Category Archives: Culture

Academy says Oscars will go on as planned and ‘honor’ LA amid fires

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Letter from Academy leadership also says show will ‘move away’ from live performances to celebrate songwriters

The Oscars will go on as planned in March, though with special accommodations to acknowledge to devastating wildfires in Los Angeles, according to a new update from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

A letter from the CEO, Bill Kramer, and president Janet Yang, sent to all members on Wednesday, confirmed that the ceremony will “celebrate the work that unites us as a global film community and acknowledge those who fought so bravely against the wildfires”.

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‘When I’m not Trump, I’m just Mike’: UK impersonator enjoys re-election boom

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Mike Osman, aka ‘Donald Trumped’, from Southampton, says he is expecting busiest year of career

A British Donald Trump impersonator is looking forward to an “unstoppable” four years, thanking the American president for providing him with a pension pot for his retirement.

Southampton-based Mike Osman, a 65-year-old comedian, said his income had increased by between 30 and 40% since Trump was re-elected and he was expecting to have the busiest year of his career.

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Garth Hudson, founder member of the Band and Bob Dylan collaborator, dies aged 87

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Hudson was the last remaining member of the folk-rock group, releasing 10 studio albums with them and touring with Dylan in his newfound electric period

Garth Hudson, the last remaining founder member of the Band, has died aged 87.

The multi-instrumentalist, who played keyboards and saxophone for the bestselling 1960s folk-rockers as well as Bob Dylan, died peacefully in his sleep at the Woodstock nursing home he lived in, the executor of his estate confirmed to the Toronto Star.

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David Hockney unveils unseen work for major Paris retrospective

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Exclusive: William Blake-inspired artwork to feature alongside new paintings in artist’s biggest exhibition

A previously unseen painting by David Hockney has been revealed for the first time before its unveiling in the biggest exhibition to be devoted to one of Britain’s foremost living artists.

Titled After Blake: Less is Known than People Think, the work will be among hundreds of previously unknown Hockneys that are to be displayed alongside his famous masterpieces at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris from April.

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‘Animals can feel good and evil’: film puts new perspective on Ukraine war

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Collection of seven shorts due out in 2025 tells story of conflict from perspective of animals

The occupying Russian soldiers paid little attention to the elderly woman shuffling through the farmland surrounding the villages outside Kyiv, taking her goat to pasture. But she was focused closely on them. After locating their positions, she headed back home with the goat, and later called her grandson, a soldier in the Ukrainian army, to give the coordinates.

The story is one of seven episodes, based on real events from the first year of Russia’s full-scale invasion but lightly fictionalised, that make up a feature film about the war in Ukraine, due out later this year. All seven of the shorts have one thing in common: they tell the story of the conflict from the perspective of animals.

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‘She would have been in awe of him’: how Laurence Olivier gave Margaret Thatcher private seduction lessons

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New drama, When Maggie Met Larry, reveals exactly how the world’s most famous actor coached the fledgling Iron Lady

In 1972, a nervous Margaret Thatcher went to Laurence Olivier’s London home for a lesson on presentational skills. The most famous actor of the 20th century told the then education secretary to put a book on her head and walk around to improve her deportment. He also advised her to take long confident strides, and to use her eyes to seduce and flirt.

The future prime minister went on to visit Olivier’s house for a further five lessons, details of which are revealed in a new Radio 4 play, When Maggie Met Larry. Starring Derek Jacobi, who joined Olivier’s fledgling National Theatre when only 24, and Frances Barber as Thatcher, the drama tells of the previously unknown advice on style and voice offered to the Tory politician.

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Pompeii excavation unearths private spa for wooing wealthy guests

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Thermal bath complex is latest discovery among ruins of Italian city destroyed by Vesuvius eruption in AD79

A large and sophisticated thermal bath complex that was believed to have been used by its owner to woo well-heeled guests has been discovered among the ruins of ancient Pompeii.

The baths were found during excavations of a home on Via di Nola in Regio IX, a wealthy district of the city before it was destroyed by the AD79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

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Joan Plowright, celebrated star of stage and screen, dies aged 95

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Actor helped shape British postwar theatre through her performances at the Royal Court, National Theatre and in the West End

• Michael Billington: Plowright was a dynamic force
• Joan Plowright: a life in pictures

The actor Joan Plowright, who was celebrated for her long career in theatre and film, has died at the age of 95, her family have announced.

Plowright won acclaim for performances during the early years of the English Stage Company at the Royal Court and the National Theatre when it was based at the Old Vic and led by her second husband, Laurence Olivier.

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Trump names Mel Gibson, Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone as Hollywood ‘special ambassadors’

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Duties remain unclear for the three actors, who are Trump supporters and are no strangers to controversy

Donald Trump has tapped three of his longstanding celebrity supporters – Mel Gibson, Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone – to purportedly make Hollywood “stronger than ever before” as “special ambassadors” to the movie capital.

The president-elect announced the new appointments, whose duties remain unclear, on Truth Social on Thursday, four days before his inauguration. “It is my honor to announce Jon Voight, Mel Gibson, and Sylvester Stallone, to be Special Ambassadors to a great but very troubled place, Hollywood, California,” he wrote.

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Brad Pitt reacts to ‘awful’ scammers who fooled French woman using his pictures

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Anne, 53, was scammed out of hundreds of thousands after believing she was in a long-term relationship with the actor

A spokesperson for Brad Pitt has addressed the viral story about a French woman who believed she was in a long-term relationship with the actor and was scammed out of €830,000 ($855,000, £700,000) by someone posing as him.

“It’s awful that scammers take advantage of the strong bond between fans and celebrities,” the spokesperson said in a statement obtained by E! News. “But this is an important reminder not to respond to unsolicited online outreach, especially from actors who have no social media presence.”

