SHOW BIZ

As “Avatar: Fire and Ash” headed to the big screen this month, theater owners held their breath.

In an uneven year that saw two billion-dollar hits and a viral “chicken jockey” craze, but also a disastrous first quarter and a nearly 30-year-low at the October box office, the end of December was the last chance for theaters to make up ground.

But even James Cameron and the Na’vi — the latest “Avatar” film has already grossed more than $472 million globally — couldn’t save 2025 from a disappointing conclusion.

Box-office revenue in the U.S. and Canada is expected to total $8.87 billion for the year, up just 1.5% from last year’s disappointing $8.74 billion tally, according to movie data firm Comscore. More troubling is that 2025’s domestic box-office haul is projected to be down more than 20% compared with 2019, before the pandemic changed audiences’ movie-going habits and turbocharged streaming in ways that the exhibition industry is still grappling with.

The problem: Fewer people are buying movie tickets. Theatrical attendance is running below last year’s levels, with an estimated 760 million tickets sold as of Dec. 25, according to media and entertainment data firm EntTelligence. Last year, total ticket sales for 2024 exceeded 800 million.

Part of the explanation for the falloff in cinema revenue and admissions lies in the movies themselves.

Industry experts and theater owners say the quality and frequency of releases led to dips in the calendar that put extra pressure on the other movies to perform. Once-reliable genres such as comedies and dramas are facing a much tougher time in theaters, and female moviegoers — who came out in droves in 2023 for “Barbie” — were underserved in a year that largely skewed toward male-leaning blockbusters.

“It’s fair to say that 2025 didn’t quite reach the levels many of us expected at the start of the year,” Eduardo Acuna, chief executive of Regal Cineworld, said in a statement. “A big part of that comes down to a lack of depth in the release schedule, and the struggle of many smaller titles to break through.”

Even big-name stars such as Margot Robbie, Colin Farrell, Dwayne Johnson and Sydney Sweeney couldn’t prop up attendance for films such as Sony Pictures’ “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey,” A24’s “The Smashing Machine” and Black Bear Pictures’ “Christy,” all of which flopped.

And despite the critical acclaim and stacked cast list for Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” the film has stalled domestically at $71 million, with a global total of $205 million.

“One Battle After Another” had a budget of about $130 million, while “The Smashing Machine” reportedly cost $50 million and has grossed just $21 million worldwide.

“The challenge facing Hollywood is how to reconcile the budgets of these films with how much they can earn in theaters and down the road, eventually, in streaming,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Comscore.

Universal Pictures’ “Wicked: For Good” hauled in more than $324 million, but it was one of few big blockbusters targeted to women. (Taylor Swift’s “The Official Release Party of a Showgirl,” which brought in $50 million globally, was another.)

Though the summer was marked by a number of big films, including Warner Bros.-owned DC Studios’ “Superman,” Universal’s “Jurassic World Rebirth” and Apple’s “F1 The Movie,” most were geared toward male audiences.

Female-focused films are “are few and far between,” said Jeff Bock, senior box-office analyst at Exhibitor Relations, an entertainment data and research firm. “There should be something for everyone playing most of the time, and that isn’t the case.”

To be sure, there were some bright spots for the industry, including success from young audiences.

Warner Bros. Pictures’ “A Minecraft Movie” was the highest-grossing domestic film this year, with $423.9 million. Close behind was Walt Disney Co.’s live-action adaptation “Lilo & Stitch,” which collected $423.8 million in the U.S. and Canada and a total of $1 billion worldwide.

Counting those two, five of the year’s top 10 domestic-grossing films had PG ratings, including “Wicked: For Good,” Disney’s animated “Zootopia 2” and Universal’s live-action “How to Train Your Dragon.”

“In general, the good news about the year is that most of the big hits involved young audiences,” said Tom Rothman, chair and CEO chief executive of Sony Pictures’ motion picture group. “There is a bit of a youth-quake.”

Disney capitalized on the big year for family-friendly fare.

The Burbank entertainment giant recently crossed $6 billion at the global box office for the year, powered by billion-dollar hits such as “Lilo & Stitch” and “Zootopia 2,” and marking the company’s biggest year since 2019. (Though it wasn’t all sunny for Disney this year, as Pixar’s original animated film “Elio” misfired, as did the live-action film, “Snow White,” which was mired in controversy.)

Another notable youth driver was “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle” from Sony Pictures in partnership with its anime banner, Crunchyroll. The film had a massive opening weekend haul of $70 million in July on its way to a domestic gross of $134 million and a global total of $715 million, highlighting the increasing popularity of anime.

“The mainstreaming of anime at the theatrical box office is a really significant part of what happened this year and a really good sign,” Rothman said. “You’re bringing in young audiences.”

Not surprisingly, established intellectual property — whether video games, known franchises, novels or comic books — still topped the charts this year, with nine of the top 10 domestic films tied to an existing title.

That familiarity at the box office counts when moviegoers, particularly families, are looking for movies to watch. Viewers can be choosy about how they spend their cash and time, and may not always want to gamble on a movie they’ve never heard of.

“Meaningful IP still has an advantage in getting people to come to the theater, though it’s not the only way to do it,” said Adam Fogelson, chair of Lionsgate’s motion picture group, which saw success this year with an adaptation of Stephen King’s novel “The Long Walk,” as well as franchise film “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t.”

Horror flicks also scared up plenty of business in 2025. Warner Bros., in particular, had a string of wins in fearful films, including Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” “The Conjuring: Last Rites,” Zach Cregger’s “Weapons” and “Final Destination Bloodlines.”

In one notable exception, Blumhouse had a rare miss with “M3GAN 2.0,” the follow-up to the 2022 cult favorite. In an interview on “The Town” podcast, Blumhouse Productions Chief Executive Jason Blum blamed the sequel’s shortcomings on a change in genre from the original.

As 2025 draws to a close, industry insiders and theater owners are more optimistic about next year’s box office prospects.

Several big films are set to release in 2026, including Christopher Nolan’s much anticipated “The Odyssey,” Disney and Marvel Studios’ “Avengers: Doomsday,” Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Three,” as well as Disney and Pixar’s “Toy Story 5” and “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” from Universal, Nintendo and Illumination Entertainment.

That anticipation is also clouded by the uncertainty of the impending Warner Bros. deal and what that will mean for movie releases.

Many cinema owners fear that a takeover by Netflix will limit or eliminate the theatrical exclusivity of Warner Bros. films, though Netflix executives have said they will honor the company’s current and future commitments to the big screen. And if Paramount were to buy the company, theatrical exhibitors fear that the number of films would decrease, leaving them with less content to show. (Paramount CEO David Ellison has said the company did not plan to release fewer movies.)

Any deal is expected to take at least a year to complete.

In the meantime, Hollywood will wait to see how strong the 2026 slate truly is.

“There are a lot of great titles out there, and that’s why people have been calling 2026 a return to form,” said Bock of Exhibitor Relations. “Even though 2026 is very promising, can Hollywood keep delivering year-in and year-out?”

ADAM Peaty has been spotted for the first time since blocking his family from his wedding day.

The Olympic swimmer revealed he is yet to jet off on honeymoon with new wife Holly Ramsay as he was seen arriving at his father-in-law Gordon Ramsay‘s home.

The Strictly Come Dancing star broke cover and hopped out of a black Audi to ring the bell at Gordon’s £7million South London mansion.

Adam, 31, dressed in a teal jumper which featured two lovebirds with his and Holly’s initials sewn into the back and the date of their wedding day.

He teamed it with khaki tracksuit bottoms and beige trainers.

Adam’s dad Mark was also seen out and about on Monday looking downcast, after being given a last minute invitation to Adam and Holly’s wedding – which he turned down.

Mark took the family dog for a walk 149 miles away in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, where Adam was born and raised.

Take That are poised to dominate 2026 – and their fans have a lot to look forward to.

As well as their massive 17-date Circus Live stadium tour next spring, Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen are just 29 days away from dropping their huge Netflix documentary series.

And bosses at the streaming giant have kindly shared the first trailer for the three-parter, left, exclusively with me. It will be shared on YouTube and across social media today from 10am.

The series will go ahead without Jason and Robbie but fans will see them speaking in never-before-seen interviews and clips from their time in the band.

Insiders told me that nothing was off limits for Mark, Howard and Gary in the documentary, which will see them giving new interviews about the highlights and the heartaches of being part of Take That.

For the opening trailer, Netflix has pulled together some amazing archive footage of the group at the very start of their careers, with Gary heard saying: “Nothing beats being in a band.

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“There’s strength, there’s a buzz.” Mark adds: “From the beginning, there was something within us that wanted to prove something.”

The cameras then cut to footage of the fivesome mucking about backstage, as Jason says: “We were tight among ourselves, like we were kings of the world.”

Elsewhere, a baby-faced Robbie walks into shot and looks at the camera as he says: “We all kiss before the show, in a butch way.”

Discussing the magnitude of what was to come — with Take That landing 20 Top Ten hits including 12 No1s — Howard adds: “I don’t think anything could prepare you for what we were about to take on in the Nineties.”

Netflix has billed the series, which is available to stream from January 27, as “the deeply personal and definitive story of Take That.”

A music insider told me: “Gary, Howard and Mark gave their all for this series.

“Take That was life-changing for all of them but, naturally, with the great highs came great lows.

“So much has been said and written about them, the documentary gives them the chance to say their piece — and no stone is left unturned.

“It really is a must-watch for their fans.”

I can’t wait.

Kim gives kids puppy love

Kim Kardashian pulled off the impossible this festive season – by getting all four of her kids to pose for a snap with her.

She filled her home with snow-covered trees before making North, Saint, Chicago and Psalm smile for the camera. Kim also posed with her mum Kris Jenner and a visiting Santa Claus.

And the kids had a lot to grin about after each were given a Pomeranian puppy, above.

But animal rights organisation PETA blasted Kim’s choice of gift.

Urging people to adopt, not shop, founder Ingrid Newkirk said: “It’s a shame Kim missed the chance to be a spokesperson for shelter pups and is being rightly slammed on social media.”

Tim’s Su-preme gift

Timothee Chalamet got a surprise from one of his heroes as he turned 30 on Saturday.

In a video shared online, Susan Boyle wore merch from the actor’s new movie Marty Supreme to sing Happy Birthday to him.

This month Timothee hailed the Scottish singing sensation, who found fame after dazzling on TV’s Britain’s Got Talent, as one of his greatest Brits, saying: “She dreamt bigger than all of us. Who wasn’t moved by that?”

He seemed chuffed by his special video as he celebrated his milestone.

Sharing it on Instagram, he wrote: “THANK U SUSAN!!!!!!!!”

A dream team for Dermot

Dermot Kennedy has teamed up with Noah Kahan to work on new music, which may well end up on the Irishman’s upcoming third album.

Dermot has been pals with the Stick Season singer for years, but he recently let slip that they have finally got together to record tracks.

In an exclusive interview, I asked Dermot if he had been in the studio with any other artists and he replied: “We did spend a day with Noah Kahan, which was lovely.

“I’ve been a fan of his for a long time.”

Last month, Outnumbered singer Dermot announced a huge UK and Europe arena tour, which will begin in May.

And he told how his sleep pattern became “extremely irregular” while working on his forthcoming album.

He said: “There were days where I might start at night and go until all hours.

“When the mood feels right, you do it.”

Lily Allen stocked up on Britney Spears-themed cigarette lighters from Pittsburgh-based artist Jegan Mones, on her recent US trip.

The Smile singer loved the products so much she later returned to the store to buy others emblazened with Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan.

Sounds like Lily is paying homage to fellow reformed party girls in her own way.

Adele is rolling in the dosh

Adele banked £158,000 a week last year, despite not having released an album since 2021.

Her pop empire is run by A Adkins Touring, Melted Stone and Melted Stone Publishing and new accounts filed over Christmas reveal she added £8.2 million to her business riches over the year in 2024.

But that doesn’t include earnings from her money-spinning ten-date residency in a purpose-built venue in Munich, or the final 32 dates of her Las Vegas residency, which ended in November last year.

Even at a modest £100 per seat, the Munich gigs would have raked in £75million in ticket sales alone.

And although her Vegas residency saw Adele, above, performing in a smaller venue, she will still have made millions.

There was a six-year gap between her last two records, so maybe there won’t be too much longer to wait before Adele pops up to say Hello once again.

Sam plays NYE safe

He’s had a cracking year with a new album and his biggest headline show yet but Sam Ryder won’t be opening the champagne on New Year’s Eve.

The singer is headlining the 40th annual London Parade on New Year’s Day, appearing in a line-up featuring 8,000 other performers, and he’s planning to play it safe in the run-up.

In an exclusive chat, he told me: “I love New Year’s, but love an early night more. Pre-gig prep like sleep and rest are super-important to me, so I’ll see in the New Year with friends, family and a few mocktails.”

The London Parade will be shown on London Live and on YouTube from 12pm.

Sam, right, continued: “We have an hour-long set so a decent amount of time to ring in the New Year in style.”

Next summer, Sam will take the lead in an 11-week run of Jesus Christ Superstar at the London Palladium – and is also penning tunes at his new home in Nashville.

He added: “We’ve got the busiest year coming up so I want to get into the most positive space.”

ADAM Peaty’s Strictly co-star Dan Walker came under fire over a “tone deaf” post about being invited to his wedding – after he cut family members from the big day.

The 31-year-old uninvited his mum and blocked texts from his family – as Gordon Ramsay took a swipe at the swimmer’s parents in his father-of-the-bride speech.

A number of well-known guests were seen attending the wedding of the Olympic athlete and TV chef Gordon’s daughter.

Newsreader Dan shared a photo of the order of service from Bath Abbey where Adam married Holly Ramsay on Saturday.

