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.
Continue reading...Production workers at Strictly Come Dancing allege BBC refused to take their complaints seriously
Production staff who formerly worked on Strictly Come Dancing have complained of a toxic work culture and accused the BBC of failing to take their complaints seriously, in a fresh blow to the corporation’s primetime show, the Observer can reveal.
One former staff member alleged they had been subjected to sexist and sexualised comments, including intrusive questions about their sex life, while another claimed they witnessed “talented co-workers treated with cruelty”.
Continue reading...Most French newspapers praise the Olympics spectacle but far-right commentators reject ‘woke propaganda’
They had waited 100 years for it and the French, mostly, were determined to love their kitsch, crazy, subversive, waterborne and very rain-drenched Olympics opening ceremony. Less happy were far-right figures, who spied “wokeist” propaganda.
A thoroughly unscientific poll on the rue de Rochechouart in Paris – where the far right have never had so much as a look-in – found plenty of enthusiasm.
Continue reading...Writer Russell T Davies says drama The War Between the Land and the Sea ‘will shake the Whoniverse to its foundations’
Russell Tovey and Gugu Mbatha-Raw are to star in a Doctor Who spin-off called The War Between the Land and the Sea, it has been announced.
They will lead the cast alongside Jemma Redgrave and Alexander Devrient in the series, which was created by Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies. He has co-written the series with Pete McTighe, who has also worked on Doctor Who.
Continue reading...Irish singer’s brother speaks of shock at ‘hideous’ figure which ‘looked nothing like her’
Dublin’s wax museum is withdrawing a figure of Sinéad O’Connor amid criticism from her family and members of the public that it looked “nothing like her”.
Many reacted with shock when the waxwork figure was unveiled on Thursday.
Continue reading...Union tells inquiry consumer watchdog should investigate and accuses Live Nation and competitor TEG of anti-competitive behaviour
Australia’s union for performing artists has accused the world’s largest live entertainment company of anti-competitive behaviour and called for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to investigate the industry.
US-based multinational Live Nation became the focus of a parliamentary inquiry into the struggling live music sector on Friday, after previous public hearings identified sluggish recovery from Covid-19, rising insurance costs and changing audience habits as the causes behind the cancellation of dozens of music festivals over the past two years.
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Continue reading...Artefacts sent by farmer, who made the ‘absolutely mad’ discovery while cutting silage
When the national museum of Ireland received two 4,000-year-old axe heads, “thoughtfully” wrapped in foam inside a porridge box, from an anonymous source last month, it put out an appeal. The objects were “significant” and “exciting”, it said, but experts needed to know more about where exactly they had been found.
Now they have their answer: a farmer from County Westmeath has come forward as the mysterious sender, saying he made the “absolutely mad” discovery while using a metal detector on his land.
Continue reading...People living next to Santiago Bernabéu venue say gigs – including those by Taylor Swift – are ruining their lives and are taking action
When Delphine de Pontevès opens the window of her first-floor flat in Madrid a little before 10pm on a Tuesday night, more spills into the living room than the unforgivingly hot night air.
The voices and shouts of the crowds below give way to cheers, then to bass-heavy beats and music that will last until midnight and further stretch the patience of those who, like De Pontevès, live next door to the Santiago Bernabéu stadium.
Continue reading...A Complete Unknown, from Walk the Line director James Mangold, will show the musician’s rise to worldwide fame in early 60s New York City
The first trailer for A Complete Unknown shows Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan in the much-anticipated biopic.
The Dune and Call Me by Your Name star has transformed into the legendary musician for an awards-aiming drama to be released in the US in December and in the UK in January. It comes from the film-maker James Mangold, who previously directed the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line.
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