Emilia Clarke, l’actrice vedette de Game of Thrones ne se départit jamais de son sourire. Toujours enjouée et accessible, la jeune femme a pourtant vécu deux drames successifs qui ont failli lui coûter sa carrière, et la vie.

Emilia Clarke a choisi le New Yorker pour dévoiler son histoire. Dans les colonnes du célèbre magazine américain, l’interprète de Daenerys dans la série à succès Game of Thrones, a publié un long récit dans lequel elle raconte avoir survécu à deux hémorragies cérébrales en 2011 et 2013. Le premier accident survient le 11 février 2011, alors que le tournage de la première saison vient juste de s’achever. La jeune femme de seulement 24 ans souffre tout à coup de maux de tête terribles dont l’intensité va en s’amplifiant, au point de devenir insupportables. Transportée en urgence à l’hôpital, les médecins lui annoncent la mauvaise nouvelle : “ Le diagnostic fut rapide et de mauvais augure : une hémorragie méningée, un type mortel d’accident vasculaire cérébral”.

Opérée dans la foulée, l’hémorragie est heureusement rapidement contrôlée. Mais un autre cauchemar commence pour l’actrice : ” Mon nom complet est Emilia Isobel Euphemia Rose Clarke. Mais je ne parvenais pas à me le rappeler. A la place, des mots sans queue ni tête sortaient de ma bouche “. Si ces pertes de mémoires et difficultés d’élocution ont heureusement été transitoires, elle ont failli poussé l’actrice à commettre l’irréparable : ” Au plus bas, j’ai voulu en finir. J’ai demandé à l’équipe médicale de me laisser mourir. Mon travail – le rêve de ma vie pour toujours – était axé sur le langage, la communication. Sans ça, j’étais perdue “.

La jeune femme reprend le chemin des plateaux de tournage de la saison 2, mais avec une épée de Damoclès au-dessus de la tête. Les médecins lui ayant révélé qu’elle avait un autre anévrisme susceptible de se rompre à tout moment. Épuisée et souffrant toujours de douleurs nécessitant la prise de morphine, l’actrice tente pourtant de faire bonne figure : “Pour être très honnête, je pensais chaque minute que j’allais mourir ». En 2013, un scanner révèle que son anévrisme a doublé de volume et qu’elle doit être opérée. Après avoir tenté une première intervention qui se solde par un échec, les chirurgiens sont contraint de pratiquer une procédure plus invasive. : “Quand ils m’ont réveillée, je hurlais de douleur“. Les suites opératoires et la convalescence sont un calvaire pour la jeune actrice. Elle reste un moins à l’hôpital, un mois de douleurs et d’angoisse.

Aujourd’hui Emilia Clarke va bien, mieux que bien même. Elle confie avoir guéri, au-delà de tous ses espoirs, et être désormais “à 100%”. L’actrice a annoncé sur son compte Instagram le lancement de son organisme de charité baptisé SameYou et destiné à soutenir les personnes pendant leur chirurgie du cerveau et leur convalescence. Un engagement qui lui tient à cœur.

Crédits photos : Agence/Bestimage

Un peu plus d’un an avant sa sortie, l’épisode VIII de la saga “Star Wars” est toujours gardé totalement secret. Récemment, l’interprète de Kylo Ren a pourtant expliqué au site Collider à quoi pourrait bien ressembler la tonalité du film…

Encore 15 mois à patienter avant la sortie de l’épisode VIII ! Et en attendant un premier teaser, une affiche ou même un titre, c’est souvent auprès des acteurs eux-mêmes (tenus au plus grand secret, évidemment) que l’on essaie de récolter quelques nouvelles. Récemment, c’était au tour d’Adam Driver (interprète de Kylo Ren), venu présenter Paterson, le nouveau film de Jim Jarmusch qui avait fait sensation à Cannes cette année, d’être interrogé par le site Collider sur le prochain opus de la saga Star Wars. 

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Sans rentrer outre mesure dans les détails, le comédien a pourtant décrit la tonalité que prenait selon lui le scénario du film :

“C’est vraiment bon. Ça ressemble à L’Empire contre-attaque en terme de différence de ton. Tout le monde va tout de suite se dire “oooh c’est sombre” mais je ne sais pas si c’est vraiment le cas. Le ton se distingue simplement d’une manière que je trouve super et nécessaire, mais aussi très claire.”

