KLMNO

StyleFRIDAY,  JUNE  3,  2016  .   WASHINGTONPOST.COM/STYLE   EZ RE C

MOVIE REVIEWS IN WEEKEND AND AT WASHINGTONPOST.COM

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping Andy Samberg slays as Conner the Bieberian. 30

Me Before You A tearjerker that looks good on paper, but comes up dry on-screen. WAPO.ST/MEBEFOREYOU

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows They’re back in fighting trim. WAPO.ST/TEENAGE2

ad

mit

1

ad

mit

1

DOLLY PARTON

T O N I G H T ! !

NIGHTLIFE

Up and down Coastal Highway, raw bars, breweries and music enliven

the beach scene. 6

$20 DINER

Brightwood Park’s Straw Stick Brick packs deliciousness into

its deli sandwiches. 12

MOVIES

“Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping” is the comedy equivalent of a snow cone in the sun. 30

Turn it up

Learn the big names and key dates of

the summer concert season. Page 17

THE WASHINGTON POST | GOINGOUTGUIDE.COM | JUNE 3 ,  2016

Weekend

RADIO FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

BY KAREN TUMULTY

About 15 minutes into a newly releaseddocumentary about her husband’s train wreckof a campaign for New York City mayor, HumaAbedin reflects on the awkward improbabilityof it all.

“Those of you who know me are probablysurprised to see me standing up here. I’musually back of the room, far away from themicrophone as possible,” she tells an audienceof well-heeled women in a swanky Manhattanapartment where she has come to raise moneyfor Anthony Weiner’s mayoral bid.

Abedin, of course, is the famously privateaide de camp, confidante and surrogate daugh-ter to Hillary Clinton. She is Clinton’s couture-clad palace guard.

It was astonishing for Abedin to have al-lowed such a film as “Weiner” to be made at all— much less to put a high-definition, close-uplens to the most humiliating chapter of her life.

The filmmakers go into the Weiners’ home,eavesdrop on their arguments, capture awk-ward moments of silence and exasperation.They open windows on a strained partnershipthat is being held together but appears a longway from healing.

Especially striking are the ways in which

Abedin’s own marriage follows the patterns ofher boss’s, raising many of the same questions.Was it love or ambition that made her stay witha self-destructive politician who betrayed heragain and again? Is her torment a testament toher character, or evidence that something islacking in her judgment?

“Weiner” premiered in January at the Sun-dance Film Festival, opened in the top 10markets on May 27, and will spread to screensacross the country in coming weeks. The ex-congressman has said he gave filmmakers JoshKriegman, a former staffer, and Elyse Steinbergaccess in hopes that people might get a fullerpicture of him. But at this point, the personeveryone wants to see is his wife.

The timing of the film’s release is hardlyideal, coming at a moment when Clinton ap-pears poised to become the first woman to wina major party’s presidential nomination. Abed-in comes off as the oldest stereotype in politics:the suffering, ornamental spouse.

Off-screen, however, Abedin has become akey figure in many of the controversies thathave swirled around Clinton.

She has been interviewed by the FederalBureau of Investigation in connection with its probe into Clinton’s use of a private email ac-

ABEDIN CONTINUED ON C6

WASHINGTON POST PHOTO ILLUSTRATION; PHOTO BY KATHY WILLENS/ASSOCIATED PRESS

New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner, left, listens as his wife, Huma Abedin, addresses a news conference on July 23, 2013, the day the story broke that Weiner had been sexting explicit photos under the alias “Carlos Danger.”

Huma Abedin, facing Danger

Film brings the painful private life of Hillary Clinton’s closest aide into focus

BY ANN HORNADAY

The idea of an all-female “Ghostbusters” shouldhave been no big deal.

Ever eager to profitably repurpose their corporateproperties, movie studios are constantly on the huntfor past projects to resurrect, capitalizing on nostalgicbaby boomers and Gen Xers and, just maybe, enlisting

a young generation of fans to supporta new franchise.

When it comes to a potentiallylucrative reboot, “Ghostbusters” —

the beloved, albeit far from perfect, 1984 act-ion-comedy starring Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, BillMurray and Ernie Hudson — checked every box. Theprospect was made all the more enticing when it wasannounced that this one would feature an all-femalecast, including Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy and“Saturday Night Live” stars Kate McKinnon and Leslie

NOTEBOOK CONTINUED ON C6

CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK

Thanks, guys: Going to see the all-female ‘Ghostbusters’ is now a political act

HOPPER STONE/SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT

From left: Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Kristen Wiig and Leslie Jones star in this year’s remake of “Ghostbusters.”

