SHOW BIZ

AMANDA Holden ditched her bra and a showed off her slim waist in yet another stunning work outfit.

The Heart Radio star, 54, looked chic as ever in a pale blue long sleeve top with a dark red rim and teamed with a brown suede skirt.

Amanda mentioned that the colours were also nod to football team Aston Villa.

The BGT judge was seen strutting through the corridors as she gave fans a rundown on her outfit, which was from designer Karen Millen.

Amanda then posed for a toilet selfie which showcased her braless look.

The TV star often showcases her stylish looks on social media.

READ MORE ON AMANDA HOLDEN

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Amanda Holden emotionally opens up about losing her stillborn son Theo

But just last week, she revealed she once prepared a Sunday roast in front of her family — while naked.

Amanda said she stripped off while cooking the meal because it was a hot day.

And she added that her two daughters Lexi, 19, and Hollie Rose, 13, were used to seeing her without clothes.

She told the Table Manners podcast: “You know on the cusp between winter and summer where you have to give up roast dinners and turn it into a barbecue?

“My whole family moan about Sunday roast, but I make them have it, and then this one particular Sunday it was boiling hot so I did just strip off and cook everything naked.”

She said husband Chris Hughes, 51, “enjoyed it”.

But she added: “I didn’t eat naked.

“I always don’t mind being naked.”

Amanda recently admitted her boobs have grown – and shared the very unusual reason why.

While filming with close pal Alan Carr for their BBC series Amanda and Alan’s Greek Job, Amanda‘s chest became the topic of conversation.

Alan pointed out: “Your breasts have got bigger since the last one.”

Amanda, wearing a low-cut summer dress, replied: “They have. It’s because of the Saganaki cheese.”

Funnyman Alan quickly quipped, “Have you just been rubbing it straight in?,” prompting Amanda to burst out laughing.

As film and television post-production work has increasingly left California, workers are pushing for a new standalone tax credit focused on their industry.

That effort got a major boost Wednesday night when a representative for Assemblymember Nick Schultz (D-Burbank) said the lawmaker would take up the bill.

The news was greeted by cheers and applause from an assembled crowd of more than 100 people who attended a town hall meeting at Burbank’s Evergreen Studios.

“As big of a victory as this is, because it means we’re in the game, this is just the beginning,” Marielle Abaunza, president of the California Post Alliance trade group, a newly formed trade group representing post-production workers, said during the meeting.

The state’s post-production industry — which includes workers in fields like sound and picture editing, music, composition and visual effects — has been hit hard by the overall flight of film and TV work out of California and to other states and countries. Though post-production workers aren’t as visible, they play a crucial role in delivering a polished final product to TV, film and music audiences.

Last year, lawmakers boosted the annual amount allocated to the state’s film and TV tax credit program and expanded the criteria for eligible projects in an attempt to lure production back to California. So far, more than 100 film and TV projects have been awarded tax credits under the revamped program.

But post-production workers say the incentive program doesn’t do enough to retain jobs in California because it only covers their work if 75% of filming or overall budget is spent in the state. The new California Post Alliance is advocating for an incentive that would cover post-production jobs in-state, even if principal photography films elsewhere or the project did not otherwise qualify for the state’s production incentive.

Schultz said he is backing the proposed legislation because of the effect on workers in his district over the last decade.

“We are competing with other states and foreign countries for post production jobs, which is causing unprecedented threats to our workforce and to future generations of entertainment industry workers,” he said in a statement Thursday.

During the 1 1/2 hour meeting, industry speakers pointed to other states and countries, including many in Europe, with specific post-production incentives that have lured work away from the Golden State. By 2024, post-production employment in California dropped 11.2%, compared with 2010, according to a presentation from Tim Belcher, managing director at post-production company Light Iron.

“We’re all an integrated ecosystem, and losses in one affect losses in the other,” he said during the meeting. “And when post[-production] leaves California, we are all affected.”

VICTORIA Beckham’s £104 foundation has sold out in the two weeks since son Brooklyn disowned her — as fans throw their support behind the ex-Spice Girl.

It is now the most successful product in her beauty range — and means she stands to make her greatest turnover this year.

The Foundation Drops have sold out in several shades, with the waiting list the longest since she launched her range in 2019.

Currently one of her satin kajal eyeliners sells every 30 seconds.

But the foundation is on track to sell every 20 seconds once stocks are replenished.

January, traditionally the quietest month in the online beauty world, has been Victoria’s busiest to date as fans launched a viral campaign to promote her products.

Read more on Victoria Beckham

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It comes after they got her 2001 hit, Not Such An Innocent Girl, to number one in the charts last month following Brooklyn’s Instagram tirade.

After months of feuding, Brooklyn 26, said he has no desire to reconcile with Victoria, 51, and dad David, 50.

A source said: “Personally it may well have been one of the worst months of Victoria’s life but professionally, these past four weeks have been astonishing.

“Not only did fans get her to number one, TikTok then went into overdrive reviewing her foundation. It got rave reviews, with make-up artists and beauty enthusiasts waxing lyrical.

“Having already sold well in the build-up to Christmas, in the wake of Brooklyn’s bombshell statement, it has had a second surge online.

“As a result, there are now enormous waiting lists and it has become her biggest ever selling hero product.”

Victoria’s most recent Companies House reports showed a 26 per cent revenue increase year on year, with turnover of almost £113million.

SYDNEY Sweeney has debuted a sexy lingerie look, leaving fans’ jaws on the floor as she posed in a black thong and matching bra.

The stay recently announced her new brand, Syrn, which she’s been feverishly promoting with paparazzi-style shots, and daring ads.

Sydney, 28, posed for the camera in a lacy black bra, a tiny thong, thigh-high tights, suspenders, and a matching silk robe.

She shielded her face from the flash in the snaps, posted to the Syrn Instagram Story.

The promotional pic comes days after the release of a racy ad, showing the Euphoria actress doing some work around the yard in itty bitty lingerie.

SHOWSTOPPER

In the ad, she’s seen in a tiny house getting ready to start her day.

Birds outside her window are chirping, carrying bras and underwear on a wire.

She then heads out to do yard work, tending to a ruse bush, trimming imperfections off a shrub shaped after her body, and mowing the lawn.

After a long day of work, the bra and panty-clad star strips down to slip into something more comfortable.

Her silhouette is seen in the window as she slips off her bra and tosses it out.

Sydney’s impressive figure is on full display in the ad, which promotes the latest release from her brand.

She previously shared that Syrn will offer designs split into four “personas” – seductress, romantic, playful and comfy.

The range will come in 44 sizes from 30B to 42DDD.

She said at the time: “The secret is finally out . . . this is lingerie you wear for YOU, no explanation, no apology.

“I wanted to create a place where women can move between all the different versions of who we are.

“I love working on cars, I go water skiing, I’ll dress up for the red carpet then go home to snuggle my dogs.

“I’m not one thing, no woman is.”

ACTRESS Florence Pugh revealed her bloody face and welts on her forehead in new photos after undergoing “Botox and fillers.”

The A-list star got candid about the beauty treatments she’s endured and their shocking side effects in a series of social media posts.

Earlier this week, Florence, 30 – who is set to star in the first James Bond Amazon spin-off – shared several snapshots from her recent visit with her plastic surgeon, showing herself receiving injections in her forehead and lips.

One pic captured the Oppenheimer star sticking her tongue out at the camera while her doctor smiled as she injected a needle into her forehead, which already showed multiple red bumps.

“Just mama Pugh freezing her forehead like a responsible adult,” the Thunderbolts star teasingly wrote over the clip.

A second snap showed Florence with a neutral expression as she received filler injections in her top lip.

The Don’t Worry Darling star then showed the after-effects of the injections, including visible marks on her face.

“I wasn’t stung by a bee. I repeat: I wasn’t stung by a bee. Just had some tox and fillers,” Florence jokingly clarified in her caption.

The Pretty Woman star appears to have made a habit of prioritizing herself from a young age.

Last February, during an appearance on the National Geographic series No Taste Like Home, Florence opened up about her childhood battle with severe respiratory issues.

“I wasn’t supposed to live,” the United Kingdom native revealed.

“When I was born, they told my parents that it wasn’t going to happen, and just enjoy the time whilst you have it.

“I had many struggles growing up with my breathing, constantly being ill. Going in and out of the hospital,” Florence added.

The We Live in Time star previously revealed that she was diagnosed with tracheomalacia as a baby, a condition that causes the windpipe to collapse and makes breathing difficult.

Her parents uprooted their lives to Spain when she was three years old after doctors suggested that a warmer climate would help her breathe better.

“We were in Spain because I have a breathing issue,” Florence said in a past interview.

“I have asthma and this thing called tracheomalacia. From a young age, I’ve just had a different breathing system.”

Florence was initially on the show to trace her family’s roots through culinary creations in Oxford.

She then discovered that her 3x great-grandparents, Mauritz and Anna, who emigrated from the Netherlands to London in the mid-1800s, had a daughter, Florence, who died at just four days old.

The actress learned that her relative likely died from tuberculosis, prompting her to reflect on her own health struggles growing up.

Just five days after Philip Glass, one of the world’s most famous and revered living composers, canceled the world premiere of his “Lincoln” symphony at the Kennedy Center, President Trump announced he would close the nation’s premier arts center for two years for major renovations.

The arts world — already spinning from the sweeping changes to the venue that began almost a year ago when Trump fired the board and installed himself as chairman — was gobsmacked by the shocking news. And although the president said in a social media post that the closure was about building a “World Class Bastion of Arts, Music, and Entertainment, far better than it has ever been before,” speculation abounded that the unexpected move was more about saving face.

Ticket sales had been plummeting since Trump’s takeover and high-profile artists continued to jump ship, a trend that accelerated late last year after the board voted to rename the building the Trump Kennedy center.

