Have a question about the NFL? Ask Times NFL writer Sam Farmer, and he will answer as many as he can online and in the Sunday editions of the newspaper throughout the season. Email questions to: [email protected]

I am of the opinion that there is offensive holding and defensive pass interference on every play, and the rhythm of games is interfered with by the capricious decision of a referee to throw a flag. Does the NFL track how many flags are thrown during games, and which referees are more prone to throw a flag? And do they do anything about it?

Martin Zaehringer, Ventura

Farmer: Each week during the season, every officiating crew is evaluated by one of the league’s officiating supervisors, all former game officials. Those supervisors study every play of a given game, each requiring about 4½ hours to grade.

The supervisors are looking for infractions that were and were not called, and selected video clips are splashed on a cinema-size screen so the entire group can discuss what should have happened. Officiating crews are downgraded for mistakes.

In the past, the NFL has fined officials game checks and issued suspensions because of rule misapplications, faulty judgment calls or administrative errors.

But I wanted to follow up on the statement at the beginning of your question, that holding and pass interference could be called on every offensive play. I asked Rams left tackle Andrew Whitworth about this, and he finds it really frustrating that the standard for what constitutes a holding penalty seems to shift from crew to crew.

“The biggest complaint for most players right now is the gray area is just extreme,” Whitworth said. “One officiating crew calls something one way, and another calls it another. All of a sudden one week they’re just calling everything under the sun that even looks like it’s something, and then the next crew calls nothing. You’re so in a world of, man, I have no idea what the actual standard rule is. That’s where the frustration comes from.

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“You look at some of these offensive holdings that are called, and every week you can find something that are just not even close to something that should be called holding, and some egregious ones that aren’t. … When I first got in the league it was, ‘Hey, if your feet are beat, and your hands are outside and you’re tugging on a guy, where there’s jersey pull, then they’re going to call it.’

“Everybody understood that. Like you knew, ‘I got away with a hold there,’ or, ‘Yeah, I held that guy. That was a good call.’ And now, you could literally have your hands inside the framework, feet not beat, but the guy just makes a move like he got held, or it just looked bad to the ref because he turns around and sees that the guy fell down or something and they call stuff. To me, it makes more sense when you just make hard-cut rules.”

In short, the entire topic touches a nerve.

Breaking down how the Chargers (5-8) and Minnesota Vikings (9-4) match up heading into Sunday’s game at Dignity Health Sports Park.

When Chargers have the ball

A week after dominating a depleted and defeated Jacksonville team, the Chargers offense faces a more suitable challenge in Minnesota, which has every reason to want to win Sunday. Only three teams have better prevented red-zone touchdowns than the Vikings this season, a particularly relevant statistic given the Chargers’ red-zone issues all season. They have reached the end zone only half the time they’ve moved inside the opposition’s 20-yard line, ranking 25th league-wide. Minnesota also is tied for sixth-best with 20 takeaways, while the Chargers are tied for sixth-worst with 22 turnovers. The Vikings have forced at least one turnover in 12 of their 13 games. They have two apiece the last two weeks. Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers finally had no turnovers in a 45-10 win over the Jaguars after throwing eight interceptions over three games. Asked to identify the most important reason why the Chargers succeeded as convincingly as they did against Jacksonville, coach Anthony Lynn said it was taking care of the football. A week after Austin Ekeler gained 100 yards in both rushing and receiving, the Chargers could turn more to running back Melvin Gordon, who has played much better in recent weeks. But it won’t be easy. Minnesota is giving up only 19.2 points per game to rank seventh.

When Vikings have the ball

Chargers defensive coordinator Gus Bradley identified the Vikings as a “committed run team” and added, “This will be a challenging, put-the-big-boy-pants-on type game for us.” Behind Dalvin Cook (1,108 yards rushing, 503 yards receiving, 13 touchdowns) Minnesota has the NFL’s fourth-best ground game, averaging 135.8 yards. The Vikings have run 397 times and passed 388 times so far. The Chargers have passed 473 times compared with 306 rushes. So the Vikings will attempt to run down the throat of the Chargers defense, meaning middle linebacker Denzel Perryman will have to be especially effective. Perryman missed the game last week after being sent home from Jacksonville for unspecified reasons. His punishment served, he is back in good-enough standing with Lynn. Working off their running success, the Vikings like to go heavy with play action, a pass game that has been efficient and effective. Among quarterbacks with at least 100 attempts, Kirk Cousins is fourth in the league in completion percentage behind Drew Brees, Ryan Tannehill and Derek Carr. Cousins also has thrown for 24 touchdowns with only four interceptions. Rivers had four interceptions in a Week 11 loss to Kansas City.

