Latest news with #Wolf
Russia Today
3 hours ago
- Politics
- Russia Today
Assad general reveals new life in central Russia
A former general in ex-Syrian President Bashar Assad's army who found refuge in central Russia has spoken to local media. The man, who gave an interview to on condition of anonymity, told the media outlet that he is determined to integrate into Russian society and is not considering returning to Syria. The ex-general, who asked to be identified by his call sign 'Wolf', recalled the overthrow of the Assad government in December. During a swift offensive by Islamist anti-government groups in Syria, he watched as many of his comrades, including senior commanders, deserted their positions en masse. 'I can't wrap my head around it. It was treason, there are no two ways about it,' Wolf told Russian reporters. After the coup, the ex-general left his wife and children in a hiding place for fear of persecution by the militants. He then managed to make it to the Russian Khmeimim Air Base along with his sister and two nephews. He explained that his children would most likely not have been able to complete the perilous trip. After being transported to Russia, he ended up in the country's Sverdlovsk Region. Wolf, who studied in Leningrad (nowadays St. Petersburg) in the USSR, already had a good command of Russian when he arrived, but continues to master the language. Having secured temporary protection status, he found an odd job that helps keep him and his relatives afloat financially. 'I'm now waiting for the paperwork so I can start working officially at a plant or factory. I'm having my residence permit application processed,' the former commander said, adding that he was willing to take up any job ten to twelve hours a day. He added that he does not intend to return to Syria because he believes the country will be in turmoil for at least a decade to come. 'Let my children live like normal people in Russia,' the former general concluded, insisting that he now feels 'more like a Russian than a Syrian.' Following the armed opposition's rise to power in late 2024, the Islamists have reportedly perpetrated several massacres of the Alawite religious minority, as well as Christians and Druze communities across Syria.
Edmonton Journal
a day ago
- Sport
- Edmonton Journal
Flames ‘continuing to plug away' on contract negotiations with Dan Vladar, says Conroy
Article content Second-string goalie Dan Vladar was emphatic in his end-of-season interview about his desire to stick around the Saddledome, while the Flames seemed similarly keen on continuing with their current twine-minding tandem. But two months later, and less than two weeks before Vladar would become an unrestricted free agent, there's been no news of a contract extension for the 27-year-old from the Czech Republic, raising the possibility that rising star Dustin Wolf might have a different sidekick when the puck drops on the 2025-26 campaign. Article content 'We're talking to his representation and seeing where his mindset is at,' Flames general manager Craig Conroy told Postmedia on Thursday when asked for an update on negotiations with Vladar. 'We're open, just like he was open to a contract. But both sides have to come to terms with that. We're just continuing to plug away at that one.' Vladar is at the tail-end of a two-year contract that carries an annual cap hit of US$2.2 million. Coming off the heaviest workload of his NHL career, and after finishing the season on a 6-1-1 run, it's safe to assume that he's looking for at least a slight raise. The Flames have plenty of salary-cap wiggle room, but teams are often hesitant to be allocating too much loot to their backup puck-stopper. Vladar and Wolf split starts last fall, but the youngster emerged through the winter as the obvious workhorse in Calgary. Wolf, en route to his runner-up finish in the Calder Trophy race, was tapped for 76 per cent of the crease time in the second half of the season. Article content In 30 appearances, Vladar posted a 12-11-6 record with a 2.80 goals-against average and .898 save percentage. It did not go unnoticed by teammates and staff that he was handed a lot of tough assignments, including the second half of any back-to-back sets. 'We talk about Wolfie a lot and the season he did have, but I think a big reason why he had such a good year was the way Dan was, too,' said Flames head coach Ryan Huska on locker clean-out day. 'We had a great tandem. You look at our team and that was probably the strength of our team this year — those two guys in net gave us a chance to win every night, and it was rare when one of them had an off-night. 