Embarrassment could have been a factor in the rash decision, but Trump is not a man who appears to be afflicted by that particular emotion, which takes its cue from a certain amount of self-awareness and humility. For this reason, I am venturing another guess about the president’s motive for pulling the rug out from under the storied venue: retribution.

If ungrateful artists don’t want to play at the Kennedy Center, the Kennedy Center will no longer be around for them to use. Take that.

Since assuming office for the second time last January, exacting revenge on his perceived enemies has been Trump’s main modus operandi. It has animated many of his most stunning decisions, including his early executive orders stripping security clearance and federal court access from law firms who represented his perceived enemies; his many lawsuits against media operations that displeased him; his freezing of federal funding for universities that refused to do his bidding; his indictment of former FBI director James Comey and the investigation of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. The list goes on and on.

The Kennedy Center was supposed to mark a vainglorious Trump’s ascendance to the pinnacle of cultural cachet, but instead the culturati shunned and humiliated him — refusing to join his party. New York City high society did the same before he was president. It was a pattern both familiar and painful. So Trump, like the man-child he is, took his ball and went home.

In this case, that ball happens to be the complex that serves as the symbolic seat of the nation’s vibrant, messy, questioning, deeply political and hugely alive arts and culture scene. To lose access to this beating heart — and all that it represents — is a grievous loss for our national identity. Its meaning was enshrined in President Kennedy’s vision for the center, and written on its walls, as the realization of a country, “which commands respect throughout the world not only for its strength but for its civilization as well.”

Like many of Trump’s controversial construction projects, the wholesale re-imagining of the Kennedy Center will likely face immediate and lengthy pushback in court. This could mean that it never gets done, and the center remains closed indefinitely. Or we could wake up tomorrow to news that bulldozers have arrived onsite and have begun the process of razing architect Edward Durell Stone’s historic 1971 building — as happened with the East Wing of the White House.

Roma Daravi, the center’s vice president of public relations, wrote in an email that the renovations would include, “Repairing and, where necessary, replacing elements on the exterior of the building to ensure the long-term preservation and integrity of the structure,” as well as getting the building up to code and making fixes to the center’s “HVAC, plumbing, electrical, fire protection, vertical transportation systems, and technical stage systems,” as well as improving parking. She also wrote that the center, which hosts 2 million visitors annually, is working closely with the National Symphony Orchestra, and will “continue to support them with funding at the same level as recent years.”

Nonetheless, the most frightening thing about this new era under Trump is that anything is possible, and we sometimes don’t know exactly what that means until it is far too late.

I’m Arts Editor Jessica Gelt, and here’s your arts and culture news for the week.

On our radar

Yunchan Lim performs next weekend with the L.A. Philharmonic.

(LA Phil)

Dudamel Conducts Beethoven and Lorenz
Playwright Jeremy O. Harris reconceptualizes Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s play “Egmont,” with narration by actor Cate Blanchett and maestro Gustavo Dudamel leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Beethoven’s complete incidental music. The evening begins with the world premiere of Ricardo Lorenz’s “Humboldt’s Nature,” inspired by the South American travels of philosopher and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, followed by 2022 Van Cliburn winner Yunchan Lim performing Robert Schumann’s “Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54.”
8 p.m. Thursday; 11 a.m. Feb. 13; 8 p.m. Feb. 14; 2 p.m. Feb. 15. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com/events

A scan of the face Nes-Hor, an ancient Egyptian priest whose mummy is featured in “Mummies of the World: The Exhibition” at the California ScienceCenter.

(California ScienceCenter)

Mummies of the World
The scientific study of naturally and intentionally preserved corpses illuminates the lives of ancient people, past cultures and the present in this exhibition that includes more than 30 real-life mummies.
10 a.m.-5 p.m., through Sept. 7. California ScienceCenter, 700 Exposition Park Drive. californiasciencecenter.org

Ann Noble as “Richard III” at A Noise Within.

(Daniel Reichert)

Richard lll
Guillermo Cienfuegos directs this fast-paced reinterpretation of William Shakespeare’s history play, reset in 1970s Britain with Ann Noble in the title role as one of the most fascinating villains ever.
Sunday through March 8. A Noise Within, 3352 E. Foothill Blvd., Pasadena. anoisewithin.org

The week ahead: A curated calendar

FRIDAY
The Abduction from the Seraglio
Pacific Opera Project performs its “Star Trek”-themed parody of Mozart’s in L.A. for the first time in a decade.
7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday; and 3 p.m. Sunday. Thorne Auditorium, Occidental College, 1600 Campus Road. pacificoperaproject.com

Thomas Adès and Yuja Wang
Composer Adès leads the L.A. Phil in Tchaikovsky’s “Francesca da Rimini , Op. 32,” the U.S. premiere of William Marsey’s “Man With Limp Wrist” and Adès own work “Aquifer”; and pianist Wang performs Prokofiev’s “Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 16.”
8 p.m. Friday; 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com

Rickie Lee Jones performs Friday and Saturday at the Wallis.

(Amy Harris / invision/ap)

Rickie Lee Jones
The singer, musician and songwriter brings her genre-defying vocals, crisscrossing rock, R&B, pop, soul and jazz, to the Wallis for two shows.
7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The Wallis, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills. thewallis.org

Laguna Beach Music Festival
Violinist Stefan Jackiw is joined by Kevin Ahfat on piano, the Parker Quartet and story artist Xai Yaj for a program featuring Beethoven and Janáček on Friday; and on Saturday, Jackiw, Ahfat and the Parker Quartet, along with clarinetist Yoonah Kim and musicians from the Colburn School perform works by American composers Florence Price, Leonard Bernstein, Eric Nathan and Aaron Copland, conducted by Steven Schick.
8 p.m. Friday; 7 p.m. Saturday. Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. philharmonicsociety.org

SATURDAY
asses.masses
Patrick Blenkarn and Milton Lim’s immersive, eight-hour video game experience — with intermissions, refreshments and a meal included — involves unemployed donkeys demanding that humans surrender their machines and give the animals back their jobs.
1 p.m. Saturday. UCLA Nimoy Theater, 1262 Westwood Blvd. cap.ucla.edu

Chicano Camera Culture: A Photographic History, 1966 to 2026
The exhibition examines Chicana/o/x lens-based image-making through 150 works by nearly 50 artists.
Through Sept. 6. The Cheech, 3581 Mission Inn Ave., Riverside; through July 5. Riverside Art Museum, 3425 Mission Inn Ave. riversideartmuseum.org

Katie Holmes stars in “Hedda Gabler” at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego.

(Jan Welters)

Hedda Gabler
Katie Holmes headlines this new version of Henrik Ibsen’s classic drama adapted by Erin Cressida Wilson and directed by Barry Edelstein.
Through March 15. Old Globe Theatre, 1363 Old Globe Way, San Diego. theoldglobe.org

Just Me – Pico Union
This concert by the award-winning ensemble Tonality, led by founder and Artistic Director Alexander Lloyd Blake, honors and shares the stories of transgender and non-binary individuals.
7 p.m. Saturday. The Pico Union Project, 1153 Valencia St., Los Angeles. ourtonality.org

Mandy Patinkin in Concert: Being Alive
The stage-and-screen star, accompanied by Adam Ben-David on piano, performs Broadway and classic American tunes written by Irving Berlin, Stephen Sondheim, Cole Porter and Harry Chapin.
8 p.m. Saturday. Carpenter Center, 6200 E. Atherton St., Long Beach. carpenterarts.org

The orchestral collective Wild Up performs Saturday at the Broad.

(Ian Byers-Gamber)

Wild Up
The orchestral collective presents “The Great Learning, Paragraphs 2 and 7” by Cornelius Cardew, a community collaboration with 30 pre-appointed non-musicians.
8 and 10 p.m. Saturday. The Broad, 221 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. thebroad.org

SUNDAY
From Fugue to Fantasia: Debussy, Mozart, and More
Colburn alum and violinist Blake Pouliot is joined by Jonathan Brown on viola and percussionist Matthew Howard.
4 p.m. Sunday. Thayer Hall, Colburn School, 200 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. colburnschool.edu

MONDAY
American International Paderewski Piano Competition
Twenty-five young professional pianists vie for a $10,000 grand prize named for Ignacy Jan Paderewski, a celebrated European concert pianist and composer, who helped lead Poland’s battle for independence after World War I and later served as the nation’s prime minister.
1 p.m. Monday-Wednesday; 11 a.m. Feb. 13 and 5 p.m. Feb. 14. Murphy Recital Hall, Loyola Marymount University, 1955 Ignatian Circle. paderewskimusicsociety.org

Right in the Eye
Jean-François Alcoléa, Fabrice Favriou and Thomas Desmartis play more than 50 instruments in this live concert, designed by Alcoléa, that serves as a soundtrack for 12 silent shorts by pioneering filmmaker Georges Méliès.
7 p.m. Monday. USC Cinematic Arts, Norris Cinema Theatre at the Frank Sinatra Hall, 3507 Trousdale Parkway. https://cinema.usc.edu/events/event.cfm?id=72935

TUESDAY
House on Fire
The new music trio of Andrew Anderson, Wells Leng and Richard An perform a program of works for pianos, keyboards and other instruments by Tristan Perich, Erin Rogers, Matthias Kranebitter, Yifeng Yvonne Yuan, Erich Barganier, and group members An and Leng
8 p.m. Tuesday. 2220 Arts + Archives, 2220 Beverly Blvd. pianospheres.org

sex, lies and videotape
The Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. presents a screening of Steven Soderbergh’s breakout 1989 indie starring James Spader, Andie MacDowell, Peter Gallagher and Laura San Giacomo with Giacomo in conversation with critic Lael Loewenstein.
7:30 p.m. Tuesday. Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd. egyptiantheatre.com

