James Van Der Beek’s brother Jared has shared a heartbreaking tribute to his sibling in the wake of his death.

Jared, 47, took to Instagram on Friday, February 13 to open about his feelings of loss after the Dawson’s Creek star’s death. (James died on Wednesday, February 11 following a stage III colorectal cancer battle. He was 48.)

“There’s a special bond that exists between brothers and two days ago, that physical bond was broken.I now know why people call it heartbreak when you lose someone close to you,” Jared wrote.

He added, “There is a feeling of devastation and pain that runs so deep in the heart, I didn’t know it would hurt so badly.”

Alongside a carousel of throwback photos of their family over the years, Jared paid tribute to James and shared more details of their close connection.

“He was my person, the one I went to for any and all things. I’ve looked up to him since I was born. He has never failed to be there for me whenever I needed him,” Jared wrote.

He continued: “It has been wonderful reading and seeing how he touched so many lives not because of something he did, but because of who he was. He shared with an open heart and with his wise soul. As painful as this pain deep in the heart is, the healing has already begun with all the outpouring of love, prayers, and support. I truly thank all of you have taken the time to reach out, letting me know that you’re there. The community of people who were intimately involved in his passing were nothing short of amazing. Thank you to everyone known and unknown who helped his transition be as beautiful as possible.”

Concluding the post, Jared said he missed James and will always love him.

“James, I already miss your physical being and your words of wisdom over the phone. Yet, I also feel your presence so strongly and I know you will continue to be guiding me,” he wrote. “Thank you for living your life with me. I love you.”

Followers shared their support for Jared in the comments section, including James’  former Dawson’s Creek costar Kerr Smith.

“Jared…I’m so sorry for your loss. I’m still having trouble processing all of this,” Smith, 53, wrote. “I can’t even imagine what you’re going through. Please know you’re in my thoughts. ❤️🙏😢”

Family friend Erin Fetherston added, “This is so beautiful Jared. You were there for him in the most incredible way. What a gift it was to witness your brotherhood. God bless you and your family ❤️.”

James’ death was announced via a statement made via his social media accounts on Wednesday.

“Our beloved James David Van Der Beek passed peacefully this morning. He met his final days with courage, faith and grace,” the statement read. “There is much to share regarding his wishes, love for humanity and the sacredness of time. Those days will come. For now we ask for peaceful privacy as we grieve our loving husband, father, son, brother and friend.”

In the wake of his death, a GoFundMe campaign has been set up to raise funds for his widow Kimberly Van Der Beek and the couple’s six children.

‘Good Mythical Morning’
Say Goodbye to Stevie Wynne Levine

Published
February 14, 2026
5:33 AM PST

Merle Oberon is not a Hollywood name that gets tossed around much anymore. In the 1930s, however, she was one of the biggest box office stars. With her stunning looks and emotionally-charged performances, Oberon starred in a series of screen classics, including an Oscar-nominated performance inThe Dark Angel and a turn as the heroine Cathy in what is perhaps — at least up toEmerald Fennell — the best known version of Wuthering Heights(although others have their preferences).Oberon’s casting in any of her best-known roles, though, would’ve been controversial at the time, had the world known a secret that she harbored from a young age. Oberon was part-Asian. Born in Bombay — which was then part of British India — Oberon’s mother was Burgher, part of a Sri Lankan Eurasian ethnic group.This is only the beginning of a confusing mystery as to what exactly Oberon’s origin truly is. Her early life, in fact, is a cinematic tale befitting of her movie star status.

Oberon Concealed Her True Background for Decades

According to the Asian American Foundation, Oberon spent her life claiming to have been born to white parents in Tasmania, Australia. In an interview, author Mayukh Sen said that her mixed-race background actually subjected Oberon’s family to “abject poverty” and “rejection from both white Britons and other Indians” for “perceived racial impurity.”

