NEW YORK — Charlotte Hornets guard LaMelo Ball was fined $35,000 by the NBA on Thursday for making an obscene gesture on Tuesday night.
Ball was assessed a technical foul for making the gesture with 4:02 to play in the fourth quarter of a 144-117 loss to Miami. He finished the game with 20 points, nine assists and eight rebounds.
Ball leads the Hornets in all three categories through their first four games with averages of 26.3 points, 9.5 assists and 8.3 rebounds.
Charlotte hosts the Orlando Magic on Thursday night.
We’ll be updating this guide all month with the most significant price drops, bundle steals and limited-time codes, so you can move fast when the best offers hit.
It’s the day after Thanksgiving in the US, which is why retailers ramp up offers across the long Black Friday weekend.
If you’re eyeing Charlotte Tilbury Black Friday drops, that timeline usually means early-bird bundles and sitewide codes ahead of the big day.
We’ll keep this page updated throughout November with the standout offers as they appear, so you can move fast and nail your wishlist in time for December.
There’s also moremeaning behind Black Friday than just sales and savings, and our explainer covers everything you need to know.
In recent events, Charlotte Tilbury has run up to 30% off across selected edits and bundles, plus tiered “the more you shop, the more you save” offers on its own site.
With that track record, we’re expecting Charlotte Tilbury Black Friday deals to kick off in November and build over the weekend.
It’s also worth checking major stockists, as many mirror or add their own discounts alongside the brand’s offers. You can also check out our pick of the best Charlotte Tilbury dupes, if you’re feeling extra-thrifty.
We’ll update this page as soon as the first deals drop so you can compare bundles and bag the best prices.
Here are some of the best sites to buy the brand’s products:
What deals to expect from Charlotte Tilbury’s Black Friday sale 2025?
In 2024, we also saw limited-time kits up to 40% off, as well as the buzzed-about mystery boxes, which tended to sell out quickly.
Deals typically build across Cyber Weekend, with fresh offers landing over the long weekend — 2024’s sale went live on Black Friday and kept momentum with limited-time picks that sold fast.
If you’re chasing hero products, past discounts have included Magic Cream, Beautiful Skin Foundation, Airbrush Bronzer and Exaggereyes Volume Mascara, so keep those on your watchlist.
What was in Charlotte Tilbury’s sale last year?
Last year, Charlotte Tilbury shoppers were treated to these products at a discount on the brand’s website and at other beauty retailers, so keep an eye out to see if these products are on sale again this year.
Here are some of the highlights from 2024:
Charlotte’s Award-Winning Complexion Trio, £60.90 (was £87) – buy here
Charlotte Tilbury Matte Revolution So 90s Lipstick, £29 – buy here
Charlotte Tilbury Hypnotising Pop Shots, £25 from Sephora – buy here
Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Flawless Finish Powder Refillable, £39 from John Lewis – buy here
Charlotte Tilbury Magic Night Cream, £35 from Cult Beauty – buy here
When is Cyber Monday 2025 and is Charlotte Tilbury taking part?
Expect a fresh wave of online-only offers and flash deals to land on the day, often with slightly lower discounts than Black Friday but solid savings on bestsellers and bundles all the same.
As for Charlotte Tilbury, the brand typically maintains momentum going into Cyber Monday, so we’re expecting more edits, bundle drops, and sitewide codes to carry through the Monday rush.
Keep an eye on CharlotteTilbury.com as well as major stockists, as retailers often mirror the brand’s promos or throw in their own perks like freebies or extra cashback.
Our advice? If you see a good price on your wishlist items, pounce—sell-outs are common once the weekend wraps.
Delivery promos often appear around Black Friday, so it’s worth checking during November.
As ever, prices and timeframes can change—double‑check at checkout before you buy.
Does Charlotte Tilbury offer any other discounts?
Yes! Beyond the big Charlotte Tilbury Black Friday rush, there are a few year-round ways to save.
Keep an eye out for gift-with-purchase promos: recent offers have included a FREE Unreal makeup bag when you buy three products, automatically added at checkout while stocks last.
The brand also runs rotating freebies (think surprise full-size treats when you hit a spend threshold), plus you can choose two complimentary samples with every order to test new formulas before you commit.
Charlotte Tilbury’s site regularly features promo codes, curated kits and ‘magical savings’ edits with built‑in discounts, so it’s worth checking the offers hub before you check out.
Students and key workers can often access partner discounts via platforms like UNiDAYS and Health Service Discounts—availability can vary—while makeup artists can apply to the Pro Program for exclusive pro-only pricing and perks.
Tip: sign up for emails and app alerts ahead of November—delivery perks, early-bird bundles and limited-time codes tend to land around Charlotte Tilbury Black Friday.
Is Charlotte Tilbury cruelty-free?
Yes, Charlotte Tilbury is officially cruelty‑free.
The brand has the Leaping Bunny seal of approval by Cruelty Free International, a certification it announced in 2021 and continues to hold.
Leaping Bunny is the globally recognised “gold standard” for cruelty‑free beauty, meaning brands must meet strict, supply‑chain‑wide criteria and agree to ongoing independent checks to keep their status.
You’ll also spot the Leaping Bunny logo across Charlotte Tilbury’s communications and packaging as a quick reassurance while you shop.
For the latest wording direct from the brand, Charlotte Tilbury’s help centre confirms its Leaping Bunny approval and cruelty‑free position..
Who is Charlotte Tilbury?
Charlotte Tilbury is the British makeup artist turned beauty entrepreneur behind the eponymous brand.
She’s an MBE and the founder, chair and chief creative officer of Charlotte Tilbury Beauty, which she launched in 2013 after years of shaping red‑carpet and runway looks.
After more than two decades in fashion and beauty, she translated her pro toolkit into a consumer line that’s now a global favourite.
Raised in Ibiza, she made her name in the 1990s backstage, helping to set trends and turn them into wearable looks for everyday fans.
Her “pro secrets made simple” approach champions easy‑to‑use makeup for all ages and skin tones, cementing her reputation as a creative visionary and innovator.
Cult heroes like Charlotte’s Magic Cream began life as her backstage formulas and remain icons today.
No wonder Charlotte Tilbury’s Black Friday sale causes a stampede every year.
Is Charlotte Tilbury worth it?
2
We’ve tried lots of Charlotte Tilbury products and loved them!
Charlotte Tilbury sits at a premium price point, but the payoff is there on the brand’s biggest hitters.
Our writers highly rate the textures, flattering shades, and long-wear finishes.
Sun Shopping writer, Maisie Bovingdon, put the Pillow Talk Plumpgasm lip gloss to the test and shared: “The formula is not tacky or sticky, but silky smooth like a nourishing lip oil should be, but the best part and a non-negotiable for me is the product doesn’t slip.”
That said, it’s still worth matching formulas to your skin type and testing shades where you can—minis, samples and curated kits help you dial in the right fit.
If you’re value-minded, keep an eye on bundle edits, loyalty perks and, of course, Charlotte Tilbury Black Friday, when you’ll often see sitewide codes or set savings that make the splurge smarter.
What are Charlotte Tilbury’s most popular products?
