LA Times Crossword 23 Jul 26, Thursday

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Constructed by: Ryan Patrick Smith

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Film Crew Assignments

Themed answers are all common phrases reinterpreted as ASSIGNMENTS on a film set:

• 20A Cinematographer’s assignment? : SHOOT YOUR SHOT
• 32A Screenwriter’s assignment? : FORM A LINE
• 44A Costume designer’s assignment? : PITCH A FIT
• 56A Director’s assignment? : GET THE PICTURE

Read on, or jump to …
… a complete list of answers

Bill’s time: 8m 45s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Like a specialized committee : AD HOC

The Latin phrase “ad hoc” means “for this purpose”. An ad hoc committee, for example, is formed for a specific purpose and disbanded after making its final report.

17A Springsteen portrayer Jeremy __ White : ALLEN

Actor Jeremy Allen White spent over a decade starring as Philip “Lip” Gallagher, the second oldest child on the hit comedy-drama “Shameless”. He garnered a lot of positive attention with his Emmy-winning portrayal of award-winning chef Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto on “The Bear”. In preparation for the culinary role, White trained alongside professional chefs at the Institute of Culinary Education and immersed himself in the kitchens of Michelin-starred restaurants.

18A __ carotene : BETA

Carotene is an orange pigment that plants use in the process of photosynthesis. Carotene gives carrots their orange color, and it is carrots that give the pigment its name. “Carota” is the Latin for “carrot”. Carotene is found in nature in two structural forms: alpha-carotene and the more common beta-carotene.

24A Straight, for short : HET

The noun and adjective “het” is sometimes used instead of “heterosexual”.

28A Novel that inspired “There Will Be Blood” : OIL

“There Will Be Blood” is a 2007 film starring Daniel Day-Lewis. The movie is based (loosely) on the 1927 novel by Upton Sinclair called “Oil!”

29A Opposite of sans : AVEC

In French, “avec” (with) and “sans” (without) are opposites.

31A Many a Chiwere language student : OTO

Chiwere is a Siouan language spoken by the Otoe people, as well as by the Missouria and Iowa.

42A “Ghostbusters” actor Harold : RAMIS

Harold Ramis was a real all-rounder; a very successful actor, director and writer. Indeed, in both “Ghostbusters” and “Stripes” he was a co-writer as well as playing a lead character. Ramis worked as writer-director on “Caddyshack”, “National Lampoon’s Vacation”, “Groundhog Day” and “Analyze This”.

1984’s “Ghostbusters” really is an entertaining movie. It stars Bill Murray and Harold Ramis, and was directed by Ivan Reitman (a trio that also worked together on 1981’s “Stripes”). The first draft of the screenplay was written by another star of the movie, Dan Aykroyd. Aykroyd originally envisioned “Ghostbusters” as a vehicle for himself and John Belushi, but sadly Belushi passed away before the project could be realized.

46A Question in reply to “omw,” maybe : ETA?

On my way (OMW)

49A Detroit labor org. : UAW

The United Auto Workers (UAW) was founded to represent workers in auto plants in the Detroit area in 1935. Nowadays the UAW’s membership extends into aerospace, agriculture and other industries.

50A Town in Ontario County, New York : SENECA

The town of Seneca, New York took its name from the Seneca Nation, a member tribe of the Iroquois Confederacy who lived in the area.

62A Zither kin : HARP

The zither is a stringed instrument, one in which the strings do not extend beyond the bounds of the sounding box. That means that the instrument has no neck, unlike a guitar.

64A Volkswagen Group subsidiary : AUDI

The predecessor to today’s Audi company was called Auto Union. Auto Union was formed with the merger of four individual entities: Audi, Horch, DKW and Wanderer. The Audi logo comprises four intersecting rings, each representing one of the four companies that merged.