COLUMBIA PICTURES/ALAMY

From left: Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray and Ernie Hudson star in the iconic original “Ghostbusters,” from 1984.

BY NEELY TUCKER

It’s the third of June. Some-where in Mississippi, it’s anothersleepy, dusty delta day. Since thesummer of 1967, when the South-ern gothic ballad “Ode to BillieJoe,” set on this day in that place,first hit the airwaves, the song hascaptivated American pop culturein a way few ever have.

Written and sung by an un-known young woman from Mis-sissippi named Bobbie Gentry, itwas an eerie, minor-key mysteryabout an unnamed young womanand her family sitting around afarm dinner table discussing, inelliptical terms, the suicide ofBillie Joe McAllister.

It sold tens of millions of cop-ies. It knocked the Beatles off thetop of the charts. It spawned a1976 movie. It made Gentry a hotVegas star. She kicked aroundwith Elvis and Tom Jones andbriefly married casino magnateBill Harrah.

The song’s iconic success alsohelped launch one of the mostenduring riddles in pop: Whatev-er happened to Bobbie Gentry?

She had a few minor hits after“Ode,” appeared on ’70s enter-tainment shows and then wentkapoof in the 1980s. No appear-ances. No pictures. No interviews.

Over time, she became regard-ed as the J.D. Salinger of popmusic. She made Harper Lee lookchatty. She went full Garbo.

GENTRY CONTINUED ON C2

Searching for Bobbie Gentry

BY SARAH L. KAUFMAN

There are few tragedies morehaunting than the death of inno-cents, as Shakespeare, Euripidesand the daily news remind us.

One of the best known of thesetragedies gains new powerthrough a moving and boldlyoriginal treatment. “Juliet andRomeo” is Swedish choreogra-pher Mats Ek’s version of theill-fated lovers’ tale, told in a waythat honors its Renaissancesource while tying it directly totoday’s world. The Royal SwedishBallet gave this 2013 work itsNorth American premiere onWednesday at the Kennedy Cen-ter Opera House.

Ek’s ballet has little in commonwith those heavily draped andchandeliered productions of theShakespeare story that most bal-letgoers know. Ek’s characterslook pretty much like us, in theirslacks, skirts and ponytails. Thereare no pointe shoes. The teenageboys behave like teenage boys,goofing around and punchingeach other.

It is always night here. The sethas a stripped-down look, with a

DANCE CONTINUED ON C2

DANCE REVIEW

‘Juliet and Romeo,’ in our world

C2 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST . FRIDAY,  JUNE  3 ,  2016

It’s most often reported thatshe is living in seclusion in LosAngeles, as if she has morphedinto a Southern-fried Norma Des-mond holed up in a creepy man-sion on Sunset Boulevard.

That isn’t true. And Gentry spoke to a reporter,

for this story, apparently for thefirst time in three decades. Wecaution you not to get too excitedabout that. It’s one sentence.Could be two.

Then she hung up.

An open secret All Southerners come home,

even if it’s in a pine box, TrumanCapote once opined.

That is what the 70-somethingGentry has done, hidden in plainsight, known perhaps to a fewfriends and neighbors, but no-body who ever blabs.

“I think, to some, it’s an opensecret,” says Tara Murtha, authorof “Ode to Billie Joe,” a 2015 bookthat’s by far the most thoroughbiography of Gentry’s public ca-reer. In it, Murtha cites reportsfrom Savannah papers that a Bob-bie Gentry lived in the Georgiacity in the late 1990s but had sincemoved.

In an interview, she said sheknew where Gentry now lives buthad not printed it. She neverspoke to Gentry but said she hadsent letters through intermediar-ies that were never answered.

The short answer to one ofpop’s great mysteries:

Bobbie Gentry lives about atwo-hour drive from the site of theTallahatchie Bridge that made herso famous, in a gated community,in a very nice house that costabout $1.5 million. Her neighbors,some locals and some real estateagents know who she is, althoughit’s not clear which of her manypossible names she goes by.

We’ll be a little more specific ina minute.

First: How can someone onceso famous vanish so completely?

A complicated family history, astage name, a couple of marriagesand a false birth date on herofficial PR material helped.

Gentry’s name at birth, in Mis-sissippi, was Roberta Lee Street-er. But her parents divorced whenshe was young, and she lived withher grandparents. She moved toL.A. to be with her mom and soonadopted the “Bobbie Gentry”stage name. She divorced Harrah,then married and divorced coun-try singer Jim Stafford in the late

GENTRY FROM C1

1970s. Further, the music studiohad shaved a couple of years offher actual birthday.

