The Brief

Filmmaker John Waters spent decades creating what he playfully calls "filth" for the big screen: irreverent, campy movies set in his hometown, Baltimore. After decades of being proudly outside the mainstream, the subversive auteur is now enjoying some very mainstream Hollywood attention. To coincide with the opening of major retrospective of his career at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, this week he was also immortalized in Los Angeles cement.

"Here I am, closer to the gutter than ever," he joked at the red-carpet ceremony for his sidewalk star this week. "The Hollywood Walk of Fame: You're the best and I hope the most desperate showbiz rejects walk over me here and feel some sort of respect and strength," he said.

Waters was surrounded by adoring fans and friends like Ricki Lake, who starred in his 1988 musical Hairspray, and the actress known as Mink Stole, who appeared in all 16 of his films. "The drains on this magic boulevard will never wash away the gutter of my gratitude," he said. Waters posed for the cameras with a framed photo of his late parents, who he said had indulged his passion for filmmaking.

Waters has always been a proud outsider and a queer icon among American filmmakers. With his pencil mustache and sarcastic smile, he became an underground celebrity in the 1980s, and has continued to be famous behind and in front of the camera. He started out in the 1960s as a teen making underground, guerilla films. He soon developed a cult following that continues to this day. Now, at age 77, Waters calls himself a "filth elder."

The exhibition at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is aptly called "Pope of Trash."

The first of 12 galleries dedicated to Waters is decked out as a chapel. It starts with a shock — a literal shock from trick buzzers under pews where visitors can sit to watch clips of what Waters calls his "humorous trash epics."

The gallery spaces feature film clips and memorabilia from all of Waters' movies, including the electric chair that executed his star Divine in Female Trouble. On display are Mink Stole's cat-eye spectacles from Pink Flamingos and the cockroach dress Ricki Lake' wore in Hairspray.

The first gallery in the "Pope of Trash" exhibition at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is outfitted as a chapel.

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Charles White, JWPictures

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Academy Museum of Motion Pictures

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There's a dance floor for visitors to twist along to Waters' musicals, including Hairspray — the 1988 film about 1960's TV dance shows and racial integration, which became a hit Broadway show, remade with John Travolta and continues to be performed in high schools.

The exhibition also features Debbie Harry's exploding wig from Hairspray, the scratch 'n' sniff "Odorama" cards from Polyester, and the lethal leg of lamb prop from Serial Mom.

Waters is known for irreverent, campy movies set in his hometown, Baltimore.

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Charles White, JWPictures

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Academy Museum of Motion Pictures

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Fashions from John Waters films on display at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

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Charles White, JWPictures

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Academy Museum of Motion Pictures

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Since his earliest days, Waters has outrageously and lovingly mocked society, mainstream values and institutions. The exhibition includes his first film in 1964: Hag in a Black Leather Jacket, and there's original footage of audiences leaving cinemas and reacting to the outrageous antics they've just witnessed.

"The most disgusting thing I've seen in my whole life," says one moviegoer after screening Pink Flamingos, which ends with a scene of Divine eating dog poop. "It's a little gross," says another,"...but I liked it."

"Pope of Trash" is the moniker writer William S. Burroughs once gave Waters, and it's where the exhibition gets its name. "The Duke of Dirt, the Prince of Puke. I had a lot of titles," he told NPR just before the show opened. "I wear them all proudly, and they were all given positively with irony."

Waters says he likes to surprise people — from lampooning hippies and squares, to celebrating drag queens and sex addicts, to appearing as himself in The Simpsons and Alvin and the Chipmunks to now getting his flowers from The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and The Academy.

"If you stick around long enough doing one thing, they can't get rid of you. They kind of have to accept you," he says. "I mean, who would imagine that Pink Flamingos would have been named by the government as a great American film? It's still shocking to me, but things change." As for being memorialized and celebrated in a museum exhibition of his life and career, he says, "... this just happens a lot when you are dead. And that's good, too. But it's a lot better if you're alive."