“However, upon traveling abroad to the United Kingdom—a place that was a haven for Anglo-Indians who felt alienated in British India during the yawning years of the empire—she could slough off any stigma a little more easily,” Sen explained. Oberon worked hard to conceal the truth of her identity, the author related, because of her difficult childhood and how important it was that she did “nothing to forfeit any security once she obtained it.”

“For Merle, the lie created for her by studio publicists back in 1932—one that involved not only concealment of her racial identity, but also a fictitious birthplace—was so involved that unraveling it herself would have sacrificed that cocoon of safety she’d built for herself. I’d love to be wrong about this, but I just don’t think Merle would have put so much on the line in the final years of her life,” Sen said.

Merle Oberon Stood by Her Likely-Faked Birthplace

Image via MGM

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So deep did Oberon’s Tasmanian story go that there was a theater named for her in her supposed birthplace of Hobart. She is known to have visited Australia twice, in 1965 and 1978, according to the bookTill Apples Grow on an Orange Tree by Cassandra Pybus.The first time, she strangely fell ill and left the country when a reporter for theSydney Morning Heraldpressed for details about her birth. The second time, she largely stayed in her hotel room and had “crying jags.”

Even her actual mother was a work of fiction.According to The New York Times, Constance Selby gave birth to Oberon — only 14 at the time. Selby had been raped by her stepfather, so her mother, Charlotte Selby, took charge of Oberon, who grew up believing that her mother was her sister.

When she got to Hollywood, obviously, a new reality was created, which had already been set in stone for Oberon. Oddly, unlike many stars, her first name got to stay — though it was really her middle name Estelle Merle O’Brien Thompson, which was shifted to Merle Oberon. A slight, but supremely posh alteration.

Related

The 10 Greatest ‘Wuthering Heights’ Adaptations, Ranked

Heathcliff and Cathy wander the silver screen eternally

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“I couldn’t dance or sing or write or paint,” she was once quoted as saying. “The only possible opening seemed to be in some line in which I could use my face. This was, in fact, no better than a hundred other faces, but it did possess a fortunately photogenic quality.”

She was 17 when she came to England in 1928, and she was eventually discovered by powerhouse British filmmaker Alexander Korda, who bestowed upon her the breakout performance of her career, that of Anne Boleyn in the Charles Laughton-starringThe Private Life of Henry VIII. She married Korda, who would sell her contract to Hollywood’s Samuel Goldwyn.

Here her career really took off, as she shifted between California and England, making movies likeThese Three andThe Cowboy and the Lady, appearing alongside big stars such asDavid NivenandGary Cooper. Her best-remembered performance would be inWilliam Wyler’s version ofWuthering Heights, which was named as one of the 100 best movies ever made by the American Film Institute in 1998. Co-starring with Laurence Oliver, her effervescent performance as Cathy became the one most audiences identified with the seminal, tragic literary character all the way up to Margot Robbie.

Merle Oberon Never Acknowledged the Truth of Her History

Image via MGM Studios

In later years, her career would cool off. Her last screen appearance would be in 1973’sInterval, a low-budget drama that also featured her then-husband, Dutch actorRobert Wolders, who was 25 years her junior. She died following a stroke in 1979 at 68 in Malibu, California.Years later, Oberon is now generally considered to be the first Asian nominee in the Best Actress category, a fact that was widely reported after Michelle Yeoh’s historic win in the category for 2022’s Everything Everywhere All at Once. Though she may never have been able to embrace her past, her legacy continues and extends across the decades.Wuthering Heights is available to stream on Prime Video, HBO Max, and Tubi in the U.S.

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Release Date

April 7, 1939

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Runtime

104 minutes

Director

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William Wyler

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  Laurence Olivier

  Heathcliff

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  Merle Oberon

  Catherine ‘Cathy’ Earnshaw Linton

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For the past four decades, dramas about the struggles of surviving the inner city have done more than launch prolific careers. They give force to people of color often overlooked in the media at large. The initial renaissance of urban dramas sparked by the groundbreaking impact of Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing opened the door for filmmakers to tell hard-hitting stories, including politically charged tales, crime stories ripped from the headlines, and powerful biopics.