Adam Driver a également raconté comment s’était passé le tournage sous la houlette de Rian Johnson, successeur de J.J. Abrams dans le fauteuil du réalisateur. Une tâche qu’il semble avoir assumée sans aucun problème :

“Rian est arrivé au sein de quelque chose que nous avions en quelque sorte installé, et il l’a emmené au niveau supérieur d’une façon géniale. Il a également écrit le film, et sa manière d’écrire est très claire. J’ai beaucoup appris sur mon personnage à travers son scénario. […] Il a confiance dans le fait que son public est prêt pour la nuance et pour l’ambiguïté. Il ne simplifie rien pour personne et c’est vraiment amusant à jouer,” explique Driver.

En attendant de découvrir le résultat de tout ce travail, le prochain rendez-vous dans la galaxie Star Wars est prévu pour le 14 décembre avec “Rogue One”…

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C’est une maman angoissée qui s’est confiée. Alors que les téléspectateurs s’apprêtent à les retrouver dans Demain nous appartient, Vanessa Demouy s’est livrée sur les choix de vie de son fils Solal, et notamment en ce qui concerne ses projets de carrière.

Du haut de ses 16 ans, Solal a déjà une idée bien précise de ce qu’il veut faire dans la vie. Il faut dire que ses parents l’ont baigné malgré eux dans le cinéma. Et pour cause, Solal est le fils aîné de Vanessa Demouy et Philippe Lellouche. Le jeune homme semble donc vouloir suivre les traces de ses parents. C’est ce qu’a confié à regret Vanessa Demouy ce lundi 8 avril dans les colonnes de Télé 7 Jours. « Mon fils commence à évoquer le fait qu’il aimerait se lancer dans une carrière artistique », déplore celle qui s’apprête à faire son retour dans la série quotidienne de TF1, Demain nous appartient.

Et d’expliquer : « En tant que maman, c’est très angoissant. J’ai plutôt envie qu’il trouve un métier plus stable, qui s’inscrive dans la durée ». Pourtant, celle qui est également maman d’une jeune Sharlie, bientôt 8 ans commence à se faire une raison. « Vous connaissez les enfants, ils font ce qu’ils veulent à l’arrivée », lâche-t-elle dans un éclat de rire. Il faut dire qu’elle est plutôt mal placée pour l’empêcher de se lancer dans une carrière artistique. D’autant plus qu’elle aussi a débuté très jeune. Vanessa Demouy avait à peine 20 ans lorsque sa carrière a décollée, avec notamment Classe mannequin. Cela lui permettra néanmoins de mettre en garde son fils.

Même si celui-ci risque de se tourner davantage vers son père. « Je ne suis même pas sûre qu’il me voie comme une comédienne, vu que j’ai mis ma carrière entre parenthèses quand il est arrivé. Je me contentais de faire du théâtre avec mon ex-mari (Philippe Lellouche), à ce moment-là. Du coup, pour lui, l’artiste, c’était son papa, que j’accompagnais », expliquait Vanessa Demouy en juillet dernier.

Crédits photos : Bestimage

Netflix dévoilera le 11 novembre prochain son tout nouveau film original “Les Mémoires d’un assassin international” qui s’annonce comme une comédie des plus loufoques. Découvrez la bande-annonce.

Contrairement à ce que peut laisser penser son titre, Les Mémoires d’un assassin international est belle et bien une comédie. En rôle-titre, Kevin James (Hitch : Expert en séduction, Kevin Can Wait), dans le rôle d’un écrivain sans histoires. Jusqu’au jour où il est confondu avec un tueur à gages alors que son roman, relatant les aventures d’un assassin international, est publié sous la forme d’une histoire vraie. Tandis que le livre connaît un succès retentissant, l’écrivain est victime d’un enlèvement et se retrouve impliqué dans un complot d’assassinat.

Ce nouveau long-métrage, qui mélange action et espionnage, reste dans la lignée des films que Netflix a produits cette année (avec pour commencer les deux productions d’Adam Sandler The Ridiculous 6 et The Do-Over). Nous retrouvons au casting de cette comédie Andy Garcia (Le Parrain), Maurice Compte (Narcos) ou encore Zulay Henao. Le scénario est signé Jeff Morris et Jeff Wadlow.

Les Mémoires d’un assassin international, le 11 novembre sur Netflix.

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Demonstrators take part in a protest on climate emergency outside the U.N. Climate Change Conference COP25 in Madrid on Friday.

The global climate talks in Madrid ended on Sunday – two days after its scheduled closing, and with little to show for the marathon session.

The Madrid-based summit, known as COP25, or generically as the U.N. Climate Change Summit, was intended as a time to hammer out the rules and commitments that would get the world’s nations on track to meet the targets of the 2015 Paris climate accord. Instead, the talks showed deep divisions, as small countries highly vulnerable to rising seas and powerful storms were at odds with wealthy, high-emitting countries like the United States.