When they kick

With another close game being anticipated, this could be the week that Michael Badgley again plays a prominent role. The Chargers kicker made four field goals in his 2019 debut, against Green Bay in Week 9, after missing eight games because of a groin problem. He has been steady — but mostly quiet — since. Dan Bailey is a former long-time Dallas Cowboy in his second year with Minnesota. He’s 18 for 20 on field-goal attempts and 35 of 38 on extra-point tries this season.

Jeff Miller’s prediction

In this space last week, the prediction had the Chargers losing by a point. Instead, they won by five touchdowns. So the Chargers aren’t the only ones failing to meet expectations in 2019. Facing a much tougher assignment now, the Chargers should be fully capable of competing against a team that right now would qualify for the NFC playoffs. But, on another afternoon when Dignity Health Sports Park figures to be packed with rival rooters, this game just means much more to Minnesota.

VIKINGS 20, CHARGERS 19

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SAN DIEGO — 

Construction began Friday on a Navy ship named after Harvey Milk, a former San Francisco supervisor and activist who was fatally shot months after becoming the first openly gay man elected in California more than forty years ago.

Milk was elected to the San Francisco board of supervisors in 1978 and was assassinated 10 months later along with then-Mayor George Moscone by a former county supervisor. His life was the subject of the 2008 film “Milk.”

Almost 30 years before his election, Milk was a Naval dive officer based in San Diego. His nephew, Stuart Milk, attended Friday’s event and said naming the ship — known as a fleet oiler — after his uncle sends a message to people around the world.

This “sends a global message of inclusion more powerful than simply ‘We’ll tolerate everyone,’ ” Milk said. “[It says,] we celebrate everyone.”

Milk said his uncle was forced to resign from the Navy in the 1950s after being caught in a San Diego park popular with gay men. To be honored now with a Navy ship showed how much things have changed, he said.

Stuart Milk was speaking at General Dynamics NASSCO in San Diego, where the ship is being built. He was joined by NASSCO representatives and San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, State Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins, Assemblyman Todd Gloria, and San Diego City Councilman Chris Cate.

Gloria told the San Diego Union-Tribune that progress for gay and lesbian service members has been swift.

“I was a congressional staffer when we were working to repeal ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ and you think about how difficult a challenge that was,” he said, referring to the military’s ban on out gay, lesbian and bisexual service members that was repealed in 2010.

“Today, the Navy’s constructing a ship named after the first openly gay elected official in California,” he said. “It shows the progress we’re making and a deepening of the commitment the military has to including gay and lesbian service members.”

Fleet oilers like the future Harvey Milk are used to replenish fuel oil and dry goods to Navy ships at sea. The Milk will be the second ship in the new John Lewis class of fleet oilers. The future John Lewis, named for the civil rights leader and congressman, also is being built at NASSCO San Diego.

Kathy Baker, a logistics engineer with 45 years at NASSCO, got to make the ceremonial first cut of steel for the ship. She said it was the first time she’d been selected to do so.

“I was shocked,” she said. “I was honored. I felt all the time, effort and hard work I put in all these years was appreciated.”

Nicole Murray Ramirez, the chairman and executive director of the San Diego International Imperial Court Council, an LGBTQ organization, was a leader in the push to name a vessel after Milk.

“When ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ was lifted, I researched, and one guy picks all these [ship] names — the Secretary of the Navy,” Ramirez said.

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His organization, which has chapters nationwide, organized a national letter-writing campaign in 2011 to push then-Navy Secretary Ray Mabus to name a ship for Milk.

But while the naming of the Harvey Milk is a sign of progress, Gloria said, there is still work to be done. Under President Trump, transgender people are still banned from military service.

