James Handy, an 81-year-old New York actor who had small roles in films such as Jumanji and the more recent Top Gun: Maverick, was killed outside his Los Angeles home. The confessed killer is his girlfriend’s son, a 44-year-old man named Michael Gledhill, who remains jailed on $2 million bail.
Near the famous Beverly Hills neighborhood there is an area of Los Angeles with a curious name: Tehrangeles, a portmanteau of Tehran and Los Angeles. It does not have the glamour or purchasing power of the TV-famous zip code, but lately it has drawn a lot of attention. For decades it has concentrated a significant number of Iranian businesses and is the destination for the large Iranian community living in the United States, far from the ayatollahs’ regime. After four months under the spotlight because of the war between the two countries, the current buzz is that Iran’s national team will play its first two World Cup matches in the Californian capital: on June 15 against New Zealand and June 21 against Belgium.
© Christina House (Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Defense says no evidence occasional Uber driver Jonathan Rinderknecht ignited deadly blaze on New Year’s Day 2025
The trial of 29-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht, the man accused of starting last year’s deadly Palisades fire, kicked off on Wednesday with opening arguments. Prosecutors cast him as a vengeful arsonist who sought to hide his role from authorities, while his defense attorneys argued that the fire was caused by fireworks.
On New Year’s Day in 2025, firefighters extinguished a small blaze in the Pacific Palisades, a coastal Los Angeles enclave. But the flames continued to smolder underground, before reigniting as they were picked up by strong winds. The Palisades fire, the most destructive wildfires in city history, tore through roughly 23,000 acres, incinerating thousands of buildings and killing 12 people.
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© Photograph: Mona Edwards/Reuters
© Photograph: Mona Edwards/Reuters
© Photograph: Mona Edwards/Reuters
WASHINGTON, June 6 — Actor James Handy, known for his role in Top Gun: Maverick, was fatally stabbed at his home in Los Angeles, German Press Agency (dpa) reported.
Trade publication Variety reported on Thursday, citing police, that emergency responders were called to the northwest of the city on Wednesday morning, where police confirmed in a statement that they found the 81-year-old unconscious in the front garden of his property with a stab wound to the chest.
He was taken to hospital by paramedics and later pronounced dead. A suspect turned himself in to police at the scene. He is said to be the son of the victim’s girlfriend.
Police said they received an emergency call from a man who said: “I am the son of man, I just killed the man of sin.” A spokesman for the actor confirmed Handy’s death to Variety.
Handy played the bartender Jimmy in the action film sequel Top Gun: Maverick (2022). He also had a role in the adventure film Jumanji (1995). — Bernama-dpa
When we think of “invasive species,” perhaps zebra mussels or kudzu vine spring to mind. Both have flourished in their non-native environments and continue to threaten other native organisms. Invasive species aren’t inherently bad—they’re just trying to survive—but by definition, they’re likely to disrupt local ecosystems and even cause billions of dollars worth of damage each year. So, what does one California city have to say about its burgeoning population of… peacocks?
Introduced by a businessman and land baron named Elias Lucky Baldwin more than a century ago, the avian population has long called the area home. Over the years, though, as the originally open area filled with homes and commercial strips, efforts by local residents end up at odds, as some would like to protect the birds and others would prefer to see them sent away altogether. In a short film titled “Our Neighbors, the Peacocks,” filmmaker Callie Barlow traces the unusual history of peafowl in Los Angeles County through the eyes of some of its current residents.
Arcadia, California, sits in the San Gabriel Valley about 45 minutes from downtown Los Angeles. Dozens of peacocks, which are carefully watched over by some and detested by others, meander through residents’ yards, traipse around on rooftops, peck at cars, call from trees, and of course, display their beautiful feathers—especially during mating season.
In her short documentary, Barlow invites locals to share their love—or loathing—for the vibrant birds as she highlights how Arcadia’s history of protecting the birds has perhaps led to something of an overpopulation problem. Nearby neighborhoods participate in relocation programs, while Arcadia’s birds are protected, and opinions about how to deal with growing numbers land all along the spectrum.
“‘Our Neighbors, the Peacocks’ resists the urge to resolve the tension it so clearly lays out,” says Jason Sondhi, who selected the film for Short of the Week. “Instead, it leans into a modest but resonant idea articulated by its director that living alongside these animals might require ‘putting aside your own discomforts to find a deeper meaning in nature.'”
See the film on YouTube.
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article ‘Our Neighbors, the Peacocks’ Paints a Portrait of an Unusual Convergence of Populations appeared first on Colossal.
