Before high school, Kudrow got a nose job, which gave her face the sleekness of a Brancusi bird. “But I still couldn’t find a boyfriend,” she said. “My father would tell me, ‘You gotta be light and flirty like your sister is.’ I just went, Oh, then it’s not going to happen.” She gave up theatre for biology, thinking she’d become a doctor like her father and her brother, who was in medical school. When she arrived at Vassar College, in upstate New York, she was elated to be among East Coast intellectuals. “Everyone thought I was an idiot, because I was smiling all the time like a California ditz,” she said. She spent her days hunched over lab equipment, and her comedic instincts went dormant. A tough organic-chemistry class knocked her off the premed track, but she took an interest in evolutionary biology, a subject that still fascinates her. As we drove around Tarzana, she lit up talking about CRISPR technology and gene mutations and a study she once read on fossilized birds in Georgia.
But something else was nagging at her. On trips home from Vassar, she’d see actors on the “Late Show with David Letterman” and note how dumb and phony they sounded—the same observation that would later give rise to Valerie Cherish. “All of a sudden, the thought was, O.K., Lisa, when you’re on ‘Letterman,’ just be yourself,” she recalled. “That would blurt into my head, and then I’d think, Wait, why would I be on ‘Letterman’? For an evolutionary-theory idea?” She’d hear ads for sitcoms on the car radio and recoil at the actors’ cornball delivery, imagining herself underplaying the jokes instead. “Lisa, remember to throw it away more,” she recalled thinking. “Wait, why would I need to throw it away? I’m going to pursue evolutionary biology!”
After graduating from Vassar, in 1985, she moved back home, planning to apply to grad school, and started working in her father’s clinic. She held down a job there for eight years, during which she assisted on a study of whether certain headache types correspond to hemispheric dominance in the brain. Earlier research had suggested that sufferers of cluster headaches were more likely to be left-handed; Kudrow’s data disproved this. The results were published in the headache journal Cephalalgia in February, 1994—seven months before “Friends” premièred—under four bylines, including L. V. Kudrow. (Yes, her middle name is Valerie.)
In the meantime, the voice in her head was urging her toward comedy. In 1985, Lovitz was cast on “Saturday Night Live,” and Kudrow’s new proximity to show business intrigued her. She was twenty-two. “I just thought, I don’t want to have any regrets later,” she said. She called Lovitz for advice. He told her, “Go to the Groundlings,” where he had been a member.
When Kudrow informed her parents that she wanted to try acting, she recalled, “they went, ‘Thank God! Maybe this’ll lighten you up, and then you can meet someone.’ ” But when she telephoned the Groundlings, which has a theatre and a comedy school on Melrose Avenue, she was asked when she had last performed and answered, “Junior high.” They sent her to an improv class taught by a woman named Cynthia Szigeti. The first day, Szigeti told everyone to mime lifting a heavy disk and getting angry. “I saw some of these people just indicating anger, like, Grrr,” Kudrow said. “I went, Nuh-uh, that’s horrible. And Cynthia was, like, ‘Great!’ ” Kudrow forced herself to return for the second class, where she spotted a tall red-haired guy doing the disk exercise. “He’s not making a meal out of it—he’s just doing it,” she recalled. “I go, Oh, that’s what commitment is. He’s being it. He’s not overdoing it. So, when that exercise is over, I make a beeline to this guy.” It was Conan O’Brien.
Kia Rookie Ladder: Top 3 hold steady as Maxime Raynaud keeps rising
Charlotte’s Kon Knueppel continues to lead the NBA in 3-pointers made and stays at the top of the Kia Rookie Ladder.
The closer we get to the end of the regular season, the more we hear from various precincts about the more deserving choice for Kia Rookie of the Year.
The two favorites, as they have been most of the season, are the Charlotte Hornets’ Kon Knueppel and the Dallas Mavericks’ Cooper Flagg. After the former Duke teammates, the Philadelphia 76ers’ VJ Edgecombe has been a fixture on the Kia Rookie Ladder’s No. 3 rung, neither rising nor facing any serious challenge for that spot.
Several NBA heavyweights reported in recently, sharing their takes on the hotly contested rookie race. A panel on Amazon Prime featured John Wall, Steve Nash and Blake Griffin all making arguments on Knueppel’s behalf.
