Authors and politicians have accused the US comedian of projecting an American cultural context on to the UK
The row began with a single call to a UK radio station, was stoked by one of America’s best-known comedians and ended with former Cabinet ministers wading in – and Downing Street, too.
At the heart of the furore: a claim that Rishi Sunak had experienced a racist “backlash” after becoming the UK’s first British-Asian prime minister.
Continue reading...Katrín Jakobsdóttir joins long list of fiction-writing politicians with book that came together during Covid pandemic
For 30 years, the disappearance of teenager Lára Marteinsdóttir from the windswept island of Víðey, off the coast of Iceland’s capital, tormented the nation. Until 1986, when Valur, a rookie reporter on a local newspaper, decided to investigate …
So far, so Nordic noir. But Reykjavík, published to promising reviews in Iceland this week, is a crime novel with a difference – it was written by the prime minister, albeit with the help of one of the country’s international bestselling authors.
Continue reading...White Disaster (White Car Crash 19 Times) to go under the hammer in New York
Six months after a vivid image of Marilyn Monroe smashed records when it sold for $195m, a rather more dark and brutal work by the cult pop artist Andy Warhol may also be about to fetch a large sum.
White Disaster (White Car Crash 19 Times) – repeated graphic black and white images across a huge canvas measuring 12ft tall and 6ft wide – is expected to sell for at least $80m in New York next month.
Continue reading...Despite the discovery, the work, titled New York City I, will continue to be displayed the wrong way up to avoid damaging it
A painting by abstract Dutch artist Piet Mondrian has been hanging upside down in various museums since it was first put on display 75 years ago, an art historian has found, but warned it could disintegrate if it was hung the right side up now.
The 1941 picture, a complex interlacing lattice of red, yellow, black and blue adhesive tapes titled New York City I, was first put on display at New York’s MoMA in 1945 but has hung at the art collection of the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Düsseldorf since 1980.
Continue reading...Comedian and campaigner tells planning inquiry retailer is failing to use landmark building imaginatively
The comedian Griff Rhys Jones is the latest high-profile name to weigh in against Marks & Spencer’s plan to raze and redevelop its main London store, accusing the retailer of not making the most of its landmark building.
Jones, who presented the BBC TV series Restoration in the 2000s, which identified significant buildings in need of repair, told an inquiry into the development of the store on Oxford Street near Marble Arch that, having shopped there, he “would venture that M&S are not using the space in a very imaginative way compared to the possibilities old buildings offer. I wonder if the ‘unsuitability’ has more to do with the desire to create a much bigger floor space and offices.”
Continue reading...More than 250 literary figures rail against acquisition by Penguin Random House of book by conservative US supreme court justice
Nearly 250 figures from the US literary world have signed an open letter protesting the acquisition by Penguin Random House of a book by the conservative supreme court justice Amy Coney Barrett.
The hardline Catholic conservative was Donald Trump’s third appointee, her nomination rushed through by Senate Republicans after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a liberal lion, shortly before the 2020 election.
Continue reading...For years critics have denounced Ye for his rightwing views and comments – but only now are they costing him his career
In the span of two weeks, Kanye West has lost his talent representation, connections to major fashion houses and other lucrative relationships over recent anti-Black and antisemitic comments.
As sports brand Adidas ended its estimated €250m partnership with West on Tuesday, reportedly costing the Black American rapper his billionaire status, many are asking if the fashion and music mogul’s actions have ended his decades-long career.
Continue reading...Judges commend Clémentine Schneidermann for simple series capturing neighbour in Wales
A series of portraits documenting the mundane, daily chores of life in lockdown have won one of the world’s most prestigious photography prizes.
The National Portrait Gallery has named French photographer Clémentine Schneidermann as winner of the 2022 Taylor Wessing photographic portrait prize for her series Laundry Day. The photographer, who lives and works between Paris and south Wales, wins £15,000.
Continue reading...Service says the move is aimed at encourage the return of borrowers who stopped using the library during the Covid pandemic
Libraries in Peterborough are holding a fine amnesty to try to recover 22,000 missing books.
The service, which runs 10 libraries across the area, will not fine anyone for returning overdue books and will clear accounts of debt.
Continue reading...Reports suggest that the character actor appears to have suffered a medical emergency before crashing his car in Hollywood
Actor Leslie Jordan has died after a car accident in Los Angeles on Monday at the age of 67.
Law enforcement sources told TMZ and then the Los Angeles Times that they suspected the beloved actor suffered a medical emergency before crashing his BMW into the side of a building in Hollywood.