WEDNESDAY
Amadeus
A new production of Peter Shaffer’s music-infused drama stars Jefferson Mays as Salieri, Sam Clemmett as Mozart and Lauren Worsham as Constanze, with Tony Award winner Darko Tresnjak directing. The Pasadena Conservatory of Music will offer 10-minute Micro Mozart Concerts before every performance
Wednesday through March 8. Pasadena Playhouse, 39 S. El Molina Ave. pasadenaplayhouse.org

Yefim Bronfman
The pianist performs works by Schumann, Brahms, Debussy and Beethoven in a Colburn Celebrity Recital.
8 p.m. Wednesday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com

Here Lies Love
Snehal Desai directs an all-new production of the musical about former First Lady of the Philippines Imelda Marcos, with concept, music and lyrics by David Byrne and music by Fatboy Slim and choreography by William Carlos Angulo.
Through March 22. Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. centertheatregroup.org

THURSDAY
Intersect Palm Springs Arts + Design Fair
Collectors, designers and curators convene in the Coachella Valley to present new work and share ideas with one another and the public.
4-6 p.m. VIP only and 6-8 p.m.Thursday; 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Feb. 13-15; 11 a.m.-5 p.m. ; Feb. 16. Palm Springs Convention Center, 277 N. Avenida Caballeros. intersectpalmsprings.com

Culture news and the SoCal scene

More on the Kennedy Center
Times classical music critic Mark Swed weighed in on the Kennedy Center’s closure with a deeply knowledgeable piece about the history of the storied venue, and how it has always been a place marked, and sometimes marred, by politics — just never in this way. “The Kennedy Center proved political from Day 1. Leonard Bernstein was commissioned to write a theatrical piece for the center’s opening in 1971, which turned out to be an irreverent ‘Mass’ — musically, liturgically, culturally and, most assuredly, politically. Most of all it was an unmistakable protest against the Vietnam War. In his own protest, President Nixon stayed home,” Swed writes.

And here’s my breaking news story about Trump’s announced closure of the venue.

Many nights at the opera
Meanwhile, arts and entertainment writer Malia Mendez penned a lovely piece announcing L.A. Opera’s 2026-27 season — the first under its new music director, Domingo Hindoyan, who takes over after longtime leader James Conlon steps down. Fun fact: Hindoyan and soon-to-depart Los Angeles Philharmonic music director Gustavo Dudamel have been friends since their days together in Venezuela’s world-renowned youth orchestra El Sistema.

Mark your calendar
On Thursday, Malia scored another exclusive, reporting on LACMA’s announcement that the David Geffen Galleries, the pinnacle of a two-decade campus transformation, will officially open April 19. Museum members will have two weeks of priority access to the galleries, with general admission beginning May 4. It was nearly a decade ago that business magnate David Geffen made a record-high $150-million donation toward the construction of a new museum building to be designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor. The $720-million structure will serve as the new home for LACMA’s permanent collection with 90 exhibition galleries organized thematically rather than by medium or chronology. “It’s kind of a worldview,” LACMA Director and Chief Executive Michael Govan told The Times. “It’s big enough that it can hold the world.”

Will Swenson stars as “Sweeney Todd” at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts.

(Jason Niedle / TETHOS)

A bloody good time
Comedian, musical theater star and “Seinfeld” alum Jason Alexander directed a revival of “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, and Times theater critic Charles McNulty was there to catch it. “Alexander’s production of ‘Sweeney Todd’ has breadth and heft, but also intimacy and lightness,” McNulty writes in his review.

Rebuilding Altadena
Times contributor Sam Lubell wrote a comprehensive piece about the rebuilding of Altadena’s community spaces and parks in the wake of the Eaton fire, a task that has attracted the talent and attention of Disney Imagineers and Pritzker Prize-winning architect Shigeru Ban.

New Hammer hires
Exciting staffing news arrives from the Hammer Museum at UCLA, which announced two new leadership appointments: Michael Wellen has been named the museum’s new chief curator; and Regan Pro is being brought on in the newly created role of chief of learning, engagement, and research, taking the lead on public programs and community partnerships, as well as K-12, family, and university initiatives. Both new hires will report to museum director Zoë Ryan. Wellen arrives from London’s Tate Modern where he is currently senior curator of international art; and Pro is a longtime arts leader and educator who most recently served as the deputy director of public programs and social impact at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.

Alexander Shelley has been named music director of Pacific Symphony.

(Curtis Perry)

Taking the baton
Pacific Symphony announced its 2026-27 Classical Series, marking the orchestra’s 48th season, and its first under the leadership of its new artistic and music director, Alexander Shelley. The season’s two opening programs will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, and the 40th anniversary of Segerstrom Center for the Arts. The opening night celebration in September features violinist Joshua Bell, after which Shelley will guide the season through a series of classic works, beginning with Mahler’s Second Symphony. A season highlight will be a program called America 250, which celebrates the country’s semiquincentennial and includes work by Leonard Bernstein, Igor Stravinsky and Aaron Copland. Also on the calendar: John Adams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning opera, “Nixon in China,” and a two-week Beethoven Revolution Festival.

— Jessica Gelt

And last but not least

Do you want to get so close to an elephant that you can see his or her eyelashes? I do. I really do.

Love Island All Stars viewers are convinced they have worked out Belle Hassan’s big secret

Love Island viewers reckon they’ve cracked Belle’s ‘game plan’ after clocking a telling sign.

Thursday (February 5) evening’s explosive instalment launched with the comeback of Snog, Marry, Pie – this time with a big twist. Breaking from tradition, Islanders could now pie anyone in the villa, regardless of gender.

Whitney kicked things off by snogging her partner Yamen before pledging to marry Scott, saying: “Scottisha, because he’s my best friend”.

American bombshell Sher followed suit, locking lips with her current coupling Scott. Leanne subsequently pied him, stating: “Ideally I wouldn’t be pie-ing you but I don’t do triangles, so here we are.”

However, it was Belle’s selections during Snog, Marry and Pie that sparked speculation among audiences regarding the Islander’s supposed tactics, reports OK!.

The London lass chose to wed Curtis and unsurprisingly pied her former flame Sean, who recently abandoned her for Lucinda.

In a surprising move, Belle selected Scott for a snog, confessing he’s delivered her best kiss in the villa so far. Previously, Belle and Scott haven’t shown any obvious romantic interest in one another.

However, eagle-eyed fans have been noticing subtle hints about their hidden rapport across this week’s broadcasts.

During Tuesday’s (February 3) episode, Belle intervened in a row between Scott and Sean, physically touching Scott’s chin whilst attempting to diffuse the tension.

This gesture, combined with her daring choice to kiss him, has left audiences utterly persuaded that she’s harbouring secret romantic feelings for her fellow contestant.

One viewer took to social media, writing: “Belle definitely likes Scott… #Lovelsland #LovelslandAllStars.”

For the latest showbiz, TV, movie and streaming news, go to the new **Everything Gossip** website.

Another fan echoed the sentiment, exclaiming: “I F****** KNEW BELLE WANTED SCOTT,” while a third chimed in with: “Belle, you are NOT beating those allegations.”

Adding to the speculation, another viewer suggested: “Belle should come clean and tell Scott how she feels cause either one of them is going to have to save the other from this mess they’re in #LovelslandAllStars.”

Fans are even predicting that Belle is secretly hoping for Scott and Leanne’s relationship to end for good so she can make her move.

One fan theorised: “Leanne is subliminally being influenced to hate Scott. The culprit is Belle, who has a secret crush on him […]. LovelslandAllStars.”

Love Island: All Stars continues on ITV2 and ITVX tomorrow night at 9pm

A Reddit user was baffled as to how American TV characters never seem to say ‘goodbye’ when ending a phone call

If you’ve ever watched an American film or TV programme, you may have clocked that characters rarely utter ‘goodbye’ before ending a phone conversation.

Instead, they simply cut the call short without a second’s hesitation, seemingly unbothered by what might elsewhere be deemed discourteous.

Yet there’s actually a proper filmmaking explanation behind why characters skip the pleasantries when ringing off – and it boils down to pure practicality.

Baffled by this phenomenon, one Reddit user asked: “Why do most characters just hang up the phone without saying goodbye? Over the past few years, I have seen people just hanging up.

“Sometimes mid-conversation, but mostly not. It’s like saying bye on the phone isn’t the norm anymore. Is this just to save time during the show or is it a cultural thing in the US?”.

Addressing the mystery head-on, screenwriter and producer Michael Jamin clarified matters in a TikTok clip that’s since racked up over 206,000 likes.

On his account @michaeljaminwriter, Michael – whose credits include King of the Hill, Wilfred and Maron – revealed how the television business labels phrases like ‘goodbye’ as ‘shoe leather’.

He explained: “Shoe leather might make a scene feel more realistic – but it doesn’t necessarily make the scene more entertaining.

“In TV, we also have running times. We have to turn in a cut to the network for like 22 minutes. They won’t accept 22 minutes and 30 seconds. Knowing this, we always shoot long maybe 25 minutes knowing that not every scene is going to be great.

“We want to have a liberty to trim and pace up a bit – but we don’t know where.”

Michael explains that whilst trimming the opening couple of minutes proves straightforward, deciding what to axe beyond that becomes increasingly difficult.

He added: “You’re like, if I cut the guy saying goodbye then maybe I get to keep my favourite joke. Eventually, you get to the point where you’re not even writing the bye into the script knowing you’ll just cut it later.”

The admission sparked plenty of reaction online, with one viewer admitting: “Oh I thought it was for dramatic effect like they are too cool to say goodbye.”

Another added: “From now on, I will quit saying goodbye and use that time to maybe go on vacation when I’m old.”

