News of death of Anne and David Spencer confirmed by co-presenter of long-running Channel 4 series, Kirsty Allsopp
The parents of TV presenter Phil Spencer have been killed in a car accident near their home, his co-star, Kirstie Allsopp, has confirmed.
Location, Location, Location presenter Allsopp told fans to join her in “sending so much love” to costar Spencer, following the death of his mother, Anne, and father, David, on Friday.
Continue reading...Sacking of star presenter over pay scandal stirs debate about his treatment by Irish broadcaster
Ireland’s national broadcaster faces an uncertain future after axing its star presenter, Ryan Tubridy, in a scandal over under-declared payments.
RTÉ surprised the public and divided opinion by announcing Tubridy would not return to the airwaves, capping two months of turmoil over accounting and governance practices that has cast doubt on the organisation’s future funding.
Continue reading...National broadcaster’s director-general says negotiations for star presenter’s return ended after breakdown of trust
The Irish national broadcaster, RTÉ, has announced Ryan Tubridy will not be returning to his presenting role after a controversy over the under-declaration of his salary.
The RTÉ director-general, Kevin Bakhurst, said negotiations with the 50-year-old about returning to his radio show had concluded, after stating that trust between the parties had “broken down”.
Continue reading...Ex-newsreader famous for dancing on 1976 Morecambe and Wise show will be joined by Amanda Abbington and Layton Williams
Angela Rippon is to compete in the upcoming season of Strictly Come Dancing becoming the oldest competitor on the BBC primetime show at the age of 79.
The actor Amanda Abbington and Bad Education star Layton Williams have also been announced as the first contestants for the 21st series of the dancing competition this autumn.
Continue reading...Vendors have reportedly been told the ceremony will be pushed as studios refuse to meet demands of actors and writers
Fox is expected to announce soon that the Emmy awards will be rescheduled to January next year due to the ongoing writers and actors strikes in Hollywood.
Variety first reported on Thursday that vendors for the ceremony have been informed of an imminent date change, but not given an exact date, while the Los Angeles Times cited an unnamed source familiar with the plans, who said Fox was planning to move the telecast date to January.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Continue reading...Listing on Australian government’s classification board website describes Bluey video game as a treasure hunt-style game
Is the world’s favourite cartoon dog about to get her own video game?
Online sleuths have discovered a Bluey game may be in the works, after a Twitter bot devoted to Australian video game classification decisions tweeted a new rating: Bluey: the Videogame received a G for General.
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Continue reading...The Nanny star turned Sag-Aftra union president wins praise for her passion as performers join writers in action expected to halt majority of US film and TV production
Fran Drescher has blasted Hollywood studios in a fiery speech after talks between the actors’ union and studios failed to avert a strike, calling them “disgusting” for claiming “they’re losing money left and right when giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their CEOs”.
In a speech that was widely circulated on Thursday – particularly among many who did not know The Nanny star was heading up Sag-Aftra, Hollywood’s biggest union – Drescher said actors were being “marginalised, disrespected and dishonoured” by a business model that has been drastically changed by streaming and artificial intelligence.
Continue reading...The acclaimed business drama leads the pack with The Last of Us, The White Lotus and Ted Lasso following
The final season of Succession has dominated this year’s Emmy nominations with 27 nods.
The acclaimed HBO series picked up 14 acting nominations including recognition for Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Kieran Culkin and Sarah Snook. It marks the first time in Emmys history that three performers from the same show have scored lead actor nominations in the same category.
Continue reading...‘Regressive’ licence fee could be replaced by a broadband tax or a levy based on property value, says Richard Sharp
The former BBC chair Richard Sharp has suggested that wealthier families may have to pay more to access the corporation’s services.
The “regressive” licence fee system could be replaced by a tax on broadband bills or a household levy based on property value, Richard Sharp told the Daily Telegraph’s Chopper’s Politics podcast.
Continue reading...Mattel says the Barney movie will be inspired by Charlie Kaufman, while Barbie director Greta Gerwig is planning two Narnia movies for Netflix
The Daniel Kaluuya-produced movie featuring Barney the Dinosaur will be an “adult”, “surrealistic” and “A24-type” film inspired by Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze, it has been revealed.
In a wide-ranging report on the film-making plans of toymaker Mattel in the New Yorker, Mattel Films executive Kevin McKeon said of the project: “We’re leaning into the millennial angst of the property rather than fine-tuning this for kids. It’s really a play for adults. Not that it’s R-rated, but it’ll focus on some of the trials and tribulations of being thirtysomething, growing up with Barney – just the level of disenchantment within the generation.”
