NEW YORK (AP) — For more than a decade, a Long Island wine importer named Bill DeBlasio has been receiving emails meant for another man with a near-identical name: former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Last week, he decided to respond — inadvertently setting off an international news cycle based on misinformation in the final days of New York City’s mayoral election.
After receiving an email from a reporter with the Times of London asking for his — well, de Blasio’s — thoughts on Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, DeBlasio replied with a four paragraph critique of the candidate’s agenda, which the real ex-mayor has enthusiastically endorsed.
“I did some research on the proposals and I wrote down my thoughts and used ChatGPT to do a little fine-tuning,” DeBlasio, 59, told The Associated Press. “Then I forgot about it and went on vacation. I never thought it would make it into the news.”
But it did.
In an exclusive story published online Tuesday night, the Times of London reported the former New York City mayor had now concluded that Mamdani’s ambitious agenda “doesn’t hold up under scrutiny.”
De Blasio, the politician, quickly disavowed the piece on social media. Within hours, it was deleted. The Times of London has since apologized, saying in a statement that its reporter had been “misled by an individual claiming to be the former New York mayor.”
DeBlasio, the wine importer — whose identity was first reported Thursday by Semafor — disputes the newspaper’s retelling.
“In no way shape or form did I call myself the mayor,” he said. “The reporter addressed me as Mr. DeBlasio and I answered him as Mr. DeBlasio. They accepted my quote without any vetting — now they’re blaming me?”
“I’ve been Bill DeBlasio for 59 years,” he continued. “My father has been Bill DeBlasio for 85 years. My son has been Bill DeBlasio for 30 years. It’s our name, you know?” (De Blasio, the mayor, is 64, but has had his name for less time: He was born Warren Wilhelm Jr. and later adopted his mother’s maiden name, de Blasio.)
He provided screenshots of the emails confirming the reporter had not specifically addressed his questions to the former mayor.
Still, DeBlasio acknowledged that he hadn’t gone out of his way to correct the misunderstanding: “I said if you have any further questions, speak with my advisers, and I put my friends’ names in there.”
“We all thought it was absolutely hilarious,” he added.
The ex-mayor does not share this view. In an op-ed published in The Nation on Thursday, he blamed the episode on a “hyperpartisan” journalism landscape where “standards of objectivity and decency are decaying week by week.”
A spokesperson for the Times of London said the outlet would not be commenting further on the mix-up.
DeBlasio, of Long Island, meanwhile, said the prank felt like fair payback for years of harassment he has endured as a result of his nominal link to the two-term mayor.
“I’ve had thousands of interactions with people, angry, mean, nasty people just saying the most horrible, horrific things,” he said. “It got to a point where I was getting messages every day telling me how horrible of a human being I am.”
At a New York Mets game years ago, DeBlasio briefly met de Blasio, who offered him an apology for the hate mail, he said.
Describing his own politics as “middle of the road” conservative, DeBlasio said he would likely support Mamdani’s opponent, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, if he were eligible to vote in the city.
“The real Bill DeBlasio endorses Cuomo,” he said. “You can print that.”
Long ago, whispers spread through Takoma DC of a crooked alley where shadows lingered a little too long…
So goes the story of one unassuming alley in Takoma DC that transforms into a Halloween haven known as Spookyville: Haunted Alley. What began nine years ago as a modest gathering inside my home has grown into a beloved community celebration that fills an entire alley block with pumpkins, laughter, and Halloween magic.
Every October, this small, semi-hidden public space behind Van Buren Street NW becomes a glowing corridor of delight and connection. Neighbors turn parking pads into haunted tunnels, driveways into candy trails, and back fences into a Halloween landscape. For one extraordinary night, the alley becomes a car-free, community-powered festival — free and open to all.
This year, with string lights, fog, and civic spirit, this humble stretch of pavement became a pedestrian promenade where kids ran safely, music drifted through the air, and neighbors met, some rekindling connections and some speaking for the first time. For one magical night, the alley embodied what our city’s public spaces can be: vibrant, inclusive, and entirely human-scaled.
