State has ordered books by 13 authors, 12 of them women, to be removed from every public school, classroom and library
Books by Margaret Atwood, Judy Blume, Rupi Kaur and Sarah J Maas are among 13 titles that the state of Utah has ordered to be removed from all public school classrooms and libraries.
This marks the first time a state has outlawed a list of books statewide, according to PEN America’s Jonathan Friedman, who oversees the organisation’s free expression programs.
Continue reading...Cabaret star says she felt ‘mad as hell’ after hearing stories from people who didn’t know her or her family, and will release untitled book in 2026
Liza Minnelli is to release a memoir after she claimed previous screen depictions of her life “didn’t get it right”.
The 78-year-old US actor and singer will release the book in spring 2026, which will take readers through her career, struggles with substance abuse and love life.
Continue reading...Appeal for donations to repair fire damage caused to Spellow Hub library has raised more than £120,000 in two days
A fundraising campaign has raised more than £120,000 to help repair a Liverpool library and community hub that suffered severe fire damage after being targeted by rioters on Saturday night.
Nigella Lawson and children’s laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce are among those who have donated to the gofundme page, which was set up on Sunday afternoon in aid of Spellow Hub library.
Continue reading...Exhibition from royal collection will include about 160 works from Titian, Michelangelo, Leonardo and others
About 160 works from more than 80 artists including Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian and Leonardo da Vinci are to go on display in what has been described as the widest-ranging exhibition of Italian Renaissance drawings ever to be staged in the UK.
Taken from the royal collection, the exhibition, which opens at the King’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace in November, will feature more than 30 works on display for the first time, and a further 12 never previously shown in the UK.
Continue reading...Mural featuring disgraced presenter also painted over in his home village of Llangennech, Carmarthenshire
A plaque honouring Huw Edwards at Cardiff Castle has been removed after the disgraced presenter pleaded guilty to making indecent images of children.
Cardiff council took away the wall-mounted plaque after Edwards admitted to having 41 indecent images of children, sent to him by another man on WhatsApp.
Continue reading...Broadcaster removes image and voice from content as Welsh organisations erase disgraced presenter from websites
Huw Edwards’s image and voice are being urgently removed from hours of BBC archive footage, starting with family and entertainment content on iPlayer, the Observer has learned.
Photographs of the disgraced Welsh television news anchor are also being removed by prominent institutions and charities, and from websites throughout Wales, where he was a national figurehead.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Gotta Get Thru This singer argues that ‘neo-luddites’ risk being left behind as technology develops
The growing use of artificial intelligence in the creative industries has been described as an existential threat to jobs and artistic integrity. Earlier this year artists including Billie Eilish and Katy Perry signed an open letter urging tech companies not to “sabotage creativity”, while Nick Cave has called lyrics written by ChatGPT “a grotesque mockery of what it is to be human”. But according to the musician Daniel Bedingfield, AI is music’s future, and anyone who fights against it faces being left behind.
“AI is now here for ever,” he told the Guardian. “And so I think that there will be two paths: there’ll be the neo-luddite path, and then there’ll be everyone else, most of the planet, who thinks the music’s really good and enjoys it.”
Continue reading...Singer, 43, arrested in June, has license suspended in New York state as judge threatens attorney with gag order
Justin Timberlake made a virtual court appearance on Friday in his drunken driving case on Long Island, saying little during the brief proceeding as a judge accepted his not-guilty plea and suspended his right to drive in New York.
Police in the seaside village of Sag Harbor arrested Timberlake on 18 June after they say he ran a stop sign, veered out of his lane and got out of his BMW smelling of alcohol.
Continue reading...Mission: Impossible star pre-taped stunts in Paris and Los Angeles for the 11 August ceremony, reports suggest
Tom Cruise is reportedly set to assist with the ceremonial Olympic Games handoff between Paris and the 2028 host, Los Angeles.
The closing ceremonies will get a boost from the Mission: Impossible actor who has filmed stunts in both cities as part of a pre-taped segment for 11 August, according to TMZ.
Continue reading...The British singer’s 10 shows in a pop-up stadium will bring big revenues to the Bavarian city – but there are concerns over ticketing and the climate impact of ‘gig tripping’
Earlier this summer, with a little help from AI, Adele slipped into a Bavarian-style dirndl dress, cradled a very tall beer and held a giant soft pretzel aloft. “Not long now … Pack ma’s!” was the tagline, translating from Bavarian dialect as “Let’s do this!” Her groundbreaking, potentially record-busting Munich residency was only a few weeks off.
Her Adele in Munich spectacular is now set to begin on Friday, attracting fans from around the world to 10 shows during August at a custom-built pop-up stadium, while pointing a way forward for pop superstardom – a bold project that has sparked excitement and some controversy.