'When you're planning ahead, you know you have one area covered. For me as a coach, I know we're going to be good in net.' The big question is, have those plans changed since mid-April, when their backup stressed he would 'love to be back' for a fifth season with the Flames? Article content Is Vladar, who really seemed to find his groove after the 4 Nations Face-Off and continued to roll with a sparkling .950 save percentage in his four appearances at the world championship tournament, now wondering if another organization might view him as a potential starter or a platoon possibility? Is he hoping for more playing time so he can showcase himself for a chance to represent his country at the 2026 Winter Olympics? Is it simply a matter of finding some middle ground on term and dollar figure? If Vladar does opt to test the market when free agency opens on July 1, he will be one of the most appealing options available, a guy who can offer a blend of experience and upside. If the Flames need to go another route, the pickings are somewhat slim. Beyond Vladar, the list of soon-to-be UFAs in the crease is headlined by Jake Allen, Alexandar Georgiev, Ilya Samsonov and Vitek Vanecek, who just lifted the Stanley Cup as the No. 2 for the Florida Panthers. Article content The Flames have also been mentioned as potential suitor for Ivan Prosvetov, who is looking to return from the KHL. Also factoring in this conversation is whether there is internal belief that Devin Cooley can be part of the big-league plan. Cooley's contract upgrades to a one-way for this coming season, but there may be some second-guessing after his rollercoaster campaign with the Wranglers — a superb start that netted an invite to the AHL All-Star Classic and then a miserable finishing stretch. Cooley, who turned 28 last month, will certainly be among those keeping close tabs on Vladar's situation. While there's still time to get a deal done, the Flames might need a backup backup plan. Latest National Stories
New York Post
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
‘General Hospital's' Jack Wagner says keeping separate homes with new wife ‘works' for them
'General Hospital' star Jack Wagner and his wife, Michelle Wolf, have no plans to move in together after tying the knot in May. Wagner and Wolf agreed not to 'rock the boat' and stick to the routine they formed while dating as they take on marriage. 'It's an adjustment in terms of my schedule, for sure, right? And Michelle's a singer, and she has an R&B rock band, so she's just a monster singer. We're able to make it work,' Wagner said in an interview with Parade. The soap opera star admitted that neither party has 'really changed anything' in their relationship. 'It's kind of cool, you know? She has her place. I still have mine. We're both super comfortable in our places and going back and forth, and so we've decided, let's not rock the boat and sell this and sell that and try to find something,' he said. 'The Bold and the Beautiful' actor continued, 'We take a couple nights off, and then we trade off who's going to be where because I think we both know that the older we are, it's nice to have a little space. Not too much, but it's okay! It works.' Wagner and Wolf began dating in 2021, according to People. The outlet reported that Wolf shared an image from their wedding day on her Instagram account, which is now private. 4 Newlyweds Jack Wagner and Michelle Wolf don't plan on moving in together. AFF-USA / Shutterstock 4 Wagner is a three-time Daytime Emmy Award nominee. Getty Images 'We did it!!!!!! MARRIED in front of our little family!! #MrAndMrs,' Wolf wrote, per People. In the photo was herself with her new husband, Wagner's son, Peter, and her daughter, Ornella. Wagner and his ex-wife Kristina shared two sons. Their son, Harrison, died in 2022 from 'fentanyl and alprazolam intoxication,' the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner told Fox News Digital at the time. 4 Wagner and his ex-wife Kristina shared two sons. Their youngest, Harrison, died in 2022 from 'fentanyl and alprazolam intoxication.' WireImage 4 The cast of 'The Bold and the Beautiful' smiled for a photo while on set in Naples. IPA / He was 27. His death in June 2022 was listed as an 'accident' in the coroner's report. Xanax is a common brand name for alprazolam. Jack and Kristina were married for 13 years before their divorce was finalized in 2006. Following Jack's divorce, he was in a longtime romance with Heather Locklear beginning in 2007. The couple, who worked together on 'Melrose Place' in the '90s, became engaged in 2011 but called off their nuptials only three months later.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Pee-wee as Himself': Director Matt Wolf on exploring the duality of Paul Reubens and earning his trust — ‘It was a constant struggle'