He captioned his post: “We had a lovely time celebrating with @adam_peaty & @hollyramsayy yesterday.

“Great wedding, top people, wonderful service, unforgettable reception, brilliant speeches and we got to sing some bangers in the church too.”

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Gordon’s fiery speech at Holly’s wedding as Adam blocks texts from family

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Dragon’s Den star Sara shared photos from her friendship with Adam over the years, and said: “Yesterday I had the privilege of being at this amazing man’s wedding – and it also gave me a moment to reflect on how lucky I’ve been to have him in my life over the past four years.

“From the first day we met on Strictly, we’ve been firm friends, and it was a real honour to sit in Bath Abbey and watch him get emotional as the love of his life walked down the aisle.

“It was such a special day. Simon and I had the best time, the service was beautiful – and I’m sure you’ll not be surprised to hear me say, it was hands down the best wedding food I’ve ever had.

“Wishing my wonderful friend and his gorgeous bride a lifetime of happiness together.”

However both celebrities came under fire from their followers.

One told Dan: “Pity his mum and dad didn’t enjoy it too. Insensitive post,” as another said: “Nice Christian thing to do sticking it to his mother for not getting an invite. Well done Saint Dan…”

Another said: “Couldn’t agree more. Tone deaf.”

Another fan typed beneath his post: “I think this post is upsetting on so many levels.”

While One more remarked: “Sorry Dan poor judgment given the devastating circumstances for the Peaty parents.”

This person asked the TV star: “Sorry Dan, but did you really have to post this?

“For those of Adams family who weren’t there, for whatever reason, it might come across as insensitive.”

Sara was also blasted by some of her followers.

One posted: “There is something very wrong with celebrities sharing their attendance- when the most important person (regardless of who was right/wrong) was not there.”

A second person suggested: “Now Sarah you know this would bring up not good comments. You know what you are doing.

One more said: “That brakes my heart that you get the privilege to put this. As a mother of a son it breaks my heart.”

Among the A-list guests at the nuptials were Ramsay family friends Sir David Beckham and wife Victoria, plus their sons Romeo and Cruz and daughter Harper.

The maids of honour wore dresses designed by Victoria in red, while Tana wore a similar style dress in green.

Security was tight, with guests wearing wristbands embossed with H&A.

But most of Adam’s family, including his mum Caroline, dad Mark and brothers James and Richard, stayed at home 150 miles away after he fell out with them.

Adam’s family feud exploded after his mum Caroline was not invited to Holly’s hen do.

It then escalated when Adam later called cops after his brother James allegedly made threats via text while Adam was on his stag do.

A family source told The Sun on Sunday last night: “Frankly, it’s disgusting that it went ahead without Adam reaching out to his mum and dad beforehand.”

The family were left even more distraught amid claims dad Mark was told by the swimmer’s sister Beth before Christmas he could attend, but had to sit at the back.

Our source said: “It was a difficult day for Caroline and Mark, so the family spent the evening together.

“Caroline got upset as soon as she saw the photographs from the wedding.

“For him to turn around and tell Beth that his dad could come and sit at the back of the church is awful.

“Mark was told he could sit behind plus-ones — who Adam has probably never even seen or spoken to.”

The star’s swimming coach Melanie Marshall stepped in to deliver a reception speech, in place of his brothers.

Fire replaces water as the elemental character in James Cameron’s “Avatar: Fire and Ash.” It’s even weaponized by Varang (Oona Chaplin), the ruthless leader of the volcano-dwelling Ash People, in their war against the rest of the Na’vi tribes.

“After figuring out water in all its complexity in [‘The Way of Water’], we focused on fire,” Cameron said about his VFX Oscar front-runner. “Fire is very much the same — you have to be very observant of [this] in the world. This is where having an understanding of physics — which I do — helps, and this is where a lot of real-world photography and reference comes in handy.”

Creating more realistic-looking fire in CG required Cameron to apply his understanding of fuel and how it burns, including flow rates, the interaction of temperature gradients, the speed of an object that’s burning and the formation of carbon and soot.

In essence, fire became the centerpiece of every scene — and a character with its own escalating drama. That’s where the VFX wizards of Wētā FX in New Zealand came in. They developed Kora, a high-fidelity tool set for physics-based chemical combustion simulations. Kora increased the scale of fire while providing more artist-friendly controls. The film contains more than 1,000 digital fire FX shots, ranging from flaming arrows and flamethrowers to massive explosions and fire tornadoes.

“Physical fire is really hard to control, so we had to come up with how to bend the physics towards the direction that Jim was giving it,” said Wētā senior VFX supervisor Joe Letteri. “Because he was very specific where he wanted the fire, what kind of speed, rate, size, how much or how little energy. He very carefully crafted every component, guiding your eye across it.”

“Fire serves two roles,” added Eric Saindon, a VFX supervisor at Wētā. “There’s always a little bit of low fire going on during quiet moments, but then you get fire that becomes much more destructive whenever there’s an attack sequence.”

In the film’s best scene, where archvillain Col. Quaritch (Stephen Lang) and Varang meet for the first time in her tent, fire takes on a more subtle, mysterious quality. She gives Quaritch a trippy “truth drug” to ascertain his real agenda, seductively playing with fire with her fingers like a sorceress. The scene turns surreal with camera distortion and zoom shots to convey his hallucinatory point of view.

Then Quaritch surprises her with his superpower: the truth. He proposes a partnership to provide his military weaponry so she can spread her fire across the world and he can rule as her co-equal. “In a strange way, they become the power couple from hell,” Cameron said. “He wins her over by sharing his vision.”

The physical properties of fire drove much of the visual effects work in “Avatar: Fire and Ash.”

(20th Century Studios)

Meanwhile, the subtle flicker of fire with cool blues around the edges of the flame is like a magic trick. “She knows it’s about theater, so she presumably has some kind of a gel or makeup that’s on the tips of her fingers so that they just don’t burn away in the first few seconds,” Cameron continued. “She’s able to dip her fingers in some kind of inflammable oil and light them and have them burn like candles. Of course, in his mind, it’s all enhanced much more due to the hallucinogen.”

Cameron praised both actors in the scene, but singled out Chaplin’s performance for the force she brings to Varang’s shamanistic authority. “She understood how the character would manifest her power psychologically and how there was a flip in the scene, where the flow of power runs the other direction at a certain point.”

The director also commended Wētā’s facial capture animation team for achieving a new level of photorealism, thanks in large measure to more realistic muscle and skin movement. “The way Oona’s performance comes through so resoundingly in the character is a tribute to a lot of R&D, a lot of development in the facial pipeline. But I think it really demonstrates how the idea of CG as a kind of digital makeup really does work. What I’m proud about in that scene is that it’s a culmination of an almost 20-year journey in terms of getting exact verisimilitude in the facial representation of the characters as an extension of the actors’ work.”

“It was really fun showing Varang to Jim because he knew what he had in the performance,” added Dan Barrett, a senior animation supervisor at Wētā. “And he included Oona’s idiosyncrasies in the final animation. He was very respectful of the performance.”

In fact, Cameron argues, Chaplin’s performance as Varang is Oscar-worthy. “It may be counterintuitive, but I would argue that it’s a more pure form of acting,” he suggested. “Now, you may say that it’s cheating in terms of the cinematography in the sense that the cards are stacked in our favor because that perfect performance will always be there and will be repeatable as I do my different camera coverage. But it’s not cheating in terms of the acting.”

Cameron has recently been more proactive in demonstrating how the performance-capture process works to academy and SAG-AFTRA acting members so they can better understand it. “It was just us, working on capturing a scene, and I even wrote new scenes so it wasn’t a made-up dog-and-pony show. And they were blown away,” he added.

IT’S rare for an X Factor star to still be around 16 years after losing what was once the biggest show on TV but Stacey Solomon played the long game – going on to become one of the busiest women in entertainment.

This year in particular has been huge for Stacey – having launched her own reality show and landing a spot judging on BGT – but insiders tell us the 36-year-old is struggling behind the scenes as she wades against the vicious turning tide.

The Sun has been told that mum-of-five Stacey is in panic mode as the negativity increases, desperate to get people back on side. 

A source revealed: “The bottom line is Stacey is no longer relatable. 

“People think she flaunts her wealth and moans all the time – now Stacey’s being advised to rein it in and shut her mouth or risk ruining everything she’s worked so hard for.

“The plan is for Stacey to go back to basics and remember who her audience is. No more bragging about expensive holidays and keeping in mind not everybody is in her position”

Stace cashed in on her relatable ‘ditzy’ personality and – instead of chasing a record deal – turned her attention to social media and the fast cash that comes with being an influencer. 

A Loose Women gig ensured she was always in the headlines while online posts sharing her tips and tricks for keeping a house going soon turned into something much more lucrative, releasing books and launching prime time BBC show Sort Your Life Out. 

She also signed with the BBC for the fly-on-the-wall series Stacey & Joe, which gave viewers a regularly uncomfortable insight into the ups-and-downs of her marriage to Joe Swash.

It has all helped determined Stacey, 36, build up an estimated net worth of £7.3million and live a comfortable life in a £1.3million Essex mansion she calls Pickle Cottage with Joe and her children. 

But nobody likes a show-off and Stacey’s girl-next-door mask has been slowly slipping for some time now, with fans turning on her for “flaunting her wealth”. 

Earlier this year she was branded “smug” after bragging about her latest family holiday to Turkey, which set her back a staggering £30,000 a WEEK. 

Not exactly the kind of holiday that most of Stacey’s followers – who ironically helped pay for the OTT break – can aspire to. 

And even Stacey’s crafting is becoming increasingly out of budget for the average person. 

Stacey shares Rex, six, Rose, four, and two-year-old Belle with Joe, 43. 

She is also mum to Zachary, 17, and Leighton, 13, from previous relationships. 

Creative Stacey left fans’ noses out of joint when she showed off homemade decorations for Belle’s birthday, revealing an incredible display of pink and red roses. 

Someone wrote: “Looks amazing….effective and dreamy..however I think the cost of flowers would be quite high for a lot of people… x.”

And another added: “Very expensive for the lay folk x.”

In another move which drew criticism, viewers of on Stacey & Joe were quick to notice her enthusiasm for plugging her private side-hustles – including fashion, homeware and perfume brands.

The repeated appearances of Stacey’s products, some seemingly laid out for the cameras, drew accusations that the show was breaching strict BBC rules against ‘talent’ promoting products on-screen.

PANIC MODE 

Stacey is someone who’s undoubtedly used to a bit of backlash here and there – a thick skin is required to survive in her industry. 

In May the ‘loveable’ and ‘goofy’ Stacey bared her teeth when she had an almighty diva tantrum over not winning a Bafta. 

Sort Your Life Out was nominated in the Entertainment category but lost out to Rob and Rylan’s Grand Tour. 

Stacey was furious – and didn’t hold back when she took to Instagram to share her thoughts. 

She said: “We didn’t win a Bafta. And I know I’m supposed to take it gracefully like a champ but, I’ll be honest, I’m devastated!

“I’m not handling it very well, I’m not taking it very gracefully – I’m devastated! I’m devastated for our whole team, like I’m so gutted for our team.”

And just months later she launched a blistering attack on the National Television Awards when Sort Your Life Out and her fly-on-the-wall Stacey & Joe were nominated in the same category.  

She told Magic Radio: “They’ve put Sort Your Life Out and Stacey & Joe in the same blummin’ category for some reason – we’re up against each other which is absolutely ludicrous.”

Our insider said: “Stacey’s been made aware the public aren’t fans of whinging – the Baftas meltdown was embarrassing and she came off as entitled.

“And the only thing she should’ve been was grateful when both of her shows were given nods at the NTAs.”

CAUSING TENSION

Stacey and ex-EastEnders star Joe tied the knot at Pickle Cottage in 2022 and the couple don’t shy away from airing their dirty laundry on their reality show. 

One scene on the most recent series showed them clashing after Joe allowed their kids to eat dinner on the sofa while Stacey was working away. 

During a tense phone call, a furious Joe branded his wife “out of order” before hanging up on her. 

Another episode saw Joe struggling with the chaotic school run while Stacey was on a luxury trip to Lake Como, Italy for a photoshoot. 

He didn’t hold back, confessing: “Stacey’s like the permanent teacher and I’m the substitute teacher that the kids just take advantage of.”

We’re told something else bubbling away is Stacey – who has six million Instagram followers to Joe’s two million – often left feeling like the backlash from the public is mainly aimed at her. 

A source said: “Things between her and Joe are tense at times because of the sudden unrelenting backlash.

“Stacey tells Joe she takes the brunt of the negativity and that he should be more understanding of the pressure she’s under.

“They love each other and their marriage is totally solid but when she wants to be Stacey can be cutting.

“On more than a few occasions a row has resulted in her telling him she’s sick of being the breadwinner – which is a real kick in the teeth for Joe.”

The couple now have the chance to take a break and reset over Christmas – although they are letting the cameras in to film a third series of their reality show.

And fans should expect a much more down-to-earth approach on the family show, with Stacey desperate to be seen as a relatable, hard-working mum once again.

This Saturday will mark five years since Juan Gabriel died.

Of course, the iconic singer songwriter — real name Alberto Aguilera Valadez — isn’t really dead.

His body may no longer be with us, but how can someone who meant so much to people of Mexican heritage on both sides of the border cease to exist?

It’s impossible to sum up the full impact that Gabriel has had on generations of Mexicans and Mexican Americans. It’s more than the songs or the stage persona or the me vale attitude to what you thought about his sexuality. It’s the fact that for many of us he’s a connection to our families (raise your hand if your mom made you clean the house while blasting his music), to our homeland and to our culture. He gave us a shared language that affords us the opportunity to rejoice or grieve as a community.

