Category Archives: Culture

ITV announces drama on contaminated blood scandal after Post Office series success

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Peter Moffat will write show about what is considered one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in NHS history

ITV has announced a drama on the contaminated blood scandal, widely considered to be one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in NHS history, after the success of its series on the Post Office.

The drama, which is being written by the Bafta award-winning screenwriter Peter Moffat, will show how people with haemophilia and other blood disorders were contaminated with blood infected with HIV and Hepatitis C, the American media site Deadline reported.

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Israeli Eurovision song under ‘scrutiny’ for alleged Hamas attack reference

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Organisers considering if lyrics breach non-political rules a week after giving Israel all-clear to participate

The organisers of the Eurovision song contest have said they are “scrutinising” the lyrics of Israel’s entry after it was claimed it makes reference to the Hamas attacks on 7 October.

The lyrics from Israel’s entry, October Rain, sung by Eden Golan, were leaked to the media. According to the Israel Hayom newspaper, lines in the song include, “There’s no air left to breathe”, and “They were all good children, each one of them”. The song also refers to “flowers”, which the newspaper reported is a military code for war fatalities.

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Francis Bacon portrait of lover George Dyer to go on sale

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Artist chose study to appear in first big retrospective in 1971. Dyer was found dead in couple’s hotel room 36 hours before show’s opening

It is one of the most intimate and psychologically charged portraits that the artist Francis Bacon painted of his great love, George Dyer. So special was it to him that he personally selected it to appear at his first major retrospective at Paris’s Grand Palais in 1971.

But what should have been a monumental occasion celebrating Bacon’s stellar career was marred by tragedy when barely 36 hours before the opening, Dyer was found dead from an overdose of sleeping pills, exacerbated by alcohol abuse, in the couple’s shared hotel room.

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Study shows ‘catastrophic’ 10-year low for female representation in film

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Despite Barbie’s success, study shows that out of 2023’s top 100 films, only 30 were led or co-led by women, down from 44 in 2022

A new study has shown that the number of female leads in Hollywood movies is at a 10-year low.

Despite the $1.4bn success of Barbie, last year’s top 100 films saw just 30 feature a female lead or co-lead, the worst result since 2014 according to a new study by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative.

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Judith Godrèche to address French cinema’s ‘omertà’ around #MeToo

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Actor, who has accused two directors of raping her as a teenager, to address France’s most prestigious film awards ceremony

Judith Godrèche, an actor who has accused two high-profile directors of raping her as a teenager, will address France’s most prestigious film awards ceremony on Friday in an unusual move aimed at breaking what she calls the “omertà” surrounding the abuse of women and girls in the industry.

Godrèche, whose autobiographical hit TV show about the grooming of a 14-year-old girl has sparked a national debate, will take to the stage at the César awards, the French equivalent of the Oscars, which is broadcast live on television.

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Danish man on trial over alleged £500k music streaming fraud

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Aarhus court hears he may have profited from artificially generated playbacks, in case thought to be first of its kind

A Danish man has gone on trial in the city of Aarhus over accusations that he fraudulently made 4.38m kroner (more than £502,000) in royalties on music streaming sites, in what is thought to be the first such trial of its kind.

Prosecutors allege that the 53-year-old profited from streams of 689 pieces of music across services including Spotify, Apple Music and YouSee Musik. They say the huge numbers of streams required to generate that amount of money could not have been generated by genuine users and that unauthorised techniques were likely to have been deployed instead. The alleged fraud is understood to have happened between 2013 and 2019.

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Three men go on trial in New York over Eagles’ Hotel California manuscript

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Glenn Horowitz, Craig Inciardi and Edward Kosinski accused of conspiring to own and try to sell Eagles manuscripts

In the mid-1970s, the Eagles were working on a spooky, cryptic new song.

On a lined yellow pad, Don Henley, with input from his band co-founder Glenn Frey, jotted thoughts about “a dark desert highway” and “a lovely place” with a luxurious surface and ominous undertones. And something on ice, perhaps caviar or Taittinger – or pink Champagne?

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‘Dust is everywhere’: rare glimpse of how Michelangelo’s David is kept clean

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Florence museum boss compares process to cleaning a bathroom as media are granted privileged access

Michelangelo’s David is recognised as one of the most sublime works in the history of sculpture, but according to the director of Florence’s Accademia Gallery, dusting it is much like cleaning a bathroom.

“You know when you clean a bathroom, you clean and clean and think you’ve done a great job but then you spot some dust and wonder ‘where did that come from?’,” Cecilie Hollberg said on Monday. “This is what it’s like. Dust is everywhere.”

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France should return much more looted African art, film-maker says

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Mati Diop, the director of Dahomey, which charts the restitution of 26 objects to Benin, says the tiny number involved is ‘humiliating’

The first major return of looted treasures from Europe to Africa in the 21st century has left a lingering feeling of humiliation because of the lack of follow-up action, a French-Senegalese film-maker who accompanied a hoard of artefacts on their journey from Paris to their country of origin has said.

In her film Dahomey, which premiered at the Berlin film festival on Sunday, the director, Mati Diop, documents the 2021 journey of 26 treasures that the commander of French forces in Senegal looted from the royal palace of the kingdom of Dahomey, part of modern-day Benin, in 1890.

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British Museum’s Instagram flooded with calls to return Easter Island statue

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Chilean social media users target institution, forcing it at one point to close comments on posts

The British Museum is tackling an influx of social media trolls from Chile, who have flooded the museum’s Instagram posts calling for the return of a moai statue, one of the stone monuments from Easter Island.

