As biographer Laurence Leamer settled in front of the television to research the films of Alfred Hitchcock, he realized he had a problem.

“I started watching this as an author writing the book and trying to get material,” Leamer says on a recent call. “And after five minutes, his stuff is so fascinating I forget that and just watch it because I’m enjoying it so much.

“That’s how good he is,” he says. “That’s how he involves you. He knows just what he’s doing.”

Leamer persevered and “Hitchcock’s Blondes: The Unforgettable Women Behind the Legendary Director’s Dark Obsession” arrived on Tuesday, Oct. 10.

In it, Leamer explores the work of Hitchcock and eight actresses with whom he worked, from June Howard-Tripp in 1925’s “The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog” to Tippi Hedren in “The Birds” and “Marnie” in 1963 and ’64.

In between, Leamer explores Hitchcock’s work with Madeleine Carroll (“The 39 Steps,” “Secret Agent”), Ingrid Bergman (“Spellbound,” “Notorious,” “Under Capricorn”), Grace Kelly (“Dial M for Murder,” “Rear Window,” “To Catch a Thief”), Kim Novak (“Vertigo”), Eva Marie Saint (“North by Northwest”), and Janet Leigh (“Psycho“).

Hitchcock’s life and career has been examined in numerous books from before and after his death at 80 in 1980. His infatuation with his leading ladies, particularly the blondes and his odd, sometimes cruel manner with them are well known.

But Leamer is the first biographer to shift the focus from Hitchcock in the foreground to zoom in on the women with whom the director achieved some of his greatest works.

“Hitchcock’s Blondes” is the second in a planned trilogy about male creative geniuses and their female friends, colleagues and confidants. Leamer, 81, is currently working on a book about artist Andy Warhol and his many muses.

The first book in his series, “Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era” arrived in 2021. Its story of writer Truman Capote and the New York City circle of women in which he moved arrives as the second chapter of producer Ryan Murphy’s FX anthology series “Feud” in 2024.

Q: Do you remember when you first became aware of Alfred Hitchcock?

A: He’s so much a part of our culture, I don’t even know. You know, if you go on Amazon Prime and plug in Hitchcock, there are over 40 of his films you can watch today. That’s the magnitude of that guy’s accomplishments.

Q: How did you arrive at the framework of the book, focusing on these eight women?

A: Well, chronology is God’s gift to a writer. You’d better have a damn good reason to do away with it. So the chronology is his life and the blondes are pretty obviously the candidates for telling it.

When I write a book, I always write the ending in my head and then I try to write the book that would justify that ending. And that’s what I did here. I wanted the ending to be that AFI tribute (in March 1979). I wanted the audience at that point, the readers, to appreciate his greatness, and also the dark part of it as well. And to appreciate the actresses as well.

Q: Three of the actresses are still living. Tippi Hedren doesn’t do interviews but you were able to talk with Eva Marie Saint from ‘North by Northwest’ and Kim Novak from ‘Vertigo.’ What was that like?

A: Eva Marie Saint was fabulous. You know, she’s 99 years old now, living by herself in her apartment. She wants to have her own life. I think that’s incredible.

Q: From her chapter in the book, she seems to be one of the most grounded of the Hitchcock actresses.

A: She was grounded, but she is calculating. And I don’t say that as a criticism, just the opposite. She knew the life she wanted early on. She had some success in television. Got a little apartment. She was lonely, she wanted to marry. She didn’t want to marry an actor. She married this producer. And they had the most wonderful marriage.

Then in her career, she loved her children. She liked to act, but when they were growing up, she’d do just one movie a year. She put her Academy Award statuette for ‘On The Waterfront’ in the closet and just forgot it. She really has immense character as far as I’m concerned.

Q: A lot of the stories of Hitchcock and the actresses are well known. I’m curious what your conversation with her provided that you didn’t already have?

A: She had some tidbits, but she’s told these stories many times. I found a few new things. It was just as much to get a real feeling of her emotionally. I think I wrote a much better chapter because I knew her in that way.

Q: Kim Novak, from your chapter on her, seems like perhaps the actress Hitchcock treated the worst. What was she like?

A: It’s inexplicable to me (how she was treated). He brings her up to luncheon and shows her his paintings, which he knows she won’t appreciate the way he appreciates them, and the vintage wine, which she doesn’t understand. Just to put her down. And the first day in the studio there’s this dead chicken attached to her mirror and Hitch and the other men standing around laughing at her.

She said she didn’t know what that was about. I don’t know what it’s about. It just didn’t make any sense to me. But it’s not a great thing to do to this vulnerable, insecure actress on the first day.

And then when she finished it, I think she deserved an Academy Award nomination because I think she’s magnificent. It’s a very difficult role. But Hitch put her down. Even when that putting down probably diminished the number of people wanting to see the movie.

Q: Was she candid and open about her treatment by him?

