Family confirms death and asks for privacy to be respected
TV presenter Caroline Flack has died, her family said in a statement.
The statement said: “We can confirm that our Caroline passed away today, 15 February.
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Carlos Acosta: ‘My mother roasted my pet rabbits. I was sad, but I ate them’
The Cuban dancer talks about food rationing, what he ate at ballet school and his father’s terrible cooking
I always lived with rationing in Cuba – I was born in 1973. We used the term “the three musketeers” to mean rice, chicharos [split peas] and eggs, although at one point eggs disappeared completely.
I had two rabbits as pets and I arrived home from school one day and there was that smell I’d almost forgotten, of meat. Then I realised that Mamá had roasted my pets and I cried a lot. My mother pressed us to eat them and we all did. The rabbits tasted very good, obviously – I was a kid and I sort of got distracted. I was very sad, but I ate.
Continue reading...Banksy artwork in Bristol is vandalised days after appearing
Piece, which appears to be a nod to Valentine’s Day, has graffiti scrawled across it
A piece of street art in Bristol that was this week confirmed as being by Banksy has been vandalised.
A picture shared on social media showed “BCC wankers” scrawled across the artwork, which shows a young girl firing a slingshot filled with flowers.
Continue reading...Harvey Weinstein trial nears final act after defence rests
Movie producer ‘loved’ closing remarks of his lawyer, who questioned motives of accusers
Harvey Weinstein looked cheerful at the end of five hours of closing remarks in the New York supreme court, despite facing possible life imprisonment.
As he trundled down the corridor on his walking frame, smiling broadly at reporters, he was asked what he thought of the final pitch to the jury made by his lead lawyer, Donna Rotunno. “I loved it,” he said. “I called it the Queen’s speech.”
Continue reading...DJ Diaki: Balani Fou review | Ammar Kalia’s global album of the month
(Nyege Nyege Tapes)
DJ Diaki’s debut is a speeding cascade of sound that skilfully re-creates the pounding atmosphere of Malian street party Balani Show
Recent years have seen some of the most exciting dancefloor-focused music moving further and further away from its spiritual homes of Detroit, Chicago, Berlin or London. Now, styles such as South African gqom or Angolan kuduro-techno are pushing their way into club sound systems with rattling tempos in excess of 200bpm and unpredictable polyrhythms replacing the familiar four-to-the-floor kick.
The work released by Ugandan label Nyege Nyege Tapes is among the most inventive of these styles. Encompassing sounds from the ground-shaking rhythms of Tanzanian singeli to the electro-synths of Ugandan acholi, the label has been challenging a recent trend towards often purposefully punishing “deconstructed” club music with their joyous reimaginings of east African music. Their latest release by Malian DJ Diaki is no less formidable. A stalwart of the Balani Show sound system – a party setup playing electronic, layered versions of the marimba-style instrument balafon – Diaki now releases his debut on Nyege Nyege.
Continue reading...‘I want to scream when I hear The Specials’: readers on the songs they can’t listen to any more
Following Guardian writers on the songs they can no longer listen to, here are some of the soundtracks you mentioned
Third year at university, the bloke I was flat sharing with played Ghost Town by The Specials every morning as his alarm. Every morning for a damn year. I used to like Ghost Town, it’s one of the great protest songs (and its appearance on Father Ted is sublime). Now I want to scream whenever I hear it. It was like torture. Melvazord
Continue reading...Early Damien Hirst artwork bought for £600 could fetch £1.8m
Artist pays tribute to collector Robert Tibbles, who was his first customer in 1989
In 1989, 28-year-old Robert Tibbles bought a medicine cabinet artwork full of bottles of pills for £600. His friends derided it as “crap” and told Tibbles he had been ripped off and should return it.
On Thursday that medicine cabinet, called Bodies by Damien Hirst, is expected to sell for between £1.2m and £1.8m in an auction of Tibbles’ entire Cool Britannia collection, which also includes works by Michael Craig-Martin and Gilbert & George.
Continue reading...When Lambs Become Lions review – on the trail of Kenya’s elephant killers
This coolly even-handed documentary dips into the lives of an ivory poacher and a stressed-out wildlife ranger trying to obstruct the illegal trade
Jon Kasbe’s documentary When Lambs Become Lions has been much praised on the festival circuit, and it is cleverly and effectively made, seeking to grip you the way a thriller would. Yet I’m not sure that I was completely on board with this film, which appears to have smoothly carpentered its narrative in the edit. Is it almost too good to be true?
The film gives us a coolly even-handed study of some ivory hunters in Kenya – and also the rangers, the hunters of the hunters, who have to roam through the landscape, in their camouflage gear and assault rifles, on the lookout for those who are illegally killing elephants for their tusks.
Continue reading...Rose McGowan: Natalie Portman’s Oscars dress protest ‘deeply offensive’
McGowan posts Facebook attack on Portman, who wore a gown embroidered with names of female directors snubbed at awards
Activist and actor Rose McGowan has labelled Natalie Portman a “fraud” for wearing a dress to the Oscars embroidered with the names of female film-makers including Greta Gerwig and Lulu Wang who were passed over for best director nominations.
In a post on Facebook, McGowan said Portman had made “the kind of protest that gets rave reviews from the mainstream media” but was “more like an actress acting the part of someone who cares. As so many of them do.”
Continue reading...Jussie Smollett: actor charged again over alleged hoax attack
- Smollett indicted by special prosecutor on six counts
- Actor accused of lying to police in Chicago
The TV actor Jussie Smollett has been indicted by a special prosecutor on six counts accusing him of lying to Chicago police – almost a year after similar charges against him relating to an alleged hoax attack were dropped amid outcry from many sides.