Spookyville embraces Halloween as the utlimate urbanist holiday
Halloween is, at its core, a radical act of community building. It’s a night when boundaries blur: between the living and the dead, between private and public, between “my property” and “our block” — when everything is a little bit magical. Children, teens, and adults roam freely. Strangers knock on doors. Sidewalks, alleys, and streets become gathering spaces.
That is the ethos of Spookyville: Haunted Alley. It welcomes us to see what happens when neighbors collectively reimagine shared space. When we take down fences, light up dark corners, and invite one another in, we do more than celebrate a holiday. We claim public space for people, rebuild social fabric, and spark joy.
Together, we turn a simple back lane into something extraordinary: an act of joy, generosity, and community spirit. Urbanists often talk about “placemaking.” Spookyville might be better described as “placehaunting”: reanimating a forgotten space through imagination and care.
A unicorn comes to Spookyville. Image by Planet 16 Photography: Damien Hubert used with permission.
The making of a Haunted Alley
The story of Spookyville began with a spark of neighborhood imagination. As legend has it, the “Mayor of Spookyville” (yours truly) conjured the Alley into being with the help of Laurence “The Fearless Planner” Minor and the ever-enchanting Madame J, fortune-teller by lantern light. Together, we transformed an ordinary alley into a place of mystery, mischief, and shared magic.
This year’s event, held on Friday, October 24, welcomed several hundred neighbors — around 500 to 600 families, friends, and curious passersby — for a night of community and creativity. We offered a Freaky Fish Fry with 150 free meals from Takoma Station Tavern, sweet treats, hauntingly good beats from local DJ Zach Pleasant, and a cauldron’s worth of activities — all conjured through community donations and volunteer magic.
Takoma Station Tavern fed Spookyville. Image by Planet 16 Photography: Damien Hubert used with permission.
Together, we created a night of frights and delights. More than a dozen local businesses contributed food, prizes, and supplies, while neighbors lent everything from power cords to fog machines. Every pumpkin, cobweb, and lantern reflected the collective spirit that makes Spookyville shine.
Spookyville is 100% community-powered and funded — proof that a strong sense of place doesn’t require a large budget, just imagination, generosity, and teamwork.
Spookyville is full of frights and delights. Image by Planet 16 Photography: Damien Hubert used with permission.
From driveway to destination, the real treat is connection
That’s the secret to Spookyville’s magic. It’s not the props or the ghosts, but the people. Every flickering candle and strand of cobweb reflects neighbors pitching in. A sampling of the magical people:
The friend who organized the No Tricks, Just Treats! baking contest, judged by James Beard Award-nominated pastry chef Pichet Ong;Cornelia Poku, content creator and food writer at The 51st; and Ward 4 Councilmember Janeese Lewis George and her family
Girl Scout Troop 42219 and People’s Book leading Campfire Scary Stories & S’mores
One set of neighbors creating the Ghostly Chalkscape along the alley roadway
Other neighbors transforming a parking pad into a Terrifying Tunnel
Merry Pin and a neighbor leading potion and talisman-making crafts
Madame J telling fortunes by lantern light.
The magic begins even before the big night, with neighbors donating and picking up costumes at a neighbor’s Spooktique, sweeping and raking during the Broomsticks & Branches Cleanup, and carving pumpkins at Fright Lights, with their glowing jack-o’-lantern creations set out to guide visitors through the Haunted Alley. Teens and students help decorate, families open their yards, and neighbors share food, power cords, and the work of making something beautiful together.
The result? Civic engagement costumed as play and a neighborhood that’s a little stronger, and a little spookier, because of it.
Looking ahead: A decade of Spookyville
Next year will mark Spookyville’s 10th anniversary on Friday, October 30, 2026, a milestone that will bring even more frights, fun, and community pride. Organizers are already conjuring ideas for new attractions and partnerships; reach out if you want to participate!