A third wrote: “I’m from Europe and when I was younger I thought that’s the way people in the US end their phone calls…” Whilst another said: “So glad you weighed in on this. I’m a firm believer that it’s more distracting to say goodbye in a film or tv show. Big fan Michael!”

JILL SCOTT does not rush records. She only goes into the studio when she feels she has got something she needs to say.

The American singer’s sixth album, To Whom This May Concern, arrives a decade after her last effort for exactly that reason.

“It took me 27 years to make Who Is Jill Scott?,” she says of her landmark debut. “And all the experiences in those years I put into that album.

“These projects don’t just happen overnight, it doesn’t work that way. So, it took me ten years to make this album.

“Why did it take so damn long? Because it takes time to make a great meal. It takes time to decorate your home. You don’t rush it. I took my time because I care.”

Writing only when there is something urgent to say, and letting the music lead the message, is the way the Grammy-winning artist and actor creates.

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She says: “I wait for it to come and the things that came out of me for this album shocked the hell out of me, too.

“On some songs, I’m an anthropologist, studying people. I’m on social media and hearing how a lot of people are not satisfied and that’s a damn shame.

“It’s a little harder for me to just sit on a park bench and watch people.”

I meet Scott at her publicist’s office in central London.

I am very excited about the musicianship on this album. The horn players and the bass, which is all over this album, is amazing.

Jill Scott

Dressed in orange, she is bright, friendly and effortlessly glamorous, although she says the jet lag has been hard to deal with.

She’s been over here for a week of promotion, including an album launch where she introduced tracks from To Whom This May Concern and took questions from fans.

“That was a pretty exciting night,” she says. “And the response was great, which was good as I was scared because it’s the first time playing this new music for a bunch of people in a room.

“I am very excited about the musicianship on this album. The horn players and the bass, which is all over this album, is amazing. It’s not a plug-in, it’s a player.”

At 19 tracks long, this is an impressive album. Collaborators include Trombone Shorty, Maha Adachi Earth, DJ Premier and rappers Tierra Whack, JID and Ab-Soul.

Recent single Pressha and Don’t Play touch on relationships.

Jill says: “Pressha is about a toxic past relationship while Don’t Play is a template for how to have a date where you actually want to get to know someone.

“It’s not just about what box they tick or what salary they earn. Then BPOTY — Biggest Pimp Of The Year — I wrote after looking at society and thinking, ‘My God, these folks are pimping us’.

“Like the pharmaceutical companies. I had been taking some medication and I didn’t really need it, I was being pimped and so it began with that story.”

‘Music is medicinal’

A diverse record blending soul, rap and jazz, it features beautiful ballads such as Me 4 and Àse, showcasing the poetic storytelling Scott has long been celebrated for.

“When I heard how diverse the music was, it made sense as an album,” she explains.

“People are going to get what they’re going to get what they need from it at different times. I believe music is medicinal. Like when I first heard of Billie Holiday, I didn’t really hear her until I got my feelings hurt.

“Then I listened again and everything clicked and made sense — how poignant her words were — and that’s why this album is called To Whom This May Concern.”

Be Great is a superb track as both a declaration and mantra, designed for everyday moments of courage.

“I want people to play it before their auditions, job interviews or anything that matters to you,” says Scott. “Go ahead and be fantastic at it, whatever it is.

“I just got the music and the lyrics popped out. I see it as Golden’s cousin [her 2004 anthem]. Yeah, they’re definitely related.”

Offdaback, which Scott says is her favourite track on her new album, pays homage to her heroes who came before her, artists and pioneers who stood up for freedom and music.

“The ancestors have to be honoured,” she explains.

“Whether it was your grandmother who worked in somebody’s house in order to make sure your mother had food, or it was your dad who worked three jobs so you could go to college or so you could live your dream.

“As an artist every day I’m reminded of how many people have made a way for me to be here.

“My office wall has photos of all the people who have inspired me. Diana Ross, Missy Elliott, Led Zeppelin and Queen Latifah are on there.

“I admire so many. Nina Simone for being so frank and fearless; Tina Turner for being so brave and using her voice.

“The list goes on. Frankie Beverly was beloved to me and Prince was my number one, and Bette Midler showed me that you don’t have to be around, knocking on doors all the time. You can disappear for a while, too.

“I went to see Frankie Beverly and Maze and they’d not had a record out for 25 years but everyone at the show is up and singing at the top of their voices.

“Music is about that feeling, about camaraderie and unity. I feel really honoured that anyone would feel that about my music.

“However, I’m still working on the other stuff that comes with that.”

There was a recent social media post of Scott being stopped by a fan who recognised her on the street — and she tells me she still finds that side of fame difficult.

Staying human

She says: “I value my time in just taking a walk, I really do. It’s important to me and it helps me balance everything else. The guy was sweet and I loved his freckles but being stopped in the street is not easy for me.

“Yes, 26 years later, I’m still working on it. I get good advice about it. My mentors tell me the value of maintaining the private self and staying human.

“When people put you on a pedestal it’s a very dangerous game and it’s not the game I play.”

When Scott emerged in 2000 as the voice in neo-soul, blending R&B, jazz, soul and spoken word, she found the spotlight overwhelming.

“It was terrifying and exciting,” she says with a smile. “I had a good two or three weeks where I was like, ‘This is so fun’. And then it didn’t stop.

“People were driving by my house playing the album at full capacity at three o’clock in the morning.

“I don’t want to sound ungrateful, because that’s not where I live — I live in grace and gratefulness all the time.

“It just was never my priority. I see people who are far more famous than me, and God bless them, but balance really matters to me. I’m a writer first, I just happen to sing.

“I have to be human and recognise how flawed I am and how much I’m working through things and honouring myself in all the things.

`’So, my goal is to be grand and gracious and have patience with other people. And when I can’t, I go into the house. That’s how I live.”

I think as a society, we’re holding on to a lot of people that don’t benefit our lives.

Jill Scott

Pay U On Tuesday is a fun song which Scott says: “Comes from being exhausted of family members who I used to be friends with that just don’t value the same things.”

It’s a direct song which even comes with a disclaimer (in the form of a track called Disclaimer) before it.

She laughs and says: “Oh yes there’s a disclaimer. But cutting ties is sometimes needed.

“Maybe they’re not ready to be respectful now, but I think as a society, we’re holding on to a lot of people that don’t benefit our lives.

“What I’ve learned in these 53 years is that I love when the people around me bloom and I want to continue to bloom.

“This album has been brought to you by education for your home. For your family.

“I definitely don’t like being perimenopausal. That’s not fun. It’s made certain things a lot more challenging, like staying fit, and sometimes you don’t sleep and a dress doesn’t fit but I count on the joys.

“I’m a big advocate for a book called The Celestine Prophecy, which reminds me to constantly look for beauty.”

Growing up in North Philadelphia, “Jilly from Philly” says she owes her positivity and happy childhood to her mother and grandmother. “My mother showed me art and creativity and I’m grateful,” she tells me.

Although there was a lot of drugs and violence around her, she also saw “kind and beautiful-spirited people” — and that spirit is at the heart of the track Norf Side.

“It’s a celebration of the place,” she says.

For that song, she wanted another voice from North Philly and her son Jett suggested Tierra Whack, a brilliant MC and remarkable poetess. “We are both a reflection of that place,” she says.

Scott, who has a charitable foundation in North Philadelphia which has been sending kids to camp and to college for more than 20 years, says she could have made an album about what’s going on in the US politically but chose a theme of personal revolution over performative outrage and political frustration.

‘Joy, passion, rage’

“I think that’s another album,” she says. “Right now, I’m really focused on growth and healing — the human stuff.

“Then maybe there will be the kind of revolution that this kind of turmoil deserves.”

On the death of mum-of-three Renee Good, who was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis last month, she says: “This has been going on in the United States for longer than my whole life — it’s not new.

“It just happened to happen to a Caucasian woman so the world is shaken and they’re seeing it.”

Making a name for herself in acting as well as music and poetry, she has starred in 2007 comedy Why Did I Get Married? and TV series The No1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.

Scott says she is taking her time when it comes to choosing her next role, paying close attention to both the director and the writing.

Live performance, however, is non-negotiable. “I will be touring. That is a fact.”

For now, the focus is firmly on this record. “I just want people to come back and listen to it again and again,” she says.

“I’ve sprinkled levels of joy, frustration, passion and even rage. When that last chord plays, I want people to sit with it — and then start all over again. Each time, there’s something new.”

• To Whom This May Concern is out on February 13.

JILL SCOTT

To Whom This May Concern

★★★★★

Successful romances star at least one looker. I don’t mean someone attractive. I mean an actor who gazes at their scene partner with such delight that we swoon, too. Clark Gable was a looker. Diane Keaton was a looker. The combined eyeball voltage of Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone is so powerful that it’s turned silly scripts into hits.

Harry Melling is a late-blooming looker. Onscreen most of his youth as the Muggle brat Dudley Dursley in the “Harry Potter” franchise, Melling is only just now getting to show off that talent in the funny-kinky “Pillion,” which puts him on his knees beaming up at Alexander Skarsgård’s 6-foot-4 biker as though this blond hunk was the sun. His Colin, a shy gay man who sings the high notes in a barbershop quartet, is so visibly infatuated licking Skarsgård’s leather boots in a dark alley that you believe he lusts for humiliation. Colin has only just discovered that fact about himself. He’s yet to even learn this man’s name. (It’s Ray.)

Perhaps you’d like to be taken to dinner first, but “Pillion” is about Colin’s needs — specifically his need to please — and first-time feature filmmaker Harry Lighton challenges us to root for his bliss. This fetishy adventure is a minimalist romantic comedy in which submissive meets dominant, and submissive explores his physical and emotional vulnerabilities. Marriage and a baby carriage are off the table; the journey matters, not the destination.

