Table of contents for August 22, 2022 in People

For many fans, Michael K. Williams’s death felt like a sucker punch. The beloved actor, who created an indelible career in television series including The Wire, Boardwalk Empire and The Night Of, died in September 2021 at age 54 of a fentanyl-laced accidental overdose following a long battle with addiction. In his wake he left a memoir, Scenes From My Life, which began as a series of long conversations over two and a half years with his co-author, Jon Sternfeld. Williams died weeks before they were set to turn in the first manuscript, and in one of their last conversations, “he seemed really happy,” recalls Sternfeld. Williams’s sudden death, he says, felt “completely surprising and shocking. He definitely was an addict, and he was open about it, but he did…

‘I came up with this recipe on the morning of my daughter’s 6th birthday. I wanted to surprise her, but I didn’t have time to bake a cake. So I made pancakes with her favorite cake flavor—and she loved it!’ says the executive pastry chef at the Ritz-Carlton Georgetown in Washington, D.C. ½ cup water1¼ cups granulated sugar, divided3½ cups chopped fresh strawberries, divided2 cups (about 8 ½ oz.) all-purpose flour2 tsp. baking powderPinch of kosher salt1 cup whole milk2 large eggs4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted, plus more for skillet1 Tbsp. vanilla extractWhipped cream, for serving 1. Stir together water and 1 cup of the granulated sugar in a small saucepan over medium high until sugar is dissolved, about 2 minutes. Add 2 cups of the chopped strawberries; bring to…

See If You Can Find the Differences in These Two Pictures Assassins unite! The cast of Bullet Train—Zazie Beetz, Bryan Tyree Henry, Brad Pitt, David Leitch and Aaron Taylor-Johnson—hit Regency Village Theatre in L.A. Aug. 1 for a premiere of the film, in theaters now. 10 changes to keep score! 1. A sleeve on Zazie Beetz’s outfit is lengthened. 2. Bryan Tyree Henry has an extra button on his coat. 3. Brad Pitt’s suit jacket is bigger on one side. 4. David Leitch’s tie turned blue. 5. Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s silver watch shifted up on his arm. 6. Taylor-Johnson is now wearing two necklaces. 7. The movie poster on the back wall, right, is missing Pitt’s face. 8. The step and repeat behind the cast expanded to the top of the wall. 9. One of the logos on the step and repeat between Pitt and Henry is gone. 10. The “E” and “T” between Pitt…

Britney Spears and her ex Kevin Federline are having a war of words over their sons Sean Preston, 16, and Jayden James, 15. It started when Federline, 44, claimed in a Daily Mail interview that the boys have been keeping their distance from the “Toxic” singer, 40, adding he’s had conversations with them about her risqué Instagram posts. “It’s been a few months since they’ve seen her. They made the decision not to go to her wedding,” Federline, who has primary custody, said of Spears’s June wedding to Sam Asghari, 28. Spears—whose 13-year conservatorship ended last fall—responded on Instagram Aug. 7, writing, “It saddens me to hear that my ex-husband has decided to discuss the relationship between me and my children.… I’m only human and I’ve done my best.”…

Welcome Ana Navarro Age 50 Hometown Chinandega, Nicaragua How you know her The political commentator and strategist has appeared on CNN, CNN en Español, ABC News and Telemundo. She first guest-cohosted on The View in 2013 and has been a regular guest cohost since 2018. Family life She and her lawyer husband, Al Cárdenas, wed in 2019 and are based in Florida. “When you make the decision to be on TV, you need to know who you are, know what you believe in, and you need to be able to defend it with conviction because you’re going to be challenged. The only way I know how to be is authentic.” Welcome Alyssa Farah Griffin Age 33 Hometown Los Angeles How you know her The former press secretary to Vice President…

After nearly six months in custody, WNBA star Brittney Griner was sentenced on Aug. 4 to nine years in a Russian penal colony. The 31-year-old, who was arrested on Feb. 17 for allegedly possessing cannabis oil, pleaded guilty to the charges in July, saying she packed the drugs “inadvertently.” Griner’s lawyers are expected to appeal, while the U.S. continues to pursue a prisoner swap of Griner and Paul Whelan (an American imprisoned for espionage—a charge he denies—since 2018), possibly for notorious Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout. That prospect that has been criticized by some for its potential to encourage the further arrest and trade of Westerners, but President Biden said in a statement, “My administration will continue to … pursue every possible avenue to bring Brittney and Paul Whelan home…

HBO | the Princess How the Windsors, and the world, lost Diana DOCUMENTARY Timed to the 25th anniversary of Princess Diana’s death, this fascinating but somber film—culled from archival footage, with no talking heads—is chiefly an examination of how the media shaped its narrative about and around her brief, glamorous, troubled life. The footage that rolls past, showcasing her marriage to and then breaking away from Charles, is mostly familiar (occasionally you think, “I remember that on The Crown”). But the images matter less than the story being voiced through the vintage off-camera commentary. It’s the tale we’ve accepted—the fairy-tale romance ascends like a fancy balloon, braided with silk, then sinks (love, not air, was needed to keep it aloft). Charles becomes jealous, Camilla looms into view, Diana grows disillusioned…