When Matt Wolf took on the daunting task of creating a documentary about the enigmatic Paul Reubens, the man behind the flamboyant and charming Pee-wee Herman, the filmmaker never could have imagined just how deeply layered the story would be. Now, in Wolf's Pee-wee as Himself, audiences are given an unprecedented look at a fiercely private artist whose boundary-pushing creativity and resilience impacted an entire generation. The two-part HBO documentary introduces viewers to Reubens in an unexpected way: as an eccentric figure claiming to have been born in 1938 on the banks of the Mississippi River. It's humor that cuts straight to the core of who Reubens was, but also hints at the complicated man behind the bowtie. Wolf admits that the opening moments of a documentary often come together through trial and error: "Oh, I don't know. You just try stuff out and it sticks and we probably tried that immediately as the first thing and it stuck. I mean, it's funny." More from GoldDerby 'Gypsy' and 'Just in Time' producer Tom Kirdahy on serving a 'social and cultural need' through creative work TV Visual Effects supervisor roundtable: 'Black Mirror,' 'The Boys,' 'The Wheel of Time' 'The Wheel of Time' VFX supervisor Andy Scrase: 'I always think of visual effects as the magic of filmmaking' For Wolf, getting a chance to tell Reubens' story required more than just persistence — it required fate. 'People, when you make documentaries, ask who's your dream subject? And mine always was Paul,' Wolf tells Gold Derby. After several unsuccessful attempts to connect with the famously private Reubens, a serendipitous sequence of events involving the Safdie brothers [Benny and Josh], who were at one point rumored to be working on an autobiographical Pee-wee film, ultimately led to Reubens reaching out to Wolf through producer Emma Tillinger Koskoff. From the outset, however, trust was a challenge. Reubens, known for his intense control over his public image, was reluctant to relinquish that same control for the film. "It was hard. It was a constant struggle of trying to earn Paul's trust, but to also accept that there were limits to how much he was willing to trust somebody," Wolf explains. Reubens' fraught history with the media, where he felt his personal story was often misrepresented, left him wary. "I empathized with where he was coming from," Wolf continues, "but trust is a foundation of what we do as documentary filmmakers. ... And Paul was somebody incapable of taking a leap of faith." Over the course of hundreds of hours of conversations, the two worked to find a middle ground, even as Wolf recognized that Reubens would never completely let his guard down. Courtesy of HBO Unbeknownst to Wolf and the crew, Reubens was privately battling cancer while filming the documentary. "I was scheduled to complete a final interview with Paul the week after he died," Wolf shares. "I found out that Paul died on Instagram, the day he died, along with everybody else." The reveal added an even deeper emotional weight to the production. Despite this devastating blow, Wolf pressed on, knowing Reubens wanted the documentary to move forward, giving his blessing in their final conversations. 'I read the 1,500-page transcript of our interview right after [he passed],' Wolf recounts. 'I wanted to rise to the occasion and do justice under these extraordinary circumstances.' The film explores the duality that defined Reubens' career: Pee-wee Herman, the irrepressible, childlike alter ego, and Paul Reubens, the man behind the magic. It's a balancing act few have undertaken successfully, as Wolf points out: 'Somebody else who's in the film that's done that a bit is Elvira, Cassandra Peterson. But it's a small club of people who live as their alter ego. And Paul was kind of the most visible member of that club.' Reubens made a conscious choice to keep Pee-wee a separate entity, a concept born out of both creative and personal motivations. "He wanted people to believe that Pee-wee Herman was a real person,' Wolf explains, 'but on a deeper level, Paul was very protective of his privacy and anonymity." HBO/Pee-wee Herman Productions, Inc. As the documentary delves into Reubens' life before Pee-wee, it reveals the formative influences that shaped not only the character but the artist himself. From his art school days at CalArts to performing as an openly gay man before retreating into the closet for his career, Reubens' trajectory captures the struggles and compromises of a queer artist in the entertainment industry of the 1980s. "He chose to go into the closet to focus on his career,' Wolf notes. 