Names and faces
■ Hugs and tears punctuated the final taping of The Big Bang Theory, a lovefest for its stars, crew and audience alike. “This show has touched so many hearts,” an emotional Kaley Cuoco told the fans who filled a Warner Bros. soundstage in Burbank, Calif., on Tuesday. She shared a comment made by series creator Chuck Lorre at a reading of the final script: “The Big Bang Theory will live on in our hearts forever.” There were plenty of punchlines as well, as the true-toform hit comedy about scientists and those who love them wrapped the two-part, hourlong finale that will air in mid-May on CBS. Johnny Galecki, who plays husband Leonard Hofstadter to Cuoco’s Penny, thanked the audience on hand for episode No. 279 and called the top-rated comedy’s 12-season run “a dream come true for all of us.” Jim Parsons, who stars as awkward genius Sheldon Cooper, had a key fan in attendance: His mother, Judy Parsons. The cast, including Simon Helberg, Kunal Nayyar and Melissa Rauch, lingered after taking their final bows. Mayim Bialik, who plays neuroscientist Amy Farrah Fowler, hugged Lorre tightly on the stage that was named after the series last February.
■ Philadelphia’s second poet laureate, Frank Sherlock, who focused on taking poetry to neighborhoods and the city’s young people, has been outed as a former white nationalist. In the late 1980s, Sherlock was a 19-year-old skinhead and vocalist for a white nationalist punk band called New Glory. “I’m mortified and not just that somebody found out, but that it happened at all,” he told the Philadelphia Inquirer. Sherlock, now 50 and a freelance writer, said that period of his life was shameful, saying he never considered himself a racist but had a limited worldview. “I guess in my own mind I made this transformation,” he said, adding he wanted to transcend his negative past. “I felt like I’ve been doing the work that was going in that direction.” Sherlock was appointed to the yearlong poet laureate post in 2014 during the administration of Mayor Michael Nutter, who is black. The band broke up in 1989, and Sherlock enrolled at Temple University, studying English. Sherlock’s white nationalist past was revealed in a poem by another local poet posted to Twitter and later deleted. The poet, Amy Saul-Zerby, said in a statement that she was “troubled by the fact that it had been hidden from his closest friends.” She said she made the Twitter post after the two had a confrontation at a bar.