Stuart Milk told the Union-Tribune his uncle dreamed of a day when members of his community would be accepted, and he knew his advocacy would result in his death.

“I think people should know it’s not Hollywood — he did know that he was going to be killed,” Milk said of his uncle. “He didn’t know who, and he didn’t know when, but it gave him the courage to continue doing what he was doing.”

Stuart Milk carries on his uncle’s work as the founder of the Harvey Milk Foundation. He said Friday’s ceremony fulfills one of Harvey Milk’s dreams.

“He dreamed of a day like today, when not only would we have the military honoring LGBT, but we have a mayor from the Republican Party and we have everyone that represents the San Diego community coming out,” Milk said. “This would have been un-dreamable for people back in 1978.”

Dyer writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

It started as a routine call for medical attention at an Ontario home early Saturday morning. But with a series of terrifying twists — a husband with gunshot wounds, a wife firing on arriving police, a five-hour hostage standoff — the call for help revealed a domestic tragedy.

Just after dawn, SWAT officers forced their way into the home on East F Street and discovered the bodies of the woman who had shot at police, a teenage girl and an elementary school-age boy, police said.

Police did not identify the deceased, but said the woman was an off-duty San Bernardino County probation officer. Her husband, who escaped the home when police arrived, is being treated for life-threatening injuries.

“We don’t have anybody to confirm identities yet,” said Ontario police Sgt. Bill Russell. “The husband is in the hospital and everybody else is deceased. So nobody has been able to shed light on what happened.”

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Investigators from the department and the coroner’s office were in the home Saturday hunting for answers to a host of questions: Who died first? Who shot whom? How are the children related to the adults? And, perhaps most difficult of all, why did this happen?

Russell said detectives were in contact with relatives of the couple and were also looking into whether there had been prior requests for aide at the residence.

The incident began shortly after 2:30 a.m. when the husband called 911. He indicated that someone was hurt in the home, but didn’t say anything about being shot himself, Russell said.

Officers went to the home with firefighters prepared to provide medical treatment. When they knocked on the door, the man answered and walked outside. It was clear he had been shot and officers looking through the doorway could see his wife holding a gun.

Russell said it was not clear whether officers or the woman fired first, but at some point she did shoot at them before barricading herself in the home.

“She … pretty much ceased all communication at that point,” Russell said.

Police learned that two children were possibly also in the house and called in SWAT and hostage negotiators. About 40 law enforcement officers descended on the neighborhood, a quiet area of single-family homes near a junior high, and nearby residences were evacuated while negotiators worked to establish contact with the woman. After about five hours without success, police entered the home and found the bodies, Russell said.

A spokeswoman for the probation department said she was still in the process of being briefed and had no immediate comment.

Beverly Hills police are investigating vandalism of Nessah Synagogue on Saturday morning after an employee arrived at the place of worship at 7 a.m. to discover an open door, overturned furniture and damage to several relics.

Police are investigating the incident as a hate crime but report that there is no evidence to suggest that the attack was anti-Semitic in nature. The synagogue’s main scrolls were locked up and undamaged.

Damage inside the synagogue was “ugly,” according to one witness who had conversations with people who saw the damage first hand, and will require extensive cleanup.

A place of worship for the Persian Jewish community in Southern California, the Nessah Synagogue occupies a respected place in Los Angeles’ Iranian community. It was founded by David Shofet, who immigrated to the United States in 1980 from Tehran in the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution.

When members arrived Saturday morning for Shabbat, they found papers and fliers from the lobby strewn across the front of the property. Police soon cordoned off Rexford Drive, where the synagogue is located.

“This cowardly attack hits at the heart of who we are as a community,” Mayor John Mirisch said in a statement. “It is not just an attack on the Jewish Community of Beverly Hills; it’s an attack on all of us. The entire City stands in solidarity behind Nessah, its members and congregants.”

The attack comes at a time when the community is especially alert to anti-Semitic violence. On Tuesday, two shooters attacked a cemetery and a Jewish grocery store in Jersey City, N.J., leaving six dead.