The end result of the longest meeting in 25 years of climate talks was a declaration stating an “urgent need” to cut greenhouse gases to meet the Paris climate goals, and a promise to help poor countries facing catastrophe, the Associated Press reports.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres expressed disappointment with the outcome of the talks.

“The international community lost an important opportunity to show increased ambition on mitigation, adaptation & finance to tackle the climate crisis. But we must not give up, and I will not give up,” he tweeted. “I am more determined than ever to work for 2020 to be the year in which all countries commit to do what science tells us is necessary to reach carbon neutrality in 2050 and a no more than 1.5 degree temperature rise.”

Countries signing the Paris Agreement agreed to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, and ideally 1.5 degrees.

But we are quickly losing the chance to hit the 1.5-degree target, according to a recent U.N. report. The world is currently on course for a temperature rise of 3 to 4 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, with potentially disastrous consequences.

A man takes a nap during the talks in Madrid on Sunday, the longest in 25 years of the U.N. climate change meetings. The chairwoman had scheduled delegates to meet at 1:30 a.m. on Sunday to resume negotiations.

One of the key issues that was to be resolved at the summit was how to regulate carbon markets, which would put a price on emitting carbon dioxide. But no agreement was reached, and the topic will now be taken up at next year’s talks in Glasgow. Another subject shelved for now was the issue of liability for damages caused by rising temperatures; the AP reports that the U.S. was the major resistor on that topic.

Among the other countries that delegates said had dragged their feet on bolder action were China, Brazil, Australia and Saudi Arabia.

Helen Mountford, vice president for Climate and Economics at World Resources Institute said in a statement that the negotiations “fell far short” of expectations. “Instead of leading the charge for more ambition, most of the large emitters were missing in action or obstructive,” she said. “This reflects how disconnected many national leaders are from the urgency of the science and the demands of their citizens. They need to wake up in 2020.”

“This is the biggest disconnect between this process and what’s going on in the real world that I’ve seen,” Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy for the Union of Concerned Scientists, told The Washington Post. He has been attending climate talks since 1991.

“You have the science crystal on where we need to go. You have the youth and others stepping up around the world in the streets pressing for action,” he added. “It’s like we’re in a sealed vacuum chamber in here, and no one is perceiving what is happening out there — what the science says and what people are demanding.”

There was one bright spot: In Brussels, the EU agreed on Friday to move forward with its commitment to carbon neutrality by 2050. Poland, which is highly reliant on coal and opposed the move, has been exempted for now.

In Madrid, climate activists including many young people demanded that negotiators and world leaders do better to stem global warming.

Activists from Extinction Rebellion dumped horse manure outside the meeting venue on Saturday. They included a brief note to the leaders: “The horses*** stops here.”

“Just like rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic, this COP’s fiddling with carbon accounting and negotiating of Article 6, is not commensurate to the planetary emergency we face,” the group said in a statement. “[T]hose travelling first class are still enjoying the party too much to hear the cries of those already drowning in the decks below.”

Members of Parents For Peace gathered in Washington recently for its annual summit. The group is made up of former extremists and their families.

It was a busy fall morning at Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C. Myrieme Churchill found a clearing in the arrivals hall and scanned the crowd.

One by one, her people showed up: a black father and daughter from Tennessee. A white couple from Georgia. A Somali immigrant. Two South Asians — one from Canada, one from Britain. Churchill greeted them in a blend of languages: Salaam! Bonjour! Welcome to D.C.!

The travelers embraced and began chatting about the weather, barbecue, kids. Anything but the unseen thread that brought them together in Washington: extremism. That would come later, in private, at the fourth annual summit of the nonprofit Parents For Peace. Nearly everyone in the group is a former extremist or the relative of one.

“They were each isolated by their own stories,” said Churchill, the group’s executive director. “They were suffering on their own.”

Parents For Peace began in 2015 mainly as a support group. Now, in response to resurgent extremist violence, the focus is shifting to policy and prevention work. Members came to Washington to put human faces to a problem typically addressed as a national security issue. They want to reframe extremism as a public health emergency that cuts across race, religion, geography.

Churchill, a longtime psychotherapist, said she is inspired by the activists who swayed public perceptions of HIV in the 1980s and ’90s. They took what was then a socially untouchable, poorly understood condition and chipped away at the stigma by humanizing HIV patients, showing Americans that the disease can affect anyone. Churchill said she hopes Parents For Peace can do the same with extremism.

That was the message she delivered to members from a podium later that evening, at the opening of the summit.

“We are all here, part of a movement, to help others be better responders to extremism,” Churchill said. “We have a long journey ahead of us but we’re doing it together.”