“No one expected him to be as good as he is. He surprised everybody,” Wall said. “He should be clear-cut Rookie of the Year.”
Many, however, don’t concur. Former NBA wing Iman Shumpert likened this year’s Flagg-Knueppel battle to the one in 2004 when LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony both were putting up deserving numbers.
One parallel he noted: Knueppel is helping his team chase a playoff spot, similar to what Anthony did for Denver. Flagg’s team is lottery-bound, same as James’ Cavs at the end of his rookie season. Shumpert was hardly definitive in his breakdown of the race.
“I get that they have similar numbers,” he said, “and then you have to say that Kon, man, is in a different position where they are in a win-now. And that’s going to look a lot better. But all I’m going to say is when a race is like this, we’ve seen this similarly before, and … let’s be consistent when we start talking about it, because we gave it to Bron-Bron.”
A sense of James’ presumed greatness won out over Anthony’s team impact. Anthony scored more, rebounded more, and shot better across the board than James. The Nuggets won eight more games than Cleveland. Yet James got 78 first-place votes and 508 points to win the Wilt Chamberlain Trophy to Anthony’s 40 and 430.
Here is the latest edition of the Kia Rookie Ladder:
Weekly recap
When Flagg put up 27 points, six rebounds and 10 assists at Cleveland on Sunday, he became the second-youngest player in NBA history with such a performance (25+ points, 5+ rebounds and 10+ assists). James did it in December 2003, 10 days before turning 19.
Just as some rookies have faded – or been waylaid by injuries or held back by the max-games limit on two-way players – so have others perked up or seized opportunities down the stretch. Sacramento’s Nique Clifford and Washington’s Will Riley have logged the most minutes since Feb. 1. Utah’s Ace Bailey is the fifth in points per game (15.1) since that date. Kings’ center Maxime Raynaud (9.1) has grabbed the most rebounds, and Walter Clayton Jr. (6.2) has been the top assist man.
New Orleans center Derik Queen has seen his stats dip since Feb. 1, down to 10th in rebounding, 20th in assists and tied for 18th in scoring. He ranked first, second and seventh in those categories through Jan. 31. But the Pelicans’ 8-4 run in their last 12 games has taken some of the potential heat off their young big. Everyone knows the Pelicans traded their first-round pick to Atlanta for the chance to move up to select Queen. But as their lottery odds go down, there is less pressure on Queen to pay off like a No. 1, 2 or 3 pick.
Storyline to watch
From Flagg to checkered flag. Whatever lead Knueppel has in voters’ minds for ROY probably is a slim one, same as on the Ladder. Flagg missed eight games with a left foot sprain through and past the All-Star break, but now he’s been back for eight (18.9 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 6.6 apg, 2.2 spg+bpg). Both the Hornets and the Mavericks have 13 games remaining, as of Wednesday, plenty of time for one to get hot or overachieve enough to swing votes his way.
Knueppel continued his efficient ways in the Hornets’ blowout of Miami Tuesday, scoring 22 points in 23 minutes while making eight of his 14 shots. It was his 28th game this season, scoring 20+ while shooting 50% or better. The Charlotte forward added two more 3-pointers to his league-leading total of 238, on 43.7% accuracy.
With guard Kyrie Irving ruled out for the remainder of the season, Mavs fans won’t get to see any two-man magic between him and Flagg. But Flagg told ESPN in an interview this week that Irving has been a valuable resource for him off the court, commiserating about the volume of losses most No. 1 picks tend to suffer. “I’d never lost that much in my life,” Flagg told Malika Andrews. “But just to hear him … tell me that I’m doing everything I need to be doing and just to stay with it and stay positive, it definitely helped me out a lot.”
Edgecombe finds ways to contribute nightly, whether scoring, defending or doing something else. A point of emphasis lately has been rebounding, and he’s averaging more than one extra board per game since the All-Star break. After he grabbed his season high of 12 against Portland Sunday, the rookie said: “They get on me about it. [Assistant coach Doug] West especially tells me I got to rebound. He’ll be like, you jump too high not to be able to grab rebounds. And that allows me to get into transition, or at least create something for somebody.”