Charlotte Tilbury’s icons are the ones shoppers talk about for a reason.
Charlotte’s Magic Cream is the glow-boosting moisturiser makeup artists reach for to prep and plump skin before foundation.
Hollywood Flawless Filter is the radiance hero you can wear alone or mix with base for that soft-focus sheen fans love.
Pillow Talk stays the brand’s most famous pink‑nude across lipstick and liner, with Lip Cheat in Iconic Nude, another everyday liner favourite.
Charlotte Church was once one half of Wales’ most high-profile power couple – now she is taking on Celebrity Traitors
17:26, 07 Oct 2025Updated 17:31, 07 Oct 2025
Church and Henson were together for five years
Few players have transcended the game of rugby quite like Gavin Henson, with the former Wales international earning comparisons to David Beckham for the talent he showed on the pitch and the life he lived off of it.
The flamboyant back was one of the most naturally talented players of his generation and few could take their eyes off him as he shone on the international stage and for his many clubs, single-handedly turning games on their head on more than one occasion.
In addition to winning 33 caps for Wales and touring with the British & Irish Lions in 2005, Henson represented three out of the four Welsh regions – the Ospreys, Dragons and Cardiff – while he also played in England with Saracens, Bath, Bristol and London Welsh, as well as in France with Toulon.
He tasted glory with Wales, being part of two Grand Slam campaigns in 2005 and 2008, while he also won two domestic titles and the Anglo-Welsh Cup with the Ospreys. But for all the headlines he made for his success on the pitch, he would make just as many off it, sometimes for the wrong reasons.
He would later have stints on reality TV shows including Strictly Come Dancing but things now look very different for the former rugby star, who is now 43-year-old. From his romance with Church to running his own pub, here’s what you need to know about Henson’s life away from the pitch.
Relationship with Charlotte Church
Henson and Church – who rose to fame as a classical singer before pursuing a pop career – sparked a media frenzy when they were first seen in public together in April 2005, shortly after she split up with her previous boyfriend Kyle Johnson.
On her BBC podcast, Kicking Back With the Cardiffians, Church said she went looking for the rugby star after watching him play on TV, explaining: “I remember watching on this television, Wales vs England, when Gavin kicked the kick over.
“Then that night – I didn’t know Gav before that – I was like, I’m going to go out and find him in town. He is nice. Actually I was going round asking everybody, ‘Do you know Gavin Henson? Where will he go out drinking afterwards?’ Nobody knew – but I did find him.”
The Welsh power couple moved in together the following year, while in March 2007, Church revealed that she was pregnant with the couple’s first child. They welcomed a daughter, Ruby, later that year, with their second child, a son, Dexter, born in January 2009.
They looked to be going from strength to strength, with Henson proposing to Church on her 24th birthday in February 2010, the same month she landed a big TV gig on BBC singing show Over The Rainbow. However, it all fell apart just six weeks later, as the couple confirmed they were splitting up after five years together.
It was later confirmed that the decision was a joint one, with Church explaining: “When he proposed, I was overjoyed. It was amazing. I really was going to marry Gav and spend the rest of my life with him. But then he came back from Norway, and he’d changed, and I’d had time to think. We had both had a change of heart – so we were both of the same mind.”
Church later hit out at the “insane” media intrusion she had to deal with before and during her relationship with Henson, having also claimed that her phone was hacked by the News of The World, for which she later received an apology and substantial damages.
“The press intrusion was insane, there was all sorts of dark stuff going on,” she said. “There were stories in the papers all the time and lots of things were blown up, misconstrued and made seedy – when they really weren’t.
“There was a lot of shame being thrown at me, with the press desperately trying to make me a figure of sin and push this ‘fallen angel’ narrative. If I had let that shame in, or internalised it, my life could have gone in a very different way.”
Today, Henson and Church maintain a good relationship and co-parent Dexter and they have both found love again. While the former rugby star married long-term partner Katie Wilson Mould in 2019, Church tied the knot with musician Jonathan Powell in 2017, having asked Henson for his blessing before they started dating.
Past controversies
Aside from his relationship with Church, Henson found himself making headlines for all the wrong reasons on more than one occasion, sometimes landing himself in trouble with the law and his clubs.
In 2007, he and three other men were charged with disorderly conduct for drunken behaviour on a train between London and Cardiff, only for the case to be dropped due to insufficient evidence. In 2009, he was also given a police caution over his behaviour on a night out in Cardiff following Wales’ Six Nations win over England.
Henson also landed himself in hot water after some drinking sessions went too far, as he was sacked by Cardiff after playing just eight games for them following his “inexcusable” and “inappropriate” drunken behaviour on a flight back from Glasgow in March 2012.
A year later, a drunken comment he made to new Bath teammate Carl Fearns led to the two-time Grand Slam winner being knocked out by the flanker during a team bonding night, with the incident caught on CCTV.
However, Henson has since opened up on his past behaviour and revealed he has been able to understand himself better after discovering the ‘chimp’ that had been running his mind, leading him to put boozing behind him.
Having “battled for a long time” with his own mind, Henson was captivated by Professor Steve Peters’ mind-management book The Chimp Paradox, which outlined how to control the ‘chimp’, or “the voice which tells you to do things you maybe shouldn’t.”
“I didn’t understand the thoughts I was having after games where I wanted to go out and drink,” he explained in an interview with MailOnline. “They were a million miles away from my core values and goals in rugby.
“Now, having read the book, I understand that for most of my rugby career, the chimp was controlling me and running my life more than I was. If I’d found the book while I was still playing rugby, I’d 100 per cent have been a better player and maybe I wouldn’t have made the mistakes I did.”
“In social interactions, I probably need a drink because I’m an introvert,” he continued. “If I have a drink, I become more of an extrovert and the chimp has more confidence! I can be good fun on a night out! But now I choose not to go into those environments. I’m not tee-total. In the last year, I’ve probably had one good drink. There’s a place in rugby for sharing a drink with your team-mates”.
New life as pub landlord
While Henson has cut down on his drinking habits, these days he can be found pulling pints, having become the landlord of The Fox & Hounds pub in St Brides Major, Vale of Glamorgan in 2019.
After carrying out an extensive refurbishment and restaurant upgrade, the former Wales international shortened the name of the pub to The Fox and manages the venue with his wife Katie.
Speaking to The Times about the venture, Henson said: “I was coming to the end of my career, and it [the pub] had been sat here for 18 months, two years. It was not nice for the village, and I needed something to do after rugby and to be busy, not to mourn rugby and get depressed, as they say everyone does.
“But be careful what you wish for because this is so full-on. We want to feel like we’ve achieved something with the pub. We’re perfectionists. We’re all about the detail.”
Henson – who is believed to have a net worth of around £800,000 after once earning roughly £120,000 a year at the height of his career – has also recently pulled his rugby boots back on again.
In September last year, he returned to the field with his boyhood club Pencoed and he is now into his second season in League 2 West Central, in the fourth tier of Welsh rugby.