Continue reading...National broadcaster embroiled in a real-life drama over clandestine payments to its star presenter
It has become Ireland’s top-rated show – a tale of celebrity, secrets and lies that has entranced the public and dominated the airwaves. Some reckon it is the most gripping drama ever produced by RTÉ.
Unfortunately for the national broadcaster, it is an all too real scandal over clandestine payments that has engulfed its star presenter and senior managers and planted a question mark over RTÉ’s future.
Continue reading...Former chancellor and ex-shadow chancellor will discuss and analyse the state of the British economy
George Osborne is launching an economics podcast with his “frenemy” Ed Balls in an attempt to capitalise on the success of shows such as The Rest is Politics.
Osborne, the architect of the Conservatives’ austerity policies which imposed deep cuts on British public services, spent four years opposite Balls in the House of Commons. But since leaving frontline politics the pair have become a marketable media double act, appearing together on political shows to debate the state of the economy.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Channel 4 film says officials contacted the palace in 2020 owing to concerns about Lord Lebedev’s father’s links to Putin regime
Government officials asked whether the late Queen would block Evgeny Lebedev’s peerage because of concerns that he could be a national security risk due to his father’s links to the Putin regime, a documentary has claimed.
The aides contacted Buckingham Palace in July 2020 to request that the monarch intervene, which she was constitutionally entitled to do, after Boris Johnson decided to press ahead with the controversial peerage despite warnings from the intelligence agencies, according to the film-makers.
Continue reading...Social media users condemned use of AI -generated opening credits for Secret Invasion premiering this week on Disney+
Marvel’s Secret Invasion, a new television series which launched on Disney+ this week, has received backlash online after it was revealed that its opening credits were generated by artificial intelligence.
In an interview with Polygon on Wednesday, director Ali Selim confirmed that AI operated by a company called Method Studios produced the opening sequence to the new series, which stars Samuel L Jackson as Marvel fixture Nick Fury.
Continue reading...Writer of comic medical memoir This is Going to Hurt reveals surrogacy on BBC’s Desert Island Discs
Adam Kay, the author of This is Going to Hurt, the bestselling “secret diary” of a junior doctor, is now the father of two babies, he has revealed.
Kay, who was portrayed by Ben Whishaw in the Bafta-winning BBC1 adaptation of his comic memoir, said life with his husband, TV producer James Farrell, has been “absolutely transformed for the better” by the arrival through surrogacy of their two children.
Continue reading...The White Lotus star and showrunner Mike White sat down to discuss her career renaissance at 61 and why she’s in a constant state of ‘pure denial’
When Garth Saville heard that Jennifer Coolidge was coming to Sydney: “I think all of our camp little juices sort of overflowed. It was very exciting.”
Saville, along with his fellow Coolidge drag queens and lookalikes in blond wigs and pink sparkles, were among the sold-out crowd of 9,000 at Sydney’s Aware Super Theatre stadium Saturday night.
Continue reading...Broadcaster says she has had double mastectomy and was told news on same day as her OBE announced
The broadcasting veteran Anne Diamond has revealed she has been diagnosed with breast cancer.
The GB News presenter said she received the diagnosis the same day as finding out she was to be made OBE.
Continue reading...Sag-Aftra president Fran Drescher tells more than 60,000 union members she is proud of them
Actors represented by the Hollywood union Sag-Aftra have overwhelmingly voted to strike if they don’t agree on a new contract with major studios, streamers and production companies by 30 June.
On Monday 65,000 members of the guild, which represents more than 160,000 screen actors, broadcast journalists, announcers, hosts and stunt performers, voted, with 98% supporting a strike if negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) fail.
Continue reading...Lesley Regan, women’s health ambassador for England, says ‘destructive’ changes to NHS system in 2012 are failing women
Women are finding it harder to access contraception than they did a decade ago, resulting in more unplanned pregnancies, the women’s health ambassador has said.
They have been discouraged by bad experiences, a confusingly disjointed system and long delays for procedures such as the coil or implant insertion, according to Prof Lesley Regan, a leading gynaecologist who was appointed women’s health ambassador for England last year.
Continue reading...The actor will briefly return as Samantha Jones in one scene of the second season of the comedy spin-off
Kim Cattrall is reportedly returning to play the role of Samantha in one scene of Sex and the City spin-off And Just Like That.
According to Variety, the actor shot her dialogue without speaking to or seeing the rest of the cast. Cattrall has spoken of tension between herself and star Sarah Jessica Parker and was not included in the first season of the new series.
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