be awarded the AARP Purpose Prize, which honors people ages 50 and older who are making a difference through their “knowledge and life experience.” Each of their organizations will receive $50,000. They are:
1. Jon Eldan of Oakland whose After Innocence provides free post-release support for individuals nationwide who were imprisoned for crimes they did not commit.
2. Robert Elkin of Dallas whose March to the Polls works to increase electoral participation in underrepresented communities, primarily youth and people of color.
3. Renee Fluker of Detroit whose Midnight Golf Program convenes high school seniors twice weekly for structured life skill sessions, communal dining experiences, professional golf instruction, mentorship and college readiness initiatives.
4. Gemma M. Garcia of Miami whose Ladies Empowerment and Action Program empowers women by providing incarceration-to-community wraparound services.
5. Jennifer Jacobs of Falls Church, Virginia, whose Connect Our Kidscreates scalable tools to help keep kids in foster care connected to their people.
6. Jim Ansara of Beverly, Massachusetts, whose Build Health International improves access to and builds capacity for dignified, affordable and high-quality health care infrastructure in resource-constrained settings around the world.
7. Calvin Mackie of New Orleans whose STEM NOLA looks to inspire future innovators, creators, makers and entrepreneurs through STEM-based activities and to create opportunities in science, technology, engineering and math.
AARP CEO Jo Ann Jenkins applauded the recipients for their efforts. She was impressed with their ability to “create new solutions for how people live and age and solve pressing social problems.”
Hundreds of ‘Game of Thrones’ props are up for auction
After watching eight seasons of the epic saga “Game of Thrones,” fans can now enter what may be a competition on par with the battle for the Iron Throne: an auction of prized memorabilia from the HBO series.
Fans can now bid on a slew of costumes, props, set pieces and memorabilia from the hit show that ended in 2019. More than 2,000 items — including a melted version of the coveted Iron Throne — distributed across 900 lots will be on the auction block in October through Heritage Auctions.
The starting bids range from $500 to $20,000 for items as iconic as Jaime Lannister’s full suit of armor and sword to props as granular as prosthetic teeth used for the White Walkers.
Other notable items include Daenerys Targaryen’s memorable cloaks, coats and leather ensembles (some that feature dragon chokers and accents) worn by Emilia Clarke, Jon Snow’s notorious Longclaw sword wielded by Kit Harington, and the Hand of the Queen Pin donned by Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister. Even items that didn’t boast much screen time, like the bell wielded during Cersei Lannister’s walk of shame or bloodstained garb from the infamous Red Wedding, are expected to draw fans’ attention during bidding.
Jay Roewe, HBO’s senior vice president of global incentives and production planning, said the auction — a chance for fans to “grab a piece of history” — speaks to the staying power the series has had five years after its finale.
“’Game of Thrones’ was a zeitgeist moment in our culture. It was a zeitgeist moment in high-end television. It was a zeitgeist moment in terms of HBO,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press. “This is something we all grew up with. It’s impacted every single one of our lives. It’s impacted the culture, and ‘Game of Thrones’ has meant something to every single person.”
Although the series started in 2011 and several items in the auction date back to then, they have not been “collecting dust,” Roewe said. HBO had been carefully preserving thousands of props, costumes and set pieces since the series began for use on potential spinoffs or sequels. With “House of The Dragon” having recently completed its second season and other projects firmly in development — while others have been discarded — Roewe said the studio now knows what they’ll need to hold on to and what they can part ways with.
“These items have been curated and taken care of since we finished filming. They are the quality that they were when we finished filming, and we’ve had people working on them for years to keep them in shape,” he said. “We don’t need them anymore. It’s time to finally open it up to the world.”
Beyond the preservation and quality of the items, the sheer scale of the auction required months of collaboration with HBO and countless hours of research and planning to organize, said Joe Maddalena, the executive vice president of Heritage Auctions.
Maddalena wanted to ensure fans and collectors didn’t feel like there were any “glaring holes” in the collection by including a wide variety of characters’ costumes and props, displayed in a 750-page catalog. There are even multiples of crucial items like Arya Stark’s rapier Needle, of which there were several versions throughout the series’ run.
The intricate nature and craftsmanship of the costumes and props are part of what make the show so memorable, Maddalena, a fan himself, said. Emmy-winning costume designer Michele Clapton has been praised since the series’ start for the detailed and intentional designs that fueled storylines. The catalog features interviews with Clapton, showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and several of the cast members commenting on the episode-specific usage and significance of hundreds of the items. Maddalena called this kind of access and information “uncharted territory” in the auction world.
“You don’t usually get studio-sanctioned auctions like this. This is studio sanctioned,” he said. “Everything comes from the archive. Everything was handpicked, scene specific. You know where your piece was used. You know it was actually used on screen.”
For fans who want to snag a piece of “Game of Thrones,” the vast collection is now open for preliminary bidding with the auction taking place Oct. 10-12 through Heritage Auctions in Dallas. The collection will be available to preview in the auction house’s New York and London locations starting Sept. 17 through Oct. 4.