“Pillion” is what motorcyclists call the passenger seat, at least in suburban England where this is set. It’s a passive position compared to the driver, but still a cooler upgrade from where Colin starts the movie riding in: the rear of a sedan. Out the car’s back window, he sees Ray zoom by in white Stormtrooper-looking gear and, by happenstance, bumps into him that night at a pub where Colin’s mother, Peggy (Lesley Sharp), has set up a blind date with a nice bloke. That guy gets forgotten the instant Ray slips Colin a note with a time and place to meet.

Peggy isn’t panicked by her son’s alpha-male predilections. “I think a biker sounds exciting,” she says with a grin. His father, Pete (Douglas Hodge), just wants him to wear a helmet. Neither parent is privy to the fact that Ray simply isn’t very nice. Ray controls the gobsmacked Colin quietly, calculating the bare minimum of kindness required to have a house boy willing to cook dinner, tend to his Rottweiler and sleep on the floor. He withholds his approval to keep the paler, smaller man anxious.

That Rottweiler contended for the Palm Dog at last year’s Cannes, a prize for the festival’s best canine. Frankly, Melling himself should have won. His performance is pure puppy, from the way he silently studies Ray’s silent cues to the eagerness with which he leaps up to fetch Ray a beer. When Ray lavishes attention on another biker’s pet pillion, Kevin (Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters), Colin sulks until his master unzips his trousers and gives him a treat.

Flexing his abs in shiny Motoralls, Skarsgård uses his own appeal to expose an unattractive wrinkle in human behavior: Ray is so gorgeous that everyone just takes it as fact that Colin is lucky to be near him. When a coworker asks this scrawny geek how he bagged a hunk like Ray, Colin brags that he has “an aptitude for devotion,” which includes wearing a padlock around his neck and shaving his Byronesque curls so that he looks like a zealot — which in a way, he is.

Over and over, Colin takes stock of his own debasement. But then he looks at his model-handsome lover and calculates that his suffering is worth it. He’s good at compartmentalizing; he’s a parking violations attendant who tickets angry people all day. When he needs an excuse to cry, he finds one (and it hurts to watch).

Lately, it’s been a thrill to see queer stories confidently leapfrog over coming-out narratives to the trickier question of whether two individuals in particular are a decent match. Lighton leaps further than that — he goes full Evel Knievel by daring to ask how we feel about a relationship that’s indecent, but still has worth as a set of training wheels for a wobbly young man learning what he wants.

It’s a more optimistic take on Colin and Ray’s coupledom than was in the book that inspired the script, Adam Mars-Jones’ 2020 novella “Box Hill,” which was subtitled “A Story of Low Self-Esteem.” A study of the psychology of abuse, that story’s more brainwashed version of Colin finds him decades older looking back on the affair and pining for a relationship that reads as horrible between the lines.

Lighton isn’t oblivious to the power imbalance, but he’s made a movie about going forward, not being stuck. He trusts his naif with more agency, and so “Pillion” is freer to play its insults for laughs. You’ll giggle a lot. That gleam in Melling’s eyes makes it feel like a comic fantasy, although who knows? Perhaps there really are BDSM biker gangs hosting afternoon picnics with serving boys tied spread-eagled on a buffet table. That bucolic scene is filmed in a slow pivot around the park, cinematographer Nick Morris getting a chuckle from how the image shifts from Georges Seurat to “Hellraiser.”

Eventually, Colin’s parents will be more flinchy about his new boyfriend, leading to a beat or two that don’t land with the impact they could. Oddly, Lighton might be too restrained himself. Like his leads, he prefers to say everything with a look.

But while Melling is always endearingly open and responsive, Skarsgård stays unreadable. His Ray always seems to be hiding behind a motorcycle visor even when he’s not and when he deigns to speak, the words trail off in a huff of exhaustion. The only thing we know about Ray’s life are the names of his two previous dogs, and that’s only because he has them tattooed on his chest.

Any more personal facts about Ray — his own job or family or romantic history, even his favorite movie — would risk us clinging onto it too tightly as an explanation of what he gets out of this himself. Serving Ray’s pleasure is Colin’s focus. And our focus is on Colin’s pursuit of that.

Yet with subtle skill, Skarsgård reveals that Ray is thinking about Colin more than he’s willing to let on. Curiosity flickers across his face when his submissive surprises him. He stays gruff, of course, but you sense that Ray is as manacled by his authoritarian role as Colin literally is in his hungry, slurping devotion to his master. Puny and pathetic as Colin appears, he begins to seem like the braver of the two. It takes courage to map your own boundaries — then to cross over that line and get hurt, and get back up and out there. Lighton’s biker BDSM rom-com might sound niche, but free yourself to see it and you’ll discover it’s a universal romance.

WHEN it comes to getting a tattoo tribute to your family, lover or idol, you should maybe learn from Brooklyn Beckham and think before you ink.

After his angry rant about parents Victoria and David last month, he has dealt them another blow by covering the word “Dad” on his anchor tatt, with three random-looking shapes over the letters.

But Brooklyn – who also has the eyes of wife Nicola, right with him, inked on his neck – is not the only celebrity to have thought again about their body art.

Tom Bryden looks at five other stars who said tatty bye to unwanted tatts…

ANGELINA JOLIE

SHE wore a vial of her husband’s blood around her neck, so a tattoo of Billy Bob Thornton’s name was one of Angelina’s tamer tributes.

After their split, the inking changed course – with the co-ordinates for the birthplaces of her six children.

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WHEN Sly covered a tatt of his wife Jennifer Flavin with his late pup Butkus in 2022, he had to deny the marriage was Rocky.

Maybe it was just a ruff time.

JOHNNY DEPP

AFTER his 1993 break-up from Winona Ryder, the Hollywood star changed the “Winona Forever” tattoo on his bicep to “Wino Forever” – a cheeky nod to Johnny’s love of wine.

HEIDI KLUM

THE supermodel gave her singer hubby the Seal of approval with arty print of his name, next to stars for their kids.

But Heidi split with Seal in 2012 and had his name lasered off.

MEGAN FOX

THE actress scrubbed a tattoo of one-time idol Marilyn Monroe from her arm in 2011, claiming she had outgrown it after seven years.

While Some Like It Hot, Megan clearly did not.

One question has bothered Martin Ludlow in his decades as a concert and event promoter in Los Angeles. In a city packed with excellent jazz musicians, and a century of history with the genre, why is there no local equivalent of the massive festivals that cities like Montreal, New Orleans or Montreux, Switzerland, have built? One where the music transforms clubs, restaurants and parks across the city for nights on end?

This summer’s inaugural LA Jazz Festival in August will be the biggest push in a generation to build that here. Ludlow’s event — which melds his passion for jazz with the logistics muscle of his former life as a city councilman and labor leader — hopes to draw 250,000 fans across the city for a month of concerts culminating in a stadium-sized show on Dockweiler Beach. It will be one of the largest such events in the world, and the biggest Black-owned fest of its kind.

“This festival is intended to lift up our ancestors that came to this country in bondage, terrorized, brutalized,” Ludlow said outside City Hall on Wednesday. “It’s also about celebrating the end to those last bastions of Jim Crow racism, the days we were denied access to public drinking fountains, public swimming pools and public beaches. From the beginning of this journey, we’ve been very intentional about telling the narrative of that human rights struggle called Jazz.”

Flanked by Mayor Karen Bass, City Council members Heather Hutt, Traci Park and Tim McOsker, and jazz figures including Ray Charles Jr. and Pete Escovedo, Ludlow promised a galvanizing occasion for L.A.’s local jazz scene and the city’s wobbly tourism economy. That jazz scene has welcomed new investments like Blue Note L.A., and lamented beloved clubs like ETA closing.

This festival, however, hopes to be more on a scale with forthcoming mega-events such as the World Cup and the Olympics. The 25-day event in August will sprawl all over the region, with free park concerts in all 15 council districts, and 150 late-night shows at clubs and restaurants across the city. A Caribbean street fair highlighting the African and Latin roots of jazz will hit El Segundo, along with guided tours of historic Black coastal sites like Bruce’s Beach and Inkwell beach.

The fest culminates in a two-day concert on Dockweiler Beach that hopes to draw 40,000 fans a night. While a lineup is still in progress, the scope of Ludlow’s ambition is formidable — the fest will ban fossil fuels from its footprint, and earned a strong vouch from the California Coastal Commission. For decades, the Playboy Jazz Festival (now the Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival) was the defining event for the music in Los Angeles; this could eclipse it several times over.

“Martin, I’ve been on this 15-year journey with you. Through all of the ups and downs, I’m so excited this is the year,” Mayor Bass said at Wednesday’s event at City Hall debuting the festival. “This is the Los Angeles that will welcome the world. One of the best things we have to offer is all of our culture.”

Ludlow is a colorful figure in Los Angeles politics, a former council member and L.A. County Federation of Labor executive who pleaded guilty to misappropriating funds in 2006. He’s since delved deep into community activism and embarked on a successful third act as a concert and event promoter, throwing socially-conscious events with his firm Bridge Street, which has produced shows for Stevie Wonder, The Revolution, Sheila E and Snoop Dogg along with civic events like the ceremony renaming Obama Boulevard in Los Angeles.

“During this journey, you can only imagine there’s a lot of highs and a lot of lows,” Ludlow said. “When you have those lows, you want a friend that really can lift you up.” He had plenty of them onstage with him Wednesday announcing what could be a new flagship event for jazz in Los Angeles.

American Idol alum Rhonetta Johnson appears worse for wear in a new mugshot linked to an arrest for prostitution years after appearing on the hit talent show.

Johnson, now 44, became a viral sensation after a disastrous audition during American Idol’s Season 5 in 2006, when she had a fiery clash with judge Paula Abdul.