Smollett faces six counts of disorderly conduct, the special prosecutor Dan Webb said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon.
Continue reading...Critics pour scorn on Scotland-Northern Ireland bridge idea
Architect and PM’s enthusiasm for Celtic crossing tempered by local cynicism of ‘pipe dream’
“The stars are aligning” for a bridge between Scotland and Northern Ireland, according to the principal advocate for a Celtic crossing, the leading architect Alan Dunlop.
Although engineering experts have dismissed the concept as “bonkers”, Dunlop has been pressing for serious discussion of Boris Johnson’s latest grand infrastructure scheme since he conducted a feasibility study into the proposal in 2018, when he first raised the prospect.
Continue reading...Parasite makes Oscars history as first foreign language winner of best picture
Bong Joon-ho’s South Korean satire wins top prize after taking best director, international film and original screenplay
- Nine things we learned at the Oscars
- Peter Bradshaw: Parasite’s brilliant win is a portent of change
- Phil Hoad: 2020 Oscars could kickstart era of internationalism
After an awards season marked by its predictability, the Oscars delivered a spectacular final-reel twist on Sunday evening, naming capitalist satire Parasite best picture.
Bong Joon-ho’s comedy-drama about an impoverished family who infiltrate the household of a wealthier one is the first film not in the English language to take the top prize. It also took best director, best original screenplay and best international film.
Continue reading...Lisbon’s outdoor art gallery – in pictures
Street art has transformed Quinta do Mocho, an area once plagued by crime and unemployment
Oscars 2020: Brad Pitt wins best supporting actor – live!
Follow all the action from Hollywood as we find out who’s wearing what, who’s winning what and whose acceptance speech is dropping jaws
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Now for best animated feature. Beanie Feldstein just introduced Mindy Kaling. Is that how this is going to work without a host? A person announces a person who announces a winner? That seems like at least one step too many.
We already have a news story about Brad Pitt winning. Not that anyone was expecting it or anything.
Continue reading...Critic accidentally destroys $20,000 artwork at Mexico fair
Avelina Lésper said it was almost as if Gabriel Rico’s piece knew how much she disliked it
An art critic has destroyed a contemporary piece at Mexico’s premiere art fair, sparking a debate about what constitutes art.
Critic Avelina Lésper said she accidentally shattered the installation on Saturday at the Zona Maco art fair in Mexico City when she placed an empty soda can near it to express her disdain for the piece: a sheet of glass with a stone, soccer ball and other random objects suspended inside.
Continue reading...Sex Education’s Aimee Lou Wood: ‘I confronted my own school bully’
She loved her nude scenes in the Netflix hit but the West End’s Uncle Vanya gave her stage fright. The Stockport star remembers being the class clown and tracking down her tormentor
Aimee Lou Wood wasn’t sure she wanted to be in Uncle Vanya, even as she made her way to the audition. Having trained at Rada, she knew the lineage of actors who had played the prized part of Sonya, and what an honour it would be to star in a West End Chekhov at the age of 25. “But I just thought it was so the opposite of what I would want to do,” she says.
She did have a point. Sonya is a church-going, sexually naive teenager from the backwaters of 19th-century Russia. Wood, at the time, was fresh out of filming the Netflix teen drama Sex Education. Her character opens the first series with a bout of energetic sex that ends in her boyfriend’s faked orgasm. (Connor Swindells, who played the boyfriend, is her real-life partner of two years.)
Continue reading...Activists try to occupy British Museum in protest against BP ties
Environmental group puts pressure on museum to end its partnership with oil company
Dozens of activists have coated themselves in plaster and are trying to occupy the British Museum overnight in a bid to pressure the institution to cut ties with oil corporation BP.
About 60 protesters were taking part in the defiant act of impromptu sculpture making as the museum in London attempted to close its doors at 5pm on Saturday.
Continue reading...Oscars ad time to be hacked by protest against lack of female director nods
Non-profit initiative Giver Her A Break creates online portal to replace commercials with showcase for female film-makers
The Oscars ceremony is no stranger to the act of protest, but this year will see arguably its most unique demonstration yet, because it won’t be taking place outside the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles but inside the telecast itself.
Non-profit initiative Give Her A Break has created an online portal that allows viewers to watch the awards as normal, but one with one key difference: every ad break will be replaced with a showcase for a female-directed film.
Continue reading...Veteran actor Orson Bean hit and killed by car in Los Angeles
Bean, 91, who starred in Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman and Desperate Housewives, died on Friday night after collision in Venice
Orson Bean, the witty actor and comedian, was hit and killed by a car in Los Angeles, authorities said. He was 91.
The Los Angeles county coroner’s office confirmed Bean’s Friday night death, saying it was being investigated as a “traffic-related” fatality. The coroner’s office provided the location where Bean was found, which matched reports from local news outlets.
Continue reading...Paw performance: Cats dominates Razzie nominations
British actors including Judi Dench and James Corden among worst actor nominees
The widely panned movie musical Cats and four of its stars have been nominated for Razzie awards, an annual ritual that lampoons the worst of cinema.
James Corden, Judi Dench, Rebel Wilson and Francesca Hayward received Razzie acting nominations for their Cats roles, in which they wore digitally created fur. Oscar winner Dench was singled out for “looking suspiciously similar to the Cowardly Lion from Wizard of Oz”, organisers said in a statement announcing the nominees.
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