Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Names and faces
■ Bear Grylls said he was brought to tears by the determination of competitors on World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji as they raced through jungles and over mountains to the point of exhaustion and pain. The series’ new 10-episode season, hosted by Grylls and featuring 66 teams from 30 countries, will debut Aug. 14 on Amazon Prime Video, it was announced Wednesday.
The episodes were taped last fall before the coronavirus pandemic hit. The nonstop race with 330 competitors was held for 11 days and across more than 400 miles. It was difficult to see racers drop out after spending so much time and energy in preparation, Grylls said. “But at the same time, those that endured, whether or not they won, it wasn’t really about the winning,” he said. “This is an expedition with a stopwatch, is how I always kind of see this, and just to complete it is a huge achievement.” “I unashamedly wept at times, seeing the effort and what it meant to these people,” said Grylls, an adventurer who starred in the survival series Man vs. Wild. Grylls noted the field’s diversity, including the first fully black team from America competing internationally. Another American squad includes Mark Macy, a past Eco-Challenge competitor who has since been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and his son, Travis. “That was a very emotional journey for them to race together, for the son to want to be alongside his dad,” Grylls said.
■ Adult film star Ron Jeremy has been charged with raping three women and sexually assaulting a fourth, Los Angeles County prosecutors said. The counts make the 67-year-old Jeremy the third man to be charged, along with Harvey Weinstein and producer David Guillod, by a task force formed by District Attorney Jackie Lacey in 2017 to investigate sexual misconduct in the entertainment industry. Jeremy, nicknamed “The Hedgehog,” is among the best known and most prolific actors in the history of the adult film industry, with thousands of credits to his name. Jeremy, whose real name is Ronald Jeremy Hyatt, appeared in court Tuesday, wearing handcuffs and a mask, but did not enter a plea. A judge delayed his arraignment until Friday and set his bail at $6.6 million. Jeremy was charged with three counts each of forcible rape and forcible penetration by a foreign object and one count each of forcible oral copulation and sexual battery. Prosecutors accused Jeremy of raping a 25-year-old woman at a West Hollywood home in May 2014, sexually assaulting a 33-year-old woman and a 46-year-old woman in separate incidents at a West Hollywood bar in 2017, and raping a 30-year-old woman at the same bar in 2019. Jeremy’s attorney Stuart Goldfarb said he is “absolutely innocent of the charges. It’s not a close call.”