Gentry’s family didn’t talk, andshe had cut off nearly all herfriends in the music business.When reporters reached outthrough intermediaries, therewas never a reply.

“I think it’s simpler than itseems,” Murtha said. “She appar-ently didn’t like the music busi-ness, went on to other businessesand never missed the spotlight.”

Hot on the trailStafford and Gentry had a very

small wedding in 1978, but theydid allow a reporter from theMemphis Commercial Appeal toattend the ceremony on their 120-acre horse farm in Somerville,about 45 miles east of the city.

“It’s wonderful to stand on yourown land, where you plan to live

and raise afamily,”Stafford isquoted assaying at thetime.

Today,computer da-tabases clear-ly show thatperhaps thenation’s mostreclusive popstar lives inan 8,000-square-foot

house with a great pool not allthat far from the old homestead.Real estate agents confirmed it.

So, yesterday, I found myselflooking at a phone number on mycomputer screen for several sec-onds. No reporter, to the best ofmy knowledge, has spoken toGentry in decades.

I punched the numbers. After a few rings, a pleasant

woman’s voice said: “Hello.”I introduced myself and my

newspaper. I said I was lookingfor the person whose name ap-pears on the property owner’srecord.

There was a dead pause ofseveral seconds. My fingersclenched open and closed.

“There’s no one here by thatname,” she said, finally.

I apologized and started toread back the number, to makesure I had dialed it correctly, andshe hung up.

But there isn’t really any doubt.I talked, for about 13 seconds,

to Bobbie Gentry. Some mysteries can be solved.

What Billie Joe and his girlfriendthrew off the Tallahatchie Bridge?No. That can’t.

neely.tucker@washpost.com

Alice Crites contributed to this report.

After Gentry made a splash

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Bobbie Gentry in 1969.

The Reliable SourceHelena Andrews-Dyer and Emily Heil

G O T A T I P ? E - M A I L U S A T R E L I A B L E S O U R C E @ W A S H P O S T . C O M . F O R T H E L A T E S T S C O O P S , V I S I T W A S H I N G T O N P O S T . C O M / R E L I A B L E S O U R C E @ h e l e n a _ a n d r e w s @ e m i l y a h e i l

favorite foods. At the pal’s suggestion of Chinese, Sotomayor worked out an Asian-influenced menu (tricky because retiring justice John Paul Stevens didn’t like the Far East cuisine). A puzzled Kagan later asked Sotomayor about the meal’s theme. It turned out that Kagan, in fact, didn’t like Chinese — her friend did.

It’s no surprise that the nine rely on shared meals to maintain comity: In the court’s early years, the justices lived together in a boardinghouse and took most of their meals together. Ginsburg noted that once that tradition ended, so, too, did the court’s practice of issuing only one opinion per case. “When the boardinghouse style disappeared,” she said, “dissent began to appear.”

foodie) Antonin Scalia, who traditionally led the justices in serenades of “Happy Birthday.”

“We are missing our chorus leader, because most of us can’t carry a tune,” she said.

During regular lunches, SoniaSotomayor said, justices don’t discuss cases — or get into heavy political debate — mostly, she said, they talk about the books they’re reading, museum exhibits they’ve seen, and funny family stories.

And then there are the dinners— each justice is greeted into the nine-member club with a welcome meal, and is feted on retirement.

When it came time for her to plan one for the arriving Elena Kagan, Sotomayor did her homework, calling a friend of the junior justice’s to determine her

The scales of justice mightnot be the only onesgetting a workout at thehighest court in the land.

At a Smithsonian-led discussion on Wednesday night about the Supreme Court’s food culture, two justices revealed that the institution’s civility is fed by a veritable buffet of shared meals, from casual lunches to elaborate dinners.

Here’s how birthday lunches gowhen the court is in session, per Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: “The chief brings in wine and we toast the birthday boy or girl,” she said during the talk at the Museum of American History on the current and historical role of food at the court. Ginsburg also revealed another reason she is mourning the death earlier this year of her fellow justice (and

Oh, they’ll do justice to a good meal

For sale: one Georgetown mansion with a pedigree — the circa 1794 home where Jackie Kennedy briefly moved her family in 1963 after her husband’s assassination. Subsequent buyers included New Republic publisher (and onetime KGB spy) Michael Straight, who sold it to colorful socialite Yolande Betbeze Fox, who lived there until her death this year.

