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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26 , 2021. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/STYLE EZ SU C
BY SONIA RAOSeveral camera crew members
had walked out on the film “Rust”
before actor Alec Baldwin dis-
charged a prop firearm that killed
cinematographer Halyna Hutch -
ins and injured director Joel Sou-
za, according to a search warrant.
About six crew members were
protesting issues related to pay-
ment and housing, and they
wrote a letter to producers about
their disagreements over labor
conditions.
The crew walkout is one of
several new details included in an
affidavit filed by a detective from
the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Of-
fice. The document provides a
fuller picture of how the tragedy
unfolded on the set of the New
Mexico production last week,
down to some of Hutchins’s final
moments.
After the Thursday incident,
the detective spoke with Souza,
who said work started late that
day because they hired another
camera crew to step in for those
who had walked out. They were
working with only one camera,
according to Souza, so the day
also progressed at a s lower pace
than usual. He stood beside
Hutchins that afternoon to view
the camera angle for a scene set
inside a church building at Bo-
nanza Creek Ranch.
Souza recalled Baldwin sitting
on a pew while rehearsing the
scene, which required the actor to
cross draw his character’s weap-
on and point it toward the cam-
era. The director remembered
SEE BALDWIN ON C2
New details
emerge in
shooting on
movie set
Affidavit reports c rew
walked out, Baldwin w as
‘very careful’ with gunsBY WENDY SMITH“Shh.... Listen!” Benny Oh
says at the beginning of Ruth
Ozeki’s new novel. “That’s my
Book, and it’s talking to you.” His
Book is not the only one; Benny
hears the voices of all kinds of
inanimate objects: fluorescent
lights, coffee beans, paper cups,
“the chatter of cash registers
filled with all those arrogant met-
al coins that think they’re actually
worth something.” It began the
year he was 12, the Book informs
us, the year his father died in a
freak accident. Together, some-
times in amusing counterpoint,
the Book and Benny chronicle his
journey during the fraught year
2016, when he turns 14. Their tale
of sorrow, danger and tentative
redemption serves as the spring-
board for extended meditations
on the interdependence of all be-
ings, the magic of books, the dis-
astrous ecological and spiritual
effects of unchecked consumer-
ism and more.
The author has so much she
wants to say that her narrative is
sometimes as cluttered as the
cramped half-house in which
Benny’s mother, Annabelle, ob-
sessively piles up unnecessary
purchases. Fortunately, one of
Oze ki’s gifts as a novelist is the
ability to enfold provocative intel-
lectual material within a human
story grounded in sharply ob-
SEE BOOK WORLD ON C3
BOOK WORLD
Ruth Ozeki
creates art
that speaks
to you
THE BOOK OF
FORM AND
EMPTINESS
By Ruth Ozeki
Viki ng. 560 pp.
$30Clockwise from top left: T he
cast of “ Girls5eva”; Ser’Darius
Blain and Simone Recasner in
“The Big Leap”; the cast of
“Queens”; Jean Smart and
Hannah Einbinder in “Hacks.”ANGELO MERENDINO FOR THE WASHINGTON POSTAlan Perkins o f Olmsted Falls,
Ohio, finds himself in the grip
of the giant skeleton mania,
buying his own material to
construct ever larger displays.BY MAURA JUDKISI
n April, Jake Levin got a
letter from his home-
owners association. “The
giant skeleton on [the]
front lawn needs to be put
away,” it said. “Holiday de-
cor needs to be taken down
immediately after the holiday.”
The giant skeleton in question
was Indiana Bones, the 12-foot
Home Depot skeleton Levin, 27,
bought from a reseller for $525
amid the madness of last October.
But one does not simply put
away a 1 2-foot skeleton, and so
Levin had adapted Indiana Bones
to each subsequent holiday: a t ur-
key leg for Thanksgiving, a Santa
suit for Christmas, a l eprechaun
costume for St. Patrick’s Day. This
tactic, along with a conspiracy
among neighbors to move Indiana
Bones periodically from yard to
yard, has allowed Levin to avoid
any fines.
Nevertheless, he understands
that a disapproving HOA is not
the only threat to the 12-foot skel-
eton.
“It kind of loses its wow factor
when it’s just there all the time,”
says Levin, who lives in Oakland,
Fla.
Where do we go from here? It’s a
question many people are asking
in the aftermath of 2020, but espe-
cially those who spent $300 or
more last year on gigantic skele-
tons.
They were the perfect accessory
to an extreme year. As life resumes
its normal proportions, do you
stand them down? Or do you esca-
late?
For Gerry Harrod, 57, escalation
is normal.
“Each year, we try to do a bigger
and better display,” he says.
So, he bought two more gigan-
tic skeletons to go with the one he
set up last year. Harrod, of Coquit-
lam, B.C., owns a Mini Cooper,
which is insufficient to haul giant
bones. Last year, he borrowed a
friend’s truck. This year?
“We had to buy a t ruck.”
SEE BONES ON C3Like the coronavirus,
giant skeletons have
stuck around another
year and adaptedSome houses have good bones,
and some have great big ones
BY INKOO KANGFor the famous, retirement
isn’t what it used to be.
Once upon a time — say, until
10 or 15 years ago — celebrities
chased after a roving spotlight,
their pursuit slowing as they aged
or abandoned it altogether. But
the fragmentation of media and
entertainment has meant many
more (if far dimmer) spotlights,
while the rise of social media has
allowed fame-seekers to stop run-
ning after capricious tastemakers
and simply stand in front of a ring
light. Factor in our culture’s ap-
parently infinite appetite for nos-
talgia, and you never have to ask
“where are they now?” again.
Today, past-their-prime stars
are everywhere. The lucky few
still work in film and television,
SEE NOTEBOOK ON C2CRITIC’S NOTEBOOKStories of second chances make for first-rate shows
HEIDI GUTMAN/PEACOCK SANDY MORRIS/FOXKIM SIMMS/ABCANNE MARIE FOX/HBO MAX