There are profiles written about the man that are worth your time — I recommend this one published in The Times in 1999 — but for this newsletter we turned it over to our community to tell us how El Divo de Juárez forever changed their lives.

Juan Gabriel and the LGBTQ community

Juan Gabriel when asked if he was gay: “Lo que se ve no se pregunta”

(Julio Salgado / For The Times)

Luis Octavio remembers the first time he saw Gabriel. He was sitting with his family and the singer was about to perform on the weekly Mexican variety show “Siempre en Domingo.”

But all he could focus on was the sequins Gabriel was wearing.

“It gave me a little bit of hope that maybe my jotería would be accepted just the way my abuela, my abuelo, the tíos and everybody else who saw him on that screen accepted his and saw past his flamboyance,” said Octavio, co-founder of the drag bar El Place and one of the organizers of Boyle Heights’ first pride event.

Gabriel’s sexual orientation has always been an open secret. It has always been assumed that he was gay, but it was rarely discussed, with one glaring exception.

During a 2002 interview with news program “Primer Impacto,” reporter Fernando del Rincón asked Juanga point-blank if he was gay. With daggers in his eyes, Gabriel responded with “Lo que se ve, no se pregunta.” What is seen is not asked.

Octavio told me this interview always stood out for him — he described it as iconic, which, yeah, it is — because it told Mexican queer people that being who they were was more than enough and that you didn’t owe anything to anyone.

It’s a sentiment that Nomi B, a drag queen who hosts “Noche de Gringaderas” at El Place, certainly relates to.

“We all knew he was a sister,” she said.

“I admire that he kept his life private and he was like, ‘I don’t care what you think or say about me. I’m going to keep my life private and you’re going to enjoy my music no matter what.’”

‘Abrázame que el tiempo es malo y muy cruel amigo’

In 2000, Juan Gabriel released “Abrazame Muy Fuerte,” an operatic banger that makes the case that time is cruel, unforgiving and finite for humans. Because of this, he begs his subject to pend much of that time embraced in each other’s arms. The song was a huge hit and was used as the theme song for a telenovela that shared the same name.

A few years later, it also became my parents’ song.

Around that time, my mom developed a brain tumor. The doctors didn’t know yet if it was malignant, but my family assumed the worst. The prospect of losing our anchor became very real. My dad took it the hardest, and because he is the embodiment of the closed-off macho who tries very hard not to emote, he didn’t have an outlet to let out what he was going through.

So he did what any Mexican would do: He turned to Juan Gabriel.

I was away at college when this happened, but my sister would tell me that he’d play the song nonstop, sometimes sitting next to my mom on the couch with his eyes closed in prayer. It must’ve worked because the tumor ended up benign. Decades later, my mom is the healthiest she’s ever been.

During the pandemic, that song took on an added meaning for me. It was late last year and my parents and I decided to take a road trip. “Abrazame Muy Fuerte” came on. All three of us started singing along, and it wasn’t long before we started bawling. The painful memory came back, but with it came the realization that we still had time and we were spending it together.

That’s the thing about Juan Gabriel’s music. These aren’t just songs. They’re memories. They’re feelings we can’t express, and even if we could, why would we when Juanga’s already done it better?

When I decided to write about Gabriel, I knew that I wanted others to share some of their favorite songs. I asked friends and colleagues to contribute a song for this Spotify playlist and to write a few lines about why they picked that tune.

Artist Julio Salgado: “I wanted to illustrate a mom teaching her son to clean while listening to Juan Gabriel. I totally took this from my own experience as my mom had no tolerance for boys just sitting around and not cleaning when we were growing up.”

(Julio Salgado / For The Times)

“Querida”— He’s just so dramatic! Like, “Yes, b—!” (Nomi B, drag queen)

“Amor Eterno” — If there’s a song that defines who Juan Gabriel is, it’s “Amor Eterno.” Since he wrote the song for Rocio Durcal, it’s Juan Gabriel as a song writer. As a singer, his emotion has made it the quintessential Mexican song about heartbreak, regret, and ultimately, trying to make sense out those emotions. With the song’s lyrics and emotions — along with Juan Gabriel being from the Juárez-El Paso borderland — it’s little wonder why “Amor Eterno” was played and sang everywhere in the days following the El Paso massacre. (Roberto José Andrade Franco, writer-at-large at Texas Highways)

“La Frontera” — When I first moved to the U.S. I felt like I didn’t belong here because I didn’t speak perfect English and nobody could pronounce my name. Listening to that song and how he talked about how everybody’s happy at the border and how everyone’s different, it made me feel safe. (Luis Octavio, co-founder of Boyle Heights drag bar “El Place”)

“Inocente Pobre Amigo” — Juan Gabriel was the first poet in my life, a staple at my parents’ home in South Gate, California. My mother owned all of his albums. And when I went away to study literature at the University of Chicago, I took them with me.

I was back in California, walking around in Boyle Heights, when he passed. I got the news alert. Then, all along César E. Chávez Avenue, shop owners blasted his songs. Juan Gabriel wrote hundreds. I know all of them.

For beginners, I recommend “Inocente Pobre Amigo,” which recounts a heartbreaking disillusion but, above all, is a song about valuing yourself. Go on YouTube. Find the version that was recorded during Juan Gabriel’s first concert in Mexico City’s Palace of Fine Arts. Watch him perform with his hands on his hips, glistening in black and gold sequins. Hear him crack jokes with the audience and watch the mariachis on stage try to muffle their laugh. Recall that some elitists thought his work was too lowbrow for the venue.

When Juan Gabriel passed in 2016, his ashes were taken to that same place. For hours on end, hundreds of thousands of people poured in to pay their last respects. I wish I’d been one of them. (Julia Barajas, Los Angeles Times staff writer)

“El Noa Noa”— It’s a song about a place where you can go and be who you are. The ambience of the bar might be different than what people are used to, but it’s about everyone being welcomed and letting them feel like they can be happy. (Melissa Befierce, Mother of Haus of Befierce and events coordinator at El Place)

“No Tengo Dinero”— For me, Juan Gabriel’s songs are tied to memories of me riding on my grandfather’s truck with my aunt and my grandmother on the roads of Campeche where we lived for a few years. Juan Gabriel’s “No Tengo Dinero” is one of his iconic songs because for many it’s always a struggle to have money, but if at least we have love, we know we’ll be alright. (Denise Florez, Los Angeles Times multiplatform editor)

“Have You Ever Seen the Rain? (Gracias al Sol)” — My mom and tías have always been huge Juan Gabriel fans. I grew up in El Paso and he of course has immensely close ties to Juárez, where his career took off. His music is the soundtrack of my childhood. There was a brief time when it was around so much, it annoyed me. But when I moved away from home, that soundtrack became so powerful and comforting. It instantly connected me with my family. My sister, mom and I have sung (poorly) along to “Querida” hundreds of times at this point. But that’s going to be almost everyone’s favorite song. It’s just kind of perfect JuanGa. But the one I’ll choose for this playlist is what I believe is the only cover he ever did: “Have You Ever Seen the Rain? (Gracias al Sol).” In the video, he’s wearing amazing rainbow-colored pants and having so much fun. He brings joy to his work and it’s infectious. He’s also a great singer, so it stays on my playlist along with the much older hits. (Iliana Limón Romero, Los Angeles Times deputy sports editor)

“Hasta Que Te Conocí” — Later brilliantly covered by Ana Gabriel, it is the perfect song about love gone sour, heightened by lyrics that are pure melodrama. (Carolina Miranda, Los Angeles Times columnist)

“Así Fue” — He was never more brilliant, more heartbreaking, more JuanGa than in that song. (Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times columnist)

“Costumbres” — Here’s an extremely on brand story: During one of my family’s chaotic Christmas parties, we were all doing what we usually do⁠—drinking tequila and singing along to a playlist of Juan Gabriel, Rocío Durcal, Alejandro Fernández and, well, you know the vibes. As always, “Costumbres” comes on, the Rocío version, and my trash-talking sister starts to sing loudly, drunkenly, and off-key: No cabe duda que es verdad que la costumbre es más grande que el amor. She looks at me and says, “That’s f— real, dude. La costumbre really is más grande que el amor.” She then scowls at her husband across the room and screams over the music, “F— you, [name redacted]!”

That is the power of “Costumbres.” That’s actually the power of 99.9% of songs written by Juan Gabriel. However, “Costumbres” is god-tier in his canon of songs that have an unbelievable ability to drag your soul. We dance to “Noa Noa,” weep to “Amor Eterno,” raise our arms up to “Querida,” and strongly consider divorce to “Costumbres.”

“Costumbres” is sung from the perspective of a person telling their partner their love has been replaced by resentment, but habit and the comfort of a warm, familiar body keeps them together no matter how many times they try to walk away. Juan Gabriel’s love songs have an uncanny ability to swim in the thick nuances of romance, its brutal pains and exhilarating joys, and as is the case with “Costumbres” the harsh realities of committing your life to someone. He seemingly had a direct line to our deepest fears about love, and expressed poetically something even as mundane as being over it but staying anyway. To quote my sister, that’s f— real, dude. And it’s why “Costumbres” along with so many other songs he penned are elevated to a place of cultural veneration and soundtrack of the most affecting moments of our lives. (Alex Zaragoza, senior culture writer at Vice)

Fernandomania @ 40: El Campeón.

The latest installment of our multi-part documentary series “Fernandomania @ 40” is out today. You can watch here.

When Fernando Valenzuela took the mound in Game 3 of the 1981 World Series, the New York Yankees had a commanding 2-0 lead over the Dodgers and Tommy Lasorda’s crew was facing the real possibility of a third World Series loss in five years to their East Coast rivals. In the end, the Dodgers won the game, 5-4, largely due to the gritty performance of their rookie left-hander. Valenzuela gave up nine hits and seven walks in a 146-pitch complete-game, spurring the team to a World Series victory and cementing his pitching legacy in Los Angeles.

Missed an episode of “Fernandomania @ 40”? You can find them all here.

Yesterday was the MLS vs. Liga MX All Star Game at the Banc of California Stadium near downtown Los Angeles, but the most important soccer match that took place that day happened hours earlier at a park in Pasadena. That’s where members of the #LigaMXEng community got together to celebrate the beautiful game (and come to terms with how out of shape many of us actually are).

What’s #LigaMXEng? It’s a Twitter hashtag where podcasters, reporters, and fans from around the country congregate to talk about Liga MX, the most popular soccer league in the United States. More importantly, it’s entirely in English, the primary language for many of us. It’s that last part that does it for me.

AMERICAN stars Beyoncé and Jay-Z are set to use a “rich person” planning loophole to build a huge rural estate in the UK. 

The couple are said to have bought a 58-acre plot in the Cotswolds for their mansion. 

On the land is a derelict shack near an algae-filled lake. 

Permission has been granted for a spectacular seven-bed property. 

Development is allowed under a special exemption clause in the Government’s National Planning Policy Framework. It gives permission for new homes in rural locations where planning would typically be refused. 

To qualify the design must be of “exceptional quality . . . truly outstanding, reflecting the highest standards in architecture”. 

FACE OF GLOOM

Adam Peaty’s parents look devastated as they break cover after wedding snub

SAD TIMES

Heartbreaking moment Harvey Price bursts into tears over accident at home

It has been dubbed the “rich person clause” because of the ­millions of pounds required to override regular restrictions. 

Planning permission for the development in Oxfordshire was granted in 2021 but work never started. 

The plot was later marketed for £7.5million with the permission attached and has been sold — with Texas Hold ’Em singer Beyoncé, 44, and 99 Problems rapper Jay-Z, 56, believed to be the purchasers. 

The listing stated the property is “totally unique”, adding “The site for the new house is at the head of a long drive that meanders through beautiful countryside to a magical woodland lake. 

“The start of the drive is on the edge of a sought-after village and is within striking distance of Soho Farmhouse. 

“Permission has been granted to create a large contemporary dwelling that part-cantilevers over its own lake, has incredible room volumes throughout, will be exceptionally light and have stunning views over the countryside. 

“The position and the permission are unrivalled.” 

Beyoncé, Jay-Z and their children live in California but have made several trips to the area. 

Stars Jeremy Clarkson, Claudia Winkleman and David and Victoria Beckham live nearby. 

But locals have concerns about an influx of A-listers. One 71-year-old, who has lived there for more than 60 years, said: “My grandson will think this is wonderful that they are coming here. I think it will change the village.” 

Warning: This story contains spoilers from the series finale of “Younger.”

In the very last scene of “Younger,” Liza (Sutton Foster), wearing a chambray button-down shirt, tries to order a round of drinks at the bar. She’s frantically waving her shoe in an attempt to get the bartender’s attention when Josh (Nico Tortorella), dressed in a crisp white tee, interrupts her.

Josh: Whoa, you don’t wave a shoe, you never wave a shoe! In Thailand, that’s considered a capital offense.
Liza: And you’ve been to Thailand?
Josh: Ah, no. But I have been to Myanmar…
Liza: … which used to be Burma …
Josh: … back in the day.
Liza: I knew that!

Any devout fan watching this scene probably got a feeling of deja vu: Is this the first episode of the series or the last?

The answer, of course, is both. “After seven seasons, it’s tough to end a series in an elegant and satisfying way,” creator Darren Star told The Times. “We all thought it’d be great to have this full-circle moment where we go back to the pilot, if we could find a way to get there.”

It’s quite far from where the series finale began: Liza and Charles (Peter Hermann) are lying in bed and smiling about their reconciliation in the previous episode, in which he left Quinn (Laura Benanti) and told Liza he loved her. “I just know what makes me happy, and to pretend anything else would be just lying to myself,” he tells her. “Only the truth from now on, even if it hurts.”