The members introduced themselves, each packing years of anguish into a minute or two:

“I really am one of the lucky ones because everyone I know from 10 years ago is either in prison or dead,” said Tania Joya, the ex-wife of a high-ranking ISIS propagandist.

“I’m here with a bunch of parents that know exactly what I’ve been through, so it makes me kind of feel at home,” said Melissa Buckley, the wife of a former Klansman.

“I got involved in this because of my nephew. In 2008, when he went missing overnight, with six, seven other young men,” said Abdirizak Bihi, a Minnesotan whose nephew died in Somalia.

Next up was a brown guy in his 40s with a neatly trimmed goatee: “I’m Mubin Shaikh. I’m a former neo-Nazi.”

The members erupted in laughter. The joke is that Shaikh isn’t a former neo-Nazi — he is a former Islamist extremist. It’s the kind of dark humor they can indulge only here, with others who get it. Parents For Peace gives them that room to breathe, to commiserate, to be themselves.

“I know many of you are still grieving,” Churchill told them. “But I would like to make sure that each of you sees the incredible source of strength that you have.”

A no-judgment zone

Carlos Bledsoe grew up in a black, churchgoing Baptist family in Memphis, Tennessee. After getting into trouble with the law, he underwent a spiritual transformation and converted to Islam in college. No big deal, his family thought. They already had Muslim relatives.

Carlos changed his name and his lifestyle. Slowly, guided by newfound friends, he began drifting toward Islam’s extremist fringe.

“We were blindsided,” said Melvin Bledsoe, Carlos’ father. “We had no idea that someone was lurking to do harm to our family.”

Melvin Bledsoe (right) and his daughter, Monica Holley, founded Parents For Peace in 2015. Bledsoe’s son Carlos is serving a life sentence for a deadly 2009 shooting at a military recruiting office in Arkansas.

Carlos traveled to Yemen, ostensibly to teach English. When he came back, his family welcomed him with a limo and a party. But the man who returned, Melvin said, wasn’t the son he knew.

“When he came back to America,” he said, “we had no idea that he was fully loaded. Like a bomb.”

On June 1, 2009, Carlos Bledsoe, by then known as Abdulhakim Muhammad, opened fire on a military recruiting office in Arkansas. He killed one soldier and wounded another. Today, he is serving a life sentence. His father, Melvin, said he stays up at night envisioning his son in a cell, stuck there forever because he was brainwashed by “the hunters.”

“They changed his name, his behavior, his thoughts,” Melvin said. “He was no longer Carlos Bledsoe.”

Melvin said he didn’t want anyone else to feel what he calls the “everlasting pain” of losing a child to extremism. So he and his daughter, Monica Holley, founded Parents For Peace in 2015. Holley said the idea was to provide something her family had wished for during their ordeal: support through periods of intense grief and shame. One of the first priorities was creating a toll-free help line.

“This is a no-judgment zone,” Holley said. “And I think that’s the most comforting thing, to know that you can talk to someone and not be judged by what your loved one did.”

Parents For Peace now has about 20 members across the country, plus a few in Canada and Europe. For years, they have quietly worked with tech companies, terrorism researchers and politicians who seek a better understanding of extremist movements. This year, though, the group is raising its profile.

Through funding from Twitter, Parents For Peace obtained ad space on the New York City subway last fall. It was unprecedented exposure for a tiny group based out of Churchill’s home near Boston. The families’ busy Washington schedule included an event at the Embassy of Belgium and a panel discussion introduced by Rep. Bill Keating, D-Mass.

“I’m on a mission,” Melvin said. “I want to help others. No one should have to go through the pain. No one.”

The stories behind the Parents For Peace members are compelling. As the group becomes more visible, Churchill, the executive director, fights to keep it independent. She accepts no government money — the organization runs on a shoestring budget through grants and donations. She cajoled her husband, a filmmaker, into doing the promotional videos.

Churchill recalls feeling physically ill after turning down a big government grant at a time when the organization was broke. She says it was the right decision — the work’s credibility hinges on its independence — even though private donors aren’t exactly lining up.

“It’s incredibly difficult when we are not attractive,” Churchill said. “It’s a complicated issue; it’s too politicized.”

She is also careful about partnerships. She tries to protect families from partisan and anti-Muslim groups that seek to exploit the stories for their own agendas. On top of all that, Churchill also faces hostility in some Muslim quarters, where Parents For Peace is seen as a vehicle for the controversial practice of CVE, or countering violent extremism. That’s a catchall term for terrorism prevention strategies that critics say stigmatize Muslims and yield few or no measurable results.

