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Black residents allege discrimination at film studio town

Source image: https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/black-residents-allege-discrimination-film-studio-town-93505987

ATLANTA — A group of Black residents have filed a lawsuit claiming racial discrimination in a housing development associated with the Georgia film studio used to shoot well-known movies and television shows.

The Town at Trilith sits across the street from Trilith Studios, which was originally known as Pinewood Atlanta Studios, and has about 300 homes and about 1,000 residents, the lawsuit says.

The five current and former residents allege they experienced racial discrimination by the development’s management and faced retaliation when they raised concerns, according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in Fulton County Superior Court.

The suit alleges violations of the Georgia Fair Housing Act by Trilith Studios, Trilith Development and two homeowner associations.

Trilith Development said in a statement that it is “committed to a living and working environment where everyone feels welcome and that they belong.” Despite ongoing efforts to address concerns that have been shared, the statement says, “some have publicly portrayed a narrative that differs from the many experiences occurring daily in our community.”

Trilith Studios said in a statement that the five residents never had any relationship with the studios. Both the studio and the development company said they will address the lawsuit’s claims “in the appropriate forum.”

The Town at Trilith and Trilith Studios are presented as “an open inclusive, diverse community for all types of people,” the lawsuit says. That reputation is bolstered by partnerships with companies like Disney, Marvel and Netflix, which “espouse and promote values of openness, diversity and inclusion,” the suit adds. But the “lived reality at Trilith has been one of racial discrimination,” the residents who filed the suit allege.

Lawyer Michael Jo’el Smith said his clients want to recover damages for harm done and to expose the hypocrisy of the studio in Fayetteville, about 25 miles south of downtown Atlanta.

“Trilith gives lip service to say they value these principles of diversity that attract these Black stories to be produced at their studio, while at the same time not caring about the actual lives of Black people that are there living in that town,” Smith told The Associated Press.

Aubrey and Pamela Williams were among the earliest residents, arriving in 2018 and hoping it would be a nurturing environment where they could heal after the loss of their 21-year-old son. They participated in community events, volunteered and were featured in promotional videos to attract new residents, they said in a phone interview.

“They were really adamant about creating a place for creatives, a place you can live, work, play, a place that’s inclusive for everyone,” Aubrey Williams said.

But when the roof of their townhome began leaking soon after they moved in, their repeated requests to have it replaced were ignored, they said. At the same time, the roofs of townhomes owned by non-Black residents were quickly fixed or replaced. They say they also weren’t allowed to install a firepit or pergola in their backyard, while non-Black residents were allowed to do so.

By the time they left Trilith in July, they said, they felt disillusioned and disappointed.

Mela Geipel’s son was using the development’s basketball courts in May 2021 when an employee or representative of the management called police to report an unauthorized person using the courts, the lawsuit says. An officer followed Geipel’s son home. When she asked why her son was reported when white residents were not, management refused to provide justification, the lawsuit says.

Keyania Otobor moved into her townhome in 2019 and still lives there. She was attracted by the diversity, walkability and sense of community, she said.

In March, she was visiting Carmen Key, who also is Black, when Key’s white neighbor banged on her door looking for her husband and called Otobor and Key a racial slur, in an exchange recorded by Key’s doorbell camera, Otobor said.

“I was appalled. I’ve never had anybody, to my knowledge, say that about me,” Otobor said.

There had been other complaints of the woman harassing residents because of their race, and the management had not taken any action, the lawsuit says.

Trilith Development said that episode demonstrated “abhorrent behavior that runs counter to everything Trilith stands for.” Trilith Development said it condemned it immediately, including communications to the community and the resident.

Trilith Studios and Trilith Development are jointly owned by the family of Dan Cathy, chairman of fast-food giant Chick-fil-A, and Cathy is involved in their day-to-day management and operation, the lawsuit says.

In March, Otobor, the Williamses and Key organized a community meeting to discuss racial discrimination and potential violations of the Georgia Fair Housing Act. The roughly 60 attendees elected Key, who is not a plaintiff in the suit, to arrange a meeting with Cathy to discuss their concerns. Key, who worked as a contractor at Trilith Studios, was then banned from accessing Trilith Studios property, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit alleges that these actions were meant to send an intimidating message to Black residents.

“It’s the aggregate of these stories that tells you that there is a systemic problem at Trilith,” Smith, the lawyer, said.

Source: https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/black-residents-allege-discrimination-film-studio-town-93505987

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Book Review: Explosive debut novel ‘Fireworks Every Night’ is a bittersweet celebration of survival

“Fireworks Every Night” by Beth Raymer (Random House)

C.C.’s isn’t your typical rags-to-riches story. She remembers growing up in a single-wide with her older sister, stay-at-home mom and car-salesman dad. But she also remembers when they moved to Florida after everything in the car lot burned down — including their home — launching them into a comfortable middle-class life and a fresh start in a state her dad proudly brags has fireworks every night.

“Fireworks Every Night” is Beth Raymer’s debut novel, but not her first book. Following her 2010 memoir “Lay the Favorite,” she borrows from her life to create a deeply personal story of a dysfunctional family.

Having grown up in West Palm Beach, Raymer puts her local knowledge to use as her protagonist — a resident of Loxahatchee, Florida — rattles off the schools she plays basketball against, and how worn down or rich they are. She’s familiar with the Baker Act and who’s been institutionalized through its use. She knows all the neighborhoods and has eaten at Benny’s on the Beach.