Speaking to BBC Scrum V, Henson admitted he is “loving” being back in rugby, explaining: “I’m 43 now, so a bit old, as my wife tells me. But I’ve missed it, I’ve missed the physicality of it, and being in a team environment again and trying to win.
“I’m very competitive, I like trying to win, that’s the main thing. We have a good group of boys. We’re aiming for promotion, so hopefully it will be a good season and great for the club.
“I’m playing 10, I would like to play 12 but I am just not quite big enough yet. So I’ll still try to aim to get there but 10 at the moment.”
“Love Island USA” star Taylor Williams says he is “all good” after being thrown from his horse during the Arizona Invitational Black Rodeo in Scottsdale.
In a TikTok video, Williams’ horse seemingly trips over another horse before falling to the ground. Williams and his horse appear to be trampled by other participants before the horse rolls over Williams and rises to its feet. Williams, 24, was still lying on the ground when officials rushed over to help him.
Williams gave an update on his condition later that day on social media, saying that his injuries would not get in the way of him attending an event that he was scheduled to appear at Saturday night, according to Entertainment Weekly.
“Was in a horse accident last night but I’m still pulling up tonight injured and all,” he wrote on Instagram Stories. “It’s my brothers’ bday [you know] we still turnt!”
He followed up the post with a photo of himself lying on a hospital stretcher, wearing a neck brace and holding two thumbs up. “Preciate all the love!” he wrote over the image. “I’m good.”
Williams’ girlfriend and fellow “Love Island” alum Clarke Carraway later posted a video via Instagram Stories, which showed Williams being wheeled out of a hospital, while Maverick City Music’s “The Story I’ll Tell” plays in the background.
In a second video, Carraway poses next to Williams, who has one arm in a sling, while they rock matching cowboy hats.
The Oklahoma native, who said he “was on a horse before I could walk,” appeared on the seventh season of Peacock’s “Love Island,” which aired earlier this summer. The veterinary student became known for wearing cowboy hats and talking about his love for the rodeo.
Williams first coupled up with fan-favorite Olandria Carthen on the reality dating show, but ultimately ended the series with Carraway, from Charlotte, N.C. The couple made it to the second-to-last episode, but were booted off the island shortly after making their relationship “exclusive.”
During the reunion, which was hosted by Ariana Madix and Andy Cohen last week, Williams and Carraway said that they were still going strong and making their long-distance relationship work.
President Trump has threatened to deploy the National Guard to Chicago, New York, Seattle, Baltimore, San Francisco and Portland, Ore., to fight what he says is runaway crime. Yet data show most violent crime in those places and around the country has declined in recent years.
Homicides through the first six months of 2025 were down significantly compared with the same period in 2024, continuing a post-pandemic trend across the U.S.
Trump, who has already taken federal control of police in Washington, D.C., has maligned the six Democratic-run cities that all are in states that opposed him in 2024. But he hasn’t threatened sending in the Guard to any major cities in Republican-leaning states.
John Roman, a data expert who directs the Center on Public Safety & Justice at the University of Chicago, acknowledged violence in some urban neighborhoods has persisted for generations. But he said there’s no U.S. city where there “is really a crisis.”
“We’re at a remarkable moment in crime in the United States,” he said.
Public sees things differently
Trump might be tapping somewhat into public perception when he describes cities such as Chicago as a “killing field.” The vast majority of Americans, 81%, see crime as a “major problem” in large cities, according to a survey released this week by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, though there is much less support, 32%, for federal control of police.
The public was reminded this week that shootings remain a frequent event in the U.S. In Minneapolis, which has seen homicides and most other crime fall, a shooter killed two children attending a Catholic school Mass on Wednesday and wounded 17 a day after three people died in separate shootings elsewhere in the city.
Still, over time, the picture is encouraging, according to numbers from AH Datalytics, which tracks crimes across the country using law enforcement data for its Real-Time Crime Index.
Aggravated assaults — which includes nonfatal shootings — through June were down in Chicago, Portland, Seattle, Baltimore and San Francisco and were virtually unchanged in New York. Reports of rape were up in New York and Chicago during the first half of the year, but down in the other cities, including a 51% drop in San Francisco.
The crime index also showed that property crimes, such as theft, burglary and motor vehicle theft, were mostly down in those six cities in the first six months of 2025. Theft crimes rose from 2020-24 in four of the six cities analyzed by AP.
Cities defend safety strategies
Trump exaggerated and misstated facts about crime in Washington when his administration took over the D.C. police department and flooded the capital with federal agents and the National Guard. He referred to Baltimore, 40 miles away, as a “hellhole” during a Cabinet meeting and has said he might “send in the ‘troops.’ ”
“I’m not walking in Baltimore right now,” Trump said.
Yet Baltimore has shown drops in major crime, according to the crime index. Homicides and rapes were down 25% or more in the first half of 2025 compared with the same period in 2024. Homicides were down for three consecutive years through 2024 and were 35% lower when compared with 2018.
“Deploying the National Guard for municipal policing purposes is not sustainable, scalable, constitutional, or respectful,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, said on social media site X.
Baltimore has found ways to reduce violence by offering mentorship, social services and job opportunities to young people likely to commit crimes, said Michael Scott, director of the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing at Arizona State University and a former police chief in Florida.
“That approach has resulted in more significant reductions in shootings and homicides than any other strategy I’ve seen in the over 50 years I’ve been in the field,” Scott said.
Vice President JD Vance told a Wisconsin crowd on Thursday that governors and mayors should ask the Trump administration for help.
“The president of the United States is not going out there forcing this on anybody,” Vance said of using the National Guard, “though we do think that we have the legal right to clean up America’s streets if we want to.”
Tales of different cities
Trump doesn’t seem to disparage big cities in states that favor Republicans. Charlotte, N.C., had 105 homicides in 2024 compared with 88 in 2023. The rate of vehicle thefts per 100,000 people more than doubled there from 2020-24. Indianapolis had a homicide rate of 19 per 100,000 residents in 2024 — more than four times higher than New York’s.
Amy Holt, 48, who recently moved to Charlotte from a gated community in northern Virginia, said someone tried to steal her husband’s car in their new city. She also found bullets on the ground while walking with dogs.
There’s no discussion about sending the National Guard to Charlotte. Holt believes most cities should be trusted to be in charge of public safety, adding that troops in uniforms would be “alarming” and “scary.”
Democratic-elected officials in cities targeted by Trump have publicly rejected suggestions that their residents need the National Guard. “Crime is at its lowest point in decades, visitors are coming back, and San Francisco is on the rise,” Mayor Daniel Lurie said.
Experts question just how effective the National Guard would be and where troops would be deployed in cities.
“It’s going to make residents think: Things must be much worse than I realize to have the military in my neighborhood. What’s going on?” Scott said. “It’s more likely to generate undue fear and apprehension than it will lead to perceptions of reassurance and safety.”
White and Keller write for the Associated Press. White reported from Detroit and Keller reported from Albuquerque, N.M. AP video journalist Erik Verduzco in Charlotte, N.C., contributed to this report.
By Marissa Higgins Catapult: 272 pages, $27 If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.