The U.S. Sun can exclusively reveal she was taken into custody at the end of January after skipping previous court dates.

She was booked in North Carolina’s Mecklenburg County after an outstanding order for arrest tied to a long-running prostitution case was finally served at the courthouse.

She was issued multiple release orders, had a public defender appointed, and was placed on a $2,500 unsecured bond, which was later posted.

The arrest traces back to a separate prostitution case filed in 2018, which dragged on for years after Johnson repeatedly failed to appear in court.

Johnson was caught on October 4 in an undercover sting at a massage parlor that led to multiple prostitution arrests in Charlotte, according to charlottealertsnews.com.

Officers found her at the Continental Inn on West Sugar Creek Road, where she allegedly agreed to have sex with an undercover officer for $35, cops said.

During the encounter, Johnson reportedly made a spontaneous statement admitting she had a crack pipe, which officers later found in her bag, leading to an additional charge, the outlet reported.

The charge was later dropped, and only the prostitution charge was filed.

Following her initial arrest, Johnson repeatedly missed court appearances, prompting several warrants, and she was taken into custody and released multiple times in 2019 on secured bonds reaching $2,000.

Despite the drawn-out proceedings, prosecutors ultimately dismissed the prostitution charge with leave in February 2020, formally ending the case, though unresolved paperwork allowed it to resurface years later.

LONG RAP SHEET

Johnson’s legal troubles date back even further.

In June last year, the Columbus Police Department also issued a missing persons plea after she reportedly disappeared.

A post on Facebook shows they later updated followers, saying she had been located in “good health.”

In 2012, she was cited for possessing up to half an ounce of marijuana and charged with soliciting for prostitution, court filings show.

After failing to appear in court multiple times, she was finally arrested in August 2014.

The case was resolved the following month when she pleaded guilty to the marijuana charge and was sentenced to 27 days in jail, all credited as time already served, while the prostitution charge was dismissed.

Court records later show she was hit with $170 in attorney-fee judgments, which remained unpaid and were flagged for state debt collection in July 2025.

The U.S. Sun can also confirm she has had multiple run-ins with the law dating back as far as the 1990s, before her time on the show.

WILD CONTESTANT

Johnson first grabbed attention as a contestant in 2006, auditioning in Greensboro, North Carolina.

She didn’t make it to the Hollywood rounds, but her audition became infamous, not for her singing, but for her reaction after being rejected by the judges.

Johnson lashed out at Abdul, claiming she could be “bigger” than stars like JLo, Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey, and even refused Abdul’s offer of water, mocking the judge on camera.

Clips of the audition went viral, earning Johnson a spot in reality TV lore and even a humorous mention during that season’s finale.

She never launched a mainstream music career, though she did release a self-produced remix EP in 2014.

MARGOT ROBBIE looked stunning in a see-through corset dress as she lead the stars at the Wuthering Heights premiere in London.

The Barbie actress, 35, made sure all eyes were on her as she stepped onto the red carpet in Leicester Square in an eye-catching ensemble.

She dazzled in a see-through nude mesh gown with gold detailing and a white corset underneath, which showed off her incredible figure.

The top of the dress was connected with rope straps which held onto a frilly choker around her neck.

She brought her look to life with a pair of strappy gold heels and had her dark locks pulled back into a chic bun.

Margot went for a cool make-up look complete with pink eyeshadow, a nude lip and some blush.

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She was joined on the red carpet with her co-star Jacob Elordi, who looked dapper in an all-grey suit.

He towered over her in in a grey shirt, trousers, tie a long flowing blazer jacket which he paired with smart black shoes.

The Hollywood actors were all smiles as they posed up a storm together, with Jacob pulling in Margot with his hand around her waist.

The leading pair were joined by a whole host of stars from the worlds of television and film.

The iconic Helen Mirren graced the carpet in a navy suit jacket and trousers, along with a white shirt and a gold and silver necklace.

She wore a pair of funky matching navy heels and beamed from ear to ear for pictures.

Meanwhile, Charli XCX, who composed a full concept album and soundtrack for the film, looked sensational in a pink strapless gown with a veil draping her entire body.

The singer looked ethereal as her dark heavy make-up could be seen underneath her veil.

A whole host of Love Island stars descended upon Leicester Square to rub shoulders with Hollywood’s finest.

Harry Cooksley and Shakira Khan were giving power couple energy as she looked sultry in a short black dress with straps and a thigh-high cut out.

She paired her outfit with fishnet tights and layers of metal chains around her neck.

While Harry looked smart in a matching black suit, with a white shirt and a gold brooch.

Conor Phillips and Megan Forte Clarke also opted for matching ensembles, in a black frilly gown and a jacket and trouser combo.

Newly-married series 9 winners, Kai Fagan and Sanam Harrinanan looked happier than ever as they smiled for the photographers, despite it raining in the capital.

Strictly Come Dancing star Tasha Ghouri wowed in a red wine corset with a frilly skirt and Liberty Poole looked amazing in a figure-hugging black mesh gown with a red mermaid tail and black gloves.

Wuthering Heights has been written and directed by Emerald Fennell and is loosely inspired by Emily Bronte’s classic 1847 novel of the same name.

Margot and Jacob play Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, respectively, and are joined in the film by Hong Chau, Shazad Latif, Alison Oliver, Martin Clunes and Ewan Mitchell in supporting roles.

Nancy Guthrie appeared to have been abducted just minutes after a security camera at her home was disabled, according to a new timeline officials shared in the case Thursday.

The new facts — including that blood found at her home belonged to the 84-year-old — were shared the day after her children made a desperate plea to a possible abductor or abductors to communicate with them.

Officials also announced a $50,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of the mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie or to an arrest and conviction in the case.

“Right now we believe Nancy is still out there. We want her home,” Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said at a Thursday news conference. He said a massive team of local and federal partners are still “working round the clock.”

In a tearful video posted to Instagram Wednesday night, Savannah Guthrie and her two siblings begged for the return their mother and seemed open to communicating with her captors about a possible ransom.

“We live in a world where voices and images are easily manipulated. We need to know, without a doubt, that she is alive and that you have her,” Savannah Guthrie said. “We want to hear from you, and we are ready to listen. Please reach out to us.”

The heartbreaking video was the latest twist in a case that has captured the nation’s attention — with alleged ransom notes sent to media outlets and the president offering to deploy resources to help — as true crime crime fanatics and pundits speculate about the whodunit in real time.

Nancy Guthrie was first reported missing Sunday morning from her Tucson-area home after she didn’t show up for church. Almost immediately, family and officials noted suspicious circumstances, with the 84-year-old nowhere to be found, but her essentials — her cellphone, wallet, car and medications — still at home. Her family had last seen her around 9:30 p.m. Saturday night, officials have said.

Although she is of sound mind, Guthrie has physical ailments that keep her from walking very far and needs to take a daily medication that she appears to be without.

There was also evidence that someone had forced their way inside her home, according to law enforcement sources not authorized to discuss the case publicly. Images reviewed by The Times showed a trail of blood droplets near the front door of the home.

Officials have said they believe she was “taken from her home against her will.”

Several news outlets have also reported receiving possible ransom notes requesting money in exchange for Nancy Guthrie’s release. The Pima County Sheriff’s Department said it was aware of those notes but did not verify their authenticity.

As Guthrie described her mom in the video plea, she appealed to the humanity of her mother’s captors.

“She loves fun and adventure. She is a devoted friend. She is full of kindness and knowledge. Talk to her, and you’ll see,” Guthrie said through tears.

She also reiterated that her mom is without her medication that she needs “to survive and and she needs it not to suffer.”

Experts have called this case increasingly extraordinary, due to its circumstances but also because of decisions made by investigators.

Retired LAPD Lt. Adam Bercovici, who supervised the agency’s Special Investigation Section of Robbery Homicide Division which included kidnappings, said the usual playbook for handling such a case is already out the window because law enforcement typically tries to not share its involvement or pursuit of any suspects.

Bercovici said he was surprised that local officials initially called Guthrie “missing,” despite several pieces of early evidence pointed to an abduction. He was also surprised to see detectives returning to the crime scene after they initially cleared the home, appearing to do additional evidence gathering after family might have returned and reporters were all over the property.

“This is like something from 1940s with a very public kidnapping playing out in the media,” Bercovici said. It was also surprising, he said, that alleged kidnappers have sent ransom notes to the media and not directly to the family or someone who could pay.

While unusual, Horace Frank, the former assistant chief of the Los Angeles Police Department who oversaw kidnapping investigations, said he was glad the entire note wasn’t disclosed publicly.

Given the circumstances, he understands why the family came out with the video plea.

“They are appealing to the humane side of whoever the abductors [is] or someone who has some kind knowledge,” Frank said. “You are trying to make it difficult for the those behind this.”

The Guthrie siblings, in the video, also appealed directly to their mom.

“Mama, if you’re listening, we need you to come home,” Annie Guthrie said. “We miss you.”

“We will not rest, your children will not rest, until we are together again,” Savannah Guthrie said.

Before hitting the stage, the comedians of the TV series “Jokes with JoySauce” have an on-camera ritual of exchanging immigrant stories about growing up with their families. There is no audience during these moments, just comics being vulnerable with one another.

The tales give insight into the lives they live offstage and their perspectives as Asian Americans that inspire so much of their material. It lets the audience know more about these up-and-coming comedians without the generic stage introductions.

The series is part of the original program curated for JoySauce, available on Amazon Prime. It premiered in early January as part of the first free, ad-supported streaming channel dedicated to highlighting Asian American voices across comedy, film, reality TV and sitcoms.

Season 1 of “Jokes with JoySauce” is currently airing as part of the launching programming for the channel. Director and creator of the series Ana Tuazon Parsons is excited to watch it grow.