“In the aftermath of the terrible tragedy in Jersey City earlier this week, the American Jewish community is understandably anxious,” said Richard Hirschhaut, director of the American Jewish Committee in Los Angeles. “Reports of vandalism and damage to a synagogue are deeply troubling and cause further sense of discomfort amid the presumption of anti-Semitic intent.”

Moshe Isaacian has been a member of the Nessah Synagogue for 16 years. Isaacian said that the temple often rallied for other synagogues in the country that have experienced similar acts of vandalism.

“To have this happen on our home turf is very jarring,” he said. “Our community can’t stay silent about this.”

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On Twitter, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti also expressed his concern.

“Shocked and outraged by the vandalism at Nessah Synagogue in the city of Beverly Hills,” he said. “We will stand together and speak out strongly against any act of hate and intolerance in our community. We’re keeping our friends and neighbors in our thoughts as police investigate.”

On Saturday afternoon, Beverly Hills police released a description of the suspect as a white man, 20 to 25 years old with short dark curly hair, a thin build, wearing possibly prescription glasses and carrying a backpack and pulling a rolling suitcase.

Susan Lieu had been sitting in her car for over an hour. She planned to stop quickly by her tailor’s shop, to have a hole in her costume mended. But she couldn’t make it home in time for her Times interview, so she made do by taking the call in the Seattle tailor’s parking lot.

It’s one of many chats Lieu has scheduled directly with reporters. She has no public relations consultant, no representative emailing video links or offering photography of her onstage.

Lieu has to self-promote for her solo show, coming to Los Angeles’ Highways Performance Space on Saturday and Sunday and Orange County’s Nguoi Viet Community Room on Dec. 21-22. It’s a national tour for which she’s juggling nearly every job behind-the-scenes: writer, performer, financier. She has spent tens of thousands of dollars of her own money.

Titled “140 LBS: How Beauty Killed My Mother,” the 75-minute performance recounts how, when Lieu was 11, her mother went in for plastic surgery and died mid-procedure from loss of oxygen to her brain. Directed by Sara Porkalob, the show sees Lieu playing 12 characters and tackling emotionally taxing topics like the dangerous ideal of Vietnamese feminine beauty, the lack of accountability in the medical system, and forgiveness amid overwhelming grief.

A trailer for Susan Lieu’s show “140 LBS.”

“The hardest part of all this isn’t the performance, surprisingly, because it seems to really resonate with people,” Lieu said. “What I’ve really found to be difficult about this whole thing is to do it gracefully, to still enjoy this process of being pregnant.”

Because if it weren’t enough of a challenge to be reliving a family tragedy onstage and coordinating everything offstage, Lieu is also expecting a child.

“I’m six months now — it’s the size of an eggplant!” exclaimed Lieu, who has been journaling about her journey toward motherhood. Those thoughts will be included in an expanded version of the show called “Over 140 LBS,” which she’ll premiere in February in Seattle. By then, she’ll have performed 51 shows in 10 cities, for a total audience of 6,500.

What Lieu gets done offstage is as impressive as the moving narrative she performs onstage.

“When I’m not performing, I’m making sure that I’ve done all the math right and all my checks have cleared, that I’m talking to enough press in the next few cities, that I’ve reached out to every single person I know who lives there,” she said. “I’m constantly updating my website and posting on social media to promote the show, I’m reaching out to groups or organizations in every city to get interest. It’s a lot and, yeah, it’s nonstop!”

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An undergraduate alum of Harvard and graduate of the Yale School of Business, Lieu prioritized performing “140 LBS” nationwide after getting laid off from her management consulting gig.

“That was the biggest gift I could have ever gotten, because I would have just kept working and only dreaming of doing this someday,” she said. It wasn’t the best time to pursue her passion, since she and her husband had recently bought a house and were discussing when to start a family. “But I couldn’t imagine telling my future kid to be anything they wanted to be when I wasn’t really doing that myself.”

Lieu launched her tour using the profits from nine sold-out shows in Seattle, plus more in her hometown of San Francisco. She made a meticulous rubric of major U.S. cities with Vietnamese populations — potential audiences with whom the show may resonate with most — plus every single person she knew in each region. Her decision to circumvent the gatekeepers of theatermaking wasn’t to make any kind of a statement, but because she was facing her own deadline.