A: She really appreciated Hitchcock. She has nothing negative to say about it. It’s the best thing she did in her whole life, and she puts it in perspective.

Q: In recent years, there’s been a lot of discussion about how to appreciate art made by men with problematic histories. Might this book change Hitchcock’s reputation?

A: If the things about Woody Allen are true – and I don’t know if they are, but if they are, well, I wouldn’t want to watch his films, right? This stuff about Hitchcock isn’t at that magnitude, in my opinion. In the #MeToo times, people are just too easily dismissed, and I don’t think it’s fair to him.

There was a biographer of him, Donald Spoto, who just focused on the darkness, and that had a big impact on Hitchcock’s reputation. I don’t think that’s fair.

Q: Of the Hitchcock films you watched featuring these women, do you have a favorite you go back to?

A: It depends on what you want. I mean, ‘To Catch a Thief’ is just pure fun. You can’t beat that. ‘Marnie,’ the dark brilliance of that is irresistible. And ‘Psycho,’ I mean, there’s nothing like ‘Psycho,’ right?

Officials removed 22 dogs from an animal-rescue organization in Andover on Friday morning after executing a search warrant in connection with eight dead dogs found in Cottage Grove.

The bodies of the dogs were found along the side of a road Sunday in a rural part of Cottage Grove. They were believed to have been brought into the city for disposal after having died from an illness elsewhere, police said this week. The dogs, all of a smaller variety, were found in the tree line along Grey Cloud Island Drive near Grey Cloud Island Trail in Cottage Grove. The dogs included a Schnauzer and other similar-size white dogs, which could be a terrier breed.

After receiving a tip from the public, Cottage Grove police on Tuesday executed a search warrant on a house in Cottage Grove. A 38-year-old man at the house admitted to dumping the dogs, police said.

Around 10 a.m. Friday, the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office and the Animal Humane Society carried out a search warrant for an animal rescue located near the 15800 block of Seventh Avenue Northwest in Andover.

“The animal rescue, which is not related to the building’s former occupant, an animal training facility, is believed to be where the dogs died,” according to a press release from the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office.

The cause of death for the dogs remains under investigation, the release states.

Twenty-two dogs were removed from the facility and are being cared for by the Animal Humane Society.

“At this time, no arrests have been made and no charges have been filed,” the press release states.

This incident remains under investigation by the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office, Cottage Grove Police Department, and Animal Humane Society.

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By NAJIB JOBAIN, SAMYA KULLAB and JOSEPH KRAUSS (Associated Press)

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hamas on Friday freed an American woman and her teenage daughter it had held hostage in Gaza, Israel said, the first such release from among the roughly 200 people the terrorist group abducted during its Oct. 7 rampage.

The two Americans, Judith Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter Natalie, were out of the Gaza Strip and in the hands of the Israeli military, an army spokesman said. Hamas said it released them for humanitarian reasons in an agreement with the Qatari government. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

The release comes amid growing expectations of an expected ground offensive that Israel says is aimed at rooting out Hamas terrorists who rule the Gaza Strip. Israel said Friday it does not plan to take long-term control over the tiny territory, home to some 2.3 million people.

As the Israeli military punished Gaza with airstrikes, authorities inched closer to bringing aid from Egypt to desperate families and hospitals. Fighting between Israel and militants in neighboring Lebanon also raged, prompting evacuations of Lebanese and Israeli border towns as fears of a widening conflict grew.

Judith and Natalie Ranaan had been on a trip from their home in suburban Chicago to Israel to celebrate the Jewish holidays, the family said. They were in the kibbutz of Nahal Oz, near Gaza, on Oct. 7 – Simchat Torah, a festive Jewish holiday – when Hamas and other terrorists stormed out of the territory into southern Israeli towns, killing hundreds and abducting 203 others.

The family had heard nothing from them since the attack and were later told by U.S. and Israeli officials that they were being held in Gaza, Natalie’s brother Ben said.

“I am overjoyed that they will soon be reunited with their family, who has been wracked with fear,” U.S. President Joe Biden said. The International Committee of the Red Cross, which transported the freed Americans from Gaza to Israel, said their release was “a sliver of hope.”

Relatives of other captives welcomed the release and appealed for the others to be freed.

“We call on world leaders and the international community to exert their full power in order to act for the release of all the hostages and missing,’’ the statement said.

Qatar said it would continue its dialogue with Israel and Hamas in hopes of winning the release of all hostages “with the ultimate aim of de-escalating the current crisis and restoring peace.”

Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Israel was continuing to work to return hostages and find the missing, and its goals had not changed. “We are continuing the war against Hamas and ready for the next stage of the war,” he said.

A potential Israeli ground assault is likely to lead to a dramatic escalation in casualties on both sides in urban fighting. More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed in the war — mostly civilians slain during the Hamas incursion. More than 4,100 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry run by Hamas. That includes a disputed number of people who died in a hospital explosion earlier this week.