If the gorgeous cover designed by Elizabeth A. D. Eno isn’t enough to draw you in, let the heartbreakingly determined main character and the promise of an earnest look at the skeletons in her closet convince you.

In adulthood, C.C. is engaged to a well-educated and absurdly wealthy man — a far cry from the childhood in which she learns what it means to fight for survival. Hopping between the two timelines in stark juxtaposition, the full picture of C.C.’s life emerges.

As kid-C.C.’s home life comes completely unraveled, the story morphs from tragicomedy to horror, revealing how her family fell apart and left her sister struggling with addiction, her mother chronically absent and her father homeless. All the while, adult-C.C. is juggling a host of modern stresses: the viability of having children, climate change, living in a world that makes it far too easy to compare yourself with the 8 billion others who inhabit it, and reconciling your self-worth with the balance in your bank account.

Raymer launches addiction, homelessness, neglect and poverty shamelessly into the lexicon, treating C.C. and her family with nothing less than respect.

A nature motif runs throughout the story, blurring the line between animal and human and calling into question what is “natural” in a world so unnaturally shaped by people. Animals play a quiet but pivotal role throughout “Fireworks Every Night,” shaping Raymer’s engrossing novel into a bittersweet celebration of the scrappy Americans who are finding a way to survive even as the elite push humans and animals alike out of their habitats.

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Book Review: ‘White House by the Sea’ tells storied Kennedy tale through family’s compound

“White House By the Sea: A Century of the Kennedys at Hyannis Port” by Kate Storey (Scribner)

The history of the Kennedy family is so well-chronicled — from the modern Camelot legend surrounding John F. Kennedy’s presidency to the series of tragedies that marked the family throughout the 20tb century — that it’s hard to imagine new ways to tell their story.

But Kate Storey does just that in “White House By the Sea: A Century of the Kennedys at Hyannis Port” — revisiting the family’s history through their time at the famed Kennedy compound on Cape Cod.

Storey, the senior features editor at Rolling Stone magazine, weaves a fascinating narrative about the Kennedy family using Hyannis Port as the backdrop. The book traces the family’s ties to the compound back to the 1920s, when Joseph Kennedy bought Malcolm Cottage, what became known as the Big House.

Many of the stories feel so familiar, from Joseph Kennedy Jr.’s death during World War II to John F. Kennedy Jr.’s fatal plane crash in 1999. The compound was also the setting for much happier occasions, including John F. Kennedy’s presidential acceptance speech and the wedding of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver.

Storey gives them a fresh look with new details and well-sourced reporting that opens up a traditionally private community — “what’s left of Camelot,” she writes.

Storey’s research gives the book a more intimate feel than many other histories of the Kennedy family, introducing figures that aren’t as well-known but played a key role in the family and its compound. Fittingly, it’s written in an accessible way that makes the book a welcome beach read.

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Fox News unveils primetime lineup with Jesse Watters in Tucker Carlson’s former time slot

Jesse Watters will fill the Fox News Channel time slot left vacant by the firing of Tucker Carlson, part of a dramatic revamp of the network’s evening lineup announced on Monday.

Greg Gutfeld’s late-night show that combines news and comedy will move up an hour to start at 10 p.m. Eastern, displacing Laura Ingraham. She’ll shift to 7 p.m., the hour that Watters has occupied. Sean Hannity will stay in his 9 p.m. time slot, Fox said. The new lineup debuts on July 17.

The announcement comes roughly two months after Fox News fired Carlson shortly after settling a defamation lawsuit with the voting machine maker Dominion Voting Systems on the eve of trial. The case, which centered on the network’s airing of false claims following the 2020 presidential election, exposed a trove of private messages sent between Fox hosts, including Hannity and Carlson, in which they criticized peers at the network.

Carlson has since begun doing occasional monologues for Twitter, although Fox is attempting to get him to stop the broadcasts.

Fox has seen its ratings tumble since Carlson exited. Carlson averaged 3.25 million viewers at 8 p.m. in the first three months of the year, and the string of guest hosts who replaced him the past two months usually reached under 2 million, making the network’s command more tenuous.

The lineup change signals that Fox is doubling down on its opinionated evening programming strategy, with three sharp-tongued men filling the prime-time hours. It’s something of a triumphant return for Watters, who got his start at the 8 p.m. hour, doing man-in-the-street interviews and other features for Bill O’Reilly before O’Reilly’s firing in 2017.

It also means double duty for Gutfeld and Watters, who are both panelists on “The Five” and will continue there. The late-afternoon political talk show has become Fox’s most popular program.

Keeping that show’s chemistry intact appeared to be a priority for Fox. Gutfeld said in a Wall Street Journal interview last week that he would no longer appear on “The Five” or do his late-night show if he were to get Carlson’s old time slot.

Trace Gallagher, who has worked at Fox since the network began in 1996, will host a news show at 11 p.m., filling the hour that Gutfeld is leaving vacant.

“The unique perspectives of Laura Ingraham, Jesse Watters, Sean Hannity, and Greg Gutfeld will ensure our viewers have access to unrivaled coverage from our best-in-class team for years to come,” Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott said in a statement.

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