66A Hall of Famer Shaquille : O’NEAL

Shaquille O’Neal joined the NBA after he was drafted first overall by the Orlando Magic in 1992. He made his presence known with physical dominance, twice shattering backboard supports in his rookie year. After that, the league was compelled to upgrade to steel-brace reinforced backboards and introduce a rule banning players from hanging on the rim.

68A French jeweler and glassmaker Lalique : RENE

The French jeweler René Lalique was also a glass designer and was well known for glass art, which included automobile hood ornaments. Lalique designed the art deco glass walls and columns in the dining room and grand salon of the SS Normandie. He also provided much of the interior art for St. Matthew’s Church on Jersey in the Channel Islands, so that it is sometimes referred to as “Lalique’s Glass Church”.

Down

2D Metropolis in north-central India : DELHI

The metropolis of Delhi in India is the world’s second-largest urban area, trailing only Jakarta, after officially overtaking Tokyo’s built-up population in 2024. The term “urban area” refers to the continuous built-up land mass, and not the administrative city limits.

3D The MLB’s Angels, to fans : HALOS

The Anaheim Angels baseball team is today more correctly called the Los Angeles Angels (LAA). The “Angels” name dates back to 1961 when the team was founded in the “City of Angels”, Los Angeles. When the franchise moved to Anaheim in 1965 they were known as the California Angels, then the Anaheim Angels, and most recently the Los Angeles Angels. The Angels are also known as “the Halos”.

4D Cookie with a limited-edition BTS collaboration : OREO

In June 2026, to celebrate the 13th anniversary of the K-pop supergroup BTS, Nabisco rolled out the limited edition BTS Brown Sugar Pancake Oreo. The creme filling replicates “hotteok”, a Korean street-food pancake stuffed with melted brown sugar and cinnamon. The wafers are stamped with 13 unique embossments designed by the band, which include the individual members’ names.

5D “Harriet” and “Wicked” Oscar nominee Erivo : CYNTHIA

British actress Cynthia Erivo’s big break came on the stage, when she starred in the Broadway revival of “The Color Purple” from 2015 to 2017. Her Hollywood film breakthrough came with the title role in the 2019 biopic “Harriet”, portraying Harriet Tubman and earning herself a Best Actress nomination. More recently, Erivo portrayed Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, in the “Wicked” series of films.

7D Veal cordon __ : BLEU

A “cordon bleu” dish is a meat dish, one prepared by wrapping the meat around cheese, covering it with breading and then pan-frying. Specifically, veal cordon bleu is made using veal that is pounded thin and wrapped around slices of ham and cheese. The term “cordon bleu” translated from French as “blue ribbon”.

8D Tolkien saga, briefly : LOTR

“Lord of the Rings” (LOTR)

9D Old mice and such : E-WASTE

The computer mouse was invented at the Stanford Research Institute in 1963, by one Douglas Engelbart. Sadly for him, his patent ran out before mice became standard equipment on computers, so he never made any money from his amazing invention.

10D Italian salami city : GENOA

Genoa salami is made using preservation techniques that originated in ancient Rome.

11D Recurring melodic phrase : LEITMOTIF

In the world of music, a leitmotif is a recurring musical phrase that is associated with a particular theme or perhaps a particular person. Common in classical works, leitmotifs are also frequently used in film music. A classic example would be the strident notes played every time Darth Vader appears on the screen in a “Star Wars” movie.

13D Cornea locale : EYE

The cornea is the transparent part of the eye in the front, and the part that covers the iris and the pupil. Even though the cornea is not part of the eye’s lens, it acts as a lens. In fact, the cornea does most of the work focusing light coming in through the eye. It is, in effect, a fixed-focus lens passing on light to the variable-focus lens that is inside the eye.

21D Mello __ soda : YELLO

Like so many beverages introduced by the Coca-Cola Company, Mello Yello was launched to compete against a successful drink already on the market. Mello Yello first hit the shelves in 1979, and was designed to take market share from Pepsico’s “Mountain Dew”.