“I thought, I have a mortgage, I have massive student loans, and I have a baby coming — I cannot wait for my next break, I don’t have time to see if an artistic director will program me in one or two years from now,” Lieu said. “I don’t have any formal theater training, so I honestly didn’t really know I was breaking the rules because I didn’t know the rules to begin with.”

Her unconventional approach has led to performances in nontraditional spaces, like a funeral home in San Francisco and George R.R. Martin’s Jean Cocteau Cinema in Santa Fe. Other times, she booked theaters as private rentals and hoped its ticket sales would cover costs. “I just thought: How can I make this successful? If I were working with a startup, with a small budget and these kinds of time limits, what kind of unconventional things should they try?”

Lieu keeps the show’s overhead low. Everything she needs to perform — denim jacket, maternity clothing and some digitized family photos that get projected onstage — fits in a carry-on suitcase. She hires a local stage manager in each city to set up the space, execute the performance and sell merchandise afterward, when Lieu usually can be found chatting with ticket-holders who share their own stories.

It’s a solo show, sure, but Lieu isn’t in this alone. Thanks to the generosity of friends, family members and community organizations, Lieu has paid for only about half of her car rentals and flights — a godsend, since her stops include New York, Pittsburgh, Boston, Chicago and Washington, D.C. In a 10-city tour, she is paying for just one night of lodging, instead couch-surfing with friends and family. Multiple photographers have gifted her with head shots and production stills.

“I acknowledge my privilege here — I have access to these alumni networks, I have friends who are extremely generous with their time and their contacts, I’m married,” she said. “I’m so thankful that these people believe in the work enough to help me share it.

“And the fans, they buy tickets for friends in other cities to see the show, they help hang up posters, they tag their friends on social media. They have been behind me a hundred percent pushing this vision bigger and better than I could have imagined.”

Lieu hopes to evolve “140 LBS” into a book or a streaming special, or adapt it into a narrative feature or miniseries. She credits her entrepreneurial approach to theater-making to her Yale degree but also her parents — Vietnamese refugees who provided for her by opening a nail salon. And she’s happy to advise other playwrights or performers who want to take control of this process as she has.

“If you follow the conventional, traditional path, you will have a conventional, traditional result,” she said. “That just wasn’t an option for me, and I’m so happy for that. If I were just waiting for someone to discover me, there’s no way I would have already performed the show as many times as I have.”

“Fortnite” is already one of the biggest games on the planet — more than 250 million people are estimated to have given the game a try — and over the last year it’s proven itself relatively adept at advertising, especially for Disney brands such as Marvel and “Star Wars.”

On Saturday, “Fortnite” put director J.J. Abrams live into the game to introduce a less-than-60-second clip of his upcoming film “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” due in theaters next week. Abrams joked that he’s never been thinner than his digital “Fortnite” self, and he traded some barbs with a Stormtrooper, comedian Ben Schwartz portraying the world’s most juvenile First Order soldier. Then those who tuned in watched a brief clip featuring Daisy Ridley’s Rey, John Boyega’s Finn and and Oscar Isaac’s Poe.

It furthers Epic Games’ continued attempts to evolve “Fortnite” from a competitive multiplayer game to a communal hangout full of limited-time events. Earlier this year, the game was given a makeover to promote “Avengers: Endgame” and before that “Fortnite” hosted a live in-game concert from electronic artist Marshmello. The goal is to “push the idea of what a persistent virtual place can be” said, Donald Mustard, Epic’s worldwide creative director, at Thursday evening’s Game Awards. The host of the Game Awards as well as today’s “Fortnite” event, Geoff Keighley, described it as a “talk show.”

Consider it a fascinating experiment designed to meld a living narrative with an often aggressive, albeit cartoonish, game. Yet it’s also an acknowledgment that our virtual worlds are hangout spaces every bit as vital as our physical ones, using, as Keighley described on social media, “game worlds as a basis for original programming.” With players having the ability to walk around the virtual world — and, of course, dance while Abrams spoke — “Fortnite” went from a battleground to a theater stage.

