Wicked, A Complete Unknown and Shôgun lead Screen Actors Guild nominations

This year’s SAG noms see a strong showing for music-led films while Nicole Kidman, Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie are snubbed

Music-led films Wicked and A Complete Unknown and TV shows Shôgun and The Bear lead this year’s Screen Actors Guild nominations, it was announced this morning.

Blockbuster musical Wicked heads up the film side with five nominations including for actors Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande and Jonathan Bailey, as well as the ensemble. It was also nominated for stunt ensemble. The film, based on the long-running Broadway hit, has made more than $680m at the global box office.

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Rapper convicted of posting ‘menacing’ video directed at Tommy Robinson

Birmingham-based drill musician known as Twista Cheese made gun gesture in video and shouted ‘pow, pow, pow’

A rapper has been convicted of posting a “menacing” video on social media directed towards Tommy Robinson, in which he mentioned artillery and made a gun gesture while shouting “pow, pow, pow”.

Omar Abdirizak, a 31-year-old Birmingham-based rapper known as Twista Cheese, posted the minute-long TikTok video in August last year.

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Aubrey Plaza calls husband Jeff Baena’s death ‘an unimaginable tragedy’

Actor and her late partner’s family issue joint statement thanking supporters and asking for privacy

Aubrey Plaza has released a statement after the death of her husband, Jeff Baena, who was found at his Los Angeles home on Friday after taking his own life.

“This is an unimaginable tragedy,” the actor and Baena’s family said in a joint statement shared with media on Monday. “We are deeply grateful to everyone who has offered support. Please respect our privacy during this time.”

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counsellor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

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The Brutalist, Emilia Pérez and Shōgun triumph at the Golden Globes

The low-budget immigration saga and the Netflix crime musical picked up major film wins while the historical epic dominated television awards

The Brutalist, Emilia Pérez and Shōgun won big at the 82nd Golden Globes, the unofficial kick-off to this year’s awards season.

The low-budget epic The Brutalist, a drama telling the story of a Holocaust survivor turned immigrant architect in the US, won three awards for best film – drama, actor for Adrien Brody and director for the actor-turned-film-maker Brady Corbet. At the end of his speech, Corbet paid tribute to the film-maker Jeff Baena, who died this week by suicide.

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Harlan Coben says ‘quite a bit of tragedy’ in his 20s made him a better writer

Bestselling author and Netflix producer said extensive early experience of grief was ‘very cruel but effective teacher’

American thriller writer Harlan Coben said experiencing “quite a bit of tragedy” in his 20s made him a better writer.

The bestselling author, who wrote the Myron Bolitar thriller series and novels turned Netflix shows such as Fool Me Once and Missing You, said he was in his 20s when his father died of a heart attack at the age of 59 in 1988.

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Indie film-maker Jeff Baena dies aged 47

Husband of actor Aubrey Plaza was known for writing and directing Life After Beth and co-writing I Heart Huckabees

Independent director and screenwriter Jeff Baena – who was known for quirky hits such as Life After Beth and was the husband of that flick’s star, Aubrey Plaza – has died, according to reports. Baena was 47.

The Los Angeles medical examiner said that Baena died on Friday at his home in that city at about 10.39am local time. Officials did not immediately provide Baena’s cause or manner of death.

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Dark web dealer who stole unreleased Coldplay music gets suspended sentence

Skylar Dalziel’s hard drives showed access to about 290,000 tracks from artists also including Shawn Mendes, police say

A dark web dealer who stole unreleased music from the likes of Coldplay, Shawn Mendes and Bebe Rexha has been given a suspended 21-month jail sentence.

Skylar Dalziel, 22, made tens of thousands of pounds after accessing the copyrighted tracks by illegally accessing cloud storage accounts linked to the artists.

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German artists sign open letter against TV show host accused of sexism

Choice of Thilo Mischke, author of Around the World In 80 Women, for ARD’s flagship arts show criticised

More than 100 prominent German writers and artists have signed an open letter refusing to appear on one of Germany’s top culture programmes on public television after the broadcaster announced a new host who has been accused of sexism and racism in his writing.

ARD said in late December it had picked the author Thilo Mischke, 43, to co-present its flagship culture show, ttt – Titel, Thesen, Temperamente (Titles, Theses, Temperaments), after the programme’s veteran host Max Moor stepped aside.

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‘A look into the future’: TV drama about Danish climate refugees divides opinion

Families Like Ours has become national talking point but some scientists say events depicted could not happen

Featuring scenes of huge crowds boarding ferries, protest and desperation as six million Danes become climate refugees and life as they know it rapidly collapses, the new TV series by the Oscar-winning director Thomas Vinterberg is a potential “look into the future”, he says.

Familier som vores (Families Like Ours) – a drama which depicts a flooded Denmark shut down and evacuated – has been viewed nearly 1m times and become a national talking point. At its premiere at the Venice international film festival, it evoked tears, shouts and a standing ovation, with one critic describing it as “grimly prophetic”.

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Top Venezuelan pianist urges music world to snub youth orchestra linked to Maduro

Gabriela Montero asks promoters to cut ties with El Sistema on 2025 Europe tour, after alleged theft of election

One of Venezuela’s most celebrated musicians, the pianist Gabriela Montero, has called on concert halls and music promoters to cut ties with her country’s world-renowned youth orchestra as a result of Nicolás Maduro’s alleged theft of this year’s presidential election.

The Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela (SBSOV), which has close ties to Maduro’s administration, is scheduled to perform at some of Europe’s most prestigious classical music venues in January to mark the 50th anniversary of Venezuela’s world-famous music training programme, El Sistema.