Despite his provocative interpretations of American institutions and society, Waters says he always loved the subjects he parodied and has always been treated fairly by the film industry. "I have no bitter Hollywood stories," he notes, while offering a bit of his philosophy: "A sense of humor that knows that we never make our enemy feel stupid. We make them feel smart, even when they aren't. Get them to laugh, and then we can get them to listen."

As for all the current Hollywood hoopla, John Waters has said, "I'm so respectable I could puke."

Jacqueline Stewart, director and president of the Academy Museum, says for a show designed for both Waters' fans and a new generation, the curators leaned into Water's tongue-in-cheek humor and themes such as body positivity and middle class hypocrisies, which are relevant to this day.

"There's been a long tradition of filmmakers working in these kind of marginal spaces, and that it is still happening outside of mainstream cinema," she says. "I think this show also indicates that it's OK if your films are not blockbusters, if you're not always aiming to reach every audience, but instead really delving into the particulars of the cultural and the local community that you're focused on. ... I think that it's going to bring brand new audiences to his work and I hope that John really does see this as this show of respect that the film community has for him."

The fact that he is being honored in Hollywood "is like some sort of insane, happy ending thing," says film historian and professor emeritus Jeanine Basinger. In the 1980s, she asked Waters if she could archive his "trash" at Wesleyan University's center for film studies, which was named after her. Until now, his scripts and ephemera have been stored there. "John is the ultimate outsider who's now being embraced warmly by all the big insider institutions. So he now he's become the ultimate insider, but he's never lost his outsider point of view."

The fans standing on Hollywood Boulevard to witness his star ceremony were equally tickled by Water's new Hollywood closeup. During his ceremony, an out of work actor named Danny Nero held up a poster of the Hollywood sign photoshopped to say "Filthywood." Cheering for Waters was porn performer Donna Dolore, who said, "I appreciate his bringing filth and perversion to audiences worldwide."

Vanessa Moreno, who identified herself as a journalist and a dominatrix, said she admires Waters "for showing you can be an irrefutable dirtbag and receive your accolades."

Kyle Montgomery, who was covered with John Waters tattoos, had come all the way from Canada to see his childhood idol be honored. "It's about time," Montgomery said. "The world is trash. He knew it all along."

Robert Mueller, the ex-FBI director and former special counsel who led the high-profile investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible obstruction of justice by President Trump, died Friday at 81.

"With deep sadness, we are sharing the news that Bob passed away" on Friday night, his family said in a statement Saturday shared with NPR. "His family asks that their privacy be respected."

This is a breaking story and will be updated.

Copyright 2026 NPR

At the Koreatown Senior and Community Center, people were used to seeing Keum-soon Lee arrive early. When she didn’t show up for the 11 a.m. group harmonica class at the center last Friday, people took notice. 

“She would always be there first,” said conductor Eun-young Kim. “If she couldn’t come, she would tell me ahead of time. This time, I didn’t receive any messages from her. I thought, something isn’t right.”

Kim tried calling and sending messages. She didn’t get a response.

Members of the center later learned that Lee, 73, was critically injured in a hit-and-run crash while biking home in Koreatown after attending early morning prayer at her church. She died in a hospital March 13 from her injuries, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

“I was shocked,” said Jin-soon Baek, who has played with Lee for years. “We’ve been friends for a long time. We ate together, practiced together. She was like a sibling to me.

“She was so hardworking. Always the first one there to sign in for class. She’d walk ahead of me and I’d follow behind. That’s how it always was.”

Baek, who is in her 80s, said the two also shared something more personal: Both had cancer.

“I had cancer years ago, and she was going through treatment recently,” Baek said. “We understood each other.”

In January, Lee played with the harmonica ensemble at an LA Kings game. Lee spoke with a journalist about undergoing surgery and chemotherapy, and what the group meant to her. 

“I think I’ve almost fully recovered,” Lee told journalist Chase Karng at the hockey game. “Even while receiving chemotherapy, I felt encouraged when I heard that I could perform here.”

At the Koreatown Senior and Community Center, people were used to seeing Keum-soon Lee arrive early. When she didn’t show up for the 11 a.m. group harmonica class at the center last Friday, people took notice.