The following list ranks the ten best urban dramas within the last 37 years. Though there are plenty of cult classics that are worthy of being part of this list, the ones highlighted here made the most cultural impact on cinema and around the world. More than stories driven by tragedy and working-class struggles, these films made a loud and clear statement.

10

‘Bulworth’ (1998)

Image via 20th Century Fox

While Warren Beatty’s Bulworth satirizes American politics, the ridiculous premise is undercut with biting commentary about social inequality. The actor/director plays a corrupted US Senator from California, frustrated with politics to the point of arranging his own assassination. With nothing to lose, Bulworth turns his re-election campaign into a hip-hop-driven crusade to speak the truth about systemic racism while developing deep feelings for a young activist (Halle Berry).

Because of its culture-shock elements and truth-telling themes, Bulworth makes this list despite being marketed as a comedy because of how it contends with politics. Much of the star’s comedically candid performance, especially during the senator’s TV interview scene, is driven by the need to expose the hypocrisy of the political parties. Politicians like to talk about changing the fortunes of struggling Black families, but never propose concrete steps to make a change. Even at its most absurd, Bulworth manages to poke at politicians who forget what matters most: their voters.

9

‘Juice’ (1992)

Image via Paramount Pictures

The Harlem-set drama marking the directorial debut of Spike Lee’s frequent cinematographer, Ernest Dickerson, did not follow the more mellow dramatic route of earlier urban films. The story follows four teenage friends fed up with gang threats and police harassment when they turn to crime. During a convenience store robbery, the most daring of the group, Bishop (Tupac Shakur), ends up killing the owner, which puts him at odds with the others, including aspiring DJ Q (Omar Epps).

Social commentary takes a backseat to this cold, gritty character study of the impact street violence has on impressionable youth. The late Shakur’s first leading role in a major motion picture is one of the most haunting portrayals of teenage youth in the ‘90s, living in street life and ultimately destroyed by it. Dickerson’s kinetic cinematography, with a tone restraining anything remotely sentimental, makes Juice a genre-defining drama of the era.

8

‘Dead Presidents’ (1995)

Image via Hollywood Pictures

The Hughes Brothers’ sophomore effort took a different angle on domestic life for veterans coming home from the Vietnam War. Marine combat veteran Anthony Curtis (Larenz Tate) returns to his Bronx neighborhood in 1973, suffering from PTSD and witnessing the hardships of his fellow men. Struggling to make ends meet, Anthony turns to the militant group called “Nat Turner Cadre” to execute an armored car heist.

Connecting the war with the plight of Black veterans, Dead Presidents was unique for expanding urban dramas outside the domestic front. Critics, including Roger Ebert, were divided on the film for its expansive storytelling, holding a 49% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Its moderate success at the box office helped to launch the careers of Chris Tucker, Freddy Rodriguez, and Terrence Howard.

7

‘American Gangster’ (2007)

Ridley Scott’s epic crime drama put a human face on the heroin epidemic of the ‘70s. American Gangster is based on the true story of notorious Harlem kingpin Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington), who defied his rivals to build a criminal enterprise through exporting heroin from Vietnam. His rise to power makes him a target of multiple enemies, including the Italian mafia, a corrupt cop (Josh Brolin), and a New Jersey detective (Russell Crowe) who eventually brings down the operation.

As vast as the dramatic scale is, American Gangster examines the human side of Lucas in a compelling way through Washington’s performance. Unlike his competitors, Lucas used his drug money to improve the lives of his family members, including his mother (Ruby Dee). But the film does not allow the audience to forget that the gangster’s good deeds come at the expense of poisoning the Black community. The blurred lines of the narrative made American Gangster stand out from mob movies like The Godfather and Scarface.

