NEWSMAKERS

NEWSMAKERS

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos gets cameo in new ‘Star Trek’ film

LOS ANGELES

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos got to live out every Trekkie’s fantasy by playing an alien in the new “Star Trek” movie.

Bezos is listed in the credits for “Star Trek Beyond,” the third installment of the rebooted sci-fi franchise. In interviews Friday, producer J.J. Abrams and director Justin Lin confirmed his appearance in the movie.

Lin said the billionaire CEO arrived with plentiful security for a day of filming and waited patiently for crews to shoot the single tracking shot that includes his character.

“He was awesome,” Lin said. “It was like a president was visiting, you know? He had a big entourage! But it didn’t matter because he was so into it. He had to wait around all day because it was one day we were shooting like three different scenes, and it was also credit to Jeff because ... he just nailed it every time.”

Bezos has spoken in interviews of his passion for “Star Trek,” and said his childhood dreams of space led him to found his private space-travel company, Blue Origin.

His cameo in the latest movie comes after several musicians and actors made unbilled appearances in Abrams’ “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” including Daniel Craig as a Stormtrooper.

Bolshevik Revolution icon Aurora returns to St. Petersburg

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia

The cruiser Aurora, which fired the shot that announced the start of Russia’s 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, has returned to its mooring in St. Petersburg after nearly two years of repair work.

The 116-year-old ship was pulled by tugboats up the Neva River early Saturday, watched by thousands of people along the river’s embankments.

It had been undergoing work at the Kronstadt naval yard on an island in the Gulf of Finland.

The ship, now a museum, is one of the most popular tourist attractions in St. Petersburg.

A blank shot fired from one of the Aurora’s cannons on Nov. 7, 1917, signaled the start of the storming of the Winter Palace, which forced the Russian government to capitulate several hours later.

Associated Press