And there was clearly demand for the event Saturday, as Epic delayed it for 10 minutes to allow more players to join. I arrived about 40 minutes early but eventually left and rejoined at the designated 11 a.m. PST start time, as my digital avatar was routinely being killed.

That’s one potential shortcoming of hosting communal activities in a game. One must be willing to adapt to the rules of the digital universe. Ultimately, if you come alone, you’ll need to come ready to play. Blissfully, combat was turned off closer to the event’s launch. Commercials, after all, must arrive with no distractions, and once things got underway the game shifted our attention to the Millennium Falcon entering the “Fortnite” world amid a battle with First Order ships.

Before the clip we were treated to some of “Fortnite’s” adolescent humor. Those participating were asked to vote on what we would see, with choices from “Darth Jar-Jar” to a power ballad duet between Rey and Adam Driver’s villain character Kylo Ren. It was a light attempt to create a sense of audience participation but felt more like padding to make up for what would be such a brief scene from the film.

As for the actual clip from “The Rise of Skywalker,” it wasn’t one that provided any significant spoilers, unless you’re the type who analyzes every fashion and weapon choice of the characters. But it was entertaining enough, and it showed that while Abrams is bringing the Skywalker saga to an end, he’s thankfully doing so with the franchise’s trademark goofy humor.

We watched our heroes exit a ship that appeared to have just landed on a First Order starship. They proceeded to take out a couple of Stormtroopers and sneakily zip around enemy territory before being cornered by more Stormtroopers. This allowed Rey to flash some of her Force powers, namely the famous Jedi mind tricks. “It’s OK that we’re here,” she said, as the troopers proceeded to agree. “It’s OK,” said one, before another added more comically, “It’s good.”

The clip ended with Poe making an aside to Finn: “Does she do that to us?”

Fans didn’t leave empty-handed. Well, virtually empty-handed. Those who took in the clip were gifted a lightsaber to add to their “Fortnite” weapon arsenal.

This isn’t the first time Epic has dipped into the “Star Wars” universe. The company’s technology helps power the Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run ride at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. The latter represents a fully game-like theme park attraction, with six guests taking on the role of pilots, gunners or engineers as they go on a mission to steal cargo.

Saturday’s brief snippet likely wasn’t going to live up the two and a half day pre-event tease, especially for those who had trouble logging on or didn’t want to deal with all the “Fortnite” trappings. But like a Super Bowl commercial, we gather round because it’s hard to resist a spectacle, and for many, “Fortnite” is as much a place to hang with friends on the weekend as it is a spot to play.

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With the holidays fast approaching, “Saturday Night Live” set aside the week’s political news of the impeachment battle in the House of Representatives for a potentially more contentious setting: houses hosting family dinners across America.

Toggling between three geographic locations, “Saturday Night Live” offered a snapshot from Christmas dinner tables across ideologies, including Trump supporters, progressives and a black family in Atlanta. Although impeachment was the dominant topic along party lines for two of those groups, Kenan Thompson’s patriarch took a different tack, asking, “Who do you think is getting voted off ‘Masked Singer’ next week?”

While Chris Redd’s visiting son pleaded with his family to talk politics, Thompson’s father character made a compelling if more grounded case, asking, “Oh, you mean talk about how Trump is getting impeached but reelected? I don’t think so.”

The sketch continued switching through its various political contrasts, including some hearty laughter about Pete Buttigieg’s appeal in Atlanta, Beck Bennett’s Trump-supporting dad earning a federal appointment after a presidential retweet and Thompsons’ toast for a year that saw “three black quarterbacks who have beaten Tom Brady.” But, in switching to focus on an all-knowing snowman that recalled Leon Redbone’s cameo in 2003’s “Elf,” “Saturday Night Live” offered a reminder that none of these opinions mattered because of their respective home states, thanks to the holiday “magic” of the electoral college.

Lest that cold splash of political reality threaten to end things on a discouraging note, Kate McKinnon arrived as recent Time magazine Person of the Year Greta Thunberg, who wished everyone a “merry last Christmas to all.” Later, referencing the petulant tweet from the president in the wake of the Person of the Year news, McKinnon’s Thunberg responded by saying, “I can’t believe I’m saying this to a 70-year-old man, but grow up.”