But the heart of Spookyville will remain the same: a joyful invitation to come outside, connect, and remember that community is the real magic. Because when we reclaim public space for people — and a little Halloween spirit — we remember what makes neighborhoods like Takoma DC special: the warmth we bring in opening our doors, sharing our stories, and building something beautiful together.
If you find yourself in Takoma DC next October, follow the glow. You’ll find a small alley transformed. It’s a reminder that public space belongs to all of us, and that sometimes, the most lasting community plans start with a jack-o’-lantern and a little imagination.
Top image: The ninth annual Spookyville: Haunted Alley on October 24. Image by Planet 16 Photography: Damien Hubert used with permission.
I heard this metaphor growing up, and in my case, it backfired supremely, because I went out into my neighbor’s backyard where a rose bush was growing, and the one I tested had like 30 petals (it was yellow, but definitely a rose of some kind), and as a very logical lass, I came to the conclusion that you could have premarital sex AT LEAST ten times before your future husband would even notice something was up. Moral of the story? Test your metaphors on the weirdest and most neurodivergent child you know before writing your weird religious propaganda.
[Thomas Chaloner] had a trick sometimes to goe into Westminster hall in a morning in Terme time, and tell some strange story (sham), and would come thither again about 11 or 12 to have the pleasure to heare how it spred; and sometimes it would be altered, with additions, he could scarce knowe it to be his owne.
Born in 1908 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Jane Peters grew up with money. Her family was locally prominent with money that went back generations. However, her parents hated each other and in 1914, her mother took the kids and moved to Los Angeles. The parents did not divorce, but she basically grew up with a single mother. Even so, money was not a problem–both sides of the family had it. She was a very athletic child. One day, in 1921, the director Allan Dwan was looking for some cute kids for a picture named A Perfect Crime. Lombard was just old enough (and just young enough too) that when he saw Lombard dominating a baseball game, he thought she’d be perfect for his film. Her mom was down with that and a career was born.
It took awhile for her career to take off though. She actually screen tested for the role of the girl in Chaplin’s The Gold Rush–one of the 10 best films ever made–but didn’t get it. But because her mother knew the columnist Louella Parsons, she got a screen test in 1924, won a contract with Fox, and became Carole Lombard because Jane Peters was too boring (Jane Wyman was evidently not too boring for some reason, even though her actual name was Sarah Mayfield; who can tell what was a good name for an actor back then). She did a bunch of smaller parts and a couple of bigger ones. But in 1927, she was in a nasty car accident and had scarring on her face that required plastic surgery. She thought her career was over. But Mack Sennett came to the rescue. He had cast her in some stuff and he was a big fan and he dedicated himself to promoting her big time when she was ready to work again. The scar never went away, but the makeup artists took care of it. Sennett lived up to his pledges too, giving her the nickname “Carole of the Curves” to promote her beauty.
Luckily for Lombard, her return also coincided with the rise of the talkies and she was good at those, unlike a lot of silent actors. She was smart and witty and funny. Comedies would eventually become her mainstay and she credited Sennett with helping her here–she really wanted to be a dramatic actress but Sennett had trained her in comedy. She started working with William Powell, they fell in love despite being very different (he was something of a snob by reputation and was much older, she was a big time party girl and swore like a sailor) and got married. That didn’t hurt her career either. They divorced in 1933 but remained friends.
Lombard hit the big time when Howard Hawks cast her in Twentieth Century with John Barrymore. This pioneering screwball comedy was a huge hit and made Lombard a real star. She became a queen of the screwballs. She started working a lot with Fred MacMurray, notably in 1935’s Hands Across the Table, directed by Mitchell Leisen, another major comedic success. She and MacMurray had great chemistry and they soon did other films such as The Princess Comes Across, Swing High Swing Low, and True Confession together. 1936’s My Man Godfrey was another classic screwball, this time working with her ex-husband William Powell and directed by Gregory La Cava. She and Powell of course had fantastic chemistry. Both were nominated for Academy Awards. Then came Nothing Sacred, in 1937, with Frederic March and directed by William Wellman. This was her color film debut and was another major success.
