The producer and DJ, real name Keith McIvor, had been diagnosed with an untreatable brain tumour earlier this year
JD Twitch, the Scottish DJ and producer celebrated as one half of the duo Optimo, has died aged 57.
The artist, whose real name was Keith McIvor, had been diagnosed with an untreatable brain tumour, which he announced in July. He died on Friday in Glasgow’s Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice, his DJ partner Jonnie Wilkes (AKA JG Wilkes) announced.
Continue reading...Distinctive and critically acclaimed films and drama series from ‘a big hub of talent’ are appealing to audiences around the world
When it comes to film-making, Norway has long been left watching on while its Nordic neighbours Sweden and Denmark put out hit after hit by luminaries such as Lars von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg and Ruben Östlund.
But after years in the shadows, the country has finally found its place in the international spotlight with a number of distinctive, relationship-centred and critically acclaimed films and television shows in what many are describing as a Norwegian “golden age”.
Continue reading...Intervision promises to be lighter on sequins and heavier on patriotic ballads than its European counterpart
Russia is gearing up to revive its Soviet-era alternative to Eurovision – the Intervision song contest – which kicks off in Moscow on Saturday, with performers from 23, mostly allied, countries set to take the stage.
But sequinned bodysuits, camp theatrics and Europop bangers will be in short supply. Instead, the Kremlin’s version of the spectacle promises “traditional values”, patriotic ballads and a Russian entry led by a fiercely pro-war singer, as Moscow attempts to refashion Europe’s glitter-soaked pageant in its own image.
Continue reading...Silencing of Jimmy Kimmel sets US on course similar to that charted by authoritarian regimes from Egypt to India
The exiled Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef has experienced firsthand how intolerant governments can silence political satire. And he had a short message this week for those living in an age of Donald Trump’s free speech clampdown: “My Fellow American Citizens,” he wrote on X. “Welcome to my world.”
In his attacks on the most prominent of American satirists, the US president has joined a cadre of illiberal and sensitive leaders around the world who will not tolerate a joke.
Continue reading...The Normal People author can no longer safely enter the UK without potentially facing arrest, according to a statement read out by her publisher at the prize ceremony
Irish author Sally Rooney could not travel to collect a literary prize this week over concerns that she may be arrested if she enters the UK, given her support of banned group Palestine Action.
Rooney won the Sky Arts award for literature for her fourth novel, Intermezzo. At a ceremony on Tuesday, audiences were told that Rooney “couldn’t be here”, before her editor, Faber publisher Alex Bowler, collected the award on her behalf.
Continue reading...Portrait of Dora Maar completed in Paris during war had been in private collection since being bought in 1944
A newly discovered painting by Pablo Picasso of the French photographer and painter Dora Maar completed during the German occupation of Paris that has not been seen for 80 years, has been unveiled.
The work, Bust of a Woman in a Flowery Hat (Dora Maar), was finished towards the end of the couple’s turbulent nine-year relationship and shows Maar in a softer, more colourful light than Picasso’s previous portraits of his then lover.
Continue reading...Removal of late-night show criticised as part of Trump administration’s attack on critical voices in media, academia and business
‘Censoring you in real time’: suspension of Jimmy Kimmel show sparks shock and fears for free speech
Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show has been suspended “indefinitely” after the US government put pressure on broadcasters to crack down on the comedian, who had accused Donald Trump’s political movement of exploiting the killing of Charlie Kirk.
ABC, which Disney owns, announced on Wednesday night that it would remove Kimmel’s show from its schedule for the foreseeable future.
Continue reading...Museum says specimens taken are worth €600,000 based on price of gold but have ‘immeasurable heritage value’
Historic gold samples with a street value of €600,000 but priceless to scientists and researchers have been stolen from the French national natural history museum in the latest of a series of museum robberies in France.
“This has happened in a critical context for cultural establishments in France, particularly museums,” the Paris museum said. “Several public collections have been the victims of robberies in the past months.”
Continue reading...Miki Zohar says he will cancel funding for the Ophir awards after The Sea, about a 12-year-old Palestinian boy who is denied entry to Tel Aviv, wins best picture
Israel’s culture minister, Miki Zohar, has announced that funding for the Ophirs, the country’s national film awards, would be cancelled after The Sea, a film about a 12-year-old Palestinian boy, won the best feature film prize.
In a statement on X, translated by Israeli news media, Zohar said: “There is no greater slap in the face of Israeli citizens than the embarrassing and detached annual Ophir awards ceremony. Starting with the 2026 budget, this pathetic ceremony will no longer be funded by taxpayers’ money. Under my watch, Israeli citizens will not pay from their pockets for a ceremony that spits in the faces of our heroic soldiers.”
Continue reading...Deep Azure, written by the Black Panther star in response to the death of a fellow college student, will open at Sam Wanamaker Playhouse next year
A play by the Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman, who died of cancer aged 43 in 2020, is to receive its UK premiere next year.