Continue reading...The US artist’s next mass nude installation will take place in November at a Sydney beach. ‘We’re hoping for a rainbow of people,’ he says
The US artist who has made an international name for himself by urging volunteers to strip naked en masse in public is returning to Australia.
Spencer Tunick’s next “nude installation”, commissioned by the charity Skin Check Champions to raise awareness of skin cancer and coinciding with National Skin Cancer Action Week, will take place on 26 November at a Sydney beach.
Continue reading...Late Irish actor’s poems, photos, plaques and even his wedding list among items handed over by family
Richard Harris blazed through life as an actor, singer, boozer and womaniser but few knew he was also a hoarder.
Poems, photos, letters, script notes, artefacts, documents, rugby plaques, his wedding guest list – he kept it all. After his death in 2002, the trove spanning 50 years of cinema and theatre gathered dust in a lock-up in Oxford, known only to his family.
Continue reading...Full extent of injuries from ‘brutal attack’ on Satanic Verses author in New York state in August revealed
Salman Rushdie has lost sight in one eye and the use of one hand after the attack he suffered while preparing to deliver a lecture in New York state two months ago, his agent has confirmed.
The 75-year-old author, whose received death threats from Iran in the 1980s after his novel The Satanic Verses was published, was stabbed in the neck and torso as he came on stage to give a talk on artistic freedom at the Chautauqua Institution on 12 August.
Continue reading...Animal Collective, Bonobo and Mercury prize winner Little Simz among acts to cancel concerts
Musicians are cancelling concerts and entire tours because the rising costs of staff and materials coupled with a drop off in ticket sales is making them too expensive to run.
Earlier this month, US band Animal Collective cancelled forthcoming European dates as“not sustainable”. Within days, the UK downtempo producer Bonobo called time on future live shows in America, describing them as “exponentially expensive”. Then electronic musician Tourist rescheduled a US stint, saying “sometimes tickets just don’t get sold”.
Continue reading...Curator at school which awards Jane Lombard Prize says the artists’ work would ‘galvanise arts and social justice communities’ in New York
Indigenous Australian art collective proppaNOW has won a prestigious prize that will take them to New York next year after the selecting jury found their practices would serve as “models for political empowerment throughout the world”.
But don’t expect traditional Aboriginal artworks.
Continue reading...The final episode of the first season of the hit Game of Thrones prequel has landed online days early
The season finale of House of the Dragon has leaked online just two days before it was set to premiere on HBO.
According to an HBO spokesperson, the much-anticipated episode of the hit Game of Thrones prequel appears to have come from a distribution partner in Europe, the Middle East or Africa.
Continue reading...The Oscar-winner will play the opera singer in a film that explores the ‘tumultuous, beautiful, and tragic’ story of her life
Angelina Jolie is set to play opera singer Maria Callas in a new drama from Chilean film-maker Pablo Larraín.
Maria will tell “the tumultuous, beautiful and tragic story of the life of the world’s greatest opera singer, relived and re-imagined during her final days in 1970s Paris” with a script from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, who last collaborated with Larraín for Princess Diana drama Spencer.
Continue reading...Producer says trial asked questions about boundaries between privacy and celebrity and what it is to be a Wag
A play about the “Wagatha Christie” trial is to be staged in the West End by the producers behind Agatha Christie’s seminal drama Witness for the Prosecution.
Vardy v Rooney: the Wagatha Christie Trial, adapted from the original high court transcripts by Liv Hennessy and directed by Lisa Spirling, brings the legal battle between Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney to life for one night only this autumn.
Continue reading...Purchase of 1953 painting beloved by football fans made possible by gift from charitable foundation
A painting by LS Lowry beloved by football fans and art enthusiasts has been bought by the Lowry museum and gallery in Salford, saving it from disappearing into a private collection.
The museum paid £7.8m including fees for Going to the Match, painted in 1953, at an auction on Wednesday evening. The purchase was made possible by a gift from the Law Family charitable foundation, which was set up by the hedge fund manager and Conservative party donor Andrew Law and his wife, Zoë. The painting had been estimated to fetch £5m-£8m.
Continue reading...Kevin Michael Brophy says his back tattoo was superimposed on to a male model who seemingly performs oral sex on the cover of Gangsta Bitch Music Vol 1
A “man of faith” is suing Cardi B for superimposing his back tattoo on to a male model who seemingly performs oral sex on the rapper on the cover of her debut mixtape.
Kevin Michael Brophy is suing the Grammy-winning musician in a copyright-infringement lawsuit in federal court in southern California, seeking $5m in damages. Belcalis Almánzar, the rapper’s real name, was in court and is expected to testify during the trial.
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