Kidnapping victim Elizabeth Smart is pleased with how a Lifetime movie and documentary she helped produce about her harrowing ordeal turned out. But she said her visit to the movie set brought back terrible memories when she saw actor Skeet Ulrich looking so similar to the man who abducted her.
The upcoming film titled "I Am Elizabeth Smart" follows the nine months after Smart, then 14, was kidnapped by Brian Mitchell from her bedroom in her Salt Lake City home in 2002 and was raped daily by her captor, the Deseret News reported .
Police finally found her in Sandy with the help of two couples who recognized Mitchell from media reports as a suspect in Smart's kidnapping.
Mitchell was convicted and is serving a life sentence for the crime.
The movie features newcomer Alana Boden as Smart, Deirdre Lovejoy — who portrays Mitchell's estranged wife Wanda Barzee, who aided in the kidnapping — and Ulrich as Mitchell.
Smart was on the set for part of the filming, narrated the movie and gave feedback to executive producers Joseph Freed and Allison Berkley.
She especially wanted to help them find a balance between keeping the integrity of her gruesome experience and not being too graphic.
"Certainly a lot of very bad things happen, and I thought, 'How could you possibly show that without it either coming off as dark and terrible and give you nightmares at night,' or sugar-coating everything and making it seem like, 'Oh, this terrible thing happened but it really wasn't that bad, and then a miracle happened?' " she said.
While she enjoyed meeting the actors, Smart said in an interview with Deseret News that she felt uncomfortable when they asked her to take a photo with them.
"It was just this weird experience because I was sitting there like, 'They're lovely people, but I don't know if I should smile because they don't look like lovely people,'" she said. "They look like my worst nightmare."
The movie will premiere Saturday, Nov. 18.
A two-part documentary titled "Elizabeth Smart: Autobiography," in which Smart shares more details about the horrific situation she survived, her rescue and what her life is like now, will be premiered on A&E Nov. 12-13.
California governor signs law to protect children from social media addiction
California will make it illegal for social media platforms to knowingly provide addictive feeds to children without parental consent beginning in 2027 under a new law Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Friday.
California follows New York state, which passed a law earlier this year allowing parents to block their kids from getting social media posts suggested by a platform's algorithm. Utah has passed laws in recent years aimed at limiting children's access to social media, but they have faced challenges in court.
The California law will take effect in a state home to some of the largest technology companies in the world. Similar proposals have failed to pass in recent years, but Newsom signed a first-in-the-nation law in 2022 barring online platforms from using users' personal information in ways that could harm children. It is part of a growing push in states across the country to try to address the impacts of social media on the well-being of children.
"Every parent knows the harm social media addiction can inflict on their children โ isolation from human contact, stress and anxiety, and endless hours wasted late into the night," Newsom said in a statement. "With this bill, California is helping protect children and teenagers from purposely designed features that feed these destructive habits."
The law bans platforms from sending notifications without permission from parents to minors between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m., and between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays from September through May, when children are typically in school. The legislation also makes platforms set children's accounts to private by default.
Opponents of the legislation say it could inadvertently prevent adults from accessing content if they cannot verify their... Read More