'It was a personal but also pragmatic decision, knowing that in the early 1980s, an openly gay man would not be able to rise in the entertainment industry." Reubens' rejection from Saturday Night Live became the catalyst for Pee-wee Herman's creation. "I think that rejection really kind of emboldened Paul to take matters into his own hands," Wolf observes. From a midnight play at the Groundlings to the cult success of Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Reubens carved out a path that was quintessentially his own. HBO/Pee-wee Herman Productions, Inc. Collaborating with now-iconic director Tim Burton on his feature debut, Reubens enjoyed a type of creative freedom and naïveté in Pee-wee's Big Adventure. Wolf reflects on Burton's experience making the film: 'You're just kind of putting it all out there. And I think there was something very naive about the making of Pee-wee's Big Adventure that allowed it to be very pure." His subsequent Saturday morning show, Pee-wee's Playhouse, broke barriers with its artistic vision and diverse cast. 'In some ways, people recognize that the show was revolutionary,' Wolf says. 'But to watch in more specific detail the types of things that they accomplished and the ambition of it, it will be undeniable how singular it was as a cultural phenomenon.' The documentary doesn't shy away from the controversy that derailed Reubens' career. The incident in an adult movie theater — and subsequent false allegations of child pornography — forever altered public perception. Wolf describes the impacts of that time: "Paul was in a state of shock for a number of years and it had a profound impact on his life... But thankfully we were able to see him in his full breadth of talents as a character actor." Reubens' ability to persevere and work through those challenges is a testament to his resilience. "[He] was a resilient person," Wolf emphasizes. "I didn't see him as a victim. I think he proved over and over again that he could overcome hardship and kind of put his work first." For decades, Pee-wee and Paul existed as two separate beings, a distinction even immortalized on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, where Pee-wee Herman has a star — Paul Reubens does not. Wolf hopes that his documentary helps fuse these two sides of the same coin. "Paul Reubens created Pee-wee Herman," Wolf reminded us. 'Now that Paul has passed away ... I hope people can respect and appreciate the artist that was always there within, behind, and alongside his creation.' Pee-wee as Himself is currently streaming on Max. Best of GoldDerby TV Visual Effects supervisor roundtable: 'Black Mirror,' 'The Boys,' 'The Wheel of Time' 'The Wheel of Time' VFX supervisor Andy Scrase: 'I always think of visual effects as the magic of filmmaking' 'The Boys' VFX supervisor Stephan Fleet explains why a one-minute shot 'took about 17 hours' to make Click here to read the full article.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Marc Maron's ‘Are We Good?': What happens when stars clash with their documentary filmmakers
In Steven Feinartz's documentary Are We Good? about comedian and podcast pioneer Marc Maron, the director and subject grapple over who is in control of the narrative. When Feinartz suggests animating still photographs to help chronicle both Maron's career and his life after the unexpected death of his partner, filmmaker Lynn Shelton, the comedian is against it. Yet Feinartz, who had full creative control over the project, used the animation anyway. More from GoldDerby Debbie Allen, Tom Cruise, Dolly Parton, and Wynn Thomas to receive honorary Oscars TV's double threats: 10 actors eyeing nominations for both comedy and drama at the 2025 Emmys Beyond Alexis Bledel: 7 other times actors withdrew themselves from Emmy consideration "The moment I mentioned animation, I could already hear [Marc] recoiling," says Feinartz. "If the film didn't have that back and forth, it wouldn't feel like a Maron doc. He's not someone who just sits back and lets you tell his story. There was trust, but also a kind of tension." Are We Good?, which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 14, is the latest celebrity documentary that incorporates a star subject visibly and verbally struggling with their decision to surrender creative authority to a director. Matt Wolf's HBO documentary series Pee-wee as Himself and Bess Kargman's Diane Warren: Relentless, about the Oscar-nominated songwriter, also feature on-camera, often uncomfortable, banter between the subject and the director about who should have control over a story that each wants to tell differently. (In both cases, the director had complete control over the project and its final cut.) In the opening sequence of Wolf's Pee-wee as Himself, the late artist and performer Paul Reubens tells the camera, "You are not supposed to control your own documentary. You are supposed to [make] people, many people, alright, everyone but