Lee was born in 1952 in South Korea and immigrated to the United States in 1998. She was an elder at Saehan Presbyterian Church in Pico Union and is survived by her husband, Sang-rae Lee, and son, Young-jo Lee.

The senior center, where Lee was a fixture and known as a reliable friend, has designated March 20 as a day of mourning.

On Friday, Lee’s church held a funeral service, where members of the harmonica ensemble performed the hymn, “Nearer My God to Thee,” in her memory.

“I usually don’t attend funeral services, but I had to come for hers,” said Alice Kim. “Whenever I came to church, I would see her watering the grass, bent over, and she would smile and say, ‘You’re here, Alice,’ and hand me the Sunday bulletin.”

In her eulogy, elder Gyu-sook Lee said the sudden loss has hit the congregation hard.

“She always greeted everyone with a warm smile,” she said. “She was the kind of person who always stepped forward first to do the hard work that no one else wanted to do. And when she took something on, she saw it through to the end.”

At the Koreatown Senior and Community Center, people were used to seeing Keum-soon Lee arrive early. When she didn’t show up for the 11 a.m. group harmonica class at the center last Friday, people took notice.

“She still had so many years ahead of her,” Baek said. “She was younger than us. Full of hope. It feels like it should have been me instead.”

According to police, Lee was riding through a crosswalk when a white Dodge Ram truck turning right struck her around 6:40 a.m. near Olympic Boulevard and Vermont Avenue. The driver briefly stopped, then drove away, authorities said.

Investigators found the truck and are looking into whether the driver was impaired on drugs or alcohol. The truck was seized and there was no information about the driver.

Kim, the conductor, said Lee was the first person to reach out to her when she started to lead the ensemble in September. 

“She sent me a message saying thank you for coming,” Kim said. “She was such a special person to me.” 

At Friday’s service, speaker after speaker described Lee as someone who was a light in every community she was part of. 

“The way she served the church behind the scenes became a lesson in faith for all of us. There isn’t a single part of this church that hasn’t felt her touch. Her warmth, her love, her dedication — I can still feel it,” Gyu-sook Lee said.

When Gilbert Lindsay became the first Black person elected to Los Angeles City Council in 1963, it gave the residents of the predominantly Black District 9 someone who understood the challenges they faced living in South Central. 

This area was the center of Black political power in LA because it was one of the few places in the city Black people were allowed to live and thrive due, in part, to housing restrictions. For the next 63 years, voters in this district — which includes historic South Central, Exposition Park and a small portion of downtown Los Angeles — consecutively chose a Black representative. 

That will end with Curren D. Price Jr., the current District 9 councilmember who can’t run again due to term limits. 

Twelve candidates announced campaigns in February to replace Price. Of them, six candidates have qualified to be on the June 2 primary election ballot, none of whom are Black. They include: Estuardo Mazariegos, Elmer Roldan, Jorge Hernandez Rosas, Jorge Nuño, Martha Sánchez and Jose Ugarte. 

The list is a reflection of the demographic shift of the area, but candidates also told The LA Local that it shows the strength of the district’s Black-Latino political coalition. And with the civil rights gains since the 1960s, while some locals are concerned that issues facing Black voters won’t get the attention they need, others who live in the district said they’re less concerned with what their representative looks like. Instead, they said they want someone who listens and gets things done. 

“As long as you do good in the community, we’re going to be happy,” said Dennis Anya, who works on Central Avenue and has lived in the district for nearly 40 years.

What the demographic shifts in District 9 mean for the June election

The upcoming election comes as the demographics have changed in District 9 and South LA. The Black population in South Los Angeles was 81% in 1965, according to a special census survey from November 1965 of South and East LA. 

As of 2021, District 9, specifically, is about 78% Latino and 13% Black, according to LA City Council population demographic data taken that year as part of a redistricting effort. 

Officials have predicted the district’s shift for years. Former City Councilmembers Kevin De León and Nury Martinez discussed the district’s future in the leaked 2021 audio — checkered with racist remarks — that the LA Times reported in 2022.“This will be [Price’s] last four years,” De Leon said at one point in the conversation, the transcript of which the LA Times published in full. “That eventually becomes a Latino seat.” 