Raynaud has inspired some comparisons to former Kings big men who announced their NBA arrivals with strong rookie seasons, such as DeMarcus Cousins, Marvin Bagley, Brian Grant and Jason Thompson. And the fact that he has done it out as the No. 42 pick makes it all the more impressive. His 23 points on 11-for-12 shooting Saturday, followed by a career-high 32 points Tuesday, are just the latest examples.
Harper missed two games with a right calf contusion and was active Tuesday to face Sacramento. Teammate Victor Wembanyama recently paid Harper a compliment when addressing a mythical “re-draft” of the Class of 2025. “I have zero doubt that if there was a re-draft today, we would take him,” Wembanyama said. “He’s so good, so composed, I’m so happy that Dylan is super young and can be there for years and years because I want to share the court with him for as long as possible.”
The Grizzlies’ focus on the draft lottery and next season has prioritized developing the Washington State rookie’s skill set. “At his size, he is able to do some intriguing things,” Memphis coach Tuomas Iisalo said. “He is a good on-ball creator. You’ll see him go full court, get the rebound, which he is very good at for his position, [and] push down in three seconds. He’ll get to the rim on the other end and finish. Athletically, defensively, he makes some really rare plays for a 2-guard where he is coming from the weakside and blocking centers that are trying to finish inside.”
Bailey was off to a fast start against Portland on Friday (eight points in seven minutes, flawless shooting) when he suffered a concussion and was lost for the night and for Sunday’s game at Sacramento. He was still listed as questionable for the Jazz’s game on Wednesday at Minnesota.
It was a rough week for Queen, who averaged just four points, five rebounds and 15.8 minutes while shooting 30% overall. If only New Orleans played Dallas more often — Queen averaged 14.8 points, 7.5 rebounds and 5.3 assists in their four meetings with the Mavs.
Fears turned in one of his best games Monday vs. Dallas, with 17 points, six boards, five assists and a plus-18, one of only seven in double digits in the black (compared to 23 in the minus pool by 10 or more).
A moribund season for Memphis hasn’t gotten in the way of Small’s development. The 23-year-old point guard from South Bend, Indiana — along with three high schools and three college teams — has made the most of his reps. He has had 11 of his 13 double-digit scoring games and logged 401 of his 607 minutes since Feb. 1.
Access to patient records restored after brief outage at Vanderbilt University Medical Center
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – Vanderbilt University Medical Center said Monday that it was briefly unable to access any patient medical records amid a system outage.
Vanderbilt phone operations reported it was an effect of an outage of the Epic system, which maintains medical records for providers across the nation.
Amid the reported outage, medical providers were unable to access any of their patients’ records, per VUMC.
Epic said in a statement to WSMV that it was “aware of one healthcare organization experiencing technical issues,” but declined to provide further details.
At about 11 a.m., VUMC shared an update saying access to patient records had been restored.
“Patient safety remains our top priority. Due to an issue earlier this morning with our electronic health record system, Vanderbilt University Hospital (VUH) was placed on temporary diversion status,” a message from a hospital spokesperson said. “However, the issue is now resolved and VUH has resumed normal operations.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Howie Rose, radio voice of the Mets, says he will retire at season’s end
Howie Rose, left, says this will be his last year calling Mets games. Brad Penner / Imagn Images
The legendary voice of the New York Mets, Howie Rose, will retire at the end of this season, he and the team announced Thursday.
Rose, 72, has had a decorated career as a voice in New York, most notably with the Mets, as well as the Rangers and the Islanders. His radio call of Stéphane Matteau’s goal in Game 7 of the 1994 conference finals that put the Rangers into the Stanley Cup Finals is one of the greatest in sports broadcasting history, with Rose memorably repeating, “Matteau! Matteau! Matteau!”
Rose revealed in February 2023 that two years earlier, he had been diagnosed with bladder cancer. He has continued broadcasting but has reduced the number of road games he calls. Rose is scheduled to call all 81 home games this season and three Subway Series matchups in the Bronx, but no other road games.
Rose has spent more than three decades calling Mets games and was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame in 2023.
He will retire among the all-time greats in Mets broadcasting history, including Bob Murphy, Lindsey Nelson, Ralph Kiner, Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling.