The hourlong installment takes Charles’ words to heart. Consider the episode’s musical number, which literary agent Redmond (Michael Urie) asks Liza and Charles to watch as a potential investment opportunity. A cross between the “Chicago” roll call “Cell Block Tango” and the “Assassins” opener “Everybody’s Got The Right,” it equates Liza’s fibs about her age to schemes of infamous liars like Elizabeth Holmes, Billy McFarland, Bernie Madoff and Rachel Dolezal.

“When it’s the last season of your show, you want to do everything on your wish list,” said Star of the performance, with lyrics by parodist Ryan Raftery. “But it wasn’t completely gratuitous because it pushed the Liza-Charles story along by bringing the big lie back up again.”

Charles, however, says he has come to peace with that chapter. And it turns out he’s also OK with the fact that Kelsey (Hilary Duff) covertly sent her and Liza’s proposal for their unconventional e-book publishing app Inkubator to investors for a valuation, in case they can get a better deal as a standalone venture than with their publishing house, Empirical.

He already knew Kelsey did that but wanted to hear Liza cop to it herself. “Wait, so you were testing me?” she asks him. “Maybe — in a way, I was — but you passed,” he responds, an answer that visibly irks Liza.

“After everything they went through, Charles wanted a level of complete honesty between them,” said Star. “You see Liza realize that she was never going to be in a safe place with him. There would always be this cloud of suspicion over everything she did, and this would be a relationship where she’d be continually tested.”

Liza soon confesses that she secretly submitted Charles’ unfinished manuscript to the notable writers’ colony Yaddo — and he was accepted. While that’s great news, Charles isn’t thrilled. They discuss it while lying in bed later that night:

Charles: If I hadn’t gotten into Yaddo, would you have let me know?
Liza: Uh, I don’t know. Maybe not.
Charles: Yeah, why bother? Because I didn’t even know you applied. … It would’ve just been your little secret.

It’s a passive-aggressive response that doesn’t go unnoticed. “For Charles, even a white lie, or a lie of omission for the purpose of protecting somebody’s feelings, was considered a lack of integrity for him,” said Star. “We all tell little lies like that, and they’re forgiven. But Liza realized all the things that other people let slide very easily in their relationships weren’t going to slide with them.”

Liza then asks the big, honest question: “Hey, we’re not gonna make it, are we?” Charles shakes his head: “I don’t think so.”

“We wanted to have almost an unspoken moment between them when they really understood that, though they loved each other, it was going to be an impossible relationship to have because he was just never going to forgive her for the original big lie,” said Star. “She was being held to an impossible standard that nobody could ever maintain. So as much as they both wanted to make it work, it just wasn’t going to.

“Maybe, had they met each other under different circumstances, it might have worked,” he continued. “But then again, if they were being honest from the beginning, Charles would have had to meet Liza as a divorced housewife from New Jersey who wanted to get back into publishing, and she would have had to meet somebody who was looking at her like she was a divorced housewife from New Jersey.”

After their breakup, Liza and Charles are back at the office, where she tells him that she plans to resign. But Charles, it turns out, is seizing the opportunity to go to Yaddo and finish his book. He plans to leave Empirical in her hands while he’s gone — and maybe longer. In their final scene together, they genuinely thank each other.

“You have to remember that, for most of the seasons, they were projecting ideas onto the other person, and they didn’t really have a lot of time to actually be their authentic selves together,” Star explained. “It’s also a lot of projection and wish fulfillment from the audience as well — this idea of ‘These two look like they should belong together, so they do belong together.’ In fact, there are a lot of reasons why they aren’t really that suited for each other.

“But they had a passionate love affair, and Charles, through his relationship with Liza, discovers a way to reinvent his life,” he added. “I think he gets so much out of his relationship with her. Finding a partner may not necessarily be what he needs. What he might really need is to feed his creative side, and she helps him find a way to do that.”

The episode concludes with the ladies celebrating their collective good news: Liza’s new role at Empirical, Maggie (Debi Mazar) and Lauren’s (Molly Bernard) respective romances, and Kelsey’s next adventure on the West Coast, after Inkubator finds a home with a Los Angeles-based company. (A spinoff about Kelsey’s next chapter would’ve been “a bit of a female ‘Entourage,’” and is unlikely to move forward due to Duff’s commitment to a new series.)

“Regardless of the spinoff, that was gonna be her path,” said Star. “She had to get out from under publishing and completely set off in a different direction. We felt she needed a fresh start — her own reinvention.”

Liza then heads to the bar and runs into Josh. They look similar, though not exactly the same to how they did when they first met. “Seven years later, Liza and Josh have each grown up a little bit,” said costume designer Jacqueline Demeterio.

Some of the tweaks? Foster wore a denim Celine shirt (instead of the Current/Elliott top from the pilot) and waved a Prada leopard-print shoe rather than a nondescript black flat “to show a slight evolution in her personal style.” (Once Foster tried on the outfit in her final fitting with Demeterio, they both got teary-eyed.)

Tortorella, who wore a burnout’s white T-shirt in the first episode, was updated with a Saint Laurent tee, complete with a tattoo heart design just below the neckline. “I didn’t want it to look like we were trying too hard or distract from what was happening,” said Demeterio. “I just wanted it to be subtle and keep the focus on them two in this moment that’s going to be the end of the whole series.”

After they repeat their meet-cute, she says offhandedly, “Sorry, I didn’t see you there.” He gives her a layered, puzzled look. “Really?” he says. “Because you know what? I’ve been right here, by your side, all along.”

His response is visibly unexpected by Liza — and, likely, the viewer, who hadn’t seen much of Josh all season. “We knew it was worth having him sit back for a while so we could have that beautiful moment at the end of the series,” said Star. Writing those key lines, Star “wanted to keep it simple, heartfelt and real.”

The camera zooms out as they continue to repeat the banter of their first meeting — a decision that leaves their fate up for debate. Does this mean Liza ends up with Josh after all?

“There’s always been a real authenticity between them since the beginning of the series — even though she did lie to him, that lie was revealed by the end of the first season, so he certainly knows her better than any man on the show,” said Star. “I think Josh really loves her, and I think she really loves him.

“In that very last moment, after everything with Charles, Liza is definitely looking at him through fresh eyes and seeing him from a whole new perspective,” he continued. “I don’t know if they’re gonna be together, but I think they’re open to the fact that they’re always going to be in each other’s lives.”

Those final frames — and Star’s explanation — might be unsatisfying to anyone who’s been waiting for years for a more definitive answer about Liza’s love life. “But the show was never about Liza finding a man; it was always about Liza reinventing herself,” reminded Star. “She’d already had a marriage, she was looking to have a career.

“So I never really thought it was such a binary thing — Josh or Charles,” he added. “And I didn’t felt the pressure or obligation to have this big, romantic endgame for her because, to me, at its heart, that was never really what the show is about.”

ACTRESS Melanie Watson died on Friday in Colorado Springs.

Best known for her role on the 80s TV show “Diff’rent Strokes”, she passed away aged 57.

The Diff’rent Strokes actress had been in hospital where she quickly deteriorated, TMZ reported.

Robert Watson, Melanie’s brother told the outlet that she died on December 26.

He said his sister had been suffering bleeding, and that doctors did their best to help her.

Watson was born in Dana Point, California, with a condition called osteogenesis imperfecta, which causes bones to fracture easily.

The disease can also cause a curved spine, difficulty breathing, muscle weakness, and other issues.

The actress’ brother told TMZ that she was lucky to have lived as long as she did with her condition.

Robert said he would always think of Melanie.

She played Arnold’s pal Kathy Gordon on the 1980s TV show Diff’rent Strokes, appearing in four episodes of the hit show.

Her character used a wheelchair, just as the child star did in real life.

In 1982, she appeared in an episode called Kathy, named after her character.

In the episode, Kathy argued with Gary Coleman’s character, Arnold, after he tried to convince her to walk without using crutches.

Watson retired from showbiz after her run on hit show Diff’rent Strokes ended.

Later, she was married to Roger Bernhardt, for four years between 1994 and 1996.

Known professionally as Melanie Bernhardt, the child star was the founder and executive director of Train Rite, an organisation that trains shelter dogs to help disabled people.

In 2020, the the actress began a run for the Colorado State Senate, but pulled out of the race as “unforeseeable health conditions” derailed her campaign.

In 2024, she had expressed hopes of running for political office again.

Watson spoke about her TV stardom in a 2020 interview with IndieWire, describing herself as “a pill” to work with.

She said: “I was always playing with my yo-yo and listening to my Walkman.”

Talking about representing disabled people like her on screen, Watson said: “I didn’t realise what a gift it was to be the first one out there.

If I had to do it all over again, I would have stayed in the business.”

After the eye strain, the greatest occupational hazard of being a TV critic is people asking what’s good on television. It’s a question I typically find impossible to answer on the spur of the moment, as a show will run out of my head as soon as a review is filed in order to make room for the next one. (I buy time by responding, “What do you like?”) It is only at this reflective season of the year that I can stop, look back and list them.

Our picks for this year’s best in arts and entertainment.

Every year, television has its ups and downs, its ebb and flow, depending on a host of reasons I will only ever vaguely understand. I will take this opportunity to say that there are way too many psychological thrillers on way too many platforms nowadays, but there are always more than enough shows to praise — and as always, I include only series that are new this year. Some are here because they deliver real surprises — not just plot twists and sudden revelations, but new directions and original formats. Others are here by dint of good old-fashioned storytelling, memorable characters and terrific performances — or just because they made me laugh.

Here they are, in no special order.

‘Hal & Harper’ (Mubi)

Lili Reinhart and Cooper Raiff in Mubi’s “Hal & Harper.”

(Mubi)

Writer-director Cooper Raiff’s delicate drama looks at a brother and a sister — played by Raiff and Lili Reinhart both as adults and children, with no sacrifice of reality — made close by the early loss of their mother and the grief of their father (Mark Ruffalo, identified only as Dad). The sale of their old house and the prospect of a new sibling — Dad’s girlfriend (Betty Gilpin, going from strength to strength) — sets things in motion. The dialogue avoids exposition, the silences say much. (Read the review.)

‘The Lowdown’ (FX)

Ethan Hawke and Ryan Kiera Armstrong in FX’s “The Lowdown.”

(Shane Brown / FX)

In Sterlin Harjo’s shaggy dog follow-up to “Reservation Dogs,” the ever-evolving Ethan Hawke plays Lee Raybon, a raggedy Tulsa “truthstorian,” citizen journalist and used-book dealer, looking into the apparent suicide of the oddball member of a powerful family. The series pays homage to noir film and fiction, even as it’s too bright, mischievous and full of love to qualify as noir itself (though Lee does get beat up a lot). Politicians, land developers, white supremacists and Natives collide. The cast also includes Kyle MacLachlan, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Peter Dinklage, Keith David, Kaniehtiio Horn (the Deer Lady in “Reservation Dogs”) as Ray’s ex-wife and the marvelous Ryan Kiera Armstrong as his teenage daughter and eager accomplice. Look for X’s John Doe as a purveyor of bootleg caviar. (Read the review.)

‘Women Wearing Shoulder Pads’ (Adult Swim), ‘Common Side Effects’ (Adult Swim), ‘Oh My God … Yes!’ (Adult Swim), ‘Long Story Short’ (Netflix)

1

2

3

4

1. “Women Wearing Shoulder Pads” on Adult Swim. (Warner Bros) 2. “Common Side Effects” on Adult Swim. (Adult Swim) 3. “Oh My God … Yes!” on Adult Swim. (Warner Bros. Discovery) 4. “Long Story Short” on Netflix. (Netflix)

Animation! “Women Wearing Shoulder Pads” is a queer Spanish-language stop-motion comedy melodrama, set in the aesthetic world of a 1980s Pedro Almodóvar film, involving the fate of the cuy, a South American guinea pig (pets? food?), and a struggle between two powerful women. (Read the review.)

“Common Side Effects” is a semicomical thriller with heart, centered on a mushroom with curative properties and pitting its discoverer against the pharmaceutical-industrial complex; Martha Kelly fans will be happy to find her here as a DEA agent. (Read the review.)

“Oh My God … Yes!” is an Afro-futurist, surrealist, girlfriends-in-the-city superhero comedy — like the Powerpuff Girls, grown up, earthy and Black — featuring humanoid robots, anthropomorphic animals and gayliens (the preferred term for gay aliens). (Read the review.)

And “Long Story Short,” from “Bojack Horseman” creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg is the sweet, melancholy, satirical, silly, poignant, hopeful, sometimes slapstick cartoon tale of a normal middle-class Jewish family; the world it portrays is (mostly) ordinary, but the drawings make it extra-special. (Read the review.)

‘Demascus’ (Tubi)

Okieriete Onaodowan in Tubi’s “Demascus.”

(Jace Downs / AMC Networks)

In this Black science-fiction comedy about the search for identity and purpose, Okieriete Onaodowan plays the title character, propelled into alternative visions of his life and self by an experimental virtual reality gizmo that “follows the path of your conscious and subconscious impulses.” The settings change along with him — into a relationship reality show, a “sad Thanksgiving” domestic comedy, a setting out of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” — as supporting actors (Martin Lawrence among them) become different people around him. (Read the review.)

‘Pluribus’ (Apple TV)

Rhea Seehorn in Apple TV’s “Pluribus.”

(Anna Kooris / Apple TV)

I find Vince Gilligan’s take on “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” in which a virus from outer space turns nearly all of humanity into one giant, contented, cultish hive mind, more interesting than compelling, but it’s interesting enough, and comes with a great performance by Rhea Seehorn as one of a dozen earthlings immune to the bug — jealous of her discontent, standing up for her right to be angry. This is a slow series, yet never a boring one, and Seehorn, in a kind of one-woman-versus-everyone show, is electric even when nothing much is happening. (Read the review.)

