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Tim Burton says it felt like being in “a time warp” to see actor Michael Keaton walk onto his film set dressed as Beetlejuice – 36 years after shooting the original.

Speaking to Sky News, at the London premiere of the long-awaited sequel to his cult classic, the director explained how Keaton “didn’t rehearse anything” before they went on set.

“He just shows up and starts doing it, all that demon possession, it was like going into a time warp!”

While the director has made far more critically acclaimed works since – from Edward Scissorhands to Batman – his 1988 horror-comedy was so “out there” it was the film that firmly placed him on Hollywood’s radar.

Tim Burton attending the UK premiere of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice at Cineworld Leicester Square, London. Picture date: Thursday August 29, 2024. Pic: PA
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Tim Burton at the UK premiere of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Pic: PA

Recapturing a sense of that early “art school irreverence” was even more important to Burton all these years later, and why he shunned CGI.

“We shot it quickly… all the actors contributed making up stuff every day which is hard to do when you’re doing live effects.

Michael Keaton attend the UK premiere of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice at Cineworld Leicester Square, London. Picture date: Thursday August 29, 2024.
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Michael Keaton, on the red carpet in London, reprises his role as Betelgeuse (pronounced Beetlejuice). Pic: Reuters

“It was rushed and it was chaotic but that made it a lot of fun to make. It was in the spirit of the first movie, while it’s not going to win any awards for special effects, it was part of its DNA to do it like this.”

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Winona Ryder reprises her role as goth heroine Lydia Deetz, but this time her character is a mother who has a daughter, played by actress Jenna Ortega.

Cast member Winona Ryder attends the UK premiere of the film "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" at Leicester Square in London, Britain, August 29, 2024. REUTERS/Mina Kim
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Winona Ryder was just 15 when she started filming the original, and returns for the sequel. Pic: Reuters

The young star told Sky News she is a big fan of the original movie, and admits it was “absolute chaos” to film fan-pleasing scenes, where she gets to lip sync songs in a similar vein to the 1988 film.

“We were making each other laugh constantly, there was a lot of creating and collaborating and as an actor it was incredibly inspiring.”

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Barry Keoghan joins cast of Peaky Blinders movie

So why make the Beetlejuice sequel now and what’s new?

As Burton admits: “People keep asking how he’s evolved and I just laugh, he hasn’t evolved!”

“You couldn’t make this film in 1989, what you really had to do was think about Lydia and what happens as you move from cool teenager to screwed up adult. Relationships, children, because we all change over time, you don’t stay a cool teenager forever.”

Burton – one of the coolest and most imaginative filmmakers in modern cinematic history – disputes if he could ever describe himself in that way.

“I was not a cool teenager,” he laughed.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is released on 6 September in the UK.

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Erin Brockovich: ‘My chiropractor saw mud on my stiletto – I said, I’ve been collecting dead frogs’

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Erin Brockovich: 'My chiropractor saw mud on my stiletto - I said, I've been collecting dead frogs'

Erin Brockovich says a chance conversation about a muddy stiletto with her chiropractor led to the making of the award-winning film about her life.

The climate activist, who was played by Julia Roberts in the movie, told Sky News: “My girlfriend, who was a chiropractor, was giving me a chiropractic adjustment and asked me why I had mud on my stilettos.

“I said, ‘Oh, I’ve been collecting dead frogs’. She goes, ‘What is wrong with you?’ So, I started telling her what I was doing.”

Then just a junior paralegal, Brockovich was in fact pulling together evidence that would see her emerge victorious from one of the largest cases of water contamination in US history in Hinkley, California.

Her hard work would see her win a record settlement from Pacific Gas & Electric Company – $333m (£254m) – but that was all still to come.

Little did Brockovich know, but her tale of a muddy stiletto would get back to actor Danny DeVito and his Jersey Films producing partner Michael Schamburg, and through them to the film’s director Steven Soderbergh.

Brockovich says Soderbergh was “wowed” by what he heard.

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She says he realised her image “was something that Hollywood might be drawn to that I was never thinking of – the short skirt, the attitude, the big bust, the stilettos, the backcombed hair. Somehow, it came together.”

‘I was always going to be misunderstood’

Released in 2000, the powerful story of one woman’s fight for justice made Brockovich a household name, and the film won actress Julia Roberts an Oscar.