In 1984, at age 33, I fell in love with a woman for the first time. Her name was Cathy. Her previous girlfriend’s name was also Cathy. “Wasn’t that confusing, sharing a name with your girlfriend?” I asked. She shrugged. “Everything about being a lesbian is confusing at first,” she said. “You get used to it.”
In “Sweetener,” Marissa Higgins’ sexy, poignant second sapphic novel, the reader is served plenty of confusion, lesbian-related and otherwise. For starters, two of the book’s three protagonists, who are breaking up as we meet them, are both named Rebecca. With 18,993 girls’ names in active use in contemporary America, why would Higgins build this disconcerting element into “Sweetener’s” structure? It proves to be a decision well-made. As the reader turns the pages, learning to individuate the two Rebeccas (whose central struggle is learning to individuate from each other) gives us bonus information about, and empathy for, both of them.
“My wife and I have the same first name, though our friends never used mine; I’ve always been Rebecca’s wife,” Rebecca No. 1 says of Rebecca No. 2 — No. 2 being the more powerful one, since she’s the one initiating the breakup. “Our last names, too, are still the same, as I took hers at our court wedding,” No. 1 tells us. “With the same name, it’s easy to become one person instead of two.”
Applying for a part-time cashier job near her dismal D.C. apartment, Rebecca No. 1 mulls, “Inside the market, I remind myself I am a person. I have an age, a birthday, an address.” When the store manager asks about Rebecca’s hobbies, she thinks, “Making rent? Getting myself off? Finding a woman with more money than either of us to take me to the dentist?”
The engaging, original plot of “Sweetener” is complex, too. Unbeknownst to Rebecca No. 1, she and No. 2 (PhD student, less depressed, more conniving, heavy drinker) are both dating Charlotte. Obsessed with having a baby, Charlotte wears a fake pregnancy belly, a fact known only to Rebecca No. 2, because Charlotte keeps her shirt on while having sex with Rebecca No. 1. (Having Charlotte thinking, “Please don’t notice please don’t notice please don’t notice” to cover Rebecca No. 1’s failure to notice that her sexual partner is wearing a huge baby-shaped silicone belt seems a bit of an, um, stretch.) Both Rebeccas have great sex with Charlotte. Neither Rebecca wants to stop.
Rebecca No. 2 also wants a baby and doesn’t want to stop drinking, which means not bearing but instead fostering a child, which means enlisting Rebecca No. 1 in the effort, since the two are still legally married, and fostering as a single divorcee requires a minimum one-year legal separation. Neither Rebecca is certain whether pretending to be married will result in their actual reconciliation. Only Rebecca No. 1 is certain that she wants that.
“I know it’s not fair of me to ask anything of you,” Rebecca No. 2 admits in a phone call to her soon-to-be ex-wife, “but I’m serious about wanting to have a family.”
“Sweetener” is the second novel by Marissa Higgins.
(Catapult)
Desperate as she is for a reconciliation, Rebecca No. 1 mulls, “When she says she wants me to think about how important a family is to her, and what this could mean for her, I understand she is not using the word we… I tell her I miss her and she says she misses me, too. Then she says, ‘So you’ll come by when the social worker is here?’”
In 1984, when I dated Cathy No. 2, like the Rebeccas, most of the lesbians I knew were young, poverty-stricken and uncomfortably enmeshed with their lovers, and they considered “lesbian” to be their primary identity. Unlike the Rebeccas, we were also terrified by the consequences of being out during what were extremely dangerous times. During the 1980s and 1990s, Cathy and I were chased down city streets by men shouting slurs at us. We were refused rooms in hotels. Cathy would have been fired from her childcare job if she’d come out at work. My custody of my children was threatened. I was banished from my father’s home.
“My wife and I go to our first class on child development together,” Rebecca No. 1 tells us. “Next to my wife, I feel cool.” A few pages later, she observes: “The social worker tells me I’m lucky to have a partner who values non-threatening communication.” During their home visit with a second D.C. social worker, the Rebeccas lie about a lot of things — chiefly, their marital and financial instability. But they don’t lie about what Cathy and I would have had to hide if we’d tried to adopt a child in the 1980s. Living in a big, liberal city, the Rebeccas don’t feel the need (still required for safety in “red” locales) to call each other roommates or friends. They call each other wives, because in 2025 same-sex marriage and parenting are givens, not distant fantasies.
Ten years after it became “cool” (and legal, and publicly acknowledged) for a woman to have a wife; 40 years after I and many, many others paid a terrible price for coming out in our families, workplaces and neighborhoods, lesbians like Marissa Higgins are creating lesbian characters who live in a sweeter, changed-for-the-better world. The sugar that made life safer for us is the queer activism that begins with telling true tales of queer lives and persists today with renewed need and renewed vigor. “Sweetener,” the novel, is a fun romp through one version of lesbo-land circa 2025. Higgins’ “Sweetener” celebrates and accelerates the long, rough ride to lasting queer equality.
Maran, author of “The New Old Me” and other books, lives in a Silver Lake bungalow that’s even older than she is.
Earlier this month, showrunner Michael Patrick King informed the world that the long-awaited, highly anticipated and then almost universally hated sequel to HBO’s groundbreaking series “Sex and the City” would end. Mere weeks later, it did just that and rather abruptly, with two Thanksgiving-themed episodes, which felt a bit odd in these dog days of summer. But at least it allowed the writers to box up and tie off all the various storylines as if they were the medley of pies Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) picks up and delivers to all her friends during the show’s finale.
If you think those pies denote happiness, you would be right. The main feast at Miranda’s (Cynthia Nixon) apartment falls far short of perfection — loads of no-shows, the appearance of chef Brady’s (Niall Cunningham) passive-aggressive baby mama, an undercooked turkey and a toilet disaster — but in the end, every character is left wallowing in peace and satisfaction.
Miranda lowers her defenses enough to tell Joy (Dolly Wells) that she is a recovering alcoholic, to which Joy responds with deep understanding. Prostate cancer survivor Harry (Evan Handler) becomes fully, er, functional again and in the afterglow, Charlotte (Kristin Davis) finally surrenders the girly expectations she once had for her nonbinary daughter Rock (Alexa Swinton). After fleeting concern that her crunchy gardener lover Adam (Logan Marshall-Green) doesn’t believe in big weddings or even marriage, Seema (Sarita Choudhury) accepts that true, and committed, love comes in all shapes and sizes. As do Anthony (Mario Cantone) and Giuseppe (Sebastiano Pigazzi). Whether Lisa’s (Nicole Ari Parker) renewed devotion to husband Herbert (Christopher Jackson) counts as a happy ending is open to debate, but at least he seems to be letting go of his “humiliating” loss in the New York City comptroller race.
As for Carrie, well, after her renewed romance with Aidan (John Corbett) became blighted by mistrust, she had a lovely brief affair with Duncan (Jonathan Cake), the British biographer living in the basement of her townhouse. But in the end, she decides, via the novel that served as this season’s voice-over, that life in a fabulous Manhattan apartment with a closet that looks like it was shipped from “The Devil Wears Prada” costume department and a group of fine faithful friends (including a cantankerous baker who allows her to order pies long past the pie-ordering deadline), does not require a man to be complete.