Deep Azure was written by Boseman in response to the death of Prince Jones, his fellow college student at Washington DC’s Howard University, who was killed in 2000 by a police officer. The play was first performed in 2005 in the US and will be staged at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in London in February, directed by Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu.
Continue reading...Tenisha Warner reveals identity as she starts two initiatives to support children on behalf of late actor and singer
The widow of actor and singer Malcolm-Jamal Warner has announced the launch of two philanthropic organizations in his honor, paying tribute to her late husband in social media posts that identified her for the first time.
On Friday, the day before the eighth anniversary of their wedding, Tenisha Warner published a photo on Instagram of her and her Grammy-winning husband holding hands and laughing together on the day they got married. Some accompanying text explained that the doctor of psychology and her daughter had started the Warner Family Foundation as a young artists’ scholarship program as well as River & Ember, which is dedicated to helping deepen bonds between parents and children.
Continue reading...Stars read Michael Rosen’s 2014 poem Don’t Mention the Children in film released by Save the Children
Guy Pearce, Annie Lennox and Vanessa Redgrave are among the celebrities calling for an end to the “normalised horror” of children being killed in Gaza, as part of new short film.
Released by Save the Children and Choose Love, it features the stars reciting the words to a poem by Michael Rosen. Titled Don’t Mention the Children, the poem was written in 2014 in response to a Guardian article about the Israeli government banning a radio advert naming children killed in Gaza. It begins:
Continue reading...Bart De Wever travelled to Essen, Germany to hear performance conducted by Lahav Shani, the music director of the Israel Philharmonic
Belgium’s prime minister, Bart De Wever, has said he attended a concert by a German orchestra that was uninvited from a Belgian festival to show support for its Israeli conductor.
The cancellation of a planned performance at the Flanders festival Ghent by the Munich Philharmonic over concerns about its Israeli future chief conductor, Lahav Shani, has triggered a storm of criticism and accusations of antisemitism.
Continue reading...Director, marking new exhibition in LA, tells of chaotic filming – and says he’s ‘never seen so much vomit in my life’
Before Jaws became a cinematic classic, and the very first American “summer blockbuster”, director Steven Spielberg thought the 1975 film would be the last one he would be allowed to make.
Spielberg, who was just 26, had decided to shoot his second film, a thriller about a killer shark, on location on the east coast island of Martha’s Vineyard.
Continue reading...National Trust-owned painting will be exhibited with a meditation option for art lovers to take a long, lingering look
The impulse to race around a gallery and take in as many wonderful paintings as possible can be hard to resist.
But art enthusiasts are being urged to slow down and take a lingering, meditative look at one of the great self-portraits when it is taken on an unhurried tour of England.
Continue reading...Puerto Rican rapper says he and his team were ‘very concerned’ that Ice agents might target his performances
Bad Bunny says he excluded the US from his forthcoming world tour due to fears that, as a prominent Latino musician, his fans would be subjected to immigration raids.
In an interview with i-D magazine on Wednesday, the three-time Grammy-winning musician was asked whether he was skipping the US “out of concern about the [mass deportations of] Latinos”.
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Continue reading...Kent Broussard joined Louisiana State University’s famed Golden Band from Tigerland after retiring as an accountant
Some dreams live on in time forever, says the summer Olympics anthem considered by many to be the greatest – and living proof of that is a retired accountant who recently enrolled as a freshman at Louisiana State University in his mid-60s to fulfill his lifelong ambition of playing for the school’s famed marching band.
Kent Broussard drew nationwide media attention after being shown on ESPN’s broadcast of the LSU football team’s victory at home against in-state rival Louisiana Tech on 6 September.
Continue reading...Actor promoting his directorial debut California Schemin’ at the city’s film festival is reported to have been punched by another drinker
The actor James McAvoy was assaulted in a bar in Toronto, it has been reported.
According to People magazine, McAvoy was “sucker punched” by another visitor to Charlotte’s Room bar on Monday evening, two days after the premiere of his directorial debut, California Schemin’, at the Toronto film festival.
Continue reading...The 55-year-old actor has been playing Emcee in Cabaret, which will now shut a month earlier than planned
Billy Porter is “recovering from a serious case of sepsis”, forcing the early closure of Broadway’s revival of Cabaret in which he played a leading role.
The show’s producers announced on Sunday that Porter “is recovering from a serious case of sepsis” that will prevent him from returning to the stage.
Continue reading...US president applauded West Point alumni for abruptly calling off a ceremony honoring the actor
Donald Trump launched a vitriolic attack against Tom Hanks for supposedly being “destructive” and “woke” after one of America’s most beloved actors was snubbed without much explanation by West Point last week.
On his social media site on Monday, the US president applauded the alumni association of the US Military Academy (or West Point) for abruptly calling off a ceremony honoring Hanks, twice an Academy award winner who has played numerous military characters and also has a long history of advocating for veterans.
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