Speaking to lawmakers about Israel’s long-term plans for Gaza, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant laid out a three-stage plan that seemed to suggest that Israel did not intend to reoccupy the territory it left in 2005.

First, Israeli airstrikes and “maneuvering” — a presumed reference to a ground attack — would aim to root out Hamas. Next will come a lower intensity fight to defeat remaining pockets of resistance. And, finally, a new “security regime” will be created in Gaza along with “the removal of Israel’s responsibility for life in the Gaza Strip,” Gallant said.

Gallant did not say who Israel expected to run Gaza if Hamas is toppled or what the new security regime would entail.

Israel occupied Gaza from 1967 until 2005, when it pulled up settlements and withdrew soldiers. Two years later, Hamas took over. Some Israelis blame the withdrawal from Gaza for the sporadic violence that has persisted since then.

The humanitarian crisis has worsened for Gaza’s civilians every day since Israel halted entry of supplies two weeks ago, depleting fuel, food, water and medicine. Two days after Israel announced a deal to allow Egypt to send in aid, the border remained closed Friday as Egypt repaired the Rafah crossing, damaged by Israeli strikes.

Over a million people have been displaced in Gaza. Many heeded Israel’s orders to evacuate the northern part of the sealed-off enclave on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. But Israel has continued to bomb areas in southern Gaza where Palestinians had been told to seek safety. Although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called areas in the south “safe zones” earlier this week, Israeli military spokesman Nir Dinar said Friday: “There are no safe zones.”

Some Palestinians who had fled from the north appeared to be going back because of bombings and difficult living conditions in the south, said Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the U.N. human rights office.

Gaza’s overwhelmed hospitals were rationing their dwindling resources .

Generators in Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest, were operating at the lowest setting to conserve fuel while providing power to vital departments such as intensive care, hospital director Mohammed Abu Selmia said. Others worked in darkness.

“I don’t know how long (the fuel) will last. Every day we evaluate the situation,” he said.

The lack of medical supplies and water are making it difficult to treat the mass of victims from the Israeli strikes, he said.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said it had received a threat from the Israeli military to bomb Al-Quds Hospital and has demanded the hospital’s immediate evacuation. The Gaza City hospital has more than 400 patients and thousands who of displaced civilians who sought refuge on its grounds, it said.

Work continued Friday to repair the road at the Rafah crossing with Egypt, Gaza’s only entry point not controlled by Israel. Trucks unloaded gravel, and bulldozers and other equipment was used to fill in large craters.

A U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a rapidly changing situation said aid had been delayed because of ongoing road repairs, and that it was expected to move across the border Saturday. More than 200 trucks and some 3,000 tons of aid were positioned near the crossing.

Israel said the supplies could only go to civilians and that it would “thwart” any diversions by Hamas. It was unclear if fuel for the hospital generators would be allowed to enter.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited the crossing Friday and appealed for the quick movement of aid into Gaza, calling it “the difference between life and death.”

Israel has evacuated its own communities near Gaza and Lebanon, putting residents up in hotels elsewhere in the country. The Defense Ministry announced evacuation plans Friday for Kiryat Shmona, a town of more than 20,000 residents near the Lebanese border. Three Israelis including a 5-year-old girl were wounded in a rocket attack there Thursday, according to Israeli health services.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, which has a massive arsenal of long-range rockets, has traded fire with Israel along the border on a near-daily basis and hinted it might join the war if Israel seeks to annihilate Hamas. Iran supports both armed groups.

The violence in Gaza has also sparked protests across the region, including in Arab countries allied with the U.S.

Palestinians in Gaza reported heavy airstrikes in Khan Younis, a town in the territory’s south, and ambulances carrying men, women and children streamed into the local Nasser Hospital.

Late Thursday, an Israeli airstrike hit a Greek Orthodox church in Gaza City housing displaced Palestinians. Gaza’s Health Ministry said 16 Palestinian Christians were killed. The military said it had targeted a Hamas command center nearby, causing damage to a church wall.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarchy of Jerusalem condemned the attack and said it would “not abandon its religious and humanitarian duty” to provide assistance.

Palestinian terrorists have launched unrelenting rocket attacks into Israel — more than 6,900 since Oct. 7, according to Israel — and tensions have flared in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Israel has targeted terrorists in raids across the occupied territory. On Friday, two Palestinian teenagers were killed in clashes in the West Bank, where more than 80 Palestinians have been killed over the past two weeks.

___

Krauss reported from Jerusalem and Kullab from Baghdad. Associated Press journalists Amy Teibel, Ravi Nessman, Julia Frankel and Isabel Debre in Jerusalem; Samy Magdy and Jack Jeffery in Cairo; Matthew Lee in Washington, and Ashraf Sweilam in el-Arish, Egypt, contributed to this report.