Category Archives: Culture

Anjelica Huston reveals cancer diagnosis – but says she is now ‘in the clear’

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The 73-year-old actor was diagnosed after her role in the John Wick franchise, and chose to keep it private – but is now speaking out in case it helps others

Anjelica Huston has revealed she was diagnosed with cancer six years ago, saying she is now “in the clear”.

The 73-year-old actor declined to tell People magazine what kind of cancer she had, saying she wanted to keep that private, but did reveal she was diagnosed after the release of her 2019 film John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum.

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London mural by key postwar artist saved from demolition

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William Mitchell artwork saved but Blackheath community centre in which it was housed will be torn down

A rare piece of postwar art that was under threat of being demolished along with the south London building it was housed in has been saved.

The work, a mural by William Mitchell, was created for a community centre in Blackheath that is to be torn down to make way for social housing. The mural will now be preserved by Heritage of London Trust (Holt).

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Stella prize 2025: shortlist entirely women of colour for the first time in award’s history

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Michelle de Kretser and journalist Amy McQuire among six authors in contention for $60,000 prize for women and non-binary writers

The Stella prize, Australia’s award for women and non-binary authors, has made history this year with a shortlist featuring only works by women of colour, for the first time since the award was established in 2013.

Announced on Tuesday morning, this year’s shortlist includes Darumbal and South Sea Islander journalist Amy McQuire’s essay collection, Black Witness (winner of the 2025 Victorian premier’s award for Indigenous writing), about the failures of mainstream media and power of Indigenous journalism; two-time Miles Franklin-winner Michelle de Kretser’s Theory & Practice, a reckoning with fiction, memoir and colonialism; and playwright, poet and author Samah Sabawi’s family memoir, Cactus Pear For My Beloved, tracing her roots from British-occupied Palestine through to contemporary Queensland.

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‘Incompatible with the symbolism’: Yorgos Lanthimos denied permission to shoot new film at the Acropolis

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The country’s best-known director was refused by Greece’s culture ministry when he applied to shoot scenes for sci-fi comedy Bugonia at iconic Athens site

Greece’s leading contemporary director has had a request to shoot footage for his new film at the Acropolis in Athens denied by his country’s culture ministry.

Yorgos Lanthimos had filed a request to film scenes for sci-fi comedy Bugonia at the fifth-century BC site in April. But in a statement on Thursday, the culture ministry said permission had been refused because “the proposed scenes are incompatible with the symbolism … and the values the Acropolis represents”.

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Olivier awards 2025: Giant, Benjamin Button and Fiddler on the Roof triumph

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John Lithgow, Imelda Staunton, Romola Garai and Layton Williams are among the winners at the annual stage awards

The play Giant, which portrays children’s author Roald Dahl amid an outcry about his antisemitism, has triumphed at the Olivier awards on a star-studded night at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

US star John Lithgow took home the best actor prize for his performance as Dahl, Elliot Levey won best supporting actor (for playing publisher Tom Maschler) and Mark Rosenblatt received the award for best new play.

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Olivier awards 2025: Giant, Benjamin Button and Fiddler on the Roof triumph

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John Lithgow, Imelda Staunton, Romola Garai and Layton Williams are among the winners at the annual stage awards

The play Giant, which portrays children’s author Roald Dahl amid an outcry about his antisemitism, has triumphed at the Olivier awards on a star-studded night at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

US star John Lithgow took home the best actor prize for his performance as Dahl, Elliot Levey won best supporting actor (for playing publisher Tom Maschler) and Mark Rosenblatt received the award for best new play.

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Lesley Manville calls for better funding for UK regional theatre

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Actor, who won an Olivier for Oedipus, says her ‘bugbear’ is that venues outside London do not get enough money

Lesley Manville has called for better funding for theatres around the UK, saying her biggest “bugbear” with the stage industry was “there is not enough money thrown into regional theatre”.

Manville was speaking on Sunday night at the Olivier awards in London, where she was named best actress for her performance as Jocasta in Oedipus at Wyndham’s theatre.