‘The Studio’ (Apple TV)

Clockwise from left: Ike Barinholtz, Kathryn Hahn, Chase Sui Wonders and Seth Rogen in Apple TV’s “The Studio.”

(Apple TV+)

Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s breakneck farcical ode to the motion picture business (in which they do very well). Rogen stars as a new studio head, promoted from below, dealing with bad ideas (a Kool-Aid movie), big egos, and his own insecurities and need to feel appreciated. Episodes take place at the Golden Globes, a fundraising dinner and a Las Vegas trade show, with Ike Barinholtz and Kathryn Hahn on his team, Bryan Cranston as his boss — reminding you he was on “Seinfeld” and “Malcolm in the Middle” before he became Walter White — and Catherine O’Hara (brilliant, naturally) as the woman Rogen replaced. (Read the review.)

‘North of North’ (Netflix)

Anna Lambe in Netflix’s “North of North.”

(Netflix)

A sweet small-town romantic comedy, set (and filmed) in Canada’s northernmost territory among the Indigenous Inuit people. A luminous Anna Lambe stars as the 26-year-old mother of a rambunctious 7-year-old, tied to a narcissistic husband and resentful of her mother, a reformed alcoholic and former bad girl; she dreams of something more, even if it just means hauling large items to the dump. Mary Lynn Rajskub plays the cheerful, credit-grabbing town manager whose assistant she becomes. Love and a family secret will arrive from the south. The beaded parkas are gorgeous. (Read the review.)

‘The Pitt’ (HBO Max), ‘Adolescence’ (Netflix)

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1. Noah Wyle and Tracy Ifeachor in HBO Max’s “The Pitt.” (John Johnson/HBO) 2. Owen Cooper and Stephen Graham in Netflix’s “Adolescence.” (Netflix)

These two series do their work in real time, making space for naturalistic acting and a special kind of pressure. “The Pitt,” whose 15 episodes are set in a hectic Pittsburgh ER over a 15-hour shift puts Noah Wyle back in scrubs, herding (with Tracy Ifeachor) a large cast of doctors, nurses and student doctors. Cases include electrocution, drowning, overdose, scurvy, sickle cell anemia, a nail in the chest, a fastball in the eye and gallstones, with all the personal drama one expects from a hospital show. (Read the review.)

The tightly focused, brutally intimate “Adolescence,” surrounding the arrest of a 13-year-old boy (Owen Cooper) for murder, unveils its unconventional mystery in four discrete episodes, each executed in a single tracking shot. A field day for actors, it earned Emmys for Cooper, co-creator Stephen Graham as his father and Erin Doherty as a child psychologist. (Read the review.)

‘Dope Thief’ (Apple TV), ‘Deli Boys’ (Hulu)

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1. Brian Tyree Henry, left, and Wagner Moura in Apple TV’s “Dope Thief.” (Apple) 2. Saagar Shaikh, left, and Asif Ali in Hulu’s “Deli Boys.” (James Washington/Disney)

Drugs are bad, but they fuel a lot of television. (I mean the plots; I wouldn’t know about the productions.) These two very different series feature heroes in over their heads, caught between cops and a cartel. “Dope Thief” gives Brian Tyree Henry (Paper Boi on “Atlanta”), as a man robbing low-level drug dealers dressed as a DEA agent, his first starring role, which would be sufficient for me to recommend it sight unseen — but it is excellent, seen. (Read the review.)

In “Deli Boys,” an old-fashioned comedy of Idiots in Danger, Asif Ali and Saagar Shaikh play temperamentally opposite Pakistani American brothers who inherit what they believed to be a chain of convenience stores but turn out to be the front for their father’s cocaine empire. Poorna Jagannathan is marvelous as their beloved, fearsome Lucky Auntie, who knows the score. (Read the review.)

‘Ludwig’ (Britbox)

David Mitchell in Britbox’s “Ludwig.”

(Colin Hutton)

In this Cambridge-set dramatic comedy-mystery, irascible David Mitchell, of “Peep Show,” “Upstart Crow” and “Would I Lie to You?” fame, plays an awkward, isolated genius with little practical experience of the world, drawn right into it when he winds up impersonating his missing twin brother, a police detective. A professional puzzle-maker, he’ll turn out to be good at the job, though he calls a medical examiner’s report a “how-did-they-die test,” and, moving in with his sister-in-law, he’ll learn something about the benefits of family. Properly moving, and very funny. (Read the review.)

ASHLEY Roberts has had far from a frosty festive season this year as she has shared a gorgeous bikini snap from her trip to Mauritius.

It comes after the Pussycat Doll and Heart FM presenter spent Christmas by the beach in Dubai earlier this week.

In a new snap, Ashley posed in a red bikini and sunhat while taking a dip in the crystal clear sea for a new picture from her holidays.

She captioned the picture, which was shared to Instagram: “Happy lil chica”.

Ashley also posted a picture of the beach and her stunning view from the 5-star Westin Turtle Bay resort & spa in Mauritius.

She’s been far from the cold UK weather this week, hopping from the UAE to east Africa.

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Days before Christmas, Ashley headed to Dubai to spend Christmas there with her boyfriend George Rollinson.

Ashley – who hails from Arizona originally but lives in the UK – and George first went public with their romance last year at the Brit Awards.

While pals back home were enjoying roast dinners and remaining warm inside; Ashley and George had a Christmas day dip in the sea, a day at a lavish beach club and a hotel buffet.

She has been keeping fans up to date with her travels via social media.

Ashley’s Christmas break away comes ahead of rumours she is about to rejon the Pussycat Dolls once more.

The band recently inked a new deal with leading talent agency, Creative Artists Agency, sparking rumours that a reunion could be imminent.

CAA music division head Rob Light  and Paul Franklin – a specialist in reunion tours – are now set to manage the band in a telling move.

While bandmate Nicole teased the reunion last week by talking about “what’s to come” for the band.

Sharing a clip from their hit song Buttons, Nicole wrote: “From then to now… seeing this video hit 1 billion views on YouTube fills my heart with so much gratitude.

“For the PCD fans. For the memories. For what’s to come.”

Piling on, stripping down, looking back, pushing ahead: Musicians found all sorts of uses for the album form this year, long after the jukebox in your pocket first threatened its existence. Here are the 25 LPs that held together the shards of my attention span in 2025.

Our picks for this year’s best in arts and entertainment.

1. Jensen McRae, “I Don’t Know How but They Found Me!”
The year’s sharpest pop songwriting came from an overachieving L.A. native who understands at 28 that romantic relationships don’t live — and certainly don’t die — between just two people. In chatty yet carefully measured tunes with nearly as many hooks as words, McRae illuminates the accumulated humiliations and misunderstandings against which every couple flails. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll wonder whether her ex’s sister had any luck with the baby.

2. SZA, “Lana”
The only dishonest thing about “Lana,” which arrived just before Christmas last year as 15 new songs slipped under the wrapping of 2022’s “SOS,” is that SZA says it’s not an album.

3. Madi Diaz, “Fatal Optimist”
Nothing to lose and nowhere to hide.

4. Morgan Wallen, “I’m the Problem”
It’s his party, and he’ll cry if he wants to.

5. Dijon, “Baby”
An album about new parenthood that feels like new parenthood.

6. Bad Bunny, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos”
After the adventure, the homecoming.

7. Tobias Jesso Jr., “Shine”
A pop-star whisperer takes a moment to listen to himself.

8. Parker McCollum, “Parker McCollum”
Beware the Nashville authenticity play — and admit that sometimes it works.

9. Gigi Perez, “At the Beach, In Every Life”
Like an emo-folk snowglobe.

10. Justin Bieber, “Swag”
On which, having survived teen-pop stardom, he flicks another ash out on the old patio.

11. Geese, “Getting Killed”
Rock is safe in the hands of the 25-and-unders.

12. Alemeda, “But What the Hell Do I Know”
Seriously.

13. Sam Fender, “People Watching”
A pint hoisted in the heartland.

14. Lady Gaga, “Mayhem”
The second (third?) life of a showgirl.

15. Bon Iver, “Sable, Fable”
“I could leave behind the snow / For a land of palm and gold.”

16. Sabrina Carpenter, “Man’s Best Friend”
Every himbo has his day.

17. CMAT, “Euro-Country”
Hungry for love, hungry for sex, hungry for anything not cooked by Jamie Oliver.

18. Haim, “I Quit”
Lots of breakup albums seek comfort in certainty; Haim’s lives on the slippery surface of doubt.

19. Lucy Dacus, “Forever Is a Feeling”
Sensual or cerebral is a false dichotomy.

20. Summer Walker, “Finally Over It”
A sculpted eyebrow arched in perpetuity.

21. Lily Allen, “West End Girl”
[Flush-faced emoji]

22. Bruce Springsteen, “Streets of Philadelphia Sessions”
From the Boss’ “Tracks II” trove of lost albums, a more vivid depiction of Bummed-Out Bruce than director Scott Cooper’s leaden “Deliver Me From Nowhere.”

23. Zach Top, “Ain’t in It For My Health”
Nashville’s friskiest traditionalist.

24. Eddie Chacon, “Lay Low”
Shimmering slow-mo psychedelia.

25. Mariah Carey, “Here for It All”
Crinkly ’70s soul, jumping slap-bass gospel, a faithful cover of Wings’ wonderfully gloopy “My Love”: As its title promises, Carey’s 16th studio album opens its doors to a little bit of everything.

A funny thing about this year’s best films: Half of them are adaptations. As a movie lover who’s always hunting for new talent, new ideas and new stimuli, I used to view that as creative inertia. But 2025 has changed my mind.

Now I see artists drawing inspiration from the past to show that Hollywood should trust the sturdy bones that have kept it running for over a century: good yarns, bold casting, films that don’t feel made by focus groups or doomsaying bean-counters (or, God help us, AI), but by blood and sweat.

Our picks for this year’s best in arts and entertainment.

From original tales to radical reworkings of classics both high-falutin’ and raucously lowbrow, these 10 filmmakers all know that the most vital part of the storytelling business has stayed exactly the same. They have to wow an audience. And they did.

1. ‘Sinners’

Michael B. Jordan as twins Smoke and Stack in the movie “Sinners.”

(Warner Bros. Pictures)

A period-piece-vampire-musical mashup could have been discordant, but writer-director Ryan Coogler confidently makes all three genres harmonize. In “Sinners,” Coogler double-casts his longtime collaborator Michael B. Jordan as twin bootleggers Smoke and Stack, then pits them against a pack of banjo-picking bloodsuckers helmed by a roguish Jack O’Connell. We’re expecting a big, bloody brouhaha and we get it. Underneath the playful carnage, however, the question at stake is: Why suffer the daily indignities of the Jim Crow-era South when you could outlive — and eat — your oppressors? “Sinners” is the most exciting film of 2025, both for what it is and for what it proves: that fresh blockbusters still exist and people are eager to gobble them up.

(“Sinners” is available on multiple platforms.)

2. ‘Hedda’

Tessa Thompson in the movie “Hedda.”

(Prime Video)

The stage’s iconic mean girl glides from 1890s Norway to 1950s England in this vibrant and venomous adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler.” Tessa Thompson stars as the restless housewife who needs to secure her milquetoast husband (Tom Bateman) a promotion and has a nasty habit of playing with guns. Keeping pace with her manipulative anti-heroine, writer-director Nia DaCosta (“Candyman”) makes a few calculated moves of her own, including gender-swapping Hedda’s ex into a curvaceous career woman (a haughty Nina Hoss) whose drab and geeky new girlfriend (Imogen Poots) irritates their hostess’ insecurities. As a capper, “Hedda” stages its brutal showdown at an all-night vodka-and-cocaine-fueled mansion shebang with a live jazz band, a lake for skinny-dippers and a hedge maze where former lovers are tempted to canoodle. The original play is over a century old, but every scene feels screamingly alive.

(“Hedda” is available on Prime Video.)

3. ‘Eddington’

Joaquin Phoenix, left, and Pedro Pascal in “Eddington.”

(A24)

No film was more polarizing than Ari Aster’s COVID-set satire about a mask-hating sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix), a sanctimonious mayor (Pedro Pascal) and the high-tech cabal that benefits when these two modern cowboys come to blows. “Eddington” immortalizes the bleak humor and lingo of May 2020 (think murder hornets, Antifa and toilet paper hoarders). More stingingly, it captures the mental delirium of a small town — make that an entire planet — that hasn’t yet realized that there’s a second sickness seeping in through their smartphones. Everyone’s got a device in their hand pretty much all the time, aiming their cameras at each other like pistols in a Wild West standoff. Yet no character grasps what’s really going on. (I have a theory, but when I explain the larger conspiracy, I sound cuckoo too.) This is the movie that will explain pandemic brain to future generations. With distance, I’m pretty sure the haters will come around.

(“Eddington” is available on multiple platforms.)

4. ‘One Battle After Another’

Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie “One Battle After Another.”

(Warner Bros. Pictures)

Every shot in Paul Thomas Anderson’s invigorating nail-biter is a banger: sentinels skateboarding over rooftops, caged kids playing catch with a crumpled foil blanket, Teyana Taylor’s militant Perfidia Beverly Hills blasting an automatic rifle while nine months pregnant. It’s the rare film that instantly imprints itself on the viewer. On my second watch, I was shocked by how much of “One Battle After Another” already felt tattooed on my brain, down to the shudder I got from Sean Penn’s loathsome Col. Lockjaw licking his comb to tidy his bangs. Riffing from Thomas Pynchon’s “Vineland,” the central drama follows flunky anarchist Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio) fumblingly attempting to rescue his daughter (Chase Infiniti) from Lockjaw’s clutches. But he’s not much help to her, and as the title implies, this is merely one skirmish in humanity’s sprawling struggle for freedom that has, and will, drag on forever. Anderson’s knack for ensemble work stretches back as far as “Boogie Nights,” yet here, even his unnamed characters have crucial roles to play. His world-building has never before felt this holistic and inspirational.