6

‘Straight Outta Compton’ (2015)

The biopic about the formation of the hip-hop group N.W.A. landed in theaters with just as much of a fire as the group’s first album. The F. Gary Gray film recounted the group’s early rise from the streets of Compton to a lightning rod in the music scene. Along the way, they not only clash with the establishment through their music but also with each other as money and loyalty fracture their bond.

Straight Outta Compton reframed hip-hop history for mainstream audiences, positioning West Coast gangsta rap as socio-political messaging rather than glorifying gang violence for profit. Its police brutality depictions echoed contemporary headlines, bridging generational activism. Commercially successful yet culturally charged, it proved urban music stories could command blockbuster scale without diluting political edge.

5

‘New Jack City’ (1991)

Image via Warner Bros.

A pioneer in the hood movie genre of the ‘90s, New Jack City took the Warner Bros.-produced gangster pictures of the ‘30s and modernized them for urban audiences. The film follows drug lord Nino Brown (Wesley Snipes) and the Cash Money Brothers (CMB) as they take over Harlem with their crack cocaine operations. As Brown rises in power, the NYPD puts pressure on Det. Stone (Mario Van Peebles) to break up CMB and their crack house establishment. Stone enlists a pair of “New Jack” undercover detectives, Scotty Appleton (Ice-T) and Nick Peretti (Judd Nelson), to infiltrate the operation and bring it down from the inside.

Director Peebles changed the perception of crime lords who were usually romanticized in such classics as Superfly and Scarface by revealing the true harm they were causing to the community. A film like this didn’t call for a straight-laced hero with a badge to take on Snipes’ charismatic crack lord. It needed someone real to deliver the truth, which Ice-T did better than anyone else in this film.

4

‘Menace II Society’ (1993)

Image via New Line Cinema 

The Hughes Brothers made their hard-hitting debut with their bleak depiction of growing up in the Watts section of Los Angeles. It follows the tragic life of Caine Lawson (Tyrin Turner), whose lack of parental guidance puts him straight into the gang life of crack dealing alongside his best friend O-Dog (Larenz Tate). When a romance with his jailed uncle’s girlfriend (Jada Pinkett Smith) changes his outlook on life, tragedy lies ahead.

Menace II Society refuses to romanticize gang life. The film’s documentary-like brutality—especially its infamous opening scene at a liquor store robbery—disturbed audiences and critics alike. Rather than offering redemption, it presented the environment as destiny, forcing viewers to confront systemic abandonment without narrative comfort.

3

‘Fruitvale Station’ (2013)

Ryan Coogler’s devastating debut recounts the final day of Oscar Grant (Michael B. Jordan), a young Black man killed by Bay Area transit police in 2009. The film follows Oscar through ordinary moments—family interactions, attempts at self-improvement, and quiet reflection—before the tragic encounter.

What makes Fruitvale Station so powerful is its intimacy. Coogler refuses sensationalism, grounding the story in humanity rather than martyrdom. Jordan’s performance transforms Oscar from a headline into a fully realized person. The film became a cultural flashpoint, arriving years before the George Floyd protests yet foreshadowing the modern police accountability movement.

2

‘Boyz n the Hood’ (1991)

Image via Columbia Pictures 

John Singleton’s landmark 1991 drama made him the youngest Academy Award nominee for Best Director for a good reason. Boyz n the Hood did not sensationalize South Central’s crime epidemic, but rather depicted the real circumstances of what makes a Black child fall prey to the gang culture. The coming-of-age tale follows Tre Styles III (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), who is constantly struggling to walk the straight and narrow line in his Crenshaw neighborhood. On the flip side, there is Tre’s friend Doughboy (Ice Cube), who gets involved in crime early in life to become a Rollin’ 60s Crip.