After breaking up with Aidan (John Corbett), right, and a brief affair with Duncan (Jonathan Cake), Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) realizes she’s better off alone.
(Craig Blankenhorn / HBO Max)
Culture critic Mary McNamara, staff writer Yvonne Villarreal and television editor Maira Garcia compare notes on the end of one of the most discussed, if not beloved, reboots in television history.
Mary McNamara: When I wrote about “And Just Like That” a month ago, I expressed my hope that Season 3 would be the last, so I feel nothing but relief (though had I known the universe was in listening mode, I would have also mentioned wanting to win the lottery and a few other things).
I am not worried, as others appear to be, about the legacy of “Sex and the City,” which is all around us in series as disparate as “Broad City,” “Fleabag” and “Insecure.” Nor do I think that the failure of “And Just Like That” has anything to do with the current political climate or the rise of the trad wife or whatever hot takes seem handy. It was simply and consistently a very bad TV show.
I tuned in initially because, like many, I was excited to see how these characters were coping with late middle-age life — by apparently not experiencing menopause for one thing (an early indication that female authenticity had fallen by the wayside) or developing any sort of interior life.
Real crises — Carrie losing Big and “dealing” with Aidan’s troubled son, Miranda discovering her queerness and alcoholism, Charlotte struggling to cope with her daughter’s gender fluidity and her husband’s cancer — were treated performatively, as plot twists to underline, apparently, the resilience of each character and the core friendship. Not a bad objective, but the hurdles, which increasing felt like a whiteboard checklist (podcasts! pronouns! prostate cancer!), came and went so fast they quickly became laughable (and not in the comedic sense), culminating with Lisa’s father dying twice.
I kept watching, as many did, not because I loved hating it, but because there was a good show in there somewhere and I kept waiting for it to emerge. When it didn’t — well, the Thanksgiving/pie finale was a bit much — I honestly didn’t care how it ended, as long as it did.
Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) confronts her alcoholism and discovering her queerness in the show, but heavy issues were treated performatively as plot twists to reinforce characters’ resilience.
(Craig Blankenhorn / HBO Max)
Maira Garcia: Mary, after you wrote your column, I decided to take a break from the show because it summarized some of my frustrations with the reboot that seemed to come to a head this season — Aidan’s unrealistic expectations for his relationship with Carrie, the perfunctory way it addressed ADHD, the lack of rugs on Carrie’s floors. Of course my break didn’t last long because I caught up and now I’m here wondering what it was all about and what it could have been. While the line from King and Parker is that this season felt like a good place for the show to end, based on the number of developing storylines, like Brady becoming a father, I have a very hard time believing it. But the problem of how to fix this show was too big — it was better that they ended on this chapter (whether or not that decision was made by them).
I think like many viewers, I just wanted to enjoy spending some time with these ladies again at a later stage in life after a couple of decades with them through reruns and the films. But this was something else and while the addition of new characters seemed well-intentioned, they either lacked dimension, meaty storylines or were plain annoying (ahem, Che) — except for Seema. I love Seema. Please get Sarita Choudhury a spinoff.
Yvonne Villarreal: Uh, is it sad that I’m sad? I know, I know. But, look, I feel like the girl who cried “Che?!” too many times and now it’s real and it’s like I’ve been mentally placed in that insane DIY mini foyer of Carrie’s old apartment trying to emotionally find my way out. Like you, Mary, I’ve been frustrated endlessly by the series and have long felt like it needed to be put out of its misery, but I still dutifully watched every episode with a weird mix of enthusiasm and dread — and the community that grew (in my TikTok algorithm and in my group texts) from that shared experience was oddly one of the bright spots. So for HBO Max to call my bluff by actually ending it still feels like a breakup as flabbergasting — albeit, necessary — as Berger’s Post-it note peace-out.
I came in ready to approach this stage of my relationship to these characters the same way I approach the friendships I’ve maintained the longest — excited to catch up once our schedules aligned, trying to fill in the blanks from the long absence caused by life, but still recognizing the foundation of who they are and how they’re choosing to navigate life’s curveballs. But with each passing episode, it always seemed like I was at the wrong table, perplexed and trying not to be rude with all the “But why?” questions. Miranda’s quote from this week’s finale, as she took in the most bizarre Thanksgiving dinner television has ever put onscreen, felt like the epilogue to my experience watching it all: “I’m not sure exactly what’s happening now, but let’s all take a breath.”
The scene where Carrie, left, Seema, Charlotte and Lisa are at the bridal fashion show, expressing their feelings about marriage, is something our writer wanted more of in the series.(Craig Blankenhorn / HBO Max)
I will mourn the potential of what this series could have been. Like Carrie’s playful tiptoe stride through the streets in heels, the show pranced around topics that, had it walked through them with intention, would have given the series traces of its former self. That friend moment between Seema and Carrie outside the hair salon in Season 2 — where the former is reluctantly but bravely expressing that she feels like she’s being dropped now that Aidan is back in the picture — was such a genuine peek at the vulnerability between friends that so many of us valued from the original series. And that moment from this week’s finale, where the women are gathered at a bridal runway show, sharing their varying feelings on marriage at this stage in their life — I just wanted to shout, “MICHAEL PATRICK KING, this is what I wanted more of!” Though, I would have preferred if they were around a table, looking at each other as they shared and unpacked. I wanted an extended scene of that, not Carrie ordering pies! I don’t like to be teased with goodness. And that’s how it often felt.
Also, I know it’s a comedy, although the decision to lean into the sitcom style of humor remains perplexing (Harry and Charlotte, I’m looking at you), but I felt like there was a way to explore grief — the death of Mr. Big and Stanford, plus the strain on the group’s friendship with Samantha — in a way that felt truer to the characters and the style of the show. Heck, even Miranda’s drinking problem was squandered. I feel like the loss of a spouse (through death, divorce or emotional distance), the fading out of friendships and reconsideration of lifestyle habits are the most talked-about topics in my friend group at this stage in my life — sometimes the convos happen while we’re huddled around a Chili’s triple dipper, which is as bleak and real as it gets. And I’m sorry, but if I were to use one of those outings, when I’m in my mid-50s, to tell them an ex wants me to wait five years while he focuses on being a toxic parent before we can really be together, they’d slap me with a fried mozzarella stick — I will never forgive the writers for how lobotomized these characters feel. Mary and Maira, how did you feel about how the show handled its biggest absences? The show began in such a different place than where it ends — did it evolve in the right direction? Where did it go right for you?
McNamara: Oh Yvonne, you are so much kinder than I am. I never felt it was going right — the writers seemed so determined to prove that women in their 50s aren’t boring that they constantly forced them into all manner of absurd situations without much thought for what kind of actual women these characters might have become. Age was represented mostly by bizarre, grannified reactions to younger folk and their strange ways (up until the finale, which gave us that baby mama and her buddy Epcot), as if the women (and the writers) had been kept in a shoe box for 20 years.