(“One Battle After Another” is now playing in theaters.)

5. ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman’

Jennifer Lopez and Tonatiuh in the movie “Kiss of the Spider Woman.”

(Roadside Attractions)

The backstory behind this stunner couldn’t be more baroque: Director Bill Condon (“Dreamgirls”) boldly revamped a Broadway musical of an Oscar-winning drama (itself taken from an experimental novel) about two inmates in an Argentine cell who mentally escape into the movies. Each incarnation has doubled down on the sensorial overload of what came before. If you know “Kiss of the Spider Woman’s” lineage, you’ll be impressed by how Condon ups the fantasy and stokes the revolutionary glamour with more Technicolor dance showcases for Jennifer Lopez’. (She’s doing her best Cyd Charisse, which turns out to be darned good.) If this is your first taste of the tale, give yourself over to the prickly but tender relationship between prisoners Luis and Valentin, played by feisty new talent Tonatiuh and a red-blooded Diego Luna. This is go-for-broke filmmaking with a wallop. As Luis says of his own version of “Kiss of the Spider Woman” playing in his head, “Call it kitsch, call it camp — I don’t care, I love it.”

(“Kiss of the Spider Woman” is available on multiple platforms.)

6. ‘A Useful Ghost’

A scene from the movie “A Useful Ghost.”

(TIFF)

Thai director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s Cannes Grand Prix winner opens with a haunted vacuum cleaner. From there, it gets even more surprising. Ghosts have infested a wealthy widow’s factory and are possessing appliances, seducing her son and cozying up to the prime minister for favors. Some of these people have died by accident, some by corporate neglect or worse. This droll spook show bleeds into romance and politics and, to our shock, becomes genuinely emotional. (It helps to remember that the military killed over 80 Bangkok protesters in 2010.) But why vacuum cleaners, you ask? The conceit is more than a sticky idea. Ordinary people can get crushed but the anger they leave behind lingers like fine dust.

(“A Useful Ghost” opens Jan. 16, 2026, in theaters.)

7. ‘The Roses’

Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch in the movie “The Roses.”

(Jaap Buitendijk / Searchlight Pictures)

Technically, “The Roses” is rooted in the 1980s hit novel and subsequent blockbuster “The War of the Roses,” which starred Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner as an estranged couple who attack each other with lawyers, poison and chandeliers. In spirit, however, this redo is pure 1930s screwball comedy. Leads Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman are skilled verbal ninjas who hurl razor-sharp insults at each other’s egos, and although their characters’ divorce happens in California, director Jay Roach lets the actors keep their snippy British accents. The script by two-time Oscar nominee Tony McNamara (“The Favourite,” “Poor Things”) adds a cruel twist to the original: This time around, the marrieds truly do try their damnedest to love and support each other. And still, their walls come tumbling down.

(“The Roses” is available on multiple platforms.)

8. ‘In Whose Name?’

Ye and Elon Musk in the documentary “In Whose Name?”

(AMSI Entertainment)

Nico Ballesteros was a high schooler with an iPhone when he entered Kanye West’s orbit in 2018. Over the next six years, the Orange County kid shot over 3,000 hours of footage as Ye (as the artist legally became known in 2021) jetted from Paris to Uganda, Calabasas to the White House, meeting everyone from Kenny G to Elon Musk on a quest to fulfill his creative and spiritual goals while incinerating his personal life and public reputation. Ye gave the documentarian full access with no editorial oversight, besides one moment in which he tells the camera that he wants the film to be about mental health. This riveting tragedy definitely is. We see an egomaniac whose fear of being beholden to anything motivates him to go off his meds, a billionaire provocateur who believes he can afford the consequences of his bigotry and, above all, a deeply flawed man who nukes his entire world to insist he’s right.

(“In Whose Name?” is available on multiple platforms.)

9. ‘Sirāt’

An image from the movie “Sirāt,” directed by Oliver Laxe.

(Festival de Cannes)

The techno soundtrack of Oliver Laxe’s desolate road thriller has rattled my house for months. Lately, I’ve spent just as much time contemplating the movie’s silence — those hushed stretches in which this caravan of bohemians speeds across the Moroccan desert looking like the only free people left on Earth. A father, Luis (“Pan’s Labyrinth’s” Sergi López), and his 12-year-old son team up with this band of tattooed burnouts in the hope of finding the boy’s runaway sister. Before long, Luis is just hoping to make it to safety, assuming anywhere safe still exists. Static on the radio warns that World War III might be underway. These outsiders click off the news and crank up the music. The paradox of “Sirāt” is that I’m dying to talk about it more but I’ve got to keep my mouth shut until people experience its dramatic twists for themselves.

(“Sirāt” returns to theaters on Feb. 6, 2026.)

10. ‘The Naked Gun’

Pamela Anderson and Liam Neeson in the movie “The Naked Gun.”

(Frank Masi / Paramount Pictures)

Liam Neeson needed this pummeling pun-fest. So did everyone else in 2025. Director Akiva Schaffer’s continuation of the “Police Squad!” franchise let the 73-year-old “Taken” star poke fun at his own bruising gravitas. Playing the son of Leslie Nielsen’s Lt. Frank Drebin, Neeson kept us in hysterics with a stupid-brilliant barrage of surreal wordplay and daffy slapstick. The casting was as odd — and perfect — as rumors that he and his co-star Pamela Anderson started dating on set. This fourth sequel didn’t try to outsmart the classic Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker template. It simply told the same old story: Cop meets babe, cop and babe canoodle with a magical snowman, cop drops his trousers on live TV, this time minus the blimp. Goodyear? No, the worst — which made Neeson our hero.

(“The Naked Gun” is available on multiple platforms.)

Since I’m all jazzed-up about great movies, here are 10 honorable mentions very much worth a watch.

“The Ballad of Wallis Island”
A kooky millionaire strong-arms his favorite mid-aughts folk duo into playing a reunion show on his Welsh island. Sounds cutesy, but it’s the movie I recommended most — to everyone from my mailman to my mother. They all loved it. Join the fan club.

“Bunny”
This East Village indie by debut director Ben Jacobson is a scummy gem. A gigolo’s birthday goes very wrong. But all the characters racing up and down the stairs of his uber-New York walk-up hovel are a howl.

“If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”
Rose Byrne excels equally at comedy and drama. This audit of a breakdown smashes both together and cranks the tension up to eleven. Playing a high-stress working mom of an ill child, her try-hard heroine leans in so harrowingly far, she goes kamikaze.

“Lurker”
Today’s celebrity might be viral on Instagram and unknown everywhere else. Alex Russell’s stomach-churning psychodrama stars Archie Madekwe as an L.A.-based singer on the brink of genuine fame and Théodore Pellerin as the hanger-on who endures — and exploits — the fledgling star’s power moves and hazy boundaries.

“Magic Farm”
Filmmaker Amalia Ulman’s rascally farce stars Chloë Sevigny and Alex Wolff as clickbait journalists who fly to Argentina to shoot a viral video about a singer in a bunny costume and wind up looking twice as ridiculous.

Keke Palmer, left, and SZA in the movie “One of Them Days.”

(Anne Marie Fox / Sony Pictures)

“One of Them Days”
Keke Palmer and SZA play broke Baldwin Hills roommates who have nine hours to make rent. I’d happily watch their stoner high jinks in real time.

“The Perfect Neighbor”
Pieced together primarily from police body-camera footage, Geeta Gandbhir’s documentary unfurls in a Florida cul-de-sac where a community — adults, kids and cops — agrees that one woman is an entitled pill. The problem is she thinks they’re the problem. And she has a gun.

“Sisu: Road to Revenge”
If Buster Keaton were alive, he’d hail this grisly, mostly mute Finnish action flick as a worthy successor to “The General.” It even boasts a thrilling sequence on a train, although director Jalmari Helander also brazenly poaches from “Die Hard” and “Mad Max: Fury Road.”

“Train Dreams”
Trees fall in the woods and a 20th-century logger (Joel Edgerton) plays an unheard, unthanked but beautiful role in the building of America.

“Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery”
Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) teams up with a soul-searching priest (Josh O’Connor) to solve a perplexing church stabbing. From deft plot twists to provocative Catholic theology, Rian Johnson’s crowd-pleasing murder mystery is marvelously executed.

There was no shortage of engrossing art with which to engage in Southern California museums during the past year, although the considerable majority of it had been made only within the past 50 years or so. Art’s global history before the Second World War continues to play a decided second fiddle to contemporary art in special exhibitions.

Our picks for this year’s best in arts and entertainment.

The chief exception: the Getty, where its Brentwood anchor and Pacific Palisades outpost accounted for three of the 10 most engrossing museum exhibitions in 2025, all 10 presented here in order of their opening dates. (Four are still on view.)

Art museums across the country continue to struggle in attendance and fundraising after the double-whammy of the lengthy COVID-19 pandemic shut-down followed by culture war attacks from the Trump administration. That may help explain the unusually lengthy, seven- to 14-month duration of half of these shows.

Gustave Caillebotte, “Floor Scrapers,” 1875, oil on canvas.

(Musée d’Orsay
)

Gustave Caillebotte: Painting Men. Getty Center

An emphasis on men’s daily lives is very unusual in French Impressionist art. Women are more prominent as subject matter in scores of paintings by marquee names like Monet, Cassatt and Degas. But homosocial life in late-19th century Paris was the fascinating focus of this show, the first Los Angeles museum survey of Gustave Caillebotte’s paintings in 30 years.

A view into a dance gallery is framed by Guadalupe Rosales’ “Concourse/C3” installation.

(Christopher Knight / Los Angeles Times)

Guadalupe Rosales – Tzahualli: Mi Memoria en Tu Reflejo. Palm Springs Art Museum

Vibrant Chicano youth subcultures of 1990s Los Angeles, during the fraught era of Rodney King and the AIDS epidemic, are embedded in the art of one of its enthusiastic participants. Guadalupe Rosales layers her archival work onto pleasure and freedom today, as was seen in this vibrant exhibition, offering a welcome balm during another period of outsized social distress.

Don Bachardy, “Christopher Isherwood,” June 20, 1979; acrylic on paper.

(Don Bachardy Paper / Huntington Library)

Don Bachardy: A Life in Portraits. The Huntington

The nearly 70-year retrospective of portrait drawings in pencil and paint by Los Angeles artist Don Bachardy revealed the works to be like performances: Both artist and sitter participated in putting on a pictorial show. The extended visual encounter between two people, its intimacy inescapable, culminates in the two “actors” autographing their performed picture.

“Probably Shakyamuni, the Historical Buddha,” China, Tang Dynasty, circa 700-800; marble.

(Christopher Knight / Los Angeles Times)

Realms of the Dharma: Buddhist Art Across Asia. LACMA. Through July 12

“Realms of the Dharma” isn’t exactly an exhibition. Instead, it’s a temporary, 14-month installation of Buddhist sculptures, paintings and drawings from the museum’s impressive permanent collection, plus a few additions. It’s worth noting here, though, because almost all of its marvelous pieces were in storage (or traveling) for more than seven years, during the lengthy tear-down of a prior LACMA building and construction of a new one, and much of it will disappear again when the installation closes next summer.

Noah Davis, “40 Acres and a Unicorn,” 2007, acrylic and gouache on canvas.

(Anna Arca)

Noah Davis. UCLA Hammer Museum

A tight survey of 50 works, all made by Noah Davis in the brief span between 2007 and the L.A.-based artist’s untimely death in 2015 at just 32, told a poignant story of rapid artistic growth brutally interrupted. Davis was a painter’s painter, a deeply thoughtful and idiosyncratic Black voice heard by other artists and aficionados, even while still in invigorating development.

Weegee (Arthur Fellig), “The Gay Deceiver, 1939/1950, gelatin silver print. Getty Museum

(Getty Museum)

Queer Lens: A History of Photography. Getty Center

Assembling some 270 photographs from the 19th and 20th centuries, “Queer Lens” looked at work produced after the 1869 invention of the binaries of “heterosexual and homosexual,” just a short generation after the 1839 invention of the camera. Transformations in the expression of gender and sexuality by scores of artists as well-known as Berenice Abbott, Anthony Friedkin, Robert Mapplethorpe, Man Ray and Edmund Teske were tracked along with more than a dozen unknowns.

“Sealstone With a Battle Scene (The Pylos Combat Agate),” Minoan, 1630-1440 BC; banded agate, gold and bronze.

(Jeff Vanderpool)

The Kingdom of Pylos: Warrior-Princes of Ancient Greece. Getty Villa. Through Jan. 12

The star of this look into the ancient, not widely known Mycenaean kingdom of Pylos was a tiny agate, barely 1.3 inches wide, making its public debut outside Europe. The exquisitely carved stone, unearthed by archaeologists in 2017, shows two lean but muscled warriors going at it over the sprawled body of a dead comrade. Perhaps made in Crete, the idealized naturalism of a battle scene rendered in shallow three-dimensional space threw a stylistic monkey-wrench into our established understanding of Greek culture 3,500 years ago.

Ken Gonzales-Day digitally erased Illinois Black lynching victim Charlie Mitchell from an 1897 postcard to focus instead on the perpetrators.