Current events turned up again later in the episode, which was hosted by Scarlett Johansson with musical guest Niall Horan. Referencing the actress’ role in Noah Baumbach’s Netflix drama “A Marriage Story,” Johansson played a therapist to contentious political power couple George and Kellyanne Conway.

Recounting their divergent ideological viewpoints that often play out on social media, the couple were taken aback to realize they were in counseling and not speaking with the media. “What you say doesn’t leave this room,” Johansson assured them. The Conways looked confused. “Then why are we doing this?” they asked.

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LONDON (AP) — Oscar-winning British actor Colin Firth has split from his Italian film producer wife Livia Giuggioli after 22 years of marriage.

Their publicists said in a statement that the couple “maintain a close friendship and remain united in their love for their children.”

The pair, who lived together in London and Rome, have two sons, Luca and Matteo, who were both born in Rome.

A joint statement from their publicists confirmed the news Friday and said they would not comment further.

Firth, who won the best actor Oscar and a Golden Globe in 2011 for his portrayal of stuttering British monarch King George VI in “The King’s Speech,” also has a son with former partner Meg Tilly.

Giuggioli is an environmental activist and co-founder and creative director of Eco-Age, a sustainable consultancy firm.

A California law that will make alligator-skin boots and purses taboo has Louisiana farmers ornery.

The Bayou State accused California in a lawsuit of trying to “destroy” the lucrative market for American alligator with its ban on the sale of the animals’ skins.

Due to take effect Jan. 1, the ban has already resulted in canceled orders and a steep drop in the price for alligator skins, according to the lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court in Sacramento. Louisiana asked a judge to put the restriction on hold while it challenges it in court.

The alligator skins are just the latest items on California’s hit list. Free plastic grocery bags and complimentary plastic straws in restaurants aren’t allowed. Sales of foie gras and fur are banned. And California also became the first state to prohibit pet stores from selling dogs, cats or rabbits that don’t come from shelters or adoption centers.

California banned the sale of alligator skins decades ago over concerns about animal cruelty and the dwindling number of the animals left in the wild. But for years, lawmakers granted exemptions, and only now are they allowing the ban to take effect.

Louisiana officials say the alligator industry pumps $80 million a year into the state. Trappers collected 15,052 alligator skins in 2017 while farmers harvested 382,039 alligators valued at more than $70 million, including the meat, according to the Louisiana Alligator Advisory Council.

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If allowed to stand, the California ban will devastate the industry, state officials say.

“If the California ban is allowed to go into effect — it would destroy the alligator industry and its jobs in Louisiana, Texas, Florida, Georgia, and California,” Louisiana Atty. Gen. Jeff Landry said in a statement.

The California attorney general’s office didn’t have an immediate comment on the lawsuit, but the state often sets the pattern for others to follow.

“California’s large economy often results in its product standards becoming de facto national standards,” said the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission, which filed the lawsuit, citing vehicle emission standards and product labeling standards as examples.

Companies won’t make state-specific products and will instead forgo using alligator altogether, the commission said.

The group claims that California’s ban violates federal laws that allow the sale and importation of alligator skins throughout the country.

American alligators were once threatened by extinction, but after being placed on the endangered species list in 1967, the population rebounded, and in 1979 rules were adopted to allow the export of American alligator hides. The American alligator is now listed as “threatened due to similarity of appearance” to other species throughout its range, according to the lawsuit.

Already, one tannery canceled an order for 600 alligator hides and “one of the world’s largest purchasers” has threatened to quit buying hides entirely, according to the suit.

“Foreign tanners and manufacturers have stated that if California ports are closed to importation of alligator products, it will become too confusing to keep their clients informed of which U.S. ports can or cannot receive alligator products,” the commission claims.

The ban and the accompanying price drop are pushing up the cost of controlling “nuisance” gators, the commission says. The price of hides has fallen so much that Louisiana wildlife officials are now having to pay for removal of nuisance alligators, whereas earlier, trappers would get rid of them for their hides and meat.

Burnson writes for Bloomberg.