Erin Aubry Kaplan, a writer and columnist who traces her family’s roots to South Central, told The LA Local that because District 9 has historically voted for a Black candidate, there is some anxiety amongst Black voters about losing Black representation in Los Angeles. 

“I would hope that whoever wins, will carry the interest of Black folk forward,” she said.

Manuel Pastor, a USC professor and co-author of “South Central Dreams: Finding Home and Community in South LA,” told The LA Local that traditionally, voters are older. While District 9 is now home to a younger, immigrant community, they may not vote at the same rate as older generations, and undocumented residents are ineligible to vote.  

Pastor said it’s likely for this reason that the current District 9 candidates are not emphasizing being Latino but are modeling their campaigns after other city leaders and focusing on Black-Latino solidarity. 

“Just because the demographics have changed, doesn’t mean that the voting population has changed,” Pastor said.  

Here’s what the candidates say about the transformation of District 9

Chris Martin, one of the two Black candidates who campaigned for the seat but did not qualify for the ballot, said he believes the city’s Black elected officials should have supported Black candidates in the race. Martin said he will challenge the city clerk’s decision on his nomination petition in court. 

“The story of Black political power in the city of Los Angeles is dying,” Martin said. “I felt like I had a good chance of keeping it alive.” 

When Gilbert Lindsay became the first Black person elected to Los Angeles City Council in 1963, it gave the residents of the predominantly Black District 9 someone who understood the challenges they faced living in South Central.

Michelle Washington, the other Black candidate who also did not qualify, did not respond to a request for comment.Price, the current District 9 councilmember, endorsed his deputy Jose Ugarte in the race and wrote in a statement that this election is about solidarity. 

“As a Black man who has served a majority-Latino district, I know that progress in South Central has always come from Black and Brown families moving forward together,” Price wrote. “We’ve had to fight harder for housing, safety, opportunity and the basic investments every neighborhood deserves. And when we’ve made gains, it’s because we stood united.”  

Five of the six candidates who qualified for the ballot told The LA Local that not having a Black candidate on the ballot doesn’t diminish the place of the district’s Black community. (Candidate Jorge Hernandez Rosas did not return requests for comment.) 

“It has always been a Black community and will always be a Black community. This isn’t about a passing of the baton or one community taking over another. It’s about building a solidarity movement,” Estuardo Mazariegos said. 

Elmer Roldan, who carries endorsements from LA Mayor Karen Bass and City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, said the district needs a councilmember who won’t leave anyone behind.“We have to avoid at all costs contributing to Black erasure and Black displacement,” Roldan said.

Ugarte said that the major quality of life problems — like dirty streets and broken street lights — affecting the neighborhood’s Black and brown communities haven’t changed since he was a child living in the district. 

“The same issues are still here,” he said. 

Here’s what happens next

If you haven’t registered to vote and you want to receive a vote-by-mail ballot, you must register to vote by May 18.

Results from the primary election will be certified by July 2. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, the top two candidates will move on to the general election on Nov. 3, according to the City Clerk’s website. 

The winner of District 9 will begin a four-year term Dec. 14.

The L.A. County Medical Examiner has released the cause of death for Emily Beutner, the daughter of former LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner.

The 22-year-old died from the effects of a combination of drugs, including two linked to the opioid known as kratom — mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine — according to the statement released by the medical examiner Friday.

A county health official told our partner CBS L.A. that kratom products are sometimes sold as natural remedies but are illegal and unsafe.

The other two substances cited as causes of death were quetiapine and mirtazapine — the former is an antipsychotic medication, and the latter is used to treat depression, according to the Mayo Clinic.

The former Loyola Marymount University student was found alone and suffering from medical distress by L.A. County Fire Department personnel shortly after midnight in a field by a highway in Palmdale on Jan. 6. She was transported to a hospital and pronounced dead soon after.

After his daughter's death, Beutner dropped out of the L.A. mayoral race.

The Medical Examiner said the manner of death was ruled a suicide.

Resources

If You Need Immediate Help

• If you or someone you know is in crisis and need immediate help, call the Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or go here for online chat.

If you or someone you know is experiencing a crisis, you can dial the mental health lifeline at 988.

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