Continue reading...Court of appeal rules against a retrial for artist convicted of murder in 2014
Jamaican dancehall vocalist Vybz Kartel has had his conviction quashed due to bribery attempts by one of the original jurors and been freed from prison after 13 years.
The artist, real name Adidja Palmer, was arrested in 2011 along with three other men for the murder of their associate Clive “Lizard” Williams, whose body has never been found. In 2014, Palmer was sentenced to 35 years in prison, later reduced on appeal to 32 and a half.
Continue reading...Nicknamed the ‘Elegant Stallion’, the revered star died after performing at a private party in Lagos
Onyeka Onwenu, the singer, actor, broadcaster and activist whose love ballads and songs about women’s rights were a soothing balm during Nigeria’s rocky 1980s and earned her the nickname “Elegant Stallion”, has died at 72.
She had just finished a performance at a private party on Tuesday night in Lagos when the singer became ill. Hours later, she died at a nearby hospital, having suffered a heart attack, according to local reports.
Continue reading...Good Vibes Festival organizer seeks $2.4m after band’s violation of behavior code led to a shutdown last July
The organizer of Malaysia’s Good Vibes Festival has sued the 1975 and all of the British pop-rock band’s members individually, following lead singer Matty Healy’s purported protest against the country’s anti-LGBTQ+ law on stage.
Future Sound Asia, the music festival’s organizers, are seeking $2.4m (£1.9m) after the band’s violation of the event’s behavior code resulted in the festival being shut down last July.
Continue reading...Bectu survey shows just 6% of workers have seen a full recovery in employment a year on from joint industrial action by Sag-Aftra and the Writers Guild of America
More than half of the UK’s film and TV workforce are still out of work a year after the Hollywood strikes of 2023, new research has found.
According to a survey of more than 2,300 film and TV workers by the Bectu trade union, 52% of workers in the UK film sector are out of work, 51% in TV drama, 57% in unscripted TV and 53% in commercials.
Continue reading...Author’s long-running high school book series sold more than 200m copies and led to a hit TV show
Francine Pascal, creator of the long-running Sweet Valley High book series, has died at the age of 92.
According to the New York Times, the author died in New York City as as result of lymphoma. The news was confirmed by her daughter Laurie Wenk-Pascal.
Continue reading...A DJ and LGBTQ+ activist who performed during a controversial scene in the Paris Olympics’ opening ceremony has said she is taking legal action after becoming the target of “an extremely violent campaign of cyber-harassment and defamation”.
Barbara Butch, who calls herself a “love activist”, had been “threatened with death, torture and rape, and has also been the target of numerous antisemitic, homophobic, sexist and body-shaming insults”, her lawyer said in a post on her Instagram page.
Continue reading...Dutch artist’s 17th-century work said to have inspired tableau that has offended Christian and conservative critics
A controversial tableau in the Olympics opening ceremony denounced by Christian and conservative critics as an offensive parody of The Last Supper was in fact inspired by a 17th-century Dutch painting of the Greek Olympian gods, art historians have said.
“Does this painting remind you of something?” the Magnin Museum in the French city of Dijon asked (with a wink) on X, inviting people to “come and admire” The Feast of the Gods, painted by the artist Jan van Bijlert between 1635 and 1640.
Continue reading...The famous costume, worn by Carrie Fisher in Return of the Jedi, was sold alongside a miniature aircraft used in A New Hope that fetched $1.6m
Princess Leia’s famous gold bikini worn by the late Carrie Fisher in Star Wars has sold at auction for $175,000 (£136,000, A$266,000).
The costume, made famous from the 1983 film Return of the Jedi when Fisher’s character wore it while chained to Jabba the Hutt’s throne, was bought at a sale by Heritage Auctions on Friday in the US.
Continue reading...The melody for the first live performance since 2020 by the singer, who has suffered with ill-health, was suitably tragic
It was a very public triumph, both for Paris and for Céline Dion. It received plaudits around the world as one of the highlights of the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Yet the soundtrack was a tragic one.
The Canadian diva had chosen to celebrate the great French chansonnier Édith Piaf in a live, high-stakes comeback performance delivered from the iron shoulders of the Eiffel Tower amid showers of rain and fireworks.
Continue reading...As Jude Law’s ripe and revolting portrayal of the Tudor monarch opens in cinemas, we look at the film and TV stars who have played him – as comedian, tyrant or heart-throb
Greasy, hairy, large and smelly are not words that instantly summon up the image of Jude Law. Until now. Because the actor’s latest role, Henry VIII in the film Firebrand, will show him in an almost entirely unflattering light. And the effect will be topped off in later scenes by the pustulant ulcers shown on his legs.
Law is, perhaps unfairly, still best known for his line in clean-shaven leading men, from the inconstant Alfie to the suave Dickie Greenleaf in The Talented Mr Ripley. He has clearly relished the chance to look so unappealing on the big screen.
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