(USC Fisher Museum of Art)

Ken Gonzales-Day: History’s “Nevermade.” USC Fisher Museum of Art. Through March 14

The ways in which identities of race, gender and class are erased in a society dominated by straight white patriarchy animates the first mid-career survey of Los Angeles–based artist Ken Gonzales-Day. The riveting centerpiece is his extensive meditation on the American mass-hysteria embodied by the horrific practice of lynching, in which Gonzales-Day employed digital techniques to erase the brutalized victims (and the ropes) in grisly photographs of the murders. Focus shifts the viewer’s gaze toward the perpetrators — an urgent and timely transference, given the shredding of civil society underway today.

Kara Walker deconstructed a monument to Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson for “Unmanned Drone,” as seen at the Brick gallery as part of “Monuments.”

(Etienne Laurent / For The Times)

Monuments. The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA and the Brick. Through May 3

The nearly two-year delay in opening “Monuments,” an exhibition of toppled Confederate and Jim Crow statues that pairs cautionary art history with thoughtful and poetic retorts by a variety of artists, turned out to give the much anticipated undertaking an especially potent punch. As the Trump Administration restores a white supremacist sheen to “Lost Cause” mythology by renaming military installations after Civil War traitors and returning sculptures and paintings of them to prior perches, from which they had been removed, this sober and incisive analysis of what’s at stake is nothing less than crucial.

Peak moment: As a metaphor of white supremacy, Kara Walker’s transformation of the ancient “man on a horse” motif into a monstrous headless horseman — a Euro-American corpse that tortures the living and refuses to die — resonates loudly.

Installation view of sculptures and a painting by Robert Therrien at the Broad.

(Joshua White / Broad museum)

Robert Therrien: This Is a Story. The Broad. Through April 5

The late Los Angeles-based artist Robert Therrien (1947-2019) had a distinctive, even quirky capacity for teasing out a conceptual space between ordinary domestic objects and their mysterious personal meanings. In 120 paintings, drawings, photographs and especially sculptures, this Therrien exhibition offers objects hovering somewhere between immediately recognizable and perplexingly alien, wryly funny and spiritually profound.

GORDON Ramsay gave a fiery speech at daughter Holly’s wedding to Olympian Adam Peaty — saying his wife Tana “will be a good mum to them both”. 

The celebrity chef waded into the swimmer’s family feud as it emerged 31-year-old Adam has blocked their texts. 

Ramsay, 59, gushed at how beautiful Holly looked and told Adam he was a “lucky man”, adding: “Look at Tana and that’s what you have to look forward to.” 

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

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

Last night a Peaty family source hit back at Gordon’s speech saying: “It just goes to show that this was the Ramsays’ plan all along.”  

ICY MESSAGE

Adam Peaty ‘sent brutal text by aunt moments before marrying Holly Ramsay’

FACE OF GLOOM

Adam Peaty’s parents look devastated as they break cover after wedding snub

And it emerged Adam’s aunt Louise texted him moments before he walked into Bath Abbey on Saturday — but he never read it because he has blocked family messages. 

The triple Olympic gold medallist, 31 yesterday, acknowledged the pain caused by the bust-up in his speech at the reception at Kin House in Kington Langley, Wilts.  

He told how his swim coach Mel Marshall has been “everything”, “grounding and inspiring” him. 

After an emotional pause he said she was, “like a mum”. 

Adam also hailed the 200 guests’ support in a “difficult time”. Sister Beth, 32, was his only family at the service, maid of honour with Holly’s sisters Megan, 27, and Tilly, 24. 

Adam’s mum, dad Mark, 65, and brothers James and Richard stayed at home in Staffordshire. 

The family source said: “This was the Ramsays’ plan all along. They wanted Adam’s family gone and they have succeeded. 

“You’d think that as parents, Gordon and Tana would have a bit more compassion towards Caroline, Mark and the family. 

“Caroline did everything and more to help Adam. She and Mark sacrificed a lot to get him where he is. Adam ought to be ashamed of himself for going ahead with the wedding without them after everything they did to support him.  

“Beth has betrayed her mum to see what she can get out of being the only family member who gets on with Adam and Holly. 

“This isn’t the Bethany we all know, she’s changed her appearance and personality to fit in with the Ramsays’ celebrity lifestyle.” 

The source also revealed Adam had disinvited his great-aunt Janet and her husband Eddie days before the wedding — despite them booking accommodation and purchasing outfits. The source added: “It’s completely unacceptable.” 

In her message, shortly before Adam entered the abbey with son George, five, his aunt Louise wrote: “I hope you never suffer the depth of pain you have put your mother through and despite it all she loves you still. Shame on you both. 

“Remember on this, your happiest day, and on each anniversary of your happiest day, that you hurt your mum so deeply her soul screams.”

A family source confirmed Adam did not receive or read the message.  

This was the Ramsays’ plan all along. They wanted Adam’s family gone and they have succeeded

Family source

Holly wore two outfits at the reception — including Tana’s gown when she wed Gordon in 1996. 

A DJ announced the tribute, sparking applause from guests including Ramsay pals David and Victoria Beckham. 

A source said: “David and Victoria were on the dance floor most of the evening. And they were almost the last to leave it. They happily mingled with everyone else.” 

Adam’s best man was Ed Baxter, a former swimmer and business partner. Adam’s coach Mel sparked laughter by referring to her student as Golden Balls, while pointing out “the other” Golden Balls, Becks. 

Mel told of her pride and joy at seeing Adam win the 100metres breaststroke gold at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, and Covid-hit Tokyo Games postponed to 2021. 

All guests wore a wristband embossed with Adam and Holly’s initials to prevent wedding crashers. 

A pal said last night: “Nothing interrupted what was a peaceful, joyous day with those closest to Holly and Adam. 

“The ceremony was magical and the reception very emotional, there were a lot of tears. 

“Gordon made an amazing speech that had everyone laughing and crying. None of the outside noise overshadowed what was an occasion filled with heartfelt joy and happiness for two people who are very much in love.” 

Gordon walked his daughter down the aisle and Tana gave a reading during the hour-long service. 

Look at Tana and that’s what you have to look forward to

Gordon Ramsay

Holly arrived nearly 30 minutes late, wearing a bridal cape over her Christmas-themed dress. 

A crowd of onlookers cheered the couple as they emerged. They were later whisked to the reception in a black Rolls-Royce. The maids of honour wore red dresses designed by Victoria, while Tana wore a similar style dress in green. 

Other celebrities in attendance included Dragons’ Den star Sara Davies and TV presenter Dan Walker, who said on social media: “We had a lovely time celebrating with Adam and Holly. 

“Great wedding, top people, wonderful service, unforgettable reception, brilliant speeches and we got to sing some bangers in the church too.” 

A select few were invited to a breakfast gathering yesterday. 

£50,000 FLOWERS JOKES IN SPEECH

Exclusive by Stephen Moyes

MEGABUCKS chef Gordon jokingly complained about the wedding’s £50,000 flowers in his speech.  

And he poked gentle fun at Holly — calling her easily the most expensive of his six children. 

Gordon revealed how young Holly worked out how to attach his credit card to her Apple Pay. 

And he joked his other children will have to marry in a register office. 

He said: “Only Holly could pick the most beautiful church and choose to cover its stunning windows in white roses.” 

Holly will show off her wedding dress in Vogue magazine, published on New Year’s Day. 

A source added: “Holly has always wanted to do Vogue so this is a coup.” 

Her and Adam’s gift list included a £1,450 Big Green Egg outdoor cooker. 

Other options were a £995 mahogany table, £800 chair and footstool, and £450 log storage bin. 

Brigitte Bardot, the French actor idealized for her beauty and heralded in the midcentury as the prototype of liberated female sexuality, has died at 91.

Long withdrawn from the entertainment industry, Bardot died at her home in southern France, Bruno Jacquelin of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the protection of animals confirmed to the Associated Press. He gave no cause of death. Bardot had dealt with infirm health in recent years, including hospitalization for a breathing issue in July 2023 and additional hospital stays in 2025.

Bardot was known for being mercurial, self-destructive and prone to reckless love affairs with men and women. She was a fashion icon and media darling who left acting at 39 and lived out the rest of her years in near seclusion, emerging periodically to champion animal rights, lecture about moral decay and espouse bigoted political views.

And, as if in protest of her famed beauty, Bardot happily allowed herself to age naturally.

“With me, life is made up only of the best and the worst, of love and hate,” she told the Guardian in 1996. “Everything that happened to me was excessive.”

In her prime, Bardot was considered a national treasure in France, received by President Charles de Gaulle at the Élysée Palace and analyzed exhaustively by existentialist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir. She was the girl whose poster adorned the bedroom of a teenage John Lennon.

While Marilyn Monroe was playing it coy, Bardot was forthright and free about her sexuality, sleeping with her leading men without apology, sweaty and writhing barefoot on a table in the controversial 1956 film “…And God Created Woman.” Though many of her films were largely forgettable, she projected a radical sense of self-empowerment for women that had a lasting cultural influence.

Born Sept. 28, 1934, in Paris, the daughter of a Parisian factory owner and his socialite wife, Bardot and her younger sister were raised in a religious Catholic home.

Bardot studied ballet at the Paris Conservatoire and, at her mother’s urging, pursued modeling. By 14, she was on the cover of Elle magazine. She caught the eye of filmmaker Marc Allegret, who sent his 20-year-old apprentice, Roger Vadim, to locate her.

Vadim and Bardot began a years-long affair during which he cultivated the sex-kitten persona that would seduce the world. But Bardot wasn’t one to be cultivated. As Vadim once said, “She doesn’t act. She exists.”

Bardot married Vadim at 18, and that same year he directed her in “…And God Created Woman,” as a woman who falls in love with her older husband’s younger brother. The film, which prompted moral outrage in the U.S. and was heavily edited before it reached theaters, made Bardot a star and an emblem of French modernity.

“I wanted to show a normal young girl whose only difference was that she behaved in the way a boy might, without any sense of guilt on a moral or sexual level,” Vadim said at the time.

In real life, Bardot left Vadim for her costar Jean-Louis Trintignant. She went on to master a comic-erotic persona in the popular 1957 comedy “Une Parisienne” and portrayed a young delinquent in the 1958 drama “Love Is My Profession.”

By 1959, she was pregnant with the child of French actor Jacques Charrier, whom she married as a result. Together they had a son, Nicolas.

In Bardot’s scathing 1996 memoir, “Initiales B.B: Mémoires,” she details her crude attempts to abort the child, asking doctors for morphine and punching herself in the stomach. Nine months after the baby was born, she said, she downed a bottle of sleeping pills and slit her wrists, the first of several apparent suicide attempts during her life. When Bardot recovered, she gave up custody of her son and divorced Charrier.

“I couldn’t be Nicolas’ roots because I was completely uprooted, unbalanced, lost in that crazy world,” she explained years later.

Bardot earned her greatest box-office success in the 1960 noir drama “The Truth,” playing a woman on trial for the murder of her lover. Her best performance likely came in Jean-Luc Godard’s acclaimed 1963 melancholy adaptation “Contempt,” as a wife who falls out of love with her husband. She was later nominated for a BAFTA award for her performance as a circus entertainer turned political operative in the 1965 comedy “Viva Maria!”

All the while, though, Bardot courted drama and lived large.

While she was married to German industrialist Gunter Sachs, she had an affair with French pop star Serge Gainsbourg. He wrote Bardot the erotic love song “Je t’aime … moi non plus,” which went on to become a hit by Donna Summer, altered and retitled “Love to Love You Baby.” By 1969, she had divorced Sachs and was romantically linked to everyone from Warren Beatty to Jimi Hendrix.

The celebrity life eventually exhausted Bardot, and she grew to fear that she’d end up dying young like Marilyn Monroe or withering away in public view like Rita Hayworth. Though she exuded confidence, she admitted in her memoir that she battled depression as she sought to juggle the many moving pieces of her chaotic life.

“The majority of great actresses met tragic ends,” she told the Guardian. “When I said goodbye to this job, to this life of opulence and glitter, images and adoration, the quest to be desired, I was saving my life.”

Nearing 40, she quit acting and spent the rest of her life bouncing between her Saint-Tropez beach house and a farm — complete with a chapel — outside Paris. She devoted herself to the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the Welfare and Protection of Animals.

As an animal rights activist, her list of enemies was long: the Japanese for hunting whales, the Spanish for bullfighting, the Russians for killing seals, the furriers, hunters and circus operators.

At her home in Saint-Tropez, dozens of cats and dogs — along with goats, sheep and a horse — wandered freely. She chased away fishermen and was sued for sterilizing a neighbor’s goat.

“My chickens are the happiest in the world, because I have been a vegetarian for the past 20 years,” Bardot said.

In 1985 she was awarded the Legion d’Honneur, France’s highest civilian decoration, but refused to collect it until President François Mitterrand agreed to close the royal hunting grounds.

In 1992 she married Bernard d’Ormale, a former aide to Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of France’s far-right National Front and frequent candidate for France’s presidency. Later, Bardot became an ardent supporter of Le Pen’s daughter Marine, leader of France’s anti-immigration far right.

Two French civil rights groups sued Bardot for the xenophobic and homophobic comments she made in her 2003 book, “A Cry in the Silence,” in which she rails against Muslims, gays, intellectuals, drug abusers, female politicians, illegal immigrants and the “professionally” unemployed. She was ultimately fined six times for inciting racial hatred, mostly while speaking out against Muslims and Jews. She was fined again in 2021 over a 2019 rant wherein she dubbed the residents of Réunion, a French Island in the Indian Ocean, “degenerate savages.”

“I never had trouble saying what I have to say,” Bardot wrote in a 2010 letter to The Times. “As for being a little bunny that never says a word, that is truly the opposite of me.”

Bardot stirred controversy again in 2018 when she dismissed the #MeToo movement as a campaign fueled by a “hatred of men.”