In 1936, Lombard became serious with Clark Gable. They married in 1939. The marriage was not without its problems, including Gable fucking anything that moved and her wanting a family but being unable to get pregnant. She also converted to the Baha’i religion around this time, which her mother had done a long time ago. She was working less of course due to all this and she didn’t want to do comedy anymore. She wanted to be a serious actress. She wanted to win the Best Actress Oscar too and so took a bunch of roles in films that were well-received but didn’t really put her over the top. These include John Cromwell’s 1939 film Made for Each Other with Jimmy Stewart, Cromwell’s other film from that year, In Name Only with Cary Grant, George Stevens’ 1940 film Vigil in the Night, and Garson Kanin’s 1940 film They Knew What They Wanted. She did get a nomination for the latter, but did not win.
The problem with these films wasn’t that they were bad. It’s that audiences wanted to see Lombard in comedies so they didn’t sell well. In 1941, she decided to return to comedy with Alfred Hitchcock’s Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which was very much what the public wanted to see. He later claimed that he only did the film as a favor to Lombard and it’s true that it is about the most un-Hitch like film in his catalog. Then came To Be or Not To Be, which one of my all-time favorite comedies. Ernst Lubitsch directed her and a hilariously self-centered Jack Benny as actors in Nazi-occupied Poland who get involved in the resistance. Her part was actually fairly small, but she got top billing and so was OK with that.
The film was released in February 1942. But it was released with great sadness, despite being unbelievably hilarious. That’s because in January 1942, Lombard was in Indiana raising money for war bonds. She was such a huge star and was patriotic and people happily paid to see her. She raised over $2 million on that trip. She was flying home and after refueling in Vegas, the plane was rising and crashed into the side of a mountain. Everyone on board was killed, which also included 15 soldiers. Lombard was 33 years old. The reason for the crash was that the nation was scared about Japanese attacks so the lights that would normally guide planes out of the Las Vegas airport were shut off and….welp. Her next film was to be They All Kissed the Bride. Joan Crawford got the role to replace her and then donated her entire salary from it to the Red Cross to honor Lombard.
Carole Lombard is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California. Gable would marry twice more, but when he died, he asked to be buried next to Lombard.
If you would like this series to visit some of the people Lombard worked with, you can donate to cover the required expenses here. Jack Benny is in Culver City, California and John Barrymore is in Philadelphia. Previous posts in this series are archived here and here.
When I was in high school, a YouTuber uploaded a parody trailer for The Shining, recut as a heartwarming, father-son comedy. All it took was a well-placed “Solsbury Hill” needle drop, along with some clever editing and a cloying new voice-over, and the Stanley Kubrick horror classic now feels family-friendly. I was thinking about that parody trailer and the ways in which a filmmaker can manipulate her viewer as I was watching Dolls, a new short film written and directed by Geena Rocero and produced by Lilly Wachowski. It concerns a private investigator who’s been sent to infiltrate a purported cult that claims to be a self-help group, exclusively for trans women. (From Louise Weard’s latest Castration Movie installment to Grace Byron’s new novel, Herculine, separatist politics abound in trans women’s art of late — understandably so, I should think.) The score, by Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Susie Ibarra, is appropriately unsettling: a mix of lingering piano riffs and sudden, intense bursts of strings, all of which reinforces the framing that, yes, this is a cult. But the moments of tenderness between its members as they bond and process their trauma at times left me wondering otherwise. Is it all just music and angles? Does a gathering of trans women only seem sinister because we are always, even perhaps to ourselves, going to be seen as suspect?