Price tag: a mere $10 million, according toGeorgetown blogger Carol Joynt, who first wrote about the private sale.

Because the property is what’s known as a“pocket sale,” or an off-market listing, there’s no gallery of photos for lookie-loos to gawk at. But Joynt describes the manse at 3017 N St. NW, which is being sold by Fox’s heirs, as a bit of a fixer-upper. The buyer will no doubt be paying for the prestigious address — and for the home’s history.

Kennedy picked the brick home as her post-White House residence but decamped to Manhattan after less than a year, apparently less than enchanted by the attention from rubbernecking tourists (perhaps a cautionary tale for the Obamas, who are on the hunt for their next Beltway address?). Straight bought it and later lived there with his second wife, Nina Auchincloss Steers, who coincidentally was Jackie Kennedy’s stepsister as well as the half-sister of writer Gore Vidal. In the 1970s, Fox — a former Miss America whose eclectic résumé also included stints as an off-Broadway producer and a civil-rights activist — purchased the property.

A Georgetown mansion where Jackie Kennedy lived is available for $10 million

When last we saw Katie Rost, “the ball andgala” character on Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Potomac,” she was lamenting her broken engagement to financier Andrew Martin on the reality show’s reunion special. According to Rost, who had given Martin back the princess-cut diamond meant to cement their love just one day before the reunion show’s taping, the engagement was definitely “off.”

Instagram, of course, told a different tale. (Doesn’t it always?) Since Rost last graced your small screen, she’s published social media post-its of herself wearing her “beautiful ring from Andrew.” Yet Martin himself has gone conspicuously missing from the socialite’s feed.

Meanwhile, Rost, who is filming Season 2 of“Potomac,” can be seen with her three kids and her mom and, most recently, making the social rounds with a handsome young man she identifies as Robert Stafford. Don’t get too excited, though. According to Rost, he’s her cousin.

When reached by phone, Rost had no comment onStafford except tosay that he mostlikely won’t be onthe show.Rost’s mother,Rynthia, a vicepresident at Geicosince 1994 andapparently herdaughter’sunofficial spokes-woman, alsoreached out toemphasize that hernephew was not apublic figure—repeating thatline somefour times to makeher point. Um,okay, we getit. Palling aroundwith a close cousinafter a toughbreakup makessense.

‘Real Housewives of Potomac’ star Katie Rost’s relationship status? Well, it’s complicated.

TOMMY GARCIA/BRAVO

Katie Rost.

CLIFF OWEN/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, left, and Sonia Sotomayor discuss the Supremes’ dining traditions.

MARVIN JOSEPH/THE WASHINGTON POST

Former first lady Jackie Kennedy once lived in the house at 3017 N St. in Georgetown.

BY MICHAEL TARM AND AMY FORLITI

minneapolis — Prince died of anaccidental overdose of the power-ful painkiller fentanyl, autopsy re-sults released Thursday show.

The 57-year-old singer wasfound dead April 21 at his Minne-apolis-area estate.

According to a one-page reportreleased by the Midwest MedicalExaminer’s Office, Prince admin-istered the drug himself, but thedate he took it was unknown. Theoffice said it has completed itsdeath investigation and had nofurther comment.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid,50 times more potent than heroin,that’s partly responsible for a re-cent surge in overdose deaths in

some parts of the country. It alsohas legitimate medical uses. Morethan 700 fentanyl-related over-dose deaths were reported to theDrug Enforcement Administra-tion in late 2013 and 2014.

The findings confirm suspicionsthat opioids played a role in the musician’s death. After he died, au-thorities began reviewing whether an overdose was to blame and whether he had been prescribed drugs in the preceding weeks.

Prince’s death came less than aweek after his plane made anemergency stop in Moline, Ill., formedical treatment as he was re-turning from an Atlanta concert.The Associated Press and othermedia reported, based on anony-mous sources, that the superstarwas found unconscious on the

plane, and first responders gavehim a shot of Narcan, an antidoteused in suspected opioid overdos-es.

The autopsy was conducted theday after Prince’s body was found.

At least two doctors’ nameshave come up in the death investi-gation being conducted by the Carver County Sheriff ’s Office, theU.S. Attorney’s Office in Minne-sota and the Drug EnforcementAdministration.

Michael Todd Schulenberg, afamily practitioner, treated Princetwice in the weeks before his deathand told investigators he pre-scribed medications for the singer.The medications were not speci-fied in a search warrant for theMinnesota hospital that employedSchulenberg at the time.

