Guilty Pleasures

By Associated Press

San Francisco names street for Associated Press photographer who captured the iconic Iwo Jima photo

SAN FRANCISCO | A photojournalist who captured one of the most enduring images of World War II — the U.S. Marines raising the flag on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima — will have a block in downtown San Francisco named for him Thursday.

Joe Rosenthal, who died in 2006 at age 94, was working for The Associated Press in 1945 when he took the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo.

After the war, he went to work as a staff photographer for the San Francisco Chronicle, and for 35 years until his retirement in 1981, he captured moments of city life both extraordinary and routine.

Rosenthal photographed famous people for the paper, including a young Willie Mays getting his hat fitted as a San Francisco Giant in 1957, and regular people, including children making a joyous dash for freedom on the last day of school in 1965.

Tom Graves, chapter historian for the USMC Combat Correspondents Association, which pushed for the street naming, said it was a shame the talented and humble Rosenthal is known by most for just one photograph.

“From kindergarten to parades, to professional and amateur sports games, he was the hometown photographer,” he told the Chronicle. “I think that’s something that San Francisco should recognize and cherish.”

The 600 block of Sutter Street near downtown’s Union Square will become Joe Rosenthal Way. The Marines Memorial Club, which sits on the block, welcomes the street’s new name.

Rosenthal never considered himself a wartime hero, just a working photographer lucky enough to document the courage of soldiers.

When complimented on his Pulitzer Prize-winning photo, Rosenthal said: “Sure, I took the photo. But the Marines took Iwo Jima.”

Selena Gomez reveals engagement to Benny Blanco

Selena Gomez is having quite a year, and it’s being capped with an engagement to music producer and songwriter Benny Blanco.

The Grammy- and Emmy-nominated performer announced she was off the market in an Instagram post Wednesday of her ring and an embrace with her fiancé, with the caption “Forever begins now.”

Celebrity fans sent their congratulations, with rapper Lil Nas X writing “So happy for you both” and Taylor Swift saying “Yes I will be the flower girl.” Well-wishes were also sent by Gwyneth Paltrow, Lily Collins and Padma Lakshmi.

Gomez became a Golden Globe double nominee Monday for her roles in “Emilia Pérez” and “Only Murders in the Building.”

In 2020, Gomez started the Rare Impact Fund and her Rare Beauty line of cosmetics, pledging to donate 1% of all sales to the fund to help expand mental health services and education for young people.

Blanco and Gomez worked together on the 2019 song “I Can’t Get Enough,” which also featured J Balvin and Tainy. In 2018, Blanco released his first song — “Eastside” — with Khalid and Halsey, and the trio performed it at the 2018 American Music Awards.

Among the songs he’s credited on as a writer and producer include Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream,” Kesha’s “Tik Tok,” “Circus” by Britney Spears and Maroon 5’s “Moves Like Jagger.”

New Zealand official reverses visa refusal for U.S. conservative influencer Candace Owens

WELLINGTON, New Zealand | A New Zealand immigration official has overturned a ban on the U.S. conservative political commentator Candace Owens entering the country, citing “the importance of free speech,” a spokesperson for the official said Thursday.

Owens is scheduled to speak at events in several Australian cities and in Auckland, New Zealand, in February and March. But Australia’s Immigration Minister Tony Burke barred her from that country in October, mentioning remarks in which she denied Nazi medical experimentation on Jews in concentration camps during World War II.

The commentator, who has more than 3 million followers on YouTube, is accused by her detractors of promoting conspiracy theories and stoking antisemitism, and has ignited firestorms with her remarks opposing Black Lives Matter, feminism, vaccines and immigration.

New Zealand’s immigration agency refused her an entertainer’s work permit in November on the ground that visas legally cannot be granted to those who have been excluded from another country.

Owens appealed the decision to Associate Immigration Minister Chris Penk, according to a statement by Penk’s office on Thursday. Penk, who is allowed discretion on visa decisions, granted Owens a visa “after considering representations made to him, including the importance of free speech,” the statement said.

She remains unable to enter Australia, however. Burke told reporters in October that Owens “has the capacity to incite discord in almost every direction,” citing her remarks about the Holocaust and about Muslims.

Burke’s spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

The Sydney-based promoter of the tour, Rocksman, welcomed the New Zealand reversal as “a win for free speech, and for all those who believe in the importance of robust debate and open dialogue.”

The statement quoted Owens as saying that the reversal was “a step toward a world where individuals are allowed to express their views without fear of censorship or government interference.”

Owens had promised Australian and New Zealand audiences a discussion of free speech and her Christian faith when she announced the speaking tour in August. The promoter is still selling tickets in both countries.

Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn are sued by the personal chef they fired

NEW YORK | Woody Allen’s former personal chef claims in a lawsuit that the filmmaker and his wife fired him because of his service in the U.S. Army Reserves and questions about his pay, then “rubbed salt on the wounds” by saying they didn’t like his cooking.

Allen and Soon-Yi Previn “simply decided that a military professional who wanted to be paid fairly was not a good fit to work in the Allen home,” private chef Hermie Fajardo said in a civil complaint filed Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan.

Allen and Previn knew Fajardo would need time off for military training exercises when they and their home manager hired him as their full-time chef in June 2024 at an annual salary of $85,000, the complaint said. But he was fired the following month, soon after returning from a training that lasted a day longer than expected, it said.

When Fajardo returned to work, “he was immediately met with instant hostility and obvious resentment by defendants,” according to the lengthy complaint.

At the time, Fajardo had been raising concerns about his pay — first that his employers weren’t properly withholding taxes or providing a paystub, then that they shortchanged him by $300, according to the complaint.

Allen, Previn and manager Pamela Steigmeyer are accused in the lawsuit of violating the federal Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act and New York labor law, as well as causing Fajardo humiliation, stress and a loss of earnings.

Representatives for Allen did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

Fajardo said he was hired after being showered with compliments following a meal of roasted chicken, pasta, chocolate cake and apple pie he prepared for the defendants and two guests. According to the complaint, it was only after Previn fired him and he hired a lawyer that he was told his cooking was not up to par, a claim Fajardo said was untrue.

—From AP reports