The museum has two moai, which were taken from Rapa Nui (Easter Island) by British surveyors in 1868, and there have been longstanding demands for the British to return them to Rapa Nui, which is Chilean territory.

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Elton John to auction off 900 items worth $10m from former Atlanta home

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Silver boots, Banksy original, pinball machine and more going under hammer at Christie’s, New York

Fans of Sir Elton John’s flamboyant style will next week have the chance to splash out on his snappiest Versace looks in a huge 900-plus lot auction that includes the contents of the Rocket Man’s $7.2m (£5.7m) Atlanta apartment.

Christie’s auction house in New York’s Rockefeller Center has been transformed into a John emporium for two live – and six online – sales of the singer’s collection, including several pairs of his trademark thick rim spectacles and a vast art collection that features a Love, Lust and Devotion section dedicated to his treasure trove of male art.

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Taylor Swift concerts will go ahead in Sydney despite asbestos testing at Olympic Park precinct

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Environment minister says authorities are testing mulch in the area but any issues would be resolved before pop star’s sold-out shows at Accor Stadium

The New South Wales environment minister has sought to assure Taylor Swift fans that the pop star’s Sydney concerts will go ahead next weekend, amid an asbestos scare at the precinct where she is due to perform.

On Friday, the day after a special taskforce was launched to aid investigations into sites where mulch containing asbestos may be present, authorities have conducted testing at a location at Sydney Olympic Park, where Swift is set to perform to about 300,000 fans over four days of concerts as part of her Australian tour.

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Taylor Swift Eras tour Melbourne concert: relive the pop star’s biggest ever show – as it happened

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This blog is closed. The once-in-a-lifetime show has finally come to Australia. For the millions who couldn’t get tickets, might a slightly chaotic blog be the next best thing? The night 1 setlist (spoilers), all the surprise songs, the atmosphere of 96,000 people at the MCG – if you missed it you can read it all again! Start at the beginning.

Taylor Swift sing-along on board Qantas flight to Melbourne

The Taylor Swift hype reached new heights earlier today.

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Rare Jungle Book painting to go on show at Kipling’s home

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The Return of the Buffalo Herd, by teenage prodigies Edward and Charles Detmold, can be seen at Bateman’s after conservation

A rare watercolour depicting the aftermath of a climactic moment in Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book is to go on display at the author’s country home after conservation work.

The painting, The Return of the Buffalo Herd, is one of 16 created by twin brothers Edward and Charles Detmold, who were just 18 when they were commissioned to illustrate Kipling’s much-loved story. Only four of the paintings have survived.

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New Beyoncé song Texas Hold ‘Em gets country music radio airplay after online campaign

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Oklahoma’s KYKC initially refused to play the song, but later added it to its rotation after saying it had not been aware of Beyonce’s new single

A country music radio station in the US that initially refused to play a listener’s Beyoncé request has now added the artist’s new tracks to rotation after an online firestorm.

On Tuesday, a Beyoncé fan contacted the station to request her song Texas Hold ‘Em – one of two released in a surprise drop during the Super Bowl where the 32-time Grammy winner also announced the second album in her Renaissance trilogy.

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‘I can’t believe it’: diehard Taylor Swift fan gifted Eras ticket at pub trivia night in Victoria

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Quiz organisers were taken by 15-year-old Emily’s enthusiasm and when she didn’t win they decided to reward her anyway

Andrew Caldwell was the same age as his daughter is now when he saw his favourite band. He was 15, it was 1989, and Metallica was touring Australia for the first time.

His daughter Emily’s tastes are a bit different. She’s a diehard Swiftie and Caldwell spent countless hours trying to secure a ticket to Taylor Swift’s Eras tour for Emily so she could have the same formative experience seeing her favourite band at 15.

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Long-lost bass guitar returned to Paul McCartney after more than 50 years

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Violin-shaped Höfner vanished around the time the Beatles split up but has now resurfaced after a global appeal

A Höfner bass guitar bought by Paul McCartney for £30 in 1961 has been returned to the former Beatle after a global search to find the stolen instrument.

The distinctively shaped guitar, bought by McCartney before his rise to stardom and reportedly his favourite, was last seen around the time the Beatles were recording their final album to be released, Let It Be.

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Israel can compete at 2024 Eurovision song contest, say organisers

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European Broadcasting Union’s decision follows calls for country to be excluded over Gaza war

Israel can compete in this year’s Eurovision song contest, organisers have said, despite calls for it to be excluded over the Gaza war as Russia was after invading Ukraine.

Petitions have been circulating calling for Israel to be kicked out of the event, which is being held in Malmö, Sweden, in May.

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End fossil-fuel era to address colonial injustices, urges prominent historian

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West should address ‘colonisation of the present’ and not focus on past, argues David Van Reybrouck

Cities in the global north that curb their carbon emissions are doing more to address colonial injustices than those who focus their efforts on taking down statues and changing street names, one of Europe’s leading historians has said.

David Van Reybrouck, the Belgian author of a bestselling history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a new book on Indonesia’s independence from Dutch rule, has become one of the key drivers of a nascent and often fraught debate about Europe’s colonial legacies. Those who have lauded his work include the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the former UN secretary general Kofi Annan.

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Marvel announces Fantastic Four cast including Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby

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The two actors will be joined by The Bear’s Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Stranger Things breakout Joseph Quinn

Marvel has announced the cast for its much-anticipated reboot of Fantastic Four: Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn.

The film, about a quartet of superheroes with different powers, has been dated for 25 July 2025.

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