Dolls screened as part of NewFest in New York on Monday after premiering last month in Atlanta; you can stream it here through October 21. Rocero’s project was shown alongside seven other short films by and about trans women (personal favorites also included Nana Duffuor’s Rainbow Girls and Kylie Aoibheann’s The Dysphoria), and it did so to a sold-out house, something that delighted Rocero though didn’t exactly surprise her. In a phone interview a few days before the screening, she told me that she knew the event would be packed. “I sent all my friends texts and emails in all caps with stars around it, ‘This will sell out! Buy your tickets!’” she said. “Now, from what I’ve been hearing the past few days, there are no more tickets left. Looks at my texts! I told you, guys!” Still, she continued, “it’s very exciting,” as is the future of Dolls, which Rocero may or may not be expanding into something more feature length, possibly alongside Wachowski. She hinted at the possibility over the course of our interview, during which we also discussed her enduring fascination with “unhinged female characters” and coming into her own as a teenage “pageant diva” in the Philippines.
Hi, Geena! Forgive me for being so bundled up. The temperature dropped here in New York, and my big prewar building hasn’t turned on the heat yet. Where are you calling in from?
I’m in New York, too. I live here. There’ve been a lot of exciting things happening with the New York Film Festival and all. I’ve been seeing a lot of incredible films. Sentimental Value, by Joachim Trier, was so emotional. I cried … I don’t know how many times because it’s about sisters and it made me remember my sisters. I saw The Secret Agent — I’ve been a fan of the director Kleber Mendonça Filho for a while. Its setting is in a rural part of Brazil, and all of the shots of the fiesta celebrations reminded me of when I was joining pageants in a rural mountain province in the Philippines. I also got to see Claire Denis—
She’s one of your favorite filmmakers, right?
She’s the reason! I got to see her new film, The Fence. I got into her work at the beginning of the pandemic, right around when I was writing my memoir, Horse Barbie, and not long after Criterion launched its streaming platform. My dear sister, the filmmaker Isabel Sandoval, was the one who told me about the Criterion Channel, which had a showcase of Claire Denis’s films at the time, and I just went crazy with it. I love Beau Travail in particular. Watching that film was what made me decide that I was going to become a filmmaker — scripted films, particularly, because I’ve directed and produced unscripted, documentary-style projects before. It was all so revelatory, digging through her filmography, and then to be watching her new film at the festival and listening to her speak, it was just this [sighs], just such a full-circle moment. Oh, and then I’m planning to see Jafar Panahi’s new film that won the Palme d’Or.
You mentioned your memoir and the documentaries you’ve made. Obviously, Dolls is fiction. What does fiction allow you to do as a storyteller that, say, sticking to the straight facts of a thing would not?
I used to have a production company that was only producing documentaries, docuseries — nonfiction projects. When I was writing my memoir, I had this realization that I have lived this, you know, very cinematic life. The trans beauty pageants. The very strict, pageant-oriented world of Catholicism we have in the Philippines. Did you know that our trans beauty pageants exist because of Catholic celebrations? We celebrate many different saints in the Philippines. Usually it’s a five-day celebration, and on the Sunday the main event for the whole family is a trans beauty pageant right on the street. Kids go, moms holding their babies … Sometimes, it’s held right in front of the church. I’ve done many, many pageants where the dressing room was in the church, in front of all the saints, and it’s nothing! It’s just part of our culture. Writing about all of that in my memoir made me want to play even bigger. Fiction just allows me to play and explore on a greater level. The pageant diva in me still wants to perform, but creating worlds to play in through writing and directing take precedence these days.
Let’s talk Dolls. One of my favorite things about the film is how ambiguous it remains for much of its run. There’s a group at the center of it. We’re told it’s a cult that claims to be a self-help group for trans women, and the unsettling score and palpably sinister vibe of it all certainly reinforces that framing. But while I was watching it, I did start to wonder if it actually was empowering these women and if it appeared sinister only from the outside in because a room full of trans women is inherently suspect to some people. I found that tension and confusion really interesting. Where did the idea for it come from?