Howard Kornfeld, a Californiaaddiction specialist, was asked byPrince’s representatives onApril 20 to help the singer.

Kornfeld sent his son Andrewon a red-eye flight that night, andAndrew was among the peoplewho found Prince’s unresponsivebody the next morning, accordingto Kornfeld’s attorney, WilliamMauzy.

Prince’s death came two weeksafter he canceled concerts in At-lanta, saying he wasn’t feelingwell. He played a pair of makeupshows April 14 in that city, andthen came the emergency landingin Moline. He was scheduled toperform two shows in St. Louis butcanceled them shortly before hisdeath.

— Associated Press

Prince’s cause of death: Accidental overdose of a potent opioid

smoky, shadowy stage and forbid-ding walls that bring to mindcities under siege. This could bemodern-day Syria or Iraq, or aU.S. town in crisis. The Capuletspatrol their turf on Segways, withthe rigid bearing that we instant-ly recognize as policelike.

The music is not the familiarProkofiev, but Tchaikovsky. In aprevious conversation, Ek toldme he found that Tchaikovskyevoked young love beautifully,though there wasn’t much in theway of true violence and aggres-sion in his music. Ek needed theviolence, too, but love was mostimportant. He chose his excerptswell, and they were splendidlyperformed by the Opera HouseOrchestra.

Ek took his flip-flopped titlefrom an early short story, “Giu-lietta e Romeo,” which was prob-ably one of Shakespeare’s sources.Having given his heroine top bill-ing, he also gave her moxie andstrength. Again and again it isJuliet who takes the most decisiveaction and who stands up to herparents. In this austere world,Mariko Kida’s Juliet is the lonebright spot. We first see her wear-ing yellow, hopping about like apuppy and teasing her Nurse.

Ana Laguna, the extraordinari-ly expressive dancer who is Ek’slongtime muse (and wife), gavethe role of the Nurse a groundedmoral force. Throughout the bal-let she is a witness to the keymoments, often peering from theshadows. In her 60s, with her

DANCE FROM C1

long gray hair in a thick braid, sheis also a vigorous and deeplymusical member of the cast,matching the bounding Mercutioand Benvolio, for instance, stepfor step. Her presence highlight-ed one of the many glories of thiscompany and this production:Not everyone looks alike. Thereare dancers of varying ages, sizes(Jerome Marchand’s Mercutiotowers over Jokuto Kodam’s Ben-volio) and backgrounds, withsome more trained in ballet, oth-ers in modern dance.

It takes time to adjust our earswhen we’re at a Shakespeare play,and in the same way, it may take a

short while to feel engaged by Ek’sunique physical expression: thelong, stretched-out lunges, theblown-back torsos and momentswhen everyone rolls on the floor.

It is Ek’s genius, however, thathis weighted, earthy, unusualmoves arouse vivid emotions.When Mercutio, Benvolio andAnthony Lomuljo’s sweet Romeoare messing around, you ache forthem. Especially the big, tattooedMercutio, who roughly pushesthe other two away, yet alsoyearns for their company. An un-nameable change is in the air —we see how the boys sense it, intheir intentionally awkward, art-

less responses to the music, in theway they link arms and take com-fort in being together.

The giddy beauty of young loveis Ek’s high achievement here, butso is the ugliness of hatred, whichEk depicts with equal inventive-ness and immediacy.

It’s easy, therefore, to link thisballet with what’s going on intoday’s world. Age-old frictionsand factions continue to tearloved ones apart: The same daythat “Juliet and Romeo” openedat the Kennedy Center, this news-paper’s front page told the storyof an Israeli woman fatally knifedin her kitchen by a teenage Pales-tinian boy. Both her family andhis spoke poignantly of theirgrief, confusion and loneliness inthe aftermath.

That Ek’s ballet seems to antici-pate, respond to and add morelayers to such heartbreaking vio-lence speaks to his masterfulcommand. How acutely he com-municates something real in themake-believe world of the stage.

In fact, his art draws us in notby making us believe, but bymaking us feel. By expressing theyearning, resistance, helpless-ness — and the hopefulness — oflove. Hope is Ek’s coda, as it wasShakespeare’s, and as it must beours, too.

sarah.kaufman@washpost.com

The Royal Swedish Ballet performs “Juliet and Romeo,” by Mats Ek, in the Kennedy Center Opera House through Saturday. Tickets: $29-$129. 202-467-4600 or kennedy-center.org.

Royal Swedish Ballet makes beauty, tragedy real

GERT WEIGELT

Mariko Kida and Anthony Lomuljo as Juliet and Romeo.