Now, 25 years on, Brockovich says she believes her legal victory was helped in part by an unlikely ally – her learning difficulty.

Julia Roberts and Russell Crowe pictured after winning Oscars for best actor and actress during the Oscars in 2001. Pic: AP/Richard Drew
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Julia Roberts and Russell Crowe win best actress and actor at
the 2001 Oscars. Pic: AP/Richard Drew

Brockovich says: “Had I not been dyslexic, I might have missed Hinkley.”

Recently named a global ambassador for charity Made By Dyslexia, she’s been aware of her learning differences since childhood and still struggles today.

She says “moments of low self-esteem” still “creep back in”, and she long ago accepted “I was always going to be misunderstood”.

But for Brockovich, recognising her dyslexic strengths while working in Hinkley proved a pivotal moment: “My observations are wickedly keen. I feel like a human radar some days… Things you might not see as a pattern, I recognise. There are things that intuitively, I absolutely know.

“It will take me some time in my visual patterns of what I’m seeing, how to organise that. And it was in Hinkley that that moment happened for me because it was so omnipresent [and] in my face. Everything that should have been normal was not.”

‘A huge perfect storm’

Brockovich paints a bleak picture of what she saw in the small town: “The trees were secreting poison, the cows were covered in tumours, the chickens had wry neck [a neurological condition that causes the head to tilt abnormally], the people were sick and unbeknown to them, I knew they were all having the exact same health patterns. To the green water, to the two-headed frog, all of that was just I was like on fire, like electricity going, ‘Oh my gosh, what’s going on out here?'”

She describes it as “a huge, perfect storm that came together for me in Hinkley”.

But a side effect of the movie – overnight global fame – wasn’t always easy to deal with.

Pic. Made By Dyslexia
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Pic. Made By Dyslexia

Brockovich calls it “scary,” admitting, “when the film first came out the night of the premiere, I was literally shaking so bad, I was so overwhelmed, that Universal Studios said, ‘If we can’t get you to calm down, I think we need to take you home’. It was a lot”.

Brockovich says she kept grounded by staying focused on her work, her family and her three children.

With Hollywood not always renowned for its faithful adherence to fact, Brockovich says the film didn’t whitewash the facts.

“I think they really did a good job at pointing out our environmental issues. Hollywood can do that, they can tell a good story. And I’m glad it was not about fluff and glamour. I’m glad it was about a subject that oftentimes we don’t want to talk about. Water pollution, environmental damage. People being poisoned.”

‘Defend ourselves against environmental assaults’

While environmental awareness is now part of the daily conversation in a way it wasn’t a quarter of a century ago, the battle to protect the climate is far from over.

Just last month, Donald Trump laid out plans to slash over 30 climate and environmental regulations as part of an ongoing effort to boost US industries from coal to manufacturing and ramp up oil and minerals production.

In response, Brockovich says, “We’re not going to stop it, but we can defend against these environmental assaults.

“We can do better with infrastructure. We can do better on a lot of policy-making. I think there’s a moment here. We have to do that because the old coming into the new isn’t working.

“I’ve recognised the patterns for 30-plus years, we just keep doing the same thing over and over and over and over again, expecting a different result.

“For me, sometimes it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, just get your ego out of the way’. We have to accept that this might be something greater than us, but we can certainly defend ourselves and protect ourselves and prepare ourselves better so we can get through that storm.”

You can listen to Brockovich speaking about her dyslexia with Made By Dyslexia founder Kate Griggs on the first episode of the new season of the podcast Lessons In Dyslexic Thinking, wherever you get your podcasts.

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Menendez brothers’ resentencing hearing can go ahead next week, says judge

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Menendez brothers' resentencing hearing can go ahead next week, says judge

The Menendez brothers’ bid for freedom through resentencing can continue with the hearing scheduled for Thursday, a judge has ruled.

Lyle, 57, and Erik, 54, received life sentences without the possibility of parole after being convicted of murdering their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, at their Beverly Hills home in 1989.

Lyle was 21 at the time, Erik was 18.

Last year, Los Angeles district attorney George Gascon asked a judge to change the brothers’ sentence from life without the possibility of parole to 50 years to life. That would make them immediately eligible for parole because they committed the crime when they were younger than 26.

But Mr Gascon’s successor Nathan Hochman submitted a motion last month to withdraw the resentencing request, saying the brothers must fully acknowledge lies they told about the murder of their parents before he would support their release from prison.