Churchill said the diversity of Parents For Peace members is the best defense against the criticism. No one kind of radicalism is singled out. The members come from all different backgrounds. At the summit, a Somali Muslim with henna patterns on her hands sat next to an ex-skinhead with tattoos across his knuckles. They have political and religious differences; sometimes they squabble like family members.

“These are all individuals who’ve come face to face with extremism and paid the price,” Churchill said.

On the eve of the group’s trip to the U.S. Capitol, Churchill gently reminded them to set aside partisan differences and present a unified front against extremism.

“We know that we vote differently from one another,” Churchill said. “I love all of you members that are conservative and that are liberal and independent or you don’t care. We are on the same page.”

A voice interrupted from the back of the room.

“I’m a felon, so I don’t vote at all!” said Chris Buckley, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Chris Buckley, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan, greets Myrieme Churchill, the executive director of Parents For Peace. The group is made of up of former extremists and their families.

The others laughed. Buckley is one of the newest members. He is here because his wife, Melissa, decided in 2016 that she was tired of the toxic world of the KKK. She could no longer watch her 4-year-old son do the “white power” salute to be like his dad.

“I went into Google and I typed in: ‘How do you get your spouse or loved one out of a hate group?’ ” Melissa said.

She found an email address for an ex-skinhead named Arno Michaelis. He is well-known in the world of “formers,” a term for former extremists who sometimes help rehabilitate others. Michaelis works closely with Parents For Peace.

“It’s a shot in the dark, you know,” Melissa said of her thinking at the time. “I could email him, tell him my story, see what he says, and next thing I know, he responded. And I was like, OK, I just opened a can of worms for myself.”

Arno flew to the family’s home in Georgia for an intervention. Buckley was furious. But Melissa stood her ground. She gave her husband, the love of her life, an ultimatum.

“I said: ‘This is your choice. You stay in, me and the kids are gone.’ “

It took about seven months, but Buckley finally left the Klan. He doesn’t want to gloss over how hard it was. Leaving was like kicking an addiction.

“When you’re coming off of hate and extremism, it’s the same process,” he said. “You’ve got to have a support group. You’ve got to have a network.”

Through Parents For Peace, he is already doing intervention work of his own. He says it is small atonement for all the hate he has put into the world. The kind of hate that was on display in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017. A white supremacist rammed his car into a crowd and killed 32-year-old Heather Heyer. Buckley wasn’t there for the rally, but he still takes personal responsibility for the death.

“I might not have been driving the car, but I pushed the narrative. So I carry that,” he said. “So if I’m willing to sit here at this table and I’m willing to sit here in front of Congress tomorrow, and I’m going to tell them that, I ask them: What are they doing that’s responsible?”

A trip to the Capitol

The next day, the Parents For Peace members filed through security at the Capitol. They were all dressed up, gazing at the ornate architecture.

“The dream is coming true,” Melvin Bledsoe said.

Members of Parents For Peace pose for a group photo during a recent trip to the U.S. Capitol. The families say the group gives them the chance to find support and heal.

The visit was in the early days of the impeachment proceedings. The Capitol was in a frenzy. But the Parents For Peace members still managed to pack a meeting room for a panel on extremism.

Even congressional staffers who popped in for the free food ended up staying to hear the testimonials. Michaelis, the ex-skinhead who helped get Buckley out of the Klan, riveted the audience with the story of how his exit from the white-power movement started with a TV show.

“The sitcom Seinfeld was instrumental in my turnaround,” Michaelis said.

Michaelis is tall, blond, tattooed, but with the easygoing demeanor of a surfer dude. It’s hard to imagine him in his racist days, screaming into a mic as the lead singer in a white-power metal band. That was in the early ’90s, when Seinfeld was a hit. Like much of the country, Michaelis was hooked. But there was a problem: Jerry Seinfeld is Jewish. Arno Michaelis was an anti-Semitic white nationalist.

Michaelis said he began asking himself questions that made him uncomfortable. He began to doubt everything he believed.

“Hey, does Jerry Seinfeld get to live in your whiter and brighter world? If he does, do you think he’d be very funny if you’re killing all the other Jews?” Michaelis recalled thinking. “And the only answer to that is that I was full of s***.”

Michaelis has done this kind of outreach the longest; he was at ease with an audience. For the others, the pain is fresher. They looked uncomfortable being gawked at by Hill staffers.

They didn’t seem to relax until much later, when they were back at the hotel, together, veterans of an invisible war.

“We’ve all been hurt. We’ve all been manipulated,” Buckley said. “Some of us went one way; some of us lost; some of us ended up in different directions. But we all ended up here, for a reason.”