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Johnnie Walker, BBC radio DJ, dies aged 79

Pioneering presenter was best known for hosting Sounds of the 70s and the Radio 2 Rock Show

The veteran BBC DJ Johnnie Walker has died at the age of 79, it has been announced.

Walker, who hosted Radio 2’s Sounds of the 70s and the Radio 2 Rock Show, began his career as a pirate DJ in the 60s on the offshore station Swinging Radio England, then Radio Caroline, before joining Radio 1 in 1969. He left the station after causing controversy by describing the Bay City Rollers as “musical garbage” and clashing with his bosses over an insistence on playing album tracks.

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World of dance mourns death of ‘brilliant light’ Dada Masilo at age of 39

South African dancer and choreographer died unexpectedly after a brief illness, her family says

The dance world is mourning the internationally acclaimed South African dancer and choreographer Dada Masilo, who died in hospital at the weekend aged 39.

Masilo died unexpectedly on Sunday after a brief illness, a spokesperson for her family said in a statement.

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Live Aid campaigner Bob Geldof was ‘scathing about African leaders’, files reveal

Singer urged Tony Blair not to appoint African co-chair to commission on aid, UK government papers show

The Live Aid campaigner Bob Geldof urged Tony Blair not to appoint an African co-chair to the UK-led organisation working to overhaul international aid to the continent because he thought African leadership was “very weak” on the issue, newly released government documents suggest.

The singer was “scathing about the ability and worthiness of virtually all African leaders” before the establishment in 2004 of Blair’s Commission for Africa, which would produce a report, Our Common Interest, and prompt a landmark pledge by rich nations to boost aid and write off debt.

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Sadiq Khan, Stephen Fry and Emily Thornberry make new year honours list

Mayor of London ‘truly humbled’ to be made a knight as authors, actors and sporting stars receive honours

Sadiq Khan and Stephen Fry received knighthoods along with the former England manager Gareth Southgate while Emily Thornberry became a dame in the first new year honours list since Labour’s general election win.

The mayor of London, who secured a record third term in City Hall this May, said he was “truly humbled” by the honour. Fry, who first made his name as one half of a double act with Hugh Laurie in the late 1980s, said he had felt “startled and enchanted” on receiving the news.

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Rebel Wilson weds Ramona Agruma in Sydney – and this time it’s for real

The actor announced on social media that the ‘legal wedding’ was officiated by her sister

Rebel Wilson has married wife, Ramona Agruma, for the second time in Sydney and this time it was legal.

Wilson, the Australian actor and director, revealed the “legal wedding” was officiated by her sister on Sunday via Instagram, in a post accompanied by photos of the couple standing in front of the Sydney Opera House with the Harbour Bridge in the background.

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‘Illegally smuggled’ cannon at Tower of London subject of dispute with Ireland

Newly released documents show Irish officials sought return of cannon sold by ‘gang of British treasure hunters’

Rare cannon allegedly smuggled out of Irish waters by a gang of British treasure hunters and acquired for a knockdown price by a Tower of London official were at the centre of a decades-long dispute between British and Irish officials, according to newly released records.

Irish officials made extensive efforts to convince UK authorities to return the bronze cannon after claiming they were “illegally smuggled” from a Waterford shipwreck and sold to the Tower of London.

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TV bosses should dare to flout Ofcom rules, says Grange Hill creator Phil Redmond

Producer says ‘courage has gone out of broadcasting’ and audiences want to see grittier issues

The creator of some of Britain’s best-loved soaps has said the “courage has gone out of broadcasting” and suggested that television bosses should not be afraid to flout Ofcom rules.

Phil Redmond – the brains behind Hollyoaks, Grange Hill and Brookside – said there was “too much risk aversion” in television, with producers afraid to upset regulators even if it meant pleasing audiences.

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Painstaking work to conserve Ireland’s oldest paper documents begins

Delicate 650-year-old pages to be preserved are some of the island’s most important historical texts

Work has begun to conserve and digitise one of the oldest paper documents still in existence on the island of Ireland.

The ecclesiastical register, which dates back to the medieval period, is about 650 years old. It belonged to the former archbishop of Armagh Milo Sweteman.

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DJ Alfredo, icon of Ibiza’s dance music scene, dies aged 71

DJ whose anything-goes spirit had a huge influence on British club culture had suffered a stroke in 2021

DJ Alfredo, who had a significant influence on Ibiza becoming a global centre for dance music culture, has died aged 71.

Amnesia, the club where he held a residency during the 1980s, announced the news, writing on Instagram: “Thank you for the nights and beats we shared together. Your music and vision shaped the sound of Balearic Beat and the soul of Amnesia. So many memories were made through your energy, your legacy will live on our dancefloor forever. You will never be forgotten.”

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Shyam Benegal, influential director of India’s ‘parallel cinema’, dies aged 90

The film-maker challenged mainstream Bollywood and pioneered a new wave cinema movement in the 1970s that tackled social issues

Shyam Benegal, a renowned Indian film-maker known for pioneering a new wave cinema movement that tackled social issues in the 1970s, has died aged 90 after suffering from chronic kidney disease.

Benegal passed away on Monday at Mumbai’s Wockhardt hospital and his cremation took place on Tuesday, the Press Trust of India news agency reported, quoting his daughter Piya. “Benegal had been suffering from chronic kidney disease for several years but it had gotten very bad. That’s the reason for his death,” Piya said.

Many paid tribute to the film-maker on social media platform X. “Deeply saddened by the passing of Shyam Benegal, whose storytelling had a profound impact on Indian cinema. His works will continue to be admired by people from different walks of life,” India’s prime minister Narendra Modi tweeted.

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