Separately, Governor Gavin Newsom, who has the power to commute their sentences, has asked the parole board to consider whether the brothers would represent a public safety risk if released.

Anamaria Baralt, cousin of Erik and Lyle Menendez, hugs attorney Mark Geragos after a hearing in the brothers' case Friday, April 11, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
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Anamaria Baralt, cousin of Erik and Lyle Menendez, hugs attorney Mark Geragos. Pic: AP

In light of Mr Hochman’s opposition, Los Angeles County Superior Court judge Michael Jesic ruled on Friday that the court can move forward with the hearing.

“Everything you argued today is absolutely fair game for the resentencing hearing next Thursday,” he said.

From prison, the brothers watched through a video link and could be seen in court seated next to each other in blue.

Speaking after the hearing, the brothers’ lawyer said: “Today is a good day. Justice won over politics.”

Prosecutors accused the brothers of killing their parents for a multimillion-dollar inheritance, although their defence team argued they acted out of self-defence after years of sexual abuse by their father.

A preliminary hearing held in Beverly Hills, Calif., for Lyle, left, and Erik Menendez, was postponed Friday as their lawyers fought to keep potentially incriminating evidence out of the case, April 12, 1991. Lyle, 23, and Eric, 20, are charged in the August 1989 shotgun murders of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez. (APP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)
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The brothers were convicted in 1996 of first-degree murder. Pic: AP

The brothers have maintained their parents abused them since they were first charged with the murders.

A Netflix drama series and subsequent documentary about the brothers thrust them back into the spotlight last year, and led to renewed calls for their release – including from some members of their family.

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Ex-Abercrombie & Fitch chief executive Mike Jeffries ‘unfit to stand trial due to dementia’, prosecutors and defence team say

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Ex-Abercrombie & Fitch chief executive Mike Jeffries 'unfit to stand trial due to dementia', prosecutors and defence team say

Abercrombie & Fitch’s former chief executive is not fit to stand trial on sex trafficking charges as he is suffering from dementia, both prosecutors and his lawyers have said.

Mike Jeffries has Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy body dementia and the “residual effects of a traumatic brain injury”, his defence attorneys wrote in a letter filed at a federal court in Central Islip, New York.

The 80-year-old needs around-the-clock care, they added, citing evaluations by medical professionals.

Prosecutors and defence lawyers are calling for Jeffries to be placed in the custody of the federal bureau of prisons for up to four months. They say he should be admitted to hospital to have treatment that could allow his criminal case to proceed.

The business tycoon, who led fashion retailer A&F from 1992 to 2014, pleaded not guilty to federal sex trafficking and interstate prostitution charges in October, and was released on a $10m (£7.65m) bond.

A total of 15 men allege they were induced by “force, fraud and coercion” to engage in drug-fuelled sex parties.

Prosecutors have accused Jeffries, his partner Matthew Smith, and the couple’s alleged “recruiter” James Jacobson, of luring men to parties in New York City, the Hamptons and other locations, by dangling the prospect of modelling for A&F advertisements.

Smith and Jacobson have also pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.

‘Progressive and incurable’

In their latest letter on Jeffries’ health, his defence lawyers said at least four medical professionals had concluded his cognitive issues are “progressive and incurable”, and that he will not “regain his competency and cannot be restored to competency in the future”.

These issues “significantly impair” his ability to understand the charges against him, they wrote.

Matthew Smith leaves a federal courthouse in Central Islip, New York., on Tuesday, 3 December. Pic: AP Photo/Seth Wenig
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Jeffries’ partner Matthew Smith, pictured outside the court in December, has also pleaded not guilty. Pic: AP

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“The progressive nature of his neurocognitive disorder ensures continued decline over time, further diminishing his already limited functional capacity,” said Dr Alexander Bardey, a forensic psychiatrist, and Dr Cheryl Paradis, a forensic psychologist, following evaluations made in December.

“It is, therefore, our professional opinion, within a reasonable degree of psychological and psychiatric certainty, that Mr Jeffries is not competent to proceed in the current case and cannot be restored to competency in the future.”

Jeffries left A&F in 2014 after leading the company for more than two decades, taking the retailer from a hunting and outdoor goods store founded in 1892 to a fixture of early 2000s fashion.

His lawyers did not immediately respond to requests by the Associated Press news agency for comment. The US attorney’s office for the eastern district of New York declined to comment.

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