It was the hardest Christmas morning of Dick Ebersol and Susan Saint James’s lives. Just four weeks earlier, on Nov. 28, 2004, Ebersol had been in a plane crash that killed the couple’s 14-year-old son Teddy and left the veteran TV producer in a body cast, recovering from multiple injuries. But as the family, including the couple’s older sons, Charles and William, as well as Susan’s son Harmony and daughter Sunshine from a previous marriage, opened the gifts that Teddy had picked out for them, a bit of the light he always brought to their lives shone through. There was an “Ash-Hole” ashtray for his dad, who loved cigars; a “Tickets to the Gun Show” T-shirt with arrows pointing at the biceps for Charlie; and a shirt for Willie that…

Related to smallpox but much milder and usually seen in West Africa, monkeypox is now confirmed in more than 80 countries including the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The disease was discovered in 1958 when pox-like outbreaks occurred among monkeys kept for research. (Despite the name, the source of the disease remains unknown.) Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University infectious-disease expert, answers questions about the virus, which has been declared a national health emergency by the U.S. How is it transmitted? The rash itself is very infectious, so it’s mainly through prolonged skin-to-skin contact. There could also be respiratory transmission through a long conversation with someone, but you’d have to be very close. And it can sometimes infect sheets and blankets if there’s substantial…

TIM TAKES THE STAGE Chicago, Aug. 5 After taking a break from performing to film season 1 of 1883, Tim McGraw returned to headline the Windy City Smokeout music festival. “Nights like this are what it’s all about!” he wrote on Instagram. “Had the time of my life this weekend.” SUMMER LOVE New York City, Aug. 6 Katie Holmes and boyfriend Bobby Wooten III held hands and smiled during a walk in the park. ACTION! New York City, Aug. 5 Amanda Seyfried got ready for her close-up while filming the new Apple TV+ anthology series The Crowded Room. OLIVIA’S MINI-ME On Aug. 5 Olivia Munn shared a photo of her 8-month-old son Malcolm (whose dad is John Mulaney) on Instagram. DOGS DAYS OF SUMMER East Hampton, N.Y., Aug. 1 Jon Hamm…

Nine months after they broke the Internet with a hot new romance, Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson have broken up. “It was an amicable split,” says a Kardashian source. “They had discussed ending their relationship for a bit. It wasn’t sudden. And it was mutual.” Multiple sources close to the SKIMS founder, 41, and the comedian, 28—who enjoyed lavish vacations and didn’t shy away from PDA over the course of their courtship—say that busy work schedules and the challenges of a long-distance relationship (she lives in L.A., he in N.Y.C.) contributed to their breakup. “Things heated up quickly in the beginning,” an insider says of the former couple, who began dating last October after connecting when she hosted Saturday Night Live. “They traveled back and forth to see each…

The “Get Into It (Yuh)” rapper, 26, is ready to get out of her Beverly Hills abode. Doja Cat (real name: Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini) has listed her 2,404-sq.-ft. house—where she often filmed TikToks—with Tami Pardee and Paige Ogden of Pardee Properties. Sitting off L.A.’s famed Mulholland Drive, the single-family property was built in 1960 and features three bedrooms and two bathrooms, as well as a pool and entertaining space in the backyard. on sale for $2.495 MILLION…

Sandman is a fantasy epic based on Neil Gaiman’s comic-book series. Were you a fan before you were cast in the central role? I hadn’t read it, but I knew about it—the title is pervasive in the culture. Once I did, I fell deeply in love. I must have read all 3,000 or so pages of it, eight or nine times. So … what was it like filming a scene completely naked in a glass sphere? As horrible as you could imagine it to be. It was a baptism of fire and incredibly ridiculous. I felt I could take anything on from then on. You appear to have zero social media accounts. How come? I got an iPhone when they first came out, and then I lost it. I…

Imagine Will & Grace without Grace. Or rather, without her portrayer Debra Messing. The flame-haired favorite brought her pitch-perfect timing and delightful physical comedy to the NBC sitcom about gay New York lawyer Will Truman (Eric McCormack) and his high-strung BFF Grace Adler. Messing, 54, admits she nearly turned down the role without reading the script. “I was doing an hour-long drama on ABC called Prey, working 15, 16, 17 hours a day,” Messing recalls of the short-lived 1998 series. “When it ended, I just told my agents, ‘I’m going to be in bed for the next three months. Don’t call me.’” Her phone rang anyway. “They said, ‘There is a script, and it’s special.’ I was like, ‘No.’ They said, ‘Stay in bed. We’re going to messenger it over…

Thick black smoke billowed from the windows of the Hibbs family’s house in Croydon, Pa., on the afternoon of April 19, 1991. As 12-year-old David Hibbs arrived home from school, he saw the flames and screamed for a neighbor, who called 911. Firefighters rushed to the scene and doused the blaze but soon made a grisly discovery inside—Joy Hibbs, 35, was slumped in David’s bedroom, an electrical cord wrapped around her neck. The mother of two had been beaten, stabbed and strangled before her house was set on fire. For the little boy who had stumbled onto a crime scene, the pain would last a lifetime. “My earliest memory is I would grab onto the back of her nightgown and follow her around the house. I was always by her…