In the hierarchy of fictional homes, few have cast a spell quite like the Owens family home from the 1998 film Practical Magic. The film, which stars Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, was released 27 years ago, but fans still search real estate listings for Victorian mansions with wraparound porches and conservatories in hopes of finding something that captures even a fraction of the house’s Gothic romance. It has arguably became the film’s most memorable character—and creating it required quite a bit of magic, too.
Based on Alice Hoffman’s 1995 novel about the Owens’, a family of women cursed in love but blessed with supernatural abilities, the film needed a house that could serve as a sanctuary, laboratory, and storytelling device all at once. Director Griffin Dunne understood that the Owens family home was a character that had to embody centuries of accumulated magic, wisdom, and secrets. According to Dunne, he was enchanted by the script when he first read it. “It was literally like a cauldron. Every emotion, theme and ingredient you could imagine was swirling around in it,” he told Hooked on Houses.
Alamy
Sandra Bullock in Practical Magic.
When it came time to materialize the Owens family home, Dunne called upon Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch, the design duo who would later become ELLE Decor A-List design firm Roman and Williams. At this point, however, they were primarily known for their work in film production. Their friendship with Dunne began on earlier film sets, like that of Search and Destroy.
Working with only Hoffman’s novel as their blueprint, the designers’ challenge was to translate literary descriptions into three-dimensional reality. The house described in the book was both Gothic and welcoming, mysterious yet functional—a home where midnight margaritas could be mixed alongside morning coffee and where love spells and family dinners happened in the same spaces. Standefer and Alesch drew inspiration from Victorian architecture’s most romantic elements, incorporating nineteenth-century scrollwork, East Coast lighthouse features, and wraparound porches.
Stephen Alesch
An original sketch of the Practical Magic home.
The designers’ approach was methodical yet intuitive. They envisioned a house where every object would suggest stories about the women who lived there. The kitchen became their masterpiece, inspired by grand English country spaces but designed to function as both a cook space and family heart. “The Aga is almost like a shrine,” Standefer told Hooked on Houses of the range in the kitchen. “This is the place where they do their work; it’s where they place the cauldron.” The adjacent conservatory served as the mystical centerpiece where the film’s most memorable scenes would unfold and a space that suggested both greenhouse and temple, practical and magical in equal measure.
Construction began in 1997 on San Juan Island, Washington, where production rented land for $80,000 and spent six months building the exterior from scratch. It was built entirely on a platform to preserve the sacred Native land below. Every board, shingle, and piece of gingerbread trim was crafted specifically for the cameras and to create a structure that looked as though it had weathered decades of New England winters.
Stephen Alesch
The kitchen of the Practical Magic house, designed by ELLE Decor A-List firm Roman and Williams.
The logistics were complex. While the exterior rose on San Juan Island, the interiors were simultaneously being constructed on Los Angeles soundstages. The famous conservatory was built in California, disassembled, shipped north, and rebuilt on location.
Creating the illusion of a lived-in magical home required meticulous staging. According to HistoryLink, set designers scoured antique stores all around Puget Sound to find local treasures to fill the home. The gardens were constructed using a mixture of real and artificial greenery, and the props department had to fill hundreds of mysterious bottles for the glass-fronted cabinets in what became known as the potions room.
Stephen Alesch
The interiors of the Practical Magic home.
But the house that captured audiences’ hearts existed only during filming. Nothing existed inside of the structure, and the Victorian shell that took half a year to construct was dismantled within days of wrapping, as production had agreed to restore the tribal land to its original condition after use.
With news that Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman will return for Practical Magic 2, fans are already speculating about what the new Owens family home will look like. But how do you follow up on a house that has achieved mythical status in popular culture? The original Victorian mansion set an impossibly high bar, creating not just a movie set but an architectural dream that refuses to fade from our collective imagination.
Julia Cancilla is the engagement editor (and resident witch) at ELLE Decor, where she oversees the brand’s social media platforms and writes the monthly ELLE Decoroscope column. She covers design trends, pop culture, and lifestyle through storytelling to explore how our homes reflect who we are. Her work has also appeared in Inked magazine, House Beautiful, Marie Claire, and more.
A former pilot accused of attempting to shut off the engines of a passenger jet mid-flight has pleaded guilty to the charges in a federal court.
Joseph David Emerson was riding off-duty in the cockpit of an Alaska Airlines flight when he told the pilots “I am not okay” before trying to cut the engines midair, court documents showed.
