• Actor Nick Nolte's infamous mug shot from 2002, the one where the three-time Oscar nominee wears his hair wild and his shirt Hawaiian, was one of two the actor has had taken by police. In 1961, Nolte was busted for selling fake draft cards, fined $75,000 and sentenced to 75 years in prison, later suspended. In that booking photo, a pre-famous Nolte wears his hair short and a button-down shirt. Both embarrassing incidents are heartily discussed in his new memoir, Rebel: My Life Outside the Lines. Nolte, 77, is now ready to tell his story -- warts and all. Nolte, whose hits include The Prince of Tides, Cape Fear, Lorenzo's Oil, The Good Thief, The Thin Red Line and 48 Hrs., self-medicated to quell his inner demons. "A little chaos around keeps me sane," he writes. He describes the arrests as almost bookends to a sometimes crazy life. "The best way to deal with the biggest mistakes in your life is to discuss them. With everybody, including God," Nolte said in an interview. Nolte was a Midwestern boy, a natural jock, who found fame later in life when he traded in performing on the stage to movies. He said acting appealed to him because it involves taking risks. "I mean when I'm standing backstage and that curtain is about to open I say, 'Why would you do this to yourself? Are you really that much of an idiot to just expose yourself to a thousand people?'" he said. "And then the curtain opens and, if it goes all right, you don't remember opening night -- there's too much adrenaline. Actors are risk takers. And they're taking the risks for their own sanity."
• Portraying a heroic sex crimes detective on television has provided Mariska Hargitay with a platform to help sexual assault victims in real life. The star of Law and Order: SVU has turned her clout as an advocate for victims into the upcoming HBO documentary, I Am Evidence, where she also serves as producer. The film, which premieres Monday on HBO, focuses on four survivors whose rape kits went untested for years. Part of the problem for that is that many states have no legislation that demands testing within a reasonable period. As a result, hundreds of thousands of kits are backlogged, with many never tested. Hargitay admits backing the documentary was driven by her "own outrage" of the way victims of sexual assault are treated by the system. "I just couldn't comprehend that in this country this was going on. That they were stockpiling rape kits," Hargitay said. The documentary also examines the victim-blaming that some rape survivors encounter from law enforcement officers who aren't properly trained.
A Section on 04/13/2018