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Killer of teenager Jimmy Mizen is now rapper promoted by BBC, reports say

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Parents of murdered schoolboy say prison rehabilitation does not seem to have made any difference to Jake Fahri

The parents of murdered schoolboy Jimmy Mizen have said prison does not “seem to have made a blind bit of difference” to their son’s killer, who is reportedly now a rapper whose songs have been promoted by the BBC.

Jake Fahri, then 19, was given a life sentence in 2009 with a minimum term of 14 years for killing Mizen by throwing an oven dish at him. The glass dish shattered and severed blood vessels in the 16-year-old’s neck in a south London bakery.

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David Lynch, Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive director, dies aged 78

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Film-maker who specialised in surreal, noir style mysteries made a string of influential, critically acclaimed works including Wild at Heart and Eraserhead

David Lynch, the maverick American director who sustained a successful mainstream career while also probing the bizarre, the radical and the experimental, has died aged 78.

“It is with deep regret that we, his family, announce the passing of the man and the artist, David Lynch,” read a Facebook post. “We would appreciate some privacy at this time. There’s a big hole in the world now that he’s no longer with us. But, as he would say, “Keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole.” It’s a beautiful day with golden sunshine and blue skies all the way.”

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Film-maker Jacques Audiard apologises after Mexican outrage over Emilia Pérez

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The director of the award-winning musical about a trans cartel boss has said the film isn’t intended to be realistic, but he is sorry if things in it ‘seem shocking’

Emilia Pérez director Jacques Audiard has apologised after the film was engulfed in a wave of criticism over its depiction of Mexico.

A Spanish-language musical about a cartel boss who transitions to a woman, starring transgender actor Karla Sofía Gascón opposite Zoe Saldaña, Emilia Pérez premiered in Mexico City on Wednesday before its Mexican release on 23 January.

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‘Homecoming’ show for artist Frank Auerbach to be held at Berlin gallery

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Exclusive: First show of figurative painter’s work to be displayed in city he fled in 1939 to escape Nazi regime

Frank Auerbach is to be the subject of what has been billed as a homecoming show in Berlin, at which some of his final paintings will be displayed in the city he fled as a child.

Auerbach, who died in November last year, never had a show in the city of his birth, which he left due to persecution by the Nazis. Both of his parents were later killed in Auschwitz.

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Drake withdraws legal petition over Kendrick Lamar diss track

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Drake had alleged Universal Music Group and Spotify each manipulated the popularity of Lamar’s track Not Like Us

Drake has withdrawn a legal challenge he made against his own label, Universal Music Group (UMG), and Spotify, alleging they artificially inflated the popularity of a Kendrick Lamar diss track about him.

UMG and Spotify were accused of trying to “manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves”. Lawyers for the rapper had claimed that UMG paid influencers and radio stations to play the track, Not Like Us, which topped the US charts and proved to be the hammer blow in the Drake-Lamar feud between March and May last year.

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Hip-hop producer Madlib’s home and record collection destroyed in LA fires

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Influential musician confirms loss of extensive record collection amassed over 30 years

The celebrated hip-hop producer Madlib has confirmed the loss of his extensive record collection and much of his recording equipment along with his home in the wildfires that have swept across California and killed at least 25 people.

The influential musician, who has worked with some of the most prominent names in rap including Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg and MF DOOM, is known for his sample-heavy production style. His record collection, amassed over 30 years, acted as the backbone of that work.

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Actor Dirk Bogarde was ‘disturbed’ by KGB sting warning, declassified files reveal

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MI5 told Bogarde in 1971 that he had been identified as ‘practising homosexual’ of interest by Russian spies

The film star Dirk Bogarde was “clearly disturbed” and “troubled” after MI5 warned him that his name had been given to the KGB as a “practising homosexual” and he risked being compromised in a sting operation, newly declassified intelligence files show.

Bogarde, who died in 1999 and never came out publicly but lived with his life partner and manager, Anthony Forwood, was told by security services that his name was on a list of “six practising British homosexuals” given to the Russians by an unnamed source who had himself been sexually compromised during a visit to Moscow in the late 1950s.

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Oliviero Toscani, photographer behind provocative Benetton ads, dies aged 82

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Tributes paid to Italian known for images that drew attention to social themes including HIV/Aids and racism

Tributes have been paid to Oliviero Toscani, the Italian fashion photographer renowned for the provocative images used in Benetton’s advertising campaigns, who has died aged 82.

Toscani, who for two decades was the art director of the global clothing chain, died on Monday after being hospitalised close to his home in the Tuscan town of Cecina.

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Chuck D pleads for people to stop using Public Enemy’s Burn Hollywood Burn on videos of LA fires

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The 1990 protest track ‘has nothing to do with families losing everything they have’ says the rapper, hitting out at TikTok and Instagram videos

Public Enemy’s Chuck D has asked people to stop using the rap group’s song Burn Hollywood Burn as a soundtrack on videos of the California wildfires, saying it has “nothing to do with families losing everything they have”.

The rapper issued the statement on the weekend in response to several videos uploaded to TikTok and Instagram that use the 1990 Public Enemy song over footage of the wildfires, which have killed at least 24 people, destroyed more than 12,300 buildings and displaced more than 200,000 people so far.

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Over 100 famous works by Australian authors rescued from oblivion by literary heritage endeavour

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Three-year project returns out-of-print classics – including six Miles Franklin winners – to circulation and into ebook format for the first time

More than 160 books by noted Australian authors have been rescued from oblivion, including six winners of the Miles Franklin literary award.

The three-year project, which culminated at the end of last year, has put out-of-print titles by Thea Astley, Mem Fox, Charmian Clift and Anita Heiss back in circulation and into ebook format for the first time.

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