James Darren, ‘Gidget’ teen idol, singer and director, dies at 88
LOS ANGELES | James Darren, a teen idol who helped ignite the 1960s surfing craze as a charismatic beach boy paired off with Sandra Dee in the hit film “Gidget,” died Monday at 88.
Darren died in his sleep at a Los Angeles hospital, his son Jim Moret told news outlets.
Moret told The Hollywood Reporter that Darren was supposed have had an aortic valve replacement but was too weak for the surgery. “I always thought he would pull through,” his son told the entertainment trade, “because he was so cool. He was always cool.”
In his long career, Darren acted, sang and built up a successful behind-the-scenes career as a television director, helming episodes of such well-known series as “Beverly Hills 90210” and “Melrose Place.” In the 1980s, he was Officer Jim Corrigan on the television cop show “T.J. Hooker.”
But to young movie fans of the late 1950s, he would be remembered best as Moondoggie, the dark-haired surfer boy in the smash 1959 release “Gidget.” Dee starred as the title character, a spunky Southern Californian who hits the beach and eventually falls in love with Moondoggie.
“I was in love with Sandra,” Darren later recalled. “I thought that she was absolutely perfect as Gidget. She had tremendous charm.”
The film was based on a novel that a California man, Frederick Kohner, had written about his own teenage daughter and helped spur interest in surfing — one that influenced pop music, slang and even fashion.
For Darren, his success with teen fans led to a recording contract, as it did with many young actors at the time, among them Tab Hunter and Annette Funicello. Two of Darren’s singles, “Goodbye Cruel World” and “Her Royal Majesty,” reached the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. (“Goodbye Cruel World” also appeared in Steven Spielberg’s 2022 semi-autobiographical film, “The Fabelmans.” ) Other singles included “Gidget” and “Angel Face.”
Darren was the only “Gidget” cast member who appeared in both its sequels, 1961’s “Gidget Goes Hawaiian” and 1963’s “Gidget Goes to Rome.” Dee was replaced by Deborah Walley in the second film and Cindy Carol in the third. (“Gidget” later became a television show, launching the career of Sally Field. )
“They had me under contract; I was a prisoner,” Darren told Entertainment Weekly in 2004. “But with those lovely young ladies, it was the best prison I think I’ll ever be in.”
As a contract player at Columbia Studios, Darren appeared in grown-up films, too, including “The Brothers Rico,” “Operation Meatball” and “The Guns of Navarone.”
By the mid-’60s, when Darren appeared in “For Those Who Think Young” and “The Lively Set,” his big-screen acting career was almost over. He appeared in just a handful of movies after the 1960s ended, last appearing in 2017’s “Lucky,” directed by John Carroll Lynch.
But he remained active on television, appearing as a lead on the sci-fi show “The Time Tunnel” in the late 1960s, and doing guest spots and small recurring roles in TV shows such as “The Love Boat,” “Hawaii Five-O” and “Fantasy Island.”
Darren was a series regular for four seasons of the William Shatner-starrer “T.J. Hooker” in the 1980s. While appearing on the show, he noticed that no director was listed for an upcoming sequence and asked if he could try out for it.
“When it was shown, I got several offers to direct,” he told the New York Daily News. “Soon I was getting so many offers to direct, I kind of gave up acting and singing.”
For almost two years, Darren directed episodes of “Walker, Texas Ranger,” “Hunter,” “Melrose Place,” “Beverly Hills 90210” and other series. He returned to acting in the 1990s with small roles in “Melrose Place” and “Star Trek, Deep Space Nine.”
Darren was born James Ercolani in 1936 and grew up in South Philadelphia, not far from such fellow teen idols of the 1950s and ‘60s as Fabian and Frankie Avalon. Singing came easy to him, and at 14 he was appearing in local nightclubs.
“From the age of 5 or 6 I knew I wanted to be an entertainer, or famous maybe,” he said in a 2003 interview with the News-Press of Fort Myers, Florida. He noted that such luminaries as Eddie Fisher and Al Martino had lived in the same area as he did, “a real neighborhood. It made you feel you could be successful, too.”
According to a 1958 Los Angeles Times profile, he got a break when he went to New York to get some pictures taken and the photographer’s office put him in touch with a talent scout.
He was soon signed by Columbia Pictures, and the newspaper said that after a few appearances, his fan mail at the studio was running “second only to Kim Novak’s. … The studio now feels that the young man is ready to hit the jackpot.”
Darren married his first wife, Gloria, in 1955 and together had Moret, an “Inside Edition” correspondent and former CNN anchorman. After a divorce he married Evy Norlund, who came to the U.S. as the Danish entry in the Miss Universe contest. They had two sons, Christian and Anthony.
He was also the godfather of Nancy Sinatra’s daughter A.J. Lambert. Sinatra, his “For Those Who Think Young” co-star, posted The Hollywood Reporter obituary on her X page, with a broken heart emoji.
—From AP reports