Beyond the graphic imagery of gang violence, police brutality, and sexuality, Boyz aimed to tell a tale not rooted in fantasy. While Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing paved the way for examining race relations after the Civil Rights Movement ended, Boyz examined the idea that systemic racism is a detriment to young Black people by keeping them trapped in their harsh environment rather than offering real opportunities to break out of it.

1

‘Do the Right Thing’ (1989)

Image via Universal Pictures

Out of any movie in Spike Lee’s 40-plus years in filmmaking, Do the Right Thing continues to withstand the test of time by being the most relevant picture in tackling race relations in America. Set on a scorching-hot summer’s day in Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighborhood, the central conflict surrounds pizza delivery boy Mookie (Lee) and his Italian-American boss Sal (Danny Aiello). The collision of class and race reaches a boiling point when a protest to add photos of Black celebrities to the pizzeria’s wall, orchestrated by the conscientious Buggin’ Out (Giancarlo Esposito), turns tragically violent.

On re-examination, Do the Right Thing opened a window on social tensions America had been ignoring. The mass media highlighted icons likeMichael Jackson, Magic Johnson, Oprah Winfrey, and The Cosby Show, but overlooked simmering tensions like the Howard Beach incident, which inspired the film—racial divisions boiled over beyond local news. What the cameras were not showing, aside from local news outlets, was the fact that racial division was still present to the extent of boiling over.

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Release Date

June 14, 1989

Runtime

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120 minutes

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Astrologer Richard James
What’s the Future for Kim K & Lewis Hamilton?!?
Taking a Peek at Tom Brady & Alix Earle Too

Published
February 14, 2026
1:00 AM PST

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Long before James Gunn and Peter Safran‘s DCU, and even more the Zack Snyder-founded DCEU for that matter, The CW found itself creating a shared superhero universe with a little show called Arrow. A serious and gritty take on the usually sarcastic and fun-loving Oliver Queen, not only did the long-running show inspire several spin-offs like The Flash and Superman & Lois, but the Arrowverse also created a certified star in Stephen Amell. Now, after losing his previous leading role after Suit LA‘s time was cut short, Amell will reportedly now star in a familiar franchise with Fox’s highly anticipated Baywatch reboot.

This marks the first official casting for Fox’s reimagining of the massively iconic lifeguard procedural, which originally ran from 1989 to 2001 and helped launch the careers of both David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson. Amell will reportedly star in the show as Hobie Buchannon, the son of David Hasselhoff’s character, Mitch Buchannon in the original series who was played by Brandon Call in the first 21 episodes before being recast with Jeremy Jackson. According to an official description for Amell’s version of the character, Hobie will be the focus of the rebooted series as oppossed to Mitch, with him being a father figure himself:

“Hobie’s world is turned upside down when Charlie, the daughter he never knew, shows up on his doorstep, eager to carry on the Buchannon family legacy and become a Baywatch lifeguard alongside her dad.”

Fox officially confirmed plans to reboot Baywatch in October 2025, with the expectation it could be a viable competitor to the massively popular 9-1-1. The above description already confirms a decent departure from the original series, with Mitch being either a smaller supporting character or simply won’t appear in the show at all. An actor for Charlie or the other members of Baywatch‘s new lifeguard team has not yet been revealed, but will likely be revealed soon now that Amell has been revealed as the lead.

This Isn’t the First Time ‘Baywatch’ Has Been Rebooted

Baywatch was nothing short of a staple in the ’80s and ’90s, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the upcoming revival isn’t the first attempt at rebooting the franchise. In 2017, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Zac Efron attempted to revive the series as a feature film, opting for a somewhat meta and comedic approach in the same vein as Channing Tatum‘s 21 Jump Street movies. Unfortunately, Baywatch 2017 did little to impress critics or audiences with respective scores of 18% and 55%, though it did okay at the box office with a haul of $177 million on a $69 million budget. Only time will tell if Stephen Amell and Fox can put their CPR skills to good use and bring the long-dormant franchise back to life.