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Lesley Manville calls for better funding for UK regional theatre

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Actor, who won an Olivier for Oedipus, says her ‘bugbear’ is that venues outside London do not get enough money

Lesley Manville has called for better funding for theatres around the UK, saying her biggest “bugbear” with the stage industry was “there is not enough money thrown into regional theatre”.

Manville was speaking on Sunday night at the Olivier awards in London, where she was named best actress for her performance as Jocasta in Oedipus at Wyndham’s theatre.

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‘So resonant’: the 19th-century Russian opera being revived across Europe

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Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina – set in the troubled 1680s – can almost describe current events, say directors

A Russian political leader sings about war with Ukrainians and the need for a “durable peace”. The fractured political elite argues over whether they should pursue closer ties with Europe or embrace Russian traditions.

The plot of Modest Mussorgsky’s opera Khovanshchina was written in the 1870s and is set in the 1680s. But, as the characters lament the fact that their homeland is mired in an endless cycle of violence and unhappiness, the dark and brooding work can feel alarmingly contemporary.

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US authors’ copyright lawsuits against OpenAI and Microsoft combined in New York with newspaper actions

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California cases over AI trainers’ use of work by writers including Ta-Nehisi Coates and Michael Chabon transferred to consolidate with New York suits from John Grisham and Jonathan Franzen and more

Twelve US copyright cases against OpenAI and Microsoft have been consolidated in New York, despite most of the authors and news outlets suing the companies being opposed to centralisation.

A transfer order made by the US judicial panel on multidistrict litigation on Thursday said that centralisation will “allow a single judge to coordinate discovery, streamline pretrial proceedings, and eliminate inconsistent rulings”.

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Tasmania’s Dark Mofo is back with a bang – and a car crash: festival announces 2025 program

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After a year off, the often controversial art festival returns, having signed a new three-year funding deal with the state government

A two-hour performance work involving an artist and a stunt driver culminating in a head-on car crash, a man being crushed by sand in a giant hourglass, and an open invitation to scream, are among some of the artworks heading to Tasmania’s Dark Mofo festival, which is back this winter after taking a fallow year.

The annual art festival, created by David Walsh’s Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) and well known for its often controversial, confronting and humorous spirit, was called off last year so organisers could take stock of “changing conditions and rising costs” to ensure its future. Many festivals around Australia have been cancelled in the last two years, including Dark Mofo’s summer equivalent, Mona Foma, which finished in 2024 after 16 years.

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Joe Rogan breaks with Trump, calling Venezuelan deportations ‘horrific’

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Influential podcast host and prominent Trump supporter criticizes administration for removal of gay makeup artist

Joe Rogan, the influential podcast host and prominent supporter of Donald Trump, has criticized the president’s administration over the deportation of a professional makeup artist and hairdresser to a prison in El Salvador, calling it “horrific”.

Andry José Hernández Romero, who is gay, had sought asylum in the US, telling officials he faced persecution because of his sexual orientation and political views. But US immigration officers argued the crown tattoos on his wrists were proof he was part of Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan gang, despite Hernández Romero telling them he was not. Last month, he was flown from Texas to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, a facility that his lawyer said was “one of the worst places in the world”. His removal comes as the administration undertakes what Trump has pledged would be a mass deportation campaign.

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Royal Ballet to perform Justin Peck’s Everywhere We Go, with music by Sufjan Stevens

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Director Kevin O’Hare announces staging of NYCB choreographer Peck’s 2014 piece, as well as new works by Akram Khan and Cathy Marston

A ballet by one of New York’s hottest choreographers, set to the music of Sufjan Stevens, and Akram Khan’s first work for the Royal Opera House stage are two highlights of the Royal Ballet’s 2025-26 season, announced on Wednesday. They will be seen alongside the first commission for a UK company from choreographic duo Paul Lightfoot and Sol León, premieres from Wayne McGregor and Cathy Marston and a new ballet based on Christopher Isherwood’s A Single Man, with live music by John Grant.

“It’s about working with new voices, looking for what we haven’t experienced and what’s important to see,” said artistic director Kevin O’Hare about what will be his 14th season in charge of the company.