“I thought it was nice to be told that I was beautiful or that I had a nice little ass,” she told NBC. “This kind of compliment is nice.”

She remained firm in those views in the final year of her life, decrying the societal shaming of playwright-comedian-actor Nicolas Bedos and actor Gérard Depardieu, who were both convicted of sexual assault. “People with talent who grab a girl’s bottom are thrown into the bottom of the ditch,” she declared in a 2025 TV interview, her first in 11 years. “We could at least let them carry on living.”

As she aged, Bardot mostly kept to herself, content to do the crossword puzzle when the newspaper arrived, tend to her menagerie and mail off hotly written pleas to world leaders to halt their animal abuses. She was largely vague when asked if she was still married to D’Ormale.

“It depends what day it is,” she said, laughing gently.

Piccalo is a former Times staff writer. Former staff writer Steve Marble contributed to this report.

Happy Valley star Siobhan Finneran has discussed her relationship with Death in Paradise actor Don Gilet, explaining their decision to maintain separate homes in different cities

Happy Valley star Siobhan Finneran, 59, has offered a rare glimpse into her relationship with Death in Paradise actor Don Gilet, 58, revealing why the pair have chosen to maintain separate households.

The duo initially crossed paths whilst working together on ITV’s crime drama The Loch, where Siobhan played DCI Lauren Quigley and Don took on the role of forensic psychologist Blake Albrighton.

Around a year afterwards, in 2018, their professional connection developed into something more romantic. Yet Siobhan calls Saddleworth home, whilst her other half, Don, is based in north London.

Despite the geographical gap between them, Siobhan insists she and the DI Mervin Wilson actor manage perfectly well, noting that Don spends most of his time abroad anyway, filming Death in Paradise in Guadeloupe.

Speaking to The Times, she said: “That’s just the way it is, isn’t it? That’s how it’s always been. And he’s out of the country for seven months a year doing Death in Paradise anyway.”

Siobhan also disclosed that she’s made the journey to the French Caribbean island, which she calls an “amazing place”, to see Don whilst he’s working.

The Protection actress was swift to reject any notion that they’re a “power couple”, confessing they can be “hopeless” when attempting to organise themselves, joking: “I’ve not heard that one before.”

She continued: “We are both off the telly. Other than that we’re pretty normal. You wouldn’t think we were a power couple this morning, both running around trying to get out of the house on time. Hopeless.”

After months of rumours, Siobhan first hinted at her romance with Don when she lovingly called the actor “my fella” during a chat with The Guardian.

Before this revelation, the couple had been photographed holding hands at various showbiz gatherings prior to making their relationship official.

Don is set to return to television screens as DI Mervin Wilson for the Death in Paradise Christmas Special.

He will be joined by guest stars Josie Lawrence, Kate Ashfield, Pearl Mackie and James Baxter for the festive episode.

The Death in Paradise Christmas Special airs on Sunday 28th December at 8.30pm on BBC One and iPlayer.

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

DRAGONS’ Den star Sara Davies has broken her silence on being invited to Adam Peaty and Holly Ramsay’s star-studded wedding.

The entrepreneur, 41, met Olympic swimmer Adam during their time competing on Strictly Come Dancing and has admitted they have stayed close ever since.

She’s now taken to Instagram to speak about the “emotional” big day as she hinted Adam teared up at seeing his new wife walk down the aisle at the plush Bath Abbey ceremony.

Alongside a collection of snaps of her and Adam from over the years, TV favourite Sara said: “Yesterday I had the privilege of being at this amazing man’s wedding – and it also gave me a moment to reflect on how lucky I’ve been to have him in my life over the past four years.

“From the first day we met on Strictly, we’ve been firm friends, and it was a real honour to sit in Bath Abbey and watch him get emotional as the love of his life walked down the aisle.”

Sara continued: “It was such a special day.

STRANGE ITEM

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FAMILY WAR

Adam Peaty’s brother shares pic outside wedding venue with ominous soundtrack

“Simon and I had the best time, the service was beautiful – and I’m sure you’ll not be surprised to hear me say, it was hands down the best wedding food I’ve ever had.

“Wishing my wonderful friend and his gorgeous bride a lifetime of happiness together.”

Sara looked sensational as she strutted her way into the ceremony yesterday.

The business mogul wowed in a black and blue gown that featured lacy floral detailing.

One of the best dressed attendees at the event, Sara flashed a smile and waved to the crowds as she made her way inside the venue.

The big day was not without its controversy amid the ongoing family feud tearing the Peaty family apart.

Adam’s parents were absent from the big day after a feud erupted among the clan.

We revealed that Adam allegedly told dad Mark he could only attend if he sat at the back of Bath Abbey, where the lavish celebration took place.

But Mark declined, finding the offer insulting, and remained at home 150 miles away as Adam tied the knot.

The family was split last month after Caroline was not included at Holly’s hen do at the swanky Soho Farmhouse, Oxfordshire, and was subsequently uninvited from the wedding.

Holly’s mum Tana and close pal Victoria Beckham were both in attendance at the girly get together near to the Beckhams’ country home.

Caroline made her feelings clear earlier this month when she shared a cryptic post on Instagram that read: “This year, I met the most broken version of myself but also the strongest. 2026, get ready, because I’m coming back stronger than ever.”

The feud escalated when bride Holly called cops after Adam’s brother James allegedly made threats via text while Adam was on his stag do.

Adam was also branded “spiteful” this Christmas for failing to buy gifts for his parents or brothers.

Coronation Street star Jack P Shepherd has been flooded with support from fans and friends

Coronation Street star Jack P Shepherd has received an outpouring of support from fans following a joint marriage update with his wife.

The 37-year-old actor, who first appeared on our screens in the ITV soap at the tender age of 12, is best known for his role as David Platt, the mischievous son of Martin Platt, portrayed by Sean Wilson, and Gail, played by Helen Worth.

Over the years, David’s character has been central to numerous dramatic storylines, including pushing his mum down the stairs in a near-fatal incident, seeking revenge on villain Richard Hillman, and a heart-wrenching suicide plot.

However, off-screen, Jack’s life is a far cry from his turbulent character, as he enjoys marital bliss with his wife, Hanni Treweek.

The couple tied the knot in a beautiful ceremony in Manchester earlier this year, surrounded by their nearest and dearest. The wedding came a year after Jack romantically popped the question to Hanni during a dreamy safari holiday, reports the Daily Star.

Joining the happy couple at their celebration were several of Jack’s Coronation Street co-stars, including Lucy Fallon, Alan Halsall, Tina O’Brien, and, notably, his former on-screen mum Helen Worth. Celebrity Big Brother co-star Chris Hughes was also among the showbiz friends in attendance.

This Christmas marked the first festive season that Jack and Hanni have enjoyed as husband and wife, and they took to social media to share snippets of their celebrations.

In one photograph, Jack and Hanni are captured wearing stunning outfits as they stand before a Christmas tree. Another image shows Hanni displaying her glittering wedding bands.

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

Hanni wrote alongside the post: “Our first Christmas as Mr and Mrs Shepherd. We hope you all had a magical one.”

Admirers and pals of the newlyweds flooded the comments section with congratulations, with one person commenting, “Beautiful photos, beautiful couple.”

Another declared: “Power couple (flame emoji)”, whilst a third added: “Looks amazing.”

“Happy Xmas Mr and Mrs Shepherd”, one follower gushed, while someone else said: “You both look lush.”

Jack has marked 25 years portraying David Platt on Coronation Street. Presently, on the ITV drama, David and his wife, Shona (Julia Goulding), are awaiting their first child together, though they’ve recently faced a devastating choice.

During a standard appointment, Shona and David learned their unborn daughter faces complications, as a scan showed a mass/tumour on the baby’s neck, necessitating risky surgery or termination.

Shona remains resolute about having her baby, and the pair are proceeding with the pregnancy. Nevertheless, further dramatic tension awaits the couple as Corrie links up with Emmerdale.

In a preview for the special episode, broadcasting on January 5, Shona and expectant Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins) from the Dales are shown in distress following a car crash. Will Shona and David emerge unscathed?

Coronation Street airs Monday, Wednesday and Friday on ITV and ITVX

PROSECUTORS at the helm of the murder case against Nick Reiner have a chance to pull a “historically uncommon” move if they pursue the death penalty, an attorney has warned.

Nick was charged with the horrific double murders of his parents, Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner, who were found with multiple stab wounds in their home in the affluent enclave of Brentwood in Los Angeles on December 14.

A shackled Nick, 32, wore a blue anti-suicide vest during his initial appearance in court days after the gruesome killings.

A plea was not entered, as defense attorney Alan Jackson told the judge that the case against Nick was premature.

Eric Faddis, a criminal defense attorney based in Colorado, believes Nick’s legal team is teeing up for an insanity defense down the road, which he suspects they could have a hard time trying to prove.

“In order to prove that, how that works is that the defense would have to prove it’s more likely than not that [Nick] Reiner had a mental disease or defect, which caused him to not know the difference between right or wrong or to not understand the nature of his conduct,” Faddis, who is not associated with the case, told The U.S. Sun.

Read more in The U.S. Sun

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“So, that’s a high bar. It’s not like in the movies where people get off on insanity regularly. Prevailing on a not guilty by reason of insanity defense is uncommon. But it’s still certainly possible.”

Nick had been diagnosed with schizophrenia some time before he allegedly slaughtered his parents, according to TMZ.

The troubled middle child of Reiner, 78, and Singer, 68, was reportedly being treated by a psychiatrist for his condition, but in the month before the murders, Nick’s behavior became “alarming” as doctors switched his medication.

Weeks before the murders, Nick’s prescription was changed, making him “erratic and dangerous,” TMZ reported.

Nick had been open about his struggles with drug addiction, and admitted in a 2016 interview with People that he had been to rehab dozens of times since he was 15 years old.

Faddis said the claims of Nick’s reported mental health disorder could be “supportive of a not guilty by reason of insanity defense.”

“Doesn’t mean he’ll win, but it sounds like they’re compiling evidence in support of that defense,” he added.

UNCOMMON PURSUIT

Nick has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said he has not decided whether his office will pursue the death penalty against Nick.

However, Faddis said with Hochman at the helm, it would not be surprising if the district attorney sought to sentence Nick to death.

“It’s hard to say. Historically, Los Angeles has not been the most death penalty-friendly county,” Faddis said.

“It’s not something they pursue commonly, as compared to like Utah or something like that.

“But, with Nathan Hochman at the helm, you know, he has made some unexpected moves on different cases, including the Menendez brothers’ case that he was on.

“There was sort of this social movement to try and get the Menendez brothers released. And I think a lot of people thought perhaps Hochman would go along with that, but he didn’t.”

Hochman was critical of the outpouring of supporting to free Erik and Lyle Menendez following the release of Netflix’s Monsters crime drama, which dramatized the brothers’ infamous 1989 double murders of their parents.

“So, if he did pursue the death penalty in this case, it would be historically uncommon, but not totally unexpected just based on how Hochman has made decisions in other cases.”

HOLLYWOOD NIGHTMARE

Reiner and Singer died minutes after they were allegedly brutally attacked by their son, according to their death certificates.

The iconic filmmaker’s time of death was recorded as 3:45 pm on December 14, while his wife’s was noted as 3:46 pm.

The grisly scene at Reiner’s Brentwood home was only uncovered after a massage therapist arrived at the couple’s front gate for a scheduled appointment on the afternoon of December 14, according to The New York Times.

After the therapist received no answer at the front gate, she decided to call the couple’s daughter, Romy, who reportedly lived in the area.

When Romy, 27, arrived and entered her parents’ home, she stumbled upon the gruesome scene and reportedly came across her father’s body first.

Reiner and Singer were found in their bed with their throats slashed and could have been asleep when they were murdered, the Daily Mail reported.

When Los Angeles police arrived at the scene at around 3:30 pm, Romy told authorities that her brother Nick lived in their parents’ home.

However, authorities were unable to locate Nick on the property.

Nick was eventually arrested at around 9:15 pm near Exposition Park, about 14 miles from where his parents were found dead, Alan Hamilton, the deputy police chief at the LAPD, said.

About an hour before his arrest, Nick was captured on a gas station surveillance footage acting nervously while buying a Gatorade.

Moments later, after exiting the gas station, the video captured three police cruisers swarming Nick at a nearby sidewalk.

Nick was seen raising his hands and surrendering to police as multiple officers approached him and took him into custody.

Timeline of Rob and Michele Reiner’s death

Rob Reiner and his wife of Michele Singer Reiner were found dead in their Los Angeles home on December 14, 2025.

Timeline:

• December 13, 2025: Reiner and his wife Michele attended a holiday party on the evening of December 13 with their son, Nick.
• Sources conveyed to The U.S. Sun that the couple and their son were engaged in a heated public argument while at the event.
• December 14, 2025: Reiner and Michele were found dead in their Brentwood home in Los Angeles at around 3:30 pm PST.
• The couple’s daughter, Romy, reportedly discovered her parents’ bodies.
• Online police records show Reiner and Michele’s 32-year-old son, Nick, was arrested at 9:15 pm PST on December 14.
• December 15, 2025: Authorities in Los Angeles announce that Nick Reiner was arrested and charged with murder.
• Nick was booked into a Los Angeles jail at 5:04 am and was being held on $4 million bail, which was later revoked.
• December 16, 2025: Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman formally charged Nick Reiner with two counts of first-degree murder.
• Hochman said his office would consider the death penalty in Nick’s case.
• Nick’s scheduled court appearance on December 16 was postponed due to what his attorney said was a procedural issue.
• December 17, 2025: Nick Reiner briefly appeared in court. A plea was not entered.
• December 23, 2025: The death certificates of Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner disclosed that the couple died of multiple sharp force injuries caused with “a knife, by another.”