me, feel that as the subject of a documentary that you really don't have a handle. Have a take. What's the word I'm looking for? What is everyone telling me that I don't have on myself?' "Perspective,' Wolf can be heard saying off-camera, to which Reubens responds, 'You and I are going to be arguing [about that] for a long, long time. Until this documentary is finished. You mark my words.' Wolf and Reubens' contentious verbal relationship is captured throughout the two-part series, which premiered on HBO in May. "Paul and I were involved in a power struggle," says Wolf. "He didn't like the answer 'no,' and as a director, I'm accustomed to getting my way. We had similar ideas about his story and how it should be told. I just needed Paul to let go, so that I could do what I needed to do to reappraise him as an artist. I think at the end of the day, Paul and I wanted the same thing. However, to achieve those goals, I needed to be tough about maintaining my editorial autonomy." SEE'Pee-wee as Himself': Director Matt Wolf on exploring the duality of Paul Reubens and earning his trust — 'It was a constant struggle' In Kargman's Relentless, which debuted at SXSW in 2024, Warren's prolific songwriting career is examined. So is Warren's innate desire not to discuss her creative process or show up for certain interviews. At one point in the documentary, Warren tells Kargman that a camera is placed at a bad angle before grabbing it and repositioning it. At several points in the film, Kargman confronts Warren about her production power plays. Kargman says that while she didn't want the audience to hear her voice in Relentless, she also wanted them to know what it was like to be in her shoes and "experience what I was experiencing." "As I say in the film Diane had a wall up, and I was trying to break through it," she says. "I wanted the audience to experience the occasional deep frustration I had, so you hear me challenge her. In a perfect world, I would not have put myself in the film." To hear Feinartz, Wolf, and Kargman verbally debate with their respective subjects about style, storytelling, or final cut gives each film tension and an air of authenticity. "If anything, the banter between me and Marc just made things more transparent," says Feinartz. "You see me trying to make a film, you see him pushing back. It's less about control and more about letting the mess be part of the film." The power struggle unfolding in all three documentaries is, at times, jarring but also entertaining. Arguably, the breaking of the fourth wall is more captivating than the profile being told, which could, in part, be due to the fact that most celebrity-driven documentaries are boring self-produced infomercials that offer little in the way of new, unusual, or engrossing information about the subject. Practically any doc featuring a musician — Halftime about Jennifer Lopez, Miss Americana about Taylor Swift, and Homecoming about Beyoncé — is a carefully constructed commercial produced by the star or their record label. While recent celebrity documentaries like Elton John: Never Too Late, Martha, Beckham, and The Last Dance were all insightful, there is the issue of subjects being paid to participate, which raises questions about creative control and merit. "I definitely wanted the audience to be clear that this is not a puff piece, or a vanity project," says Wolf. "However, more importantly, control was an important theme in the film. Paul separated himself from Pee-wee Herman as an artistic and professional choice, but also as a way to protect his anonymity. When that precise separation crumbled after Paul's arrest, it was devastating for him. Paul lost control of his personal narrative in the media, so it was very relevant that he struggled with issues of control in the documentary. I was less interested in making a meta-commentary on celebrity documentaries, and more interested in understanding Paul's experiences both in the past and in the present while making the documentary." The recent trend toward push-pull celeb-docs docs is a welcome diversion from the puff pieces that soft-pedal around their A-list subjects. But it's anyone's guess at this point if distributors will get behind raw docs about celebrities or stick with what works — fake docs about celebrities. Are We Good? is seeking distribution. Best of GoldDerby 'It was wonderful to be on that ride': Christian Slater talks his beloved roles, from cult classics ('Heathers,' 'True Romance') to TV hits ('Mr. Robot,' 'Dexter: Original Sin') 'It almost killed me': Horror maestro Mike Flanagan looks back at career-making hits from 'Gerald's Game' to 'Hill House' to 'Life of Chuck' Stephen King movies: 14 greatest films ranked worst to best Click here to read the full article.