Senior producer Walter Ray Watson contributed to this report.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — National Pro Fastpitch (NPF) announced the addition the California Softball Commotion, a new affiliate team that will begin competition in 2020. The Commotion will give the league a West Coast team for the first time since 2005. The team, owned by security business expert entrepreneur Damon Zumwalt, will prioritize players that are familiar to the West Coast market. UCLA assistant coach Kirk Walker was tabbed head coach on Nov. 18. Walker will combine the coaching duties with a position as assistant general manager for the newly formed team.

“I am pleased to have the ability and opportunity to contribute to enabling these talented young women to pursue softball at the professional level in the NPF, and I am specifically committed to promoting the addition of West Coast teams, so that we can have a complete cross-country competition,” Zumwalt said in an announcement released by the league. “There is plenty of talent to create a very, very strong league, and women’s softball is fun to watch with a great deal of action. I am proud of my contribution to providing more opportunities for more women to continue their careers at the highest level of this sport.” 

“Adding a West Coast team to the NPF is such a proud moment for the league, and doing it in a year where softball will also have the Olympic spotlight shining upon it, is special,” NPF Commissioner Cheri Kempf said. “This is a capable ownership in Damon Zumwalt, with a passionate commitment to the sport of softball and the players who play it. I am sure Damon and his assembled staff will put together a highly competitive team to represent the deep rooted success that has always lived in West Coast softball.” 

Deb Hartwig, who played two seasons at Cal State Fullerton and is the owner and founder of JustSOFTBALL, as well as the co-owner of the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic and a former events director for the NPF, will serve as the team’s general manager. 

“Southern California has been longing for a professional team and the California Softball Commotion is just what they have been waiting for,” stated Hartwig. “It’s an exciting time for the professional softball world and NPF, with this expansion and the Olympics both taking place in 2020. We are committed to bringing a quality product to the largest fan base in the nation and I’m honored to lead the Commotion in this great adventure.” 

The Commotion bring back a recognizable name in women’s softball, with the Commotion being a top competitor in the Women’s Major Division of the former Amateur Softball Association (ASA) from 1992-99 featuring players like Lisa Fernandez, Dot Richardson, Sheila Douty, Lori Harrigan, Michele Granger, Gillian Boxx, Leah O’Brien, Laura Berg, Amy Chellevold, Karen Walker, Pam Newton, Jennifer Brundage, Jill Justin, Debbie Doom, Jenny Condon, Janice Parks, and Lisa Longaker. That team won four ASA national championships from 1996-99 and had a runner-up finish in 1995. 

The NPF’s California Sunbirds, in 2004-05, were the last pro team in the Golden State. Forty years before that, the International Women’s Professional Softball League featured an entire West Coast division. 

In September, shortly after capturing its second-straight Cowles Cup, five-time NPF champion USSSA Pride announced it would not return to the league in 2020. The league announced last month, however, that the Cleveland Comets would return in 2020, and continue their relationship with the Mexico National Team. 

Kirk Walker tabbed head coach and assistant general manager

The California Softball Commotion have named Kirk Walker as headcoach of the newest club to join the ranks of National Pro Fastpitch. Walker will combine the coaching duties with a position as assistant general manager for the newly formed team.

“We know that assembling this team and being competitive in our first season out, will depend heavily on designating the right person to lead the way,” commented Commotion General Manager, Deb Hartwig. “To be able to land a Head Coach with the success, experience and expertise Kirk brings to this position, is a huge win for this team. I look forward to working with Kirk in his capacity as Head Coach and Assistant General Manager and with this announcement, am anxious to begin putting our team together.”

Walker has a diverse and accomplished resume, both as a player and coach. Most recently, he was a member of the NFCA National Coaching Staff of the Year, as a member of the National Championship UCLA Bruins staff of 2019. That title marks his seventh as a staff member of the Bruins, combined with the titles of ’84, ’85, ’88, ’89, ’90 and ’92. Four times along the way, he and his fellow staff members were named NFCA Regional Coaching Staff of the Year. 

Walker began his coaching career while an undergrad at UCLA and spent eleven seasons there as an assistant (1984-1994), prior to taking on the Head Coaching position at Oregon State in 1995. Through an eighteen year tenure, Walker led the Beavers to ten post season NCAA Tournaments en route to becoming the winningest coach in OSU history. While there, he coached 79 All PAC 10/12 players, 28 NFCA All-Region players, and 10 NFCA All-Americans. 