Emerson also told police he had taken psychedelic mushrooms and had been struggling with depression.
Under his plea agreement, prosecutors can recommend a one-year prison sentence, while his attorneys are expected to argue for no additional jail time.
He pleaded no-contest to reckless endangerment and first-degree endangering an aircraft in Oregon state court, and guilty in federal court, according to the BBC’s US partner CBS News.
In the state court, he was sentenced to 50 days in jail, which he has already served, five years’ probation, 664 hours of community service – eight hours for each person he endangered – and $60,659 (£44,907) in restitution, CBS News, the BBC’s partner in the US, reported.
“What Joseph Emerson did was reckless, selfish, and criminal,” Multnomah County, Oregon, Deputy District Attorney Eric Pickard said. “We should remember how close he came to ruining the lives of not just the 84 people aboard Flight 2059, but all of their family members and friends as well.”
In court on Friday, Emerson said hat he had been unable to perceive reality after taking the mushrooms, but “that doesn’t make this right”, he said.
“This difficult journey has made me a better father, a better husband, a better member of my community,” he said. “Today I get to be the dad I was incapable of when I had to use alcohol to deal with life as life is.”
The flight on 22 October, 2023 was on its way from Everett, Washington, to San Francisco, California, with 80 passengers aboard. It was then diverted to Portland, Oregon.
The criminal complaint states that one pilot said he had to wrestle with Emerson until he stopped resisting and was ushered out of the cockpit. The entire incident lasted about 90 seconds.
After being subdued, Mr Emerson said to flight attendants: “You need to cuff me right now or it’s going to be bad” and later tried to reach for the emergency exit handle during the plane’s descent, the documents say.
One flight attendant told investigators they had observed Emerson saying “I messed everything up” and that he “tried to kill everybody”.
Emerson can serve half his community service hours at Clear Skies Ahead, a non-profit for pilot health that he founded with his wife after his arrest.
He must also be assessed for drug and alcohol use, refrain from using non-prescribed drugs, and keep at least 25 feet (7.6m) away from operable jets without permission from his probation officer, CBS reported.
His sentencing in the federal case is scheduled for 17 November.
Summary: A new study reveals a molecular link between fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) and Lewy body dementia, a devastating neurodegenerative condition. By combining human epidemiological data and animal experiments, researchers showed that PM2.5 exposure triggers toxic clumps of alpha-synuclein in the brain, similar to those seen in patients.
Mice exposed to pollution developed brain atrophy, cognitive decline, and widespread protein clumps, while mice without alpha-synuclein showed no symptoms. The findings highlight pollution as a potential driver of dementia and a promising avenue for preventive strategies and drug development.
Key Facts:
Pollution Link: PM2.5 exposure increases risk of Lewy body dementia by up to 17%.
Protein Trigger: Airborne particles induce toxic alpha-synuclein clumps in mouse and human brains.
Drug Target Potential: A newly identified pollution-related Lewy body strain may guide future treatments.
Source: Columbia University
A team of researchers found there is a possible molecular connection between air pollution and an increased risk of developing Lewy body dementia.
The study builds on a decade of research linking exposure to fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) — from industrial activity, residential burning, wildfires, and vehicle exhaust—to a higher risk of developing these diseases.
The findings add to a growing body of evidence indicating how environmental factors may trigger harmful protein changes in the brain that lead to neurodegeneration.
The team focused on patients hospitalized for the first time with Lewy body-related conditions and used ZIP-code-level data to estimate their long-term exposure to PM2.5. Credit: Neuroscience News
The research is published in Science.
Lewy body diseases are a group of neurodegenerative disorders marked by the abnormal buildup of a protein, alpha-synuclein, in the brain. These clumps, known as Lewy bodies, are a hallmark of the conditions Parkinson’s disease and Lewy body dementia.
In their new work, the team discovered that exposing mice to PM2.5 triggered the formation of abnormal alpha-synuclein clumps. These toxic protein clusters shared key structural and disease-related features with those found in the brains of patients with Lewy body dementia.
“We have identified a novel strain of Lewy bodies formed after exposure to air pollution,” says corresponding author Xiaobo Mao, PhD, associate professor of neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a member of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering.
“By defining this strain, we hope to establish a specific target for future drugs aimed at slowing the progression of neurodegenerative diseases marked by Lewy bodies.”
The research began with an analysis of hospital data from 56.5 million U.S. patients admitted between 2000 and 2014 with neurodegenerative diseases. The team focused on patients hospitalized for the first time with Lewy body-related conditions and used ZIP-code-level data to estimate their long-term exposure to PM2.5.