Looking back, the lack of Samantha, and Cattrall, feels like a deal-breaker. For all her campy affectations, Samantha was always the most grounded of the characters, able to cut to the heart of things with a witty line, biting comment or just a simple truth. Seema, and Choudhury, did her best to fill that void, but she never got quite enough room to work — her relationship was almost exclusively with Carrie for one thing and Carrie was, even more than in “Sex and the City,” the driving force of the show.
Kim Cattrall made a brief appearance as Samantha Jones at the end of Season 2, but she was sorely missed throughout.
(Max)
I agree that grief was given very short shrift, and the fact that no one seemed to miss Samantha very much, or be in touch with her at all (beyond the few exchanges with Carrie) was both bizarre and a shame — coping with the loss of a dear friend, through misunderstanding or distance, is a rich topic and one that many people deal with.
As for the resurrection of Aidan, well, who thought that was going to work? Especially when it became clear that the writers thought it made perfect sense to keep Carrie and Aidan’s children separate — so unbelievable, and demeaning to both characters. Carrie’s final “revelation” that a woman doesn’t need a man to be happy would have had a much more meaningful resonance if Carrie had been allowed to explore her grief, fear, frustration and hope beyond a few platitude-laden conversations and that god-awful novel. Which, quite honestly, was the funniest thing about this season. When her agent went bananas over it, I literally walked out of the room.
Garcia: Samantha, and Cattrall in turn, were sorely missed. And you’re right, Mary, Seema filled some of that void, and you really need that connection across the different characters. Which leads me to my biggest gripe: Why did some characters feel so distant? Lisa’s storyline this season was so disconnected from the rest — it seemed like she was with the core group only in passing. And it happened with Nya (Karen Pittman), who disappeared after Season 2, though that had to do with scheduling conflicts.
As far as its evolution, I was glad to see the podcast group, with its overbearing members, whittled away — though we had to deal with Che for another season. Those overbearing characters kept getting replaced with other overbearing characters like Giuseppe’s mother, played by Patti LuPone, and Brady’s baby mama and her odd pals (if the writers were trying to get us to scratch our heads at Gen Z, they did it). While I’ll miss being able to turn my brain off for an hour each week, along with the occasional shouts at my TV over some silly line or moment, I can’t say I was satisfied in the end. At least when someone said or did something stupid in previous iterations of the show, it was acknowledged in a way that felt true the characters and there was some growth expressed. After the return of Aidan, I can’t say that’s true here.
But now that we’re at the end, I have to ask you both how this affects the SATC universe? Did this disrupt the canon? Was there something memorable you’ll take away at least? A character, a moment, a ridiculously oversized piece of jewelry, hat or bag?
Villarreal: Oh geez. There’s no question — for me, at least — where this sequel falls in the SATC universe. The original series, even with its moments that didn’t stand the test of time, will always be supreme; the first movie, while hardly perfect, gave us some memorable BFF moments — like Charlotte giving Big eye daggers after he left Carrie at the altar or Samantha feeding a heartbroken Carrie — that keep it in my rewatch rotation. I’d place “And Just Like That …” after that, with the Abu Dhabi getaway movie dead last.
What will I miss? For sure the fashion moments, especially the ones that broke my brain, like Carrie’s Michelin Man snowstorm getup or her recent gingham headwear disaster that my former colleague Meredith Blake described as Strawberry Shortcake … and don’t get me started on Lisa’s jumbo balls of twine necklace.
One thing we’ll miss: The over-the-top fashion like Carrie’s big hat and Lisa’s jumbo ball necklace.(Craig Blankenhorn/HBO Max)
I’m curious, Mary, as someone who has watched your share of series finales, how you felt about this conclusion and whether it served that mission. This season had episodes that felt like wasted filler and didn’t do much to move the plot forward. Last week’s penultimate episode is what convinced me the wrapping up of this series was not planned. It was 28 minutes of huh? And what about Carrie’s book? I would add it to my Kindle just out of curiosity. While I maybe would have seen all that’s transpired as an opportunity for Carrie to write a memoir on love and loss à la Carole Radziwill, I did get a kick out of the excerpts from Carrie’s take on a 19th century woman having an existential crisis. And look, maybe I’m schmaltzy, but I did sort of love the last line she tacked on in her epilogue: “The woman realized, she was not alone — she was on her own.” Mary, are you judging me right now? I promise I didn’t dance to Barry White’s “You’re the First, the Last, My Everything” through the halls of my apartment after watching. But I would have loved more exploration of that thread sooner — I mean, aren’t there studies about women being happier, or at least less stressed, later in life once their spouse dies? I believe it! It doesn’t mean you can’t have companionship in other ways. Anyway, what’s the takeaway from what happened with this show? Hollywood isn’t going to stop trying to find new life in established properties. So, what can be learned from what went wrong here?
McNamara: Yvonne! I would never judge you! And the world would be a far better place if everyone danced around their domiciles more often. I think Carrie realizing that her life is full and happy without a partner is actually a perfect way to end this series. (She will certainly never want for romance — So. Much. Tulle.) I just wish it had felt less rushed and did not involve a weird giant plushie at a robot restaurant. Whatever sequence of events led to the final scene, I have to believe that was going to be Carrie’s journey all along. I even liked the debate over the ending of her book — if only the book had not been so terrible!
I will certainly miss marveling at Parker’s Olympics-worthy ability to navigate nearly any surface in heels (and “sell” outfits that seem more like Halloween costumes than style) as well as those rare conversations, like the one at the bridal show, that allowed a situation to be viewed from multiple points of view.
As for the finale, it felt very much in keeping with the intention, if not the overall execution, of the series. I am not cold-hearted enough to want any of these characters to depart mid-crisis or accept less than a happy life. Sure, it was a bit pat, with everyone’s story neatly boxed up like a Thanksgiving pie. But who doesn’t like pie?
Garcia: I love pie! But let’s not forget, like the toilet that overflowed (with a few logs, to boot) in the final scenes, too much of something isn’t always what we need.
Villarreal: Is this a safe space to share that if the girls make up with Samantha/Cattrall in their 70s, I’ll be ready for their return to my screen? Sorry, not sorry — I don’t have time to set healthy boundaries with friendships that are no longer serving me.
James Harden, Kawhi Leonard, Ivica Zubac and Chris Paul are poised to lead the Clippers through a 2025-26 schedule that opens on the road but closes with four of its final six games at the Intuit Dome.
2025-26 Clippers schedule
OCTOBER
22: at Utah, 6; 24: vs. Phoenix, 7:30; 26: vs. Portland, 6; 28: at Golden State, 8; 31: vs. New Orleans, 7:30.
NOVEMBER
3: vs. Miami, 7:30; 4: vs. Oklahoma City, 8; 6: at Phoenix, 7:30; 8: vs. Phoenix, 7:30; 10: vs. Atlanta, 7:30; 12: vs. Denver, 7:30; 14: at Dallas, 5:30; 16: at Boston, 12:30; 17: at Philadelphia, 4; 20: at Orlando, 4; 22: at Charlotte, 10 a.m.; 23: at Cleveland, 3; 25: at Lakers, 8; 28: vs. Memphis, 7; 29: vs. Dallas, 7.