On the women’s amateur side, Walker, as Head Coach of the California Commotion Women’s ASA team, led his highly decorated squad of superstars to four consecutive National Titles in the Women’s Major Division. Players on those teams included Lisa Fernandez, Dot Richardson, Sheila Douty, Lori Harrigan, Michele Granger, Gillian Boxx, Leah O’Brien, Laura Berg, Amy Chellevold, Karen Walker, Pam Newton, Jennifer Brundage, Jill Justin, Debbie Doom, Jenny Condon, Janice Parks, and Lisa Longaker. 

Walker has also been a member of the Team USA coaching staff. First, as a member of the twelve person coaching staff for the quadrennium of 2000-2004, which led up to the Athens Olympic Games of 2004, and later as an Assistant Coach on the 2017 Junior Women’s Team that won Gold at the World Championships. 

As a player, Walker has been a longtime pitcher in the Men’s Fastpitch Division. Most recently, in 2018, he was a member of the NAFA Men’s A National Championship team, where he was named to the All World Team for the sixth time in his career. 

“I am very excited for this opportunity to lead the new Commotion team and to help grow the professional level of fastpitch on the west coast,” stated Walker.  “The history of the California Commotion is based on putting high level athletes with great passion and character on the field to produce a winning culture. It is an honor to work with Damon and Deb to build an organization that can extend the opportunity for high level collegiate athletes to compete and perform on the professional stage.   California and the west coast have a rich tradition for impacting the sport of softball from the grass roots level and beyond.  With the great year round weather and the huge numbers of young women playing the game here on the west coast, there is a huge opportunity to entertain, educate, motivate and inspire the next generation of athletes and the fans of the game.”

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The Commotion become the first west coast presence for the sixteen year old league since 2005, and begin play in the spring of 2020. Exact schedule details will be made available in January by the league and its respective teams.

— Courtesy National Pro Fastpitch 

The Red Devils have struggled to impose themselves on lesser teams under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer despite eye-catching victories over top teams

Manchester United face Everton on Sunday with the chance to win three consecutive Premier League games for the first time this season, with victory at Old Trafford offering the opportunity to suggest Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is beginning to develop as a coach.

Before the recent impressive wins over Tottenham and Manchester City, there was a battling draw against Liverpool, two wins over Chelsea and a 1-0 success against high-flying Leicester City.

In each instance, they proved to be false dawns.

The disappointments still outweigh the positive surprises from this campaign at United, even with the club just five points off the Champions League places with a game in hand on Chelsea.

Leads and comebacks have been squandered too often. The arrivals of Harry Maguire and Aaron Wan-Bissaka have not shored United up at the back as Solskjaer would have wished when spending £140 million ($186.5m) on the pair over the summer despite a handful of impressive performances from the pair.

The recent recovery has lifted the atmosphere at United and among fans, however. They have shown their strongest qualities. They have conceded, but they ultimately held their nerves against some of the best attacking players in the Premier League.

They were profligate in both those matches too, but they were nevertheless ruthless enough to finally take enough chances to put the games out of reach. Too often under Solskjaer, United have had their foot on the throat of their opponents, only to let them wriggle free. That has to change, starting with the visit of the Toffees to the Theatre of Dreams.

This United side is perhaps the first to have entirely expunged the memory of Sir Alex Ferguson’s teams. Under both David Moyes and Louis van Gaal they still had regular late comebacks. Teams still rolled over in the face of players who had carried themselves with an air of arrogance when led by Ferguson.

Of course, consistency had left them by this point, but United’s opponents often felt they were playing   the 20-time English champions, rather than an unrecognisable team that just happened to share the same name.

Jose Mourinho, in thrall to himself and his opportunity, played up to the history of the club by acknowledging the sheer grandeur. It was only as he started lighting fires in his last summer did it seem clubs were happy to seize on the disarray consistently.

Solskjaer took over from there, and the pronounced collapse post-Paris Saint-Germain excised any sense of invulnerability. The poor start to the season showed that unless things changed radically, this was a team that deserved its mid-table status.

The Norwegian has, of course, often played up to the traditions of the club. In the absence of any achievements actually qualifying him for the job, invoking his past association with Ferguson and the treble-winning side of 1999 to ensure his credibility is rarely questioned. But on the pitch, there are no inspiring links with the past.

Chris Smalling has been dispatched to Italy while Phil Jones is used in emergencies only. David de Gea is the only Premier League title-winner with United remaining in the starting 11, but even he has lost some of his air of invincibility over the past 18 months.

The 10 players in front of him have almost nothing to do with Ferguson, and they finally have the chance to define what this team is. Solskjaer has been plain that this is a rebuilding job and that a return to youth is fundamental to instilling a new mentality. He is not trying to recreate the past, but he is taking his lessons from it.

