In Other News: Mother’s Day this year means getting creative from afar; Nicolas Cage to star as Joe Exotic in limited TV series

Published 12:10 pm Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Editor’s note: “In Other News” is a list of state, national and global headlines compiled by Daily Citizen-News staff from Associated Press stories. Click on the headlines below to read the full stories.

HBO documentary puts spotlight on Natalie Wood’s life, not her death

LOS ANGELES — The fate of “Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind” hung on a Robert Wagner interview. Director Laurent Bouzereau knew that it would be a delicate conversation. If it didn’t work, there would be no documentary. So they filmed it first. “If there was nothing interesting in it or something that just didn’t feel right, we were not going to proceed with the film,” Bouzereau said. With his stepdaughter Natasha Gregson Wagner in the interviewer’s chair, Wagner sat for two days to tell the story of life with his wife — their highs and lows, their first marriage, their second marriage and how it came to an end with her tragic death in the waters off Southern California at 43.

Nicolas Cage to star as Joe Exotic in limited TV series

The Joe Exotic phenomenon keeps growing, with Nicolas Cage to star in a TV miniseries about the colorful wild animal owner made famous by the “Tiger King” docuseries. The TV series is the first for Cage, who has played a range of characters in movies including “Leaving Las Vegas,” for which he won an Oscar, “Moonstruck” and “National Treasure.” Imagine Television Studios and CBS Television Studios are among the producers of the limited, eight-part project.

Mother’s Day this year means getting creative from afar

NEW YORK — Treats made and delivered by neighbors. Fresh garden plantings dug from a safe 6 feet away. Trips around the world set up room-to-room at home. Mother’s Day this year is a mix of love and extra imagination as families do without their usual brunches and huggy meet-ups. As the pandemic persists in keeping families indoors or a safe social distance apart, online searches have increased for creative ways to still make moms feel special.

With split delayed, United Methodists face a year in limbo

NEW YORK — Had there been no coronavirus pandemic, America’s largest mainline Protestant denomination would be convening this week for a likely vote to break up over differences on same-sex marriage and ordination of LGBTQ pastors. Instead, the United Methodist Church was forced to postpone the potentially momentous conference, leaving its various factions in limbo for perhaps 16 more months. The deep doctrinal differences seem irreconcilable, but for now there’s agreement that response to the pandemic takes priority. “The people who are really in trauma right now cannot pay the price of our differences,” said Kenneth Carter, the Florida-based president of the UMC’s Council of Bishops. “What is in our minds and hearts is responding to death, illness, grief, loss of work.”