The scientists found that each interquartile range increase of in PM2.5 concentration in these zip code areas resulted in a 17 percent higher risk of Parkinson’s disease dementia and a 12 percent higher risk of dementia with Lewy bodies.
“This is among the first human epidemiological study to zero-in on a dementia subtype linked to Lewy bodies,” said Xiao Wu, PhD, co-first author of the study and assistant professor of Biostatistics at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
“The statistical association we uncovered is even stronger than what previous studies found when lumping all Alzheimer’s and related dementias together—highlighting Lewy body formation as a potentially pivotal pathway that warrants deeper biological investigation, says
“We hope to inspire researchers to conduct both epidemiologic and molecular studies that focus on dementia subtypes linked to Lewy bodies.”
Exploring the biological reason for this association between exposure to PM2.5 and Lew body dementia, the team of researchers exposed both normal mice and genetically modified mice lacking the alpha-synuclein protein to PM2.5 pollution every other day for a period of ten months.
“In normal mice, we saw brain atrophy, cell death, and cognitive decline—symptoms similar to those in Lewy body dementia,” says study collaborator Ted Dawson, MD, PhD, the Leonard and Madlyn Abramson Professor in Neurodegenerative Diseases and director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering. “But in mice lacking alpha-synuclein, the brain didn’t exhibit any significant changes.”
The researchers then studied mice with a human gene mutation (hA53T) linked to early-onset Parkinson’s disease. After five months of PM2.5 exposure, these mice developed widespread pockets of alpha-synuclein and experienced cognitive decline. Observed through biophysical and biochemical analysis, these protein clumps were structurally distinct from those that form during natural aging.
The team also set out to determine whether air pollution effects varied by location. They found that mice exposed to separate samples of PM2.5 from China, Europe and the United States led to similar brain changes and development of alpha-synuclein pockets, suggesting that the harmful effects of PM2.5 may be broadly consistent across different regions.
The researchers say changes in gene expression in the brains of PM2.5-exposed mice were strikingly similar to those found in human patients with Lewy body dementia which indicate that pollution may not only trigger the build-up of toxic proteins but also drive disease-related gene expression changes in the human brain.
“We believe we’ve identified a core molecular link between PM2.5 exposure and the propagation of Lewy body dementia,” Mao says.
While genetic factors play a significant role in neurodegenerative disease, the scientists say people can potentially control their exposure to pollution.
The next goal of the researchers is to determine which specific components in air pollution are driving these effects. Understanding that could help guide public health efforts to reduce harmful exposures and lower the risk of disease, notes the research team.
By identifying this novel strain of Lewy bodies formed after exposure to air pollution the authors of the study hope to establish a specific target for future drugs aimed at slowing the progression of neurodegenerative diseases marked by Lewy bodies.
Funding:
The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH RF1 AG079487, K01 ES036202, P20 AG093975, P30 ES009089, R01 ES030616, R01 AG066793, RF1 AG074372, RF1 AG080948), the Helis Foundation, the Parkinson’s Foundation, the American Parkinson’s Disease Association, the Freedom Together Foundation and the Department of Defense.
About this Lewy body dementia research news
Author: Stephanie Berger Source: Columbia University Contact: Stephanie Berger – Columbia University Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access. “Lewy body dementia promotion by air pollutants” by Xiaobo Mao et al. Science
Abstract
Lewy body dementia promotion by air pollutants
INTRODUCTION
Lewy body dementia (LBD), comprising dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Parkinson’s disease (PD) with dementia (PDD), is a devastating and increasingly prevalent neurodegenerative disorder.
Ambient PM2.5 is a recognized broad dementia risk factor; however, its specific role in initiating LBD, particularly its distinct pathological trajectory versus PD without dementia, remains unaddressed. This study systematically investigates this link.
RATIONALE
Pathologic α-synuclein (αSyn) is the defining neuropathological hallmark of LBD. A leading hypothesis posits that environmental neurotoxins, such as fine particulate matter (PM2.5), could trigger initial αSyn misfolding and propagation into the brain. However, epidemiological relationships between PM2.5 exposure and LBD versus PD subtypes lacked large-scale substantiation.
Whether PM2.5 can induce αSyn to form pathogenic strains that drive LBD’s specific clinical and pathological signatures remains unclear. Elucidating this environmental-molecular nexus is key to unravelling LBD pathogenesis and identifying targeted interventions. Our study aimed to dissect these fundamental mechanisms.