Some people close to me were going through some really intense, painful experiences. One friend was dealing with chronic pain taking over their body. Another was going through the emotional pain of a breakup. Another was grappling with the aftermath of childhood trauma. As I was processing all of this with them, the idea for a story about group-therapy sessions came about, which I then twisted to make something more sinister out of it from the music to the looks. It’s a short, so it had to be a self-contained story, so there is an ending that kind of hints at what was actually happening. But I did try to create a world that could be returned to.
Would you expand on the story, if the opportunity presented itself?
Oh, it is definitely happening. [Laughs.]That’s as much as I can say, but yeah, it’s being developed.
Does whatever it is you’re hinting at have anything to do with a certain producer, i.e., Lilly Wachowski?
Umm … Let’s just say it’s being expanded. That’s as much as I can say. [Laughs.]
Got it. Along with writing, directing, and producing the short, you also star as the leader of the cult at its center. How would you describe her?
I’m definitely inspired by Glenn Close in various films, Tilda Swinton in Suspiria … I’m really interested in unhinged female characters and really wanted to explore the duality of how charming she would have to be while still having this sinister aspect really oozing out of her. I wanted to create the sense that there’s definitely a manipulative aspect to her, but at the same time I don’t want to give too much away upfront.
I love that you brought up Suspiria. Your use of movement in Dolls really made me think of Suspiria while watching.
I was very interested in using choreography as a way to better manage an ensemble cast, to have a lot of people onscreen without it feeling overstuffed. Choreographed movement allowed me to do that.
Photo: Courtesy of Geena Rocero
There’s a moment at the end when Valeria, played by Macy Rodman, smiles and does this one-arm movement to Yên Sen’s Yan, who then does it back to her, call-and-response style. It said so much about how deeply imbricated Yan had become without having to spell it out. You mentioned Isabel Sandoval earlier. I’m curious, because obviously in real life we’re allowed to be friends with other trans women without it being a sign that we’ve fallen into some kind of cult, who are the trans women artists you turn to for commiseration, and support?
Isabel is definitely one of those people. When I first finished this film’s script, I sent it to a trusted circle of people who I know will be able to take our friendship out of it and give me unbiased feedback. Zackary Drucker is another person that I talk to all the time about these things. I speak a lot with my trans mom that gave me the nickname “Horse Barbie.” I’ve known her since I was 15, back when I was first starting in trans pageants. What amazing, beautiful years those were, becoming this trans pageant diva, traveling all over the Philippines, and learning the ropes to make it work wherever we were going. I go back to those elements to find my sense of play and sense of freedom when I’m creating things. I’m very inspired by watching other performers. Like I said, I love seeing unhinged, complicated female characters — trans women, particularly. I love attending Baby Tea Brunch of Charlene and Tyler Ashley, and I obviously loved getting to watch the late, great Cecilia Gentili in her one-woman show, Red Ink.
More and more trans filmmakers have attracted mainstream notice and support in recent years: Isabel Sandoval, as we’ve discussed, and also people like Louise Weard, Nyala Moon, Jane Schoenbrun, Morgan M. Page, Chase Joynt, Tourmaline, Kristen Lovell, Sam Feder, and obviously many more than I can name off the top of my head. Simultaneously, there’s been an anti-trans backlash in just about every sphere of American life, from politics to culture and entertainment. I’m curious, from your vantage point, how this may have affected the kind of opportunities trans filmmakers have access to.
I recognize that. With Horse Barbie, I was shopping it around for a bit, but then there was the strike and now with that political context, I know that I’m still pushing it as an artist. It’s heartbreaking to see what’s happening, to really see what’s happening in my industry, but I’d like to believe that they’re still there, the producers and possible partners who will perfectly match whatever it is we’re making. As much craziness is happening, people are still speaking up. There are people like Cate Blanchett and the Duplass brothers providing funding and support for trans filmmakers. I also know that I’ll always be obsessed with creating, with following that instinct. Creating is a form of self-preservation for me. It’s a spiritual refuge whether I’m writing or researching or tracking down a book I want to read for some bigger project. Creation never ends.
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