Fox’s Baywatch reboot is in development now. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

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Release Date

1989 – 2001-00-00

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Directors

Gregory J. Bonann, Douglas Schwartz, Gus Trikonis

Writers

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Michael Berk, Douglas Schwartz, Gregory J. Bonann

Franchise(s)

Baywatch

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Gordon Ramsay is hitting back at claims Victoria Beckham danced “inappropriately” with her son Brooklyn Peltz Beckham at his wedding to Nicola Peltz Beckham.

Speaking to The Sun on Friday, February 13, the celebrity chef, who attended the nuptials, hosed down Brooklyn’s public allegations against his mother.

“We were there at the wedding. There was nothing salacious, nothing inappropriate, everyone was having fun,” Ramsay, 59, told the outlet.

When asked directly whether Victoria, 51, was grinding on Brooklyn, 26, during the wedding dance, Ramsay responded, “No! Nothing of the sort.” He insisted it was all just innocent “fun.”

During the interview, Ramsay also confirmed “Victoria is upset – and [has] every right to be upset” about Brooklyn’s bad blood with herself and his dad David.

In a scathing statement posted via his Instagram Stories on January 19, Brooklyn claimed, among other things, that Victoria had danced “inappropriately” with him.

“My mum hijacked my first dance with my wife, which had been planned weeks in advance to a romantic love song,” he alleged in the posts. “In front of our 500 wedding guests, Marc Anthony called me to the stage, where in the schedule my romantic dance with my wife but instead my mum was waiting to dance with me instead. She danced very inappropriately on me in front of everyone. I’ve never felt more uncomfortable or humiliated in my entire life. We wanted to renew our vows so we could create new memories of our wedding day that bring us joy and happiness, not anxiety and embarrassment.”

The post caused a stir and was the catalyst behind a huge number of memes being made to mock Victoria over the situation.

Ramsay claimed that he hadn’t seen the memes but encouraged Brooklyn to look inward to sort out the relationship with his parents – and appeared to take a subtle jab at the Peltz family.

“Victoria’s got a great sense of humor. She can bat that sh*t away in a heartbeat,” Ramsay continued. “I just want Brooklyn to just a moment to yourself and just remember, you’re half mom and half dad and you’re an amazing man but boy, they’ve done more for you than anyone will do in your entire life. [Including] any father-in-law, let me tell you.”

In his Instagram post, Brooklyn said he had no intention of reconnecting with his family, which also includes brothers Romeo, 23, and Cruz, 20, and sister Harper, 14.

“I do not want to reconcile with my family,” he wrote. “I’m not being controlled, I’m standing up for myself for the first time in my life.”

Related: Brooklyn Beckham’s Wedding DJ Addresses Victoria’s ‘Inappropriate’ Dance

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Brooklyn Peltz Beckham and Nicola Peltz Beckham’s wedding entertainer, DJ Fat Tony, doesn’t think the groom’s now-viral reception dance with mom Victoria Beckham was overtly crude. “I was the DJ at the wedding. It wasn’t a one-day wedding, it was a three-day wedding,” Tony, 60, said during the Friday, January 23, broadcast of the UK’s […]

For his part, Ramsay told The Sun that he believed Brooklyn would eventually reconcile with his family.

“It’s hard when you enter that age in life when you join with another family. There’s a different dynamic going on and so there was bound to be some form of clash, he said. “But the relationship with David and Brooklyn is very, very deep and I know how much David loves Brooklyn and I think it’s only going to be a matter of time before Brooklyn takes a good look at himself and understands just what they mean.”

Ramsay continued: “It’s easy to get up on that rollercoaster isn’t it, and get carried away but it will come back because I know. I know how many times they’ve pulled him out of the sh*t. I know how many times they’ve absolutely stood by him through thick and thin. David’s an amazing dad and he will absolutely get that back online. Time. Time’s going to be the best healer.”