26D Gestation sites : UTERI

“Uterus” (plural “uteri”) is the Latin word for “womb”.

The normal gestation period for humans is 280 days, a little over 9 months. The gestation period can be a little shorter, or longer. Back in 1945, a pregnancy was confirmed at 375 days, which is just over 12 months.

27D Put forth : POSIT

To “posit” is to assume as fact, to lay down as a “position”.

29D “Concrete Rose” novelist Thomas : ANGIE

Angie Thomas is a young adult author from Jackson, Mississippi. She was exposed to racism and gun violence throughout her upbringing, even witnessing a gang shootout when she was 6 years old. As an adolescent, her creative side turned to rapping, but then turned to writing after graduating from Belhaven University in Jackson. 2017 saw publication of her first book, “The Hate U Give”, which revolves around the shooting of a Black youth by a White police officer, and its aftermath. Thomas’s next two books also reflected her early years, and take place in the same fictional universe as her first: “On the Come Up” (2019) and “Concrete Rose” (2021). “The Hate U Give” was adapted into a 2018 film of the same name.

33D Speak from a rostrum : ORATE

A rostrum (plural “rostra”) is an elevated platform, particularly one for public speaking. The original rostrum was the platform used by public speakers in the Forum of ancient Rome.

34D Namesakes of most planets : ROMAN GODS

All of the planets in the Solar System, except for Earth, were named for Greek and Roman gods and goddesses:

• Mercury was Roman god of travel
• Venus was the Roman goddess of love and beauty
• Mars was the Roman god of war
• Jupiter was the king of the Roman gods
• Saturn was the Roman god of agriculture
• Uranus was the Greek god of the sky
• Neptune was the Roman god of the sea
• (also, Pluto was the Roman god of the underworld)

40D Windows shaped like 13-Downs : OCULI
[13D Cornea locale : EYE]

“Oculus” (plural “oculi”) is the Latin word for “eye”, and gives us our term “ocular” meaning “eye-related”.

43D Product of a schism : SECT

A schism is a split or division, especially in a religion.

45D Golden, as bygone days : HALCYON

The adjective “halcyon” describes perhaps prosperity, happiness and great success, and often refers to a time in the past that was seen as idyllic. The term “halcyon” comes from a tragic love story from Greek mythology involving Alcyone, the daughter of the god of the winds, and her mortal husband, King Ceyx. When Ceyx perished in a violent shipwreck, Alcyone threw herself into the waves to join him. The gods transformed the couple into a pair of “halcyon” birds, traditionally identified as kingfishers. The birds built floating nests upon the open sea, and so Alcyone’s father halted the wind and calmed the waves for fourteen days around the winter solstice each year so they could safely tend to their eggs. This mythical, stormless period became known as the “halcyon days”.

52D Waldorf salad fruit : APPLE

As one might expect, the Waldorf salad was created at the Waldorf Hotel in New York City (now the Waldorf=Astoria), back in the 1890s. The classic version of the Waldorf salad is made from apples, celery and walnuts dressed in mayonnaise and served on a bed of lettuce. Anyone who is a fan of the BBC sitcom “Fawlty Towers” will remember how much trouble Basil Fawlty had coming up with a Waldorf salad for an American guest, as the kitchen was “out of Waldorfs” …

54D Trepidation : DREAD

Our word “trepidation”, meaning “fear”, comes from the Latin verb “trepidare” meaning “to tremble”.

58D CNN anchor Burnett : ERIN

Erin Burnett is a television journalist and the host of her own show on CNN called “Erin Burnett OutFront”. Apparently Burnett also used to show up occasionally as advisor to Donald Trump on “The Celebrity Apprentice”.

59D __ poem: free-form orchestral work : TONE

A symphonic poem (also “tone poem”) is a musical piece usually based on another work, perhaps a play, story or poem.

61D “Bien sûr” : OUI

A Frenchman might utter the affirmative “Bien sûr!” (Of course!) or “Oui!” (Yes!).