A few miles northwest of Downtown Los Angeles and Skid Row, St. Vincent Medical Center is considered one of the city’s most historical hospitals, having supported Angelenos since the 19th century. Vacant since 2020, the center is slated to become a full-service campus aimed at supporting people with addiction, mental health concerns, housing insecurity, and more. This transformation will begin in the next few months with a final target opening date in 2028 and a wholesale takeover in the meantime.
Through July 31, visitors experience an alternative vision for communal healing, all through the lens of 70 artists. Dubbed the Hospital of Emotions, the pop-up exhibition converts 80 rooms into temporary installations based on eight themes: joy, love, fear, anger, hope, sadness, compassion, and resilience. Among the participating artists are Lisa Waud, whose lush florals spill across an operating room, and Greg Corbino, who built a barren forest from cardboard.
Whatever you might feel in a medical setting is cast in immersive, mixed-media artworks, creatively tapping into the strange, exhilarating, and terrifying experience of being human. “Hospital of Emotions begins with the space itself. A hospital is where we confront fear, but also recognize what matters. Here, the building becomes a journey through human emotion—shifting the focus from treating the body to experiencing and processing emotion,” say exhibition curators from the studio House of Art and Dreams.
More than 10,000 visitors explored the hospital opening weekend, and several weekends are already sold out. Get your tickets and learn more about the project on its website.
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article In Los Angeles, 70 Artists Transform a Vacant Hospital into a Sprawling Art Experience appeared first on Colossal.
LOS ANGELES, June 6 — Prosecutors filed murder charges yesterday against the man arrested in the fatal stabbing of veteran Hollywood actor James Handy, a familiar face in dozens of films and television shows for half a century and the boyfriend of the suspect’s mother.
If convicted, Michael Gledhill, 44, who was jailed as a suspect on Wednesday, faces up to 26 years in prison, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said.
In a separate statement on Thursday, police said Gledhill was arrested after he flagged down police near the murder scene in the city’s Tarzana neighbourhood on Wednesday and told officers he was the one they were looking for.
Police said officers were dispatched in answer to a cryptic emergency-911 call from a man who told operators: “I am the son of man. I just killed the man of sin.”
Responding officers found an 81-year-old man unconscious on the front lawn of his girlfriend’s home with a stab wound to the chest. He was pronounced dead shortly afterward at a nearby hospital, the Los Angeles Police Department said. Gledhill lived at his mother’s home, police said.
The victim was later identified as Handy, a prolific character actor whose movie credits included supporting roles in Brighton Beach Memoirs, Arachnophobia, Jumanji, Unbreakable and Logan.
His last big-screen appearance was playing an older bartender named Jimmy in a bar frequented by military fighter pilots in the 2022 Tom Cruise hit Top Gun: Maverick.
Handy also appeared in scores of television shows dating back to the 1970s, often portraying law enforcement characters or authority figures.
Police described the killing as an isolated incident but offered no possible motive for the slaying. Gledhill was slated to make his first court appearance yesterday, but it was not immediately known whether he had obtained legal representation.
The Handy killing marked the second high-profile celebrity stabbing death in Los Angeles in six months. In December, actor-director Rob Reiner and his wife, photographer-producer Michele Reiner, were killed at their Brentwood mansion. Their younger son, Nick Reiner, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder for their slayings. — Reuters
In May 2021, while the world was still trying to recover from the Covid pandemic, British artist David Hockney presented his exhibition The Arrival of Spring. Normandy, 2020, dozens of hours of meticulous work he devoted to capturing — on his iPad using the Brushes app — the essence of the changing seasons while the world was confined by tragedy. True to form, he did not give up on either innovation or joy.
© Luc Castel (Getty Images)
Carlos Eduardo Espina’s rise began during the Covid pandemic, when he started posting videos in Spanish on TikTok that explained immigration and political issues in a casual style aimed at Hispanics in the United States. He eventually amassed millions of followers across different digital platforms, and soon attracted the attention of politicians eager to reach his audience.
© @CarlosEduardoEspina1998
The World Cup circus begins and David Beckham will unveil his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame this Friday. It is the entertainment industry’s nod to the World Cup, and almost the only one. On the Oscar boulevard, among parties and hustlers imitating Michael Jackson, you have to look hard to find references to the big soccer event, even though 20 miles away the United States opens its campaign against Paraguay on Friday afternoon.
© John Dorton/USSF (Getty Images)
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