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Val Kilmer, star of Top Gun and The Doors, dies aged 65

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Known for his roles in Batman Forever, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and Tombstone, the prolific actor’s cause of death was pneumonia

Val Kilmer, the actor best known for his roles in Top Gun, Batman Forever and The Doors, has died at the age of 65.

His daughter Mercedes told the New York Times that the cause of death was pneumonia. Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 and later recovered, after treatment with chemotherapy and trachea surgery that had reduced hisability to speak and breathe.

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Neil Young says he may be barred from returning to US over Donald Trump criticism

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The US-Canadian dual citizen speculates he may be ‘barred or put in jail to sleep on a cement floor’ after his European tour, after years of speaking against Trump

Neil Young has shared his concerns of being barred from the US after his European tour later this year, thanks to his outspoken critiques of Donald Trump.

On Tuesday, on his website Neil Young Archives, the 79-year-old musician – who has dual Canadian-American citizenship – wrote of his fears after the recent spate of people being detained and deported upon entering the US. These incidents have been credited to vague or unspecified visa issues, but have frequently affected individuals who have criticised the Trump administration either publicly or in messages on their phone read by immigration officers.

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‘Woke’ criticism of Doctor Who proves show on right track, says its newest star

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Varada Sethu joining series as Doctor’s latest companion, marking first time Tardis team is wholly people of colour

Criticisms that Doctor Who has become too “woke” prove the series is doing the right thing by being inclusive, its new star Varada Sethu has said.

Sethu plays the Doctor’s latest travelling companion, Belinda Chandra, in new episodes airing next month. With Ncuti Gatwa returning as the Doctor, the pairing marks the first time a Tardis team will comprise solely people of colour.

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New images reveal extent of looting at Sudan’s national museum as rooms stripped of treasures

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Only a few statues remain, with thousands of priceless artefacts from Nubian and Kushite kingdoms missing

Videos of Sudan’s national museum showing empty rooms, piles of rubble and broken artefacts posted on social media after the Sudanese army recaptured the area from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in recent days show the extent of looting of the country’s antiquities.

Fears of looting in the museum were first raised in June 2023 and a year later satellite images emerged of trucks loaded with artefacts leaving the building, according to museum officials. But last week, as the RSF were driven out of Khartoum after two years of war, the full extent of the theft became apparent.

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Richard Chamberlain, hero of Dr Kildare and ‘king of the miniseries’, dies aged 90

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The actor died on Saturday night in Waimānalo, Hawaii of complications after a stroke, his publicist says

Richard Chamberlain, the hero of the 1960s television series Dr Kildare who found a second career as an award-winning “king of the miniseries,” has died. He was 90.

Chamberlain died on Saturday night in Waimānalo, Hawaii of complications after a stroke, according to his publicist, Harlan Boll.

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‘Expressing your pain in artistic form is not easy’: exiled Russian theatre director builds bridges in London

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Dmitry Krymov, who fled Moscow after the Ukraine invasion, plans Dickens hybrid with UK and Russian actors

The acclaimed Russian stage director Dmitry Krymov the winner of many of Moscow’s top theatre prizes before his exile due to public criticism of the invasion of Ukraine, has spoken angrily of the impact of the war ahead of his first work with British actors. The Moscow-born director, 70, plans to use Dickens’s two stories Great Expectations and Hard Times to create a new performance.

Arriving in London this weekend for a short stay, Krymov, who is regarded by many western theatre pundits as among the best directors in the world, told the Observer he wants to link British and Russian performers and audiences, despite the divisions caused by President Vladimir Putin.

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FCC to investigate Disney and ABC over potential violation in diversity practices

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Federal Communications Commission says its DEI efforts may breach equal employment opportunity regulations

The US’s top media regulator on Friday said it was opening an investigation into the diversity practices of Walt Disney and its ABC unit, saying they may violate equal employment opportunity regulations.

Brendan Carr, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chair, wrote to the Disney CEO, Robert Iger, in a letter dated on Thursday that the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts may not have complied with FCC regulations and that changes by the company may not go far enough.

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