RESULTS
Convergent, multimodal evidence from large-scale human epidemiology, molecular, cellular, animal, and patient studies demonstrated a robust PM2.5-LBD link.
First, analysis of >56 million US Medicare beneficiaries revealed that chronic PM2.5 exposure was significantly associated with first hospitalizations for α-synucleinopathies.
A key finding was that the link between PM2.5 exposure and hospitalization risk was stronger for LBD (PDD and DLB) patients than for those with PD without dementia, implying a preferential vulnerability or pathogenic mechanism in LBD.
Second, we demonstrated an essential role of αSyn in PM2.5-related neurological disorders. Chronic PM2.5 exposure in wild-type (WT) mice induced brain atrophy, cognitive deficits, and widespread αSyn pathology in the brain and peripheral organs (gut, lungs) as well as concomitant tau pathology.
Genetic ablation of αSyn conferred strong protection against these PM2.5-induced detrimental effects, clearly establishing αSyn as an important mediator of this environmental neurotoxicity.
Third, we found that PM2.5 from diverse global sources (US, China, and Europe) induced conformational change in αSyn preformed fibrils (PFFs), inducing a distinct αSyn strain (PM-PFF). PM-PFF remained stable across passages and, compared with PFF, exhibited LBD-like pathogenic features, including accelerated aggregation, degradation resistance, enhanced propagation, and increased neurotoxicity, mimicking αSyn strains found in LBD.
When inoculated into humanized αSyn mice, this PM-PFF strain preferentially induced cognitive impairments, contrasting with the primarily motor deficits induced by PFF. Consistently, brain transcriptomic analyses revealed that both chronic PM2.5 exposure and PM-PFF inoculation in humanized αSyn mice elicited gene expression signatures that mirrored those of LBD (PDD and DLB) but not those of PD without dementia, underscoring an LBD-specific pathogenic axis.
CONCLUSION
This study provides evidence linking PM2.5 exposure to LBD. The neurotoxic effects of PM2.5 appear to be mediated by αSyn, with exposure generating a pathogenic strain (PM-PFF) that shares key properties with αSyn strains in human LBD.
In mice, this strain induced cognitive deficits and transcriptomic changes resembling those in LBD patients, distinct from those in PD without dementia. These findings identify an environmental mechanism contributing to LBD pathogenesis and underscores the role of αSyn.
The PM2.5-induced strain represents a potential target for therapeutic intervention. Collectively, these results emphasize the importance of further research into air pollution’s role in neurodegenerative diseases and its implications for public health strategies.
Max Verstappen claimed a scintillating pole position at Monza, beating the Mclaren pair fair and square on a scorching hot day in Italy. The Dutchman will start from P1 tomorrow with Lando Norris alongside, while championship leader Oscar Piastri lines up third. But who else excelled at the Temple of Speed? Here are all the best facts and stats from Qualifying…
Verstappen set a new fastest lap in F1 history – 264.682km/h or 164.466mph.
But no one has won here from pole in the last five Grands Prix.
Verstappen bagged his 45th pole for Red Bull, which is a new team record surpassing Sebastian Vettel.
It is Red Bull’s 108th pole position, passing Lotus for fifth on the all-time list.
An own goal and a Declan Rice header kept the Euro 2024 finalists on track for qualification, but the team lacked inspiration at Villa Park
England maintained their 100 percent record in their World Cup qualifying campaign with a 2-0 win over Andorra on Saturday, but the uninspiring display did little to dissuade the doubters about Thomas Tuchel’s ability to get the best out of the team.
The Three Lions monopolised the ball and territory but Andorra proved extremely stubborn opponents as the visitors sat around their area and blocked the majority of England’s probing passes and efforts from inside the area, such as when Max Llovera slid in to block Eberechi Eze’s goal-bound strike.
It was fitting, then, that England took the lead via an own goal as Reece James slipped the ball to Noni Madueke, whose cross was glanced in by defender Christian Garcia.
That should have opened the floodgates, but Andorra continued to stifle England, who were also frustrated by their own wasteful finishing. In the second half, Marcus Rashford curled over the bar after Eze had a shot saved before the otherwise excellent debutant, Elliot Anderson, fired too close to goalkeeper Iker Alvarez .
England’s pressure finally made a difference and they scored again thanks to another inviting cross as a delicious delivery from James found Declan Rice to head home. But once again, Tuchel’s side failed to build on the momentum and had to settle for an unflattering result against a very low-level opponent, albeit a determined one.