Narumi Inatsugu, from left, Cat Ce, Ana Tuazon Parsons and Jonathan Sposato at The Times’ office in El Segundo.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

“I’m still definitely going for that underground punk rock, like, let’s-find-some-cool-people kind of thing for Season 2,” Parsons said. “Bigger and better venue, and more budget, more budget, please.”

While Parsons focuses on cultivating new comedic voices, JoySauce wants to create its own opportunities for people in the community by broadening its mission of ownership and representation.

“We won’t really get the full spectrum of the representation that I believe that we deserve unless we own the pipeline and the platforms and the carriers and really the gateways,” Jonathan Sposato, creator of Joysauce, said.

He decided to bring the platform to the masses in 2022 after growing sick and tired of how much hate his community was going through and wanting to fill in a gap in the media. Media representation was also low for Asian American actors, with only 6% of all Asian characters in 100 titles on streaming platforms in 2022 in leading roles, according to a study by USC Annenberg Gold House.

“I do think positivity wins,” Sposato said. “Comedy is a very necessary tool, a necessary ingredient in the overall mix of what we’re trying to offer.”

His goal is to broaden the concept of Asian American culture through storytelling that would display what the U.S. has to offer while staying rooted in Asia.

“A win for JoySauce is a win for anybody who feels underrepresented, who doesn’t feel like they’re considered the normative mainstream,” he said.

At a time when attention is a currency, creating a space that’s focused on elevating AAPI voices will help diversify the media landscape.

“A win for JoySauce is a win for anybody who feels underrepresented, who doesn’t feel like they’re considered the normative mainstream,” JoySauce creator Jonathan Sposato, left, said.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

“As a comedian, you cannot complain,” Cat Ce, a comedian whose special “Perfect Chinglish” was licensed by JoySauce, said. “Nowadays, you want it on so many different platforms, you never know which kind of audience you may reach.”

Her work reflects the kind of storytelling JoySauce hopes to amplify. The comedy hour by Ce deals with the cultural differences when dealing with family, friends and romantic relationships as a Chinese American. For Narumi Inatsugu, that universality is the point.

As the chief creative officer of JoySauce, Inatsugu wants to create a space where Asian Americans do not feel outnumbered.

“For so long I thought nobody cared about Asian American stories,” he said.

As a curator of the channel, and host of the upcoming “Chopsticks and Chill,” an interview show where he shares a meal with influential members of the AAPI community, Inatsugu wants to create a platform where the younger generation can see the many opportunities life can offer, regardless of your cultural background.

“It’s community building, it’s letting people know they can be whatever they want, do whatever they want,” he said.

Season 1 of “Jokes with JoySauce” is currently airing and is part of the first free, ad-supported streaming channel dedicated to highlighting Asian American voices across comedy, film, reality TV and sitcoms.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

Throughout his years in the entertainment industry and in production meetings, Inatsugu felt like he couldn’t pitch certain stories because they were aimed at his Asian community. He hopes an outlet like JoySauce can create a safe space for creative minds to feel like they can be themselves and not feel outnumbered, the way he once did.

Everything in the details of a show will make people feel welcomed, from the people making it to the food that’s made available for the cast and crew.

During production of the first season of “Jokes with JoySauce,” Parsons made sure every aspect of the production was AAPI, including the food. Her production team made sure to fill the craft table with food that can be found at any Asian market. The sense of belonging is exactly the reason she built “Jokes with JoySauce” and why JoySauce exists.

“When I’d see the comics come up into the greenroom and their faces, it was like ‘Oh, I feel so like they were just reverted to their childhoods,’” she said. “It was just like they felt like they were at home with their families, and it was so important for me, it made me cry a little bit.”

EastEnders sees Jake Moon back in Walford next week in scenes with his stunned cousin Alfie Moon, which our soap expert says is ‘crucial’ for both the characters and fans

A familiar face returns home on EastEnders next week, as Jake Moon is reunited with his cousin Alfie Moon.

Fans will remember the character was killed off, or so it seemed, back in 2006. In a case of mistaken identity, or at least a misunderstanding, he was tracked down and seemingly killed.

So imagine the shock on fans’ faces in 2024 when he suddenly returned to Walford, very briefly, with his former flame, and current flame, Chrissie Watts. Jake never died, and despite his family being left to think he was dead he was very much alive.

Spoilers for next week have now confirmed he’s back in Walford, and he finally reunites with Alfie who is under the impression his cousin died 20 years ago. Our soap expert revealed fans can expect “emotional” scenes, and a “crucial” moment that has been a long time coming.

READ MORE: Coronation Street return news leaves fans thrilled as they ‘rumble’ huge changeREAD MORE: Coronation Street to kill off iconic character after 37 years in sad twist

They shared: “It’s a huge moment for fans, but also for Jake and Alfie. It’s a crucial moment that has been a long time coming, and is something both the characters and viewers deserve.

“The mystery about Jake’s fate and for him to then return two years ago with no scenes with Alfie, no closure, was a slight injustice that will finally be corrected. They haven’t seen each other in so long, and Alfie thought his cousin was dead.

“To learn he’s alive and doing well is a great relief to Alfie, and it paves the way for some emotional scenes for them.” His return comes about after he visits Zoe Slater in prison, desperate for answers about what happened with her and Chrissie at Christmas.

He’s not sure he can stay with Chrissie having found out what she’s done, calling time on their romance. Our insider teased Zoe’s words to Jake could shock him.

They said: “The last person Zoe’s expecting to see is Jake Moon. She’s been stopping Kat from tracking down Chrissie out of fear that it could land Jasmine in trouble.

“So when Jake shows up and demands answers about Christmas, Zoe’s forced to decide whether to give him the true events or send him packing. What she has to say leaves Jake reeling, and with a decision to make.”

Jake’s soon catching up with Phil Mitchell too. Fans may recall that Jake accidentally killed his brother Danny Moon who was about to murder Grant and Phil on the orders of Johnny Allen, just like he killed Dennis Rickman.

As he tries to lay the ghosts of his past to rest, Jake comes face-to-face with Phil who offers him guidance about Chrissie. Our expert said of the moment: “Phil has guidance for Jake, and soon he comes to a huge decision that could change everything.

“Whether Chrissie will return to Walford again given what’s happened there, especially at Christmas, remains to be seen. Jake and Kat unite, hoping she will show her face and that it could help Zoe.”

EastEnders airs Mondays to Thursdays at 7:30pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok, Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads.

The mini comedy series has been delighting Netflix viewers with fans eager for a second season.

A sinister black comedy has been captivating viewers since landing on Netflix in 2024. The Decameron, loosely inspired by Giovanni Boccaccio’s 14th-century book of the same title, follows a collection of aristocrats and their staff who flee to a countryside estate to escape the Black Death.

Their opulent retreat rapidly spirals into mayhem as hidden truths emerge and schemes unravel. Upon its debut, The Decameron garnered glowing critiques from audiences.

Writing on IMDb (the International Movie Database), one enthusiast gushed: “This series is very refreshing, goofy, fun and hilarious but also well scripted, performed and beautiful cinematography as well. I am trying not to binge this one out too quickly, yet I can’t wait for more!”

A second devotee penned: “I’m so happy I saw the positive reviews and gave this a go. It’s actually brilliant, well-played and so funny, I found myself laughing out loud several times.

“I have to admit I was a bit skeptical at the beginning of the first episode, but found myself quickly drawn into the story.”

They continued: “It’s crazy, clever and highly entertaining, with many surprise twists and turns which keeps you completely invested in the story and characters.

“The actors are playing their roles almost to perfection, capturing the stupidity of their character with what feels like such a natural ease. I cannot understand the negative reviews at all! I loved this.”

A third viewer remarked: “I am glad to see that the ratings have gone up since I started watching because I honestly did not understand the hate.

“I agree with other reviewers who refer to this as Shakespearean fun. It’s like a satirical version of Midsummer Night’s Dream. I’ve watched this attentively, then I’ve put it on in the background. It’s so hilarious!”

They continued: “If you are a literature, theatre, or history enthusiast, I think you will thoroughly enjoy this. I imagine the actors were having the best time while filming this.

“I hope there is a second season and that Netflix will continue to create content for the aforementioned literature, theatre, and history enthusiasts!”

However, not everyone was impressed with the TV mini-series. One disappointed viewer wrote: “This show is a puzzlement. It’s not funny. It’s not dramatic. There are some moments of uncomfortable ‘humour’ that fall flat. The whole thing falls flat.”

Another critic observed: “A 14th-century period piece brought to Netflix full of present day tropes… the comedy is not what you expect, there is none in this series.”

The eight-part Netflix series – available for viewing now – boasts an impressive ensemble cast, featuring Sex Education’s Tanya Reynolds, Derry Girls’ Saoirse-Monica Jackson, and Veep’s Tony Hale.

Former Manchester United and England footballer Gary Neville has returned to BBC One’s Dragons’ Den as a guest investor, judging entrepeneurs to see if he wants to back their business

Dragons’ Den star Touker Suleyman said “thank God you’re only a guest” as he revealed what former England footballer Gary Neville is really like on the hit show. Gary, 50, has appeared as one of the guest dragons since 2024.

While Gary is best known for his talent as a Manchester United and England defender, he built up an extensive property portfolio during his career. The BBC says he spearheads the £450m St. Michael’s development in Manchester after securing over £200m of overseas investment.

Touker meanwhile made his money in the world of fashion, purchasing shirt maker Hawes and Curtis in 2001 before moving into investments. Speaking to Gary on the Hawes and Curtis Touker Time podcast, the 72-year-old questioned how well the former footballer would fare as a permanent dragon.

He said: “This gentleman here is the biggest softie when it comes to investment. Thank god he has only been a guest, if he was there full time he’d need a printing machine, he’d invest in everything.”