DECEMBER
1: at Miami, 4:30; 3: at Atlanta, 4:30; 5: at Memphis, 5; 6: at Minnesota, 5; 17: at Oklahoma City, 5; 20: vs. Lakers, 7:30; 23: vs. Houston, 8; 26: at Portland, 7; 28: vs. Detroit, 6; 30: vs. Sacramento, 8.
JANUARY
1: vs. Utah, 7:30; 3: vs. Boston, 7:30; 5: vs. Golden State, 7; 7: at New York, 4:30; 9: at Brooklyn, 4:30; 10: at Detroit, 4:30; 12: vs. Charlotte, 7:30; 14: vs. Washington, 7:30; 16: at Toronto, 4:30; 19: at Washington, noon; 20: at Chicago, 5; 22: vs. Lakers, 7; 25: vs. Brooklyn, 6; 27: at Utah, 7; 30; 30: at Denver, 7.
FEBRUARY
1: at Phoenix, 5; 2: vs. Philadelphia, 7:30; 4: vs. Cleveland, 7:30; 6: at Sacramento, 7; 8: at Minnesota, noon; 10: at Houston, 5; 11: at Houston, 5; 19: vs. Denver, 7:30; 20: at Lakers, 7; 22: vs. Orlando, 6; 26: vs. Minnesota, 7.
MARCH
1: vs. New Orleans, 6; 2: at Golden State, 7; 4: vs. Indiana, 7:30; 6: at San Antonio, 6:30; 7: at Memphis, 5; 9: vs. New York, 7; 11: vs. Minnesota, 7:30; 13: vs. Chicago, 7:30; 14: vs. Sacramento, 7:30; 16: vs. San Antonio, 7:30; 18: at New Orleans, 5; 19: at New Orleans, 5; 21: at Dallas, 5:30; 23: vs. Milwaukee, 7:30; 25: vs. Toronto, 7:30; 27: at Indiana, 4; 29: at Milwaukee, 12:30; 31: vs. Portland, 8.
APRIL
2: vs. San Antonio, 7:30; 5: at Sacramento, 6; 7: vs. Dallas, 7:30; 8: vs. Oklahoma City, 7; 10: at Portland, 7; 12: vs. Golden State, 5:30.
The King has led a chorus of praise for the “awesome” Lionesses after their European Championship victory on Sunday.
After Sarina Wiegman’s side clinched a nail-biting win against Spain on penalties, he said England had showed “there are no setbacks so tough that defeat cannot be transformed into victory, even as the final whistle looms”.
Prince William and Princess Charlotte, who watched the match from the stands in Switzerland, said they “couldn’t be prouder” of the side.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who was also in attendance, called the team “history makers”.
Downing Street said it will hold a special reception for the Lionesses on Monday to mark their “momentous achievement”.
The event will be hosted by Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and sports minister Stephanie Peacock.
In a statement released after the final whistle, King Charles said: “For more years than I care to remember, England fans have sung that famous chant ‘football’s coming home’.
“As you return home with the trophy you won at Wembley three years ago, it is a source of great pride that, through sporting skill and awesome teamwork, the Lionesses have made those words ring true.
“For this, you have my whole family’s warmest appreciation and admiration.
“Well done, Lionesses. The next task is to bring home the World Cup in 2027 if you possibly can.”
Princess Charlotte was seen applauding from the stands alongside her father at St Jakobs-Park in Basel during the hard-fought contest against Spain.
After the match, a statement from her and Prince William was shared on social media: “What a game! Lionesses, you are the champions of Europe. We couldn’t be prouder of the whole team. Enjoy this moment England.”
The victory saw the Lionesses become the first women’s team to retain a European Championship, and also the first England football team to win a major trophy away from home.
After the match, Sir Keir wrote on X: “Champions! Congratulations Lionesses – what a team. What a game. What drama.
“You dug deep when it mattered most and you’ve made the nation proud. History makers.”
Goalkeeper Mary Earps, who retired from England duty in May after being dropped from the squad for Euro 2025, said her former teammates were “incredible”.
An open-top bus tour will be held in central London on Tuesday to mark the win, with a celebration due to be held outside Buckingham Palace.
It will process along The Mall from 12.10pm, before a staged ceremony at the Queen Victoria Memorial.
Fans can attend for free and it will also be broadcast on the BBC.
Faye shared the exact products she uses on Instagram
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Faye Winter shared the beauty products she uses in an Instagram post(Image: PA)
Love Island star Faye Winter has taken to Instagram to share some of her favourite beauty products, including a Charlotte Tilbury concealer that shoppers love. Faye shared the Charlotte Tilbury Beautiful Skin Radiant Concealer that you can buy from Cult Beauty for £28.
The concealer currently has over 200 reviews on the beauty site, with an average star rating of 4.5 out of a possible five stars. One shopper who loved the concealer said: “Amazing brightening concealer, tried in a flagship store to do a wear test and using in conjunction with the corrector has really brightened up my eye area.
“It’s very hydrating. The shade match is perfect.” Faye also shared some of the other beauty products she uses, which include the Trinny London Trinity Multitasker for blush that costs £36.
The product is a handy stick that can be used for lips, cheeks, and eyes. For her foundation, Faye used the Huda Beauty Easy Blur, which is currently on offer at Beauty Bay for £26 down from £32, and her bronzer is the £30 Fenty Beauty Sun Stalk’R Instant Warmth Bronzer, which you can also shop at LOOK FANTASTIC.
Faye also used the Soft Pinch Luminous Powder Blush by Selena Gomez’s brand Rare Beauty, currently £18 down from £26 at Rare Beauty, and e.l.f’s £10 Power Grip Primer that can be bought from Boots. As well as the Charlotte Tilbury concealer, Faye used the brand’s popular Airbrush Flawless Finish Powder which is also shoppable at Cult Beauty for £39.
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Other products used in Faye’s post which was titled ‘GRWM using cruelty free brands’ include the Fenty Beauty Gloss Bomb Lip Luminizer which is £19 at LOOK FANTASTIC. This is said to give a hydrating high shine finish.
If you’re in the market for a new concealer and fancy some more options, then you can also shop the NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer from LOOK FANTASTIC for £27 that gives a creamy medium to full coverage or the Tarte Shape Tape Contour Concealer available at Cult Beauty for £29.
Get the look
You can shop the Charlotte Tilbury Beautiful Skin Radiant Concealer at Cult Beauty
Despite plenty of shoppers loving the Charlotte Tilbury Beautiful Skin Radiant Concealer, one didn’t get on with the formula saying: “Tried to love this… found it drying and wasn’t great at covering dark circles. It gives a fair amount of coverage if you don’t have major eye bags or discolouration etc.”
Other shoppers were pleased with their purchase, however, with another writing: “Lovely and lightweight under the eyes . Definitely makes me look less tired.” Another dubbed the concealer their ‘favourite’, commenting “I have tried hundreds of concealers over the years and this is by far my favourite.
“Medium coverage, which is good for natural every day and also buildable for more full coverage.” A third who titled their review ‘fab’ wrote “Love this concealer – easy to apply and lovely consistency.”