Clement Virgo’s erotic, eerie thriller Steal Away tells the story of two young women — one Black, one white — who form a bond while trying to unravel the secret history of a stately manor house. Virgo, after films like Rude (1995) and Brother (2022), returns to the familiar terrain of examining the impact of racism and inequality.
In an echo of The Book of Negroes, Virgo’s 2015 historical TV miniseries, which dealt with the transatlantic slave trade, Steal Away centers on Cécile, a young woman played by Mallori Johnson, who arrives as a young African refugee to the privileged home of Fanny (Angourie Rice), a young and sheltered woman whose world barely extends beyond life with her beautiful and benevolent mother, Florence, played by Lauren Lee Smith.
Virgo has Steal Away begin as a feminist drama that eventually breaks conventions by morphing into something of a horror film, with even a pinch of the supernatural.
“It’s partly coming-of-age, but it’s also partly psychological thriller and I hopefully play a little bit with horror elements, and ultimately with an allegory about the past and somewhat about the present and what we may see in the future,” the director explains.
Virgo and script co-writer Tamara Faith Berger never lay out Cécile’s backstory, even if their movie is inspired by Karolyn Smardz Frost’s historical nonfiction book Steal Away Home, in which fugitive slave Cecelia Reynolds escapes to Canada via the Underground Railroad, only to eventually return to Kentucky as a freed woman and renew her complex relationship with her former mistress.
“I wanted to really just use that [book] as a jumping off point and make it about these two young women without trying to be overt with the politics. I wanted to speak about the history, without being obvious,” Virgo explains.
Inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s Persona and David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, where the lead female characters have dual roles, Virgo in Steal Away plunges Cécile and Fanny into a sexual tug-of-war for Rufus, the gardener’s son, played by Idrissa Sanogo Bamba. And that foregrounds the erotically charged theme of female empowerment as Cécile falls in love with Rufus, only to ignite Fanny’s jealousy and her own sexual awakening.
Virgo adds that he didn’t give leads Rice and Johnson much direction and exposition on set, but, as is his style, he instead set his actors loose to discover their own emotions and emotional truth about their characters. “As a director, I try not to be prescriptive in terms of how I approach the work and how I relate to the actors,” he says.
Steal Away, as with Virgo’s first five feature films, will get a premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. It’s something he says he will never take for granted. “Look, it’s always a miracle when I make a film and it’s always special when I show it in my hometown,” says the filmmaker, who was born in Jamaica and grew up in Toronto. “I made my first short film in 1991 in my early 20s, and TIFF showed that film. And they’ve showed all my feature films. It never gets old.”
Dua Lipa brought out Chaka Khan for a duet of ‘Ain’t Nobody’ at her show in Chicago last night – watch below.
The North American leg of her huge Radical Optimism World Tour kicked off in Toronto on Monday (September1), and on Friday, she rolled into Chicago’s United Center for the first of two nights.
During the show, she introduced Chicago music legend Chaka Khan onto the stage and they launched into a version of the Grammy-winning 1983 single ‘Ain’t Nobody’, which Khan originally recorded with the funk band Rufus.
Watch fan-captured footage here:
Lipa has been playing songs by local artists throughout the Radical Optimism tour, often with high-profile guests, which most recently included Jamiroquai in London’s Wembley Stadium for ‘Virtual Insanity’. She also played with Crowded House’s Neil Finn in Auckland, and Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker in Sydney.
Her two Wembley shows in June later became the subject of a mini-documentary titled Dua Lipa – The Beat Before (Wembley Stadium), which chronicled behind-the-scenes footage and fan vox-pops from the gigs.
In other Dua Lipa-related news, she officially confirmed her engagement to actor Callum Turner in June after months of fan speculation.
Speaking to British Vogue for a new cover story, she said: “Yeah, we’re engaged. It’s very exciting. This decision to grow old together, to see a life and just, I don’t know, be best friends forever—it’s a really special feeling.”
She was also granted Kosovan citizenship in August, being hailed by the country’s president as “one of the most iconic cultural figures in our country’s history”.
Lipa was also one of the celebrities to hit out at British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s response to their open letter that called for the end of “UK complicity” in Gaza.
“Prime Minister, you’ve built your career as a human rights lawyer, defending the powerless and challenging injustice,” the response read. “In years to come, when you are asked whether you have done enough, what will you say?”