Touker went on to joke that Gary likes to share a bit of “Mancunian help” with the guests as they make their pitches. Gary replied: “Honestly, people come in and if I like them, I think, ‘Oh they deserve a little bit of Mancunion love’ and just give them a little bit of investment.

“I have to say, when they walk through the door, how nervous they must be, but when I’m looking at them I’m thinking, ‘I’m glad I’m not stood where you are’.”

Gary went on to explain that Touker “drills” the contestants over their finances almost straight away before fellow dragons Deborah Meaden and Peter Jones join in. He added: “You have to be quite resilient when you come through the doors.”

The Manchester-born footballer explained he has “sympathy” for the contestants after they exit the famous Dragons’ Den lift. He admits he even gets “a little bit nervous” when he is confronted by the dragons.

He added: “Them coming through facing you, Deborah, Peter, Steven [Bartlett], they must be terrified.”

Touker however explained he likes to be cautious when investing on the show. He said: “If you’re investing your hard-earned cash, you can’t just give it away, and some people like to pull the wool over your eyes.”

He went on to explain that the “most important thing” he looks for when investing on the show is a business that he can help improve. Gary will be returning to Dragons’ Den from 8pm tonight on BBC One.

This week’s pitches will include a business offering skincare made from rescued food, a device that keeps your golf balls spotless, an app that can help with your mortgage and spicy seasoning balls.

This series will see a host of guest dragons joining the panel of investors. As well as Gary, rapper Tinie Tempah, serial entrepreneur and REFY CEO Jenna Meek, and Tropic Skincare powerhouse Susie Ma will be judging investments.

Tinie said: “I have a keen interest in supporting emerging entrepreneurs as well as investing in a wide-ranging portfolio of businesses, so Dragons’ Den was an opportunity I simply couldn’t turn down.

“I am ecstatic to become a guest dragon and look forward to seeing where I can help, bring value and of course invest in some of these brilliant businesses and people that step into the Den.”

Samantha Davies, Executive Producer, BBC Studios Entertainment said of the guest dragons: “Audiences love the powerful combination of our much-loved regular dragons and the fresh energy guest dragons bring to the Den – and this series, we’re going bigger than ever.

“We’re thrilled to welcome back Gary, alongside three formidable new business titans, all ready to uncover the next generation of bold, brilliant and disruptive entrepreneurs. There’s no better place to ignite that ambition than right here in the Den!”

GORDON Ramsay has slammed rumours he took a swipe at Adam Peaty’s estranged family in his wedding speech at his daughter Holly’s nuptials.

Speaking for the first time about the family feud that the Ramsays have found themselves caught up in, Gordon addressed speculation he took a pop at Adam’s parents on the big day.

Gordon reportedly took aim at Adam’s mum Caroline in his speech, making an unfavourable comparison to his wife Tana.

He is said to have quipped to Adam: “Look at Tana and that’s what you have to look forward to.” 

And in a sly dig at Adam’s absent parents, he allegedly Holly, 25: “Shame you don’t have the same.” 

But in an interview with Daily Mail, Gordon claimed he didn’t say anything rude.

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‘NOTHING INAPPROPRIATE’

 “I was told we were accused of saying inappropriate things,” Gordon said. “Nothing at all was said that was ­inappropriate, I promise you.

“I was very warm, very witty. I talked about when they first met. I was nervous, hearing the words no father would ever want to hear, ‘Your daughter’s gone on a date with the world’s best breast- stroker.’ We knew something big was going on when she came home and all we could smell was chlorine.’”

Gordon went on to share a cheeky dad joke he penned himself.

“They were the bits I really worked on, ” he recalled. “I paid tribute to Holly, then welcomed Adam into the family: ‘I know you’ll give Holly all the love she deserves, but be aware that her twin, Jack, is a Royal Marine. I know you can swim fast, but he has a boat with a big f****** gun on it!’ Light-hearted stuff like that.”

It comes as Gordon also addressed the feud directly elsewhere in the interview.

He insisted he and his wife had “done nothing wrong”.

We sent a chauffer-driven car for them to tome to the engagement party and treated them like royalty.”

Gordon Ramsay

Gordon said: “It’s just upsetting. It’s all self-inflicted from their side, because we’ve done nothing – none of what you’ve read: no rudeness, no ignorance – we welcomed them.

“We sent a chauffeur-driven car for them to come to the engagement party and treated them like royalty.

“So to get that barrage of press was very hurtful. Tana took it very seriously.”

ENDING THE FEUD?

Talking of a potential reconciliation, he added: “I would like to go up to Nottingham with Tana and see them and draw a line in the sand.”

“It was Adam and Holly’s wishes for them not to attend and so we had to respect that. There’s stuff they need to sort out as parents.

“That’s nothing to do with Tana and me.

“But we are very mindful we want to move on and allow Holly and Adam to continue starting their lives together.”

Adam’s feud with his mum Caroline, 60, exploded In November after she was not invited to Holly’s hen do. 

And a source close to the Peatys recently told The Sun they had given up home of mending bridges.

An insider close to Adam’s parents said: “It’s been a really emotional time for them as a family.

“They’re coming to terms with what has happened and that Adam has picked his side.

“It’s dashed any hope of reconciliation in the near future.”

The Chase fans took to social media this week to air their complaints about one particular issue.

Viewers of The Chase reckon the questions become tougher when contestants go for the high offer, taking to X to air their suspicions during Wednesday’s episode (February 4) of the ITV quiz show. This comes after the popular show announced a spin-off is in the works.

A player named Harri had been urging fellow contestants to be bold with their choices – something which caught the attention of chaser Mark “The Beast” Labbett.

Despite banking just £3,000 in his cash builder, Harri was presented with a low offer of minus £1,000 and a high offer of £68,000, with Mark telling him: “You’ve no excuse not to take this.”

Though he could have stuck with his £3,000, Harri went big – and viewers immediately flocked to X as they noticed the questions appeared significantly harder than if he’d played it safe.

“What a pathetic question, the questions get harder when you go high I don’t care what anyone says,” one viewer claimed.

“Big difference in questions when you go high,” another concurred. A third shared a meme from The Office, writing: “Go and get the difficult set of questions!”

Despite his bravado, Harri couldn’t outsmart The Beast and was forced to make the dreaded walk of shame off set, departing empty-handed, reports the Express.

That left just two players, Andy and Caren, to tackle the final chase with £7,000 in the prize pot after both had chosen the cautious route in their cash builders.

Whilst they fell short of defeating The Beast, it was a nail-biting finish: Mark was forced to leap in with his answers before presenter Bradley Walsh could complete the questions, having squandered precious time through incorrect responses.

After securing his triumph, he felt driven to address viewers directly. “Can I address something? There’s a thing on social media, people claim that it’s unfair. The Chasers can jump in and interrupt you [Bradley], and the contestants can’t. That is absolutely not true,” he declared.

“The contestants can jump in whenever they like, if they’re brave enough or confident enough. In other words, we jumped in early because I had to be there.

“Thank goodness it was right. Otherwise, I’d have lost. Very well played, guys,” he praised the remaining duo.

For the latest showbiz, TV, movie and streaming news, go to the new Everything Gossip website‘.

The Chase broadcasts on weeknight evenings at 5pm on ITV.

The X Factor star has embraced a new “mindful” lifestyle, as she prioritises her “healing”.

X Factor legend Honey G is unrecognisable after embracing a new “mindful” lifestyle, ten years after she first found fame.

The former contestant, whose real name is Anna Gilford, appeared on the 13th series of the singing competition, which was won by Matt Terry.

She’s since credited Simon Cowell’s show for changing her life after admitting she was in a dark place before The X Factor.

She previously said: “I’m very grateful for what X Factor did for me, it changed me. It’s boosted my confidence. Before X Factor, I was in a dark place, and it put me in a happier place.”

She’s now revealed that her life is completely different these days, worlds away from the look she had when she first auditioned for Missy Elliott’s Work It rap.

In a post yesterday, the TV star shared an unrecognisable picture on Instagram as she spoke about mindfulness.

Honey G wrote: “A lot of people think stress and burnout mean they’re doing something wrong — not managing their time well enough, not being disciplined enough, not trying hard enough.

“But often it’s not about effort at all. It’s about capacity.

“When your nervous system has been under pressure for a long time, even things that help — rest, journaling, movement, mindfulness — can feel hard to access. Not because you don’t care, but because your system is tired.

“Sometimes the most supportive thing we can do is stop pushing for change and start creating small pockets of safety and space, exactly where we are.

“Gentleness isn’t giving up. It’s often where healing actually begins.”

Alongside the caption, she posted an image of herself in a red headscarf and sunglasses, a far cry from the trademark cap and bomber jacket with which she rose to fame.

Her post was showered in support, with one fan writing: “So true! Sometimes we need to just relax and stop trying to do everything. It’s ok to take a break.”

Another said, “I love u, Honey G,” as a third wrote, “Thank you, Honey G, this was beautifully written. Very inspiring.”

The star has previously spoken about how she looks “completely different” after shedding two stone from gym workouts, which she often shares online.

She previously told The Daily Star in 2023: “I’ve had a personal trainer for the past two years and he’s helped me change my whole body shape. I’ve been doing triathlons as well. My body is quite robust because when I was younger, I used to be a county tennis player. But I’m combining it all with diet as well.

“It’s still ongoing, it is a work in progress, but I’m working really hard and just trying to be the best version of myself.”

She added, “The fitness transformation has given me the confidence to dress in more adventurous clothing and clothing that is more feminine. If I want to wear my tracksuits, I will rock them. If I want to put a dress on, then I can.

“I’m a strong independent woman and can rock whatever look I want and I just hope nobody criticizes me for it.”