Previous evidence suggests, though, that that chance will not necessarily be taken. So far there is inconsistency and  an irresponsibly thin squad. These are are insurmountable obstacles in terms of being able to pull off something truly spectacular. Indeed, overcoming weaknesses and setbacks is what can be the making of a durable team spirit, something that could finally be forged.

A win over Everton would go some way to achieving that. Against Duncan Ferguson’s revitalised team, United should be on the front foot. They played with gusto against City, their lack of possession entirely mitigated by the sheer mountain of confidence and swagger they brought with them. They came to make a new name for themselves and they achieved it.

“The intent was there to go forward, every time we had the ball it’s not about keeping it or slowing it down, we go for the kill and should have been three or 4-0 up,” were Solskjaer’s words post-match. Against Everton they will need to show that they can be the favourites and at the same time avoid complacency, going for the kill just as their manager has requested.

If they are able to do just that, a new dawn may finally be on the horizon.

Ce lundi 4 février, Emma Smet a publié un message énigmatique sur son compte Instagram. Publication qui a fait réagir de nombreuses personnes de sa famille. A commencer par son père, David Hallyday ainsi que sa grand-mère, Sylvie Vartan.

C’est un message plein de mystère qu’a publié Emma Smet. Ce lundi 4 février, la deuxième fille de David Hallyday et Estelle Lefébure a posté sur son compte Instagram une sublime photographie d’elle en noir et blanc à la plage. La jeune femme de 21 ans y est vêtue d’un t-shirt blanc et prend la pose la main dans les cheveux et le regard vers le sol. Un très joli cliché qui lui a valu plus de quatre milles « likes » mais qui est surtout accompagné d’une légende pour le moins énigmatique. « Ecoute le vent, il chante. Ecoute le silence, il parle. Ecoute ton cœur, il sait », a-t-elle écrit, citant un proverbe amérindien.

Un commentaire qui a provoqué quelques réactions, et notamment au sein de sa propre famille. Ainsi, sa tante Laura Smet a « liké » cette publication, mais elle a surtout fait réagir son père et sa grand-mère qui y sont allés de leur petit commentaire. David Hallyday a ajouté deux cœurs et un bisou en emoticones, tandis que Sylvie Vartan a répondu un tout aussi mystérieux : « Il sait… ». De quoi créer quelques interrogations auprès de ses abonnés, qui soulignent tous la beauté du texte publié par la grande sœur de Cameron Smet et de Giuliano Ramette et petite sœur d’Ilona Smet.

Crédits photos : Abaca

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Sa vie a littéralement changé le 15 décembre 2018. Ce jour-là, Vaimalama Chavez, tout droit venue de Tahiti, a été élue Miss France 2019, succédant ainsi à Maëva Coucke, originaire du Nord-Pas-de-Calais. Celle qui était jusqu’alors community manager dans une salle de sport a vu son quotidien se transformer depuis le début de son règne, comme elle l’a confié à nos confrères de TV magazine, ce vendredi 8 février : « Chaque jour est génial et ne ressemble jamais au précédent. Je m’éclate ! Même si c’est parfois difficile parce que cela demande beaucoup d’énergie, j’apprécie chaque moment » s’est-elle enthousiasmée.

S’agissant des Miss, il y a un sujet qui passionne les foules, c’est celui de la vie privée. Depuis qu’elle porte l’écharpe de Miss France 2019, Vaimalama Chavez fait l’objet de nombreuses rumeurs. Cette fois, la jeune femme de 24 ans a souhaité démentir les fausses informations circulant à son sujet. Dans son interview accordée à nos confrères, elle regrette que ses propos soient souvent déformés : « Je ne m’attendais pas à ce qu’ils soient autant déformés, mais je savais que tout ce que je dirais serait repris et grossi pour vendre. » Et fait une confidence pour le moins étonnante : « Ce qui me fait le plus rire, ce sont les rumeurs de coule alors que je serai seule pour la Saint-Valentin ». Cette révélation au sujet de sa vie intime, beaucoup l’attendaient.

En quelques semaines, Vaimalama Chavez aurait été au moins deux fois en couple, si l’on en croit certains médias. En décembre 2018, la jolie brune a été annoncée en couple avec un Tahitien âgé de trente ans, prénommé Tamatoa. Un mois plus tard, la reine de beauté aurait jeté son dévolu sur un footballeur. Tout est parti d’un cliché publié sur les réseaux sociaux, sur lequel on les apercevait côte à côte. La principale concernée n’avait pas tardé à réagir sur son compte Instagram, fin janvier : « Vous êtes nombreux à demander si Malick N’Diaye et moi sommes ensemble… La réponse est non ».

Crédits photos : Best Image