By Charlotte Runcie Doubleday: 304 pages, $28 If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores
Any profession can corrupt its practitioners — and arts critics are no exception. Are they enlightened standard-setters dragging us back from a cultural abyss — or deformed exiles from the arts who, with sharpened pens and bent backs, are ready to pounce on plot-holes and devour careers at a moment’s notice?
If Charlotte Runcie’s debut novel, “Bring the House Down,” is anything to go by, it’s a bit of both. The book centers around four heady weeks at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which begins the unraveling of two newspaper critics who have traveled up from London to cover the sprawling performance art event. Runcie, a former arts columnist for the Daily Telegraph, has created something so delightfully snackable that you may, as I did, gulp it down in two or three sittings.
Runcie’s anti-hero is theater critic Alex Lyons. Alex gives everything he reviews either one star or five, and the latter are vanishingly rare. He bemoans a world of “online shopping reviews,” where “five stars has come to mean the baseline, rather than outstanding,” and so insists on panning almost everything he sees. What’s bad for artists is good for him: His reviews become desperately sought-after career makers or breakers. “The paper didn’t allow Alex to award zero stars. Otherwise, he’d do it all the time.”
“Bring the House Down”
(Doubleday)
We learn about Alex’s story through our narrator Sophie Ridgen, his colleague who, despite being in her mid-30s like Alex, is on a very different track. Alex rose quickly through the newspaper’s ranks, and his reviews are featured on the front page almost daily. Sophie continues to toil as a junior culture writer, picking up whatever scraps nobody else wants. Sophie is also a new mom, overworking to compensate for time lost to maternity leave. She feels uncomfortable in her post-pregnancy body, exhausted and frustrated with her husband. Alex, on the other hand, finds it “embarrassingly easy” to get laid.
But Alex’s glory days are numbered. Early on at the Fringe, he sees a one-woman show that, unsurprisingly, he hates. He writes a review as devastating as it is personal (calling the star a “dull, hectoring frump,” her voice a “high-pitched whine”). All of this would be business as usual for Alex except for one problem: After quickly filing his review of the show, he bumps into Hayley Sinclair, its creator and star, in a bar. He takes her home and sleeps with her. He knew the one star was waiting for her; she did not.
When she finds out, there is hell to pay. Hayley transforms her nightly show into the “Alex Lyons Experience,” collecting testimony from his ex-girlfriends and lovers, or even those who have simply received bad reviews from him. Over the following weeks her show swells into a Greek chorus of one man’s wrongs. The whole nation, including members of Parliament, have hot takes (the performance is livestreamed). It doesn’t help his case that Alex is a bit of a nepo baby, as his mother Judith is an actor whose name would be recognized in most British households.
Sophie, living with Alex in the company-rented flat, has a front row seat to his public unraveling. She watches the livestreams with guilty awe, stalks Alex and Hayley compulsively online, and feverishly scans social media for the latest gossip (Runcie is great at writing a fake mean Tweet/X dispatch). She starts missing calls with her husband and their toddler son, as she becomes fully obsessed with the drama unfolding in Edinburgh.
As she continues to inhabit the same flat as her colleague, Sophie is increasingly questioned by others as to whose side she’s on, Alex or Hayley’s. For much of the book, she seems unable to make up her mind. She refuses to give up on Alex, and increasingly becomes his only source of companionship, which she can’t help but find flattering. But she also finds herself sympathetic to and magnetized by Hayley, whose popularity is blossoming on the Fringe circuit and beyond.
While Alex and Hayley both appear to possess other-worldly levels of charisma, one flaw with Runcie’s novel is that this is something we are repeatedly told, rather than shown. Alex spends most of the book being condescending to Sophie, and yet she is transfixed by him. “He had the strange ability to make you feel as if you were the only person who was in on a joke, the only person who understood some fundamental truth about the world that escaped other people.” This feels unsatisfyingly generic, like something you might find in an online wedding vows template.
We are at least given more backstory and a more plausible explanation for Sophie’s fascination with Alex: the ego trip. Having been dragged down by motherhood, a rocky marriage, and grief over the death of her own mother, Sophie enjoys Alex’s increasing dependence on her, a lone rock of support amid an ocean of alienation. There is something undeniably delicious in watching someone you revere fall to their knees, and Sophie begins to see in Alex “a tiny flickering of fear, at first only visible as a barely perceptible interruption to his arrogance, like a power cut that dims the lights for just a hundredth of a second.”
Hayley, unfortunately, never quite comes to life in the same way. And it remains unclear why her show, which is essentially a litany of (legitimate) complaints about a real-life terrible man with some added pyrotechnics, takes Edinburgh and the entire country by such storm. “I find I can’t explain why it had the effect that it did,” Sophie tells us. “This wasn’t theater, not really; it was a happening. The audience weren’t spectators anymore, but a silent, connected web of righteous energy.” Without more to go on, we have no choice but to take her word for it.
The result feels like a missed opportunity to interrogate some important questions. How much does the identity (gender, race, or class) of the critic matter when it comes to their ability to judge art? What about the identity of the artist themselves? In other words, who shall criticize the critics? Readers may leave Runcie’s novel feeling that some of these questions go unanswered, but this deeply entertaining novel is nonetheless well worth the price of admission.
Mills is a writer and human rights researcher who has worked for Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Wall Street Journal and Associated Press. She lives in New York.
Charlotte Lynch is a woman of many passions – from football and teaching to acting and singing. But the defender has faced hardship on her way to the spotlight.
07:00, 05 Jul 2025Updated 09:55, 05 Jul 2025
She’s one of the breakout stars of CBeebies’ Football Fantastics and nurtures a friendship with an Emmerdale legend, but Charlotte Lynch admits she’s sometimes felt “excluded” during her journey to the limelight.
Behind the big names is former Millwall and Leyton Orient player Charlotte Lynch – a talent who’s been quietly going from strength to strength.
Charlotte uses her voice to make football feel accessible to everyone, and shares joyful messages filled with hope on Instagram. “I couldn’t find a team growing up so I felt excluded,” she says. “When my brother played for a boys’ team, my mum asked the coach if I could join.
“Eventually, I played for the boys but I was the only girl. You get side-eyed and whispers. But, if it’s something you’re passionate about, you really have to push through.”
Luckily, things have changed. “I want people to know they are welcome,” she says. “You don’t have to play at an elite level but you can get involved. I’m not better than anyone. I’m a footballer and you can be one, too, if you want to!”
Her advice? “Take a risk on the things you’re passionate about – you never know where it could take you.” Now, she’s bagged her first major role on the small screen, and it feels like everything is falling into place.
Football Fantastics follows a group of children who meet every weekend to play football(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/Strike Global Ltd/Khuram Mirza)
The new children’s comedy show kicks off the BBC’s Summer of Sport and the Women’s Euros. Set in Ripon, North Yorkshire, the show follows a group of lovable children who meet every weekend for their local football group, where friendships are made and epic adventures unfold.
With cameos from household names, catchy songs and big laughs, it was a no-brainer for Charlotte. “I received the email from the casting team and instantly felt a connection,” Charlotte says. “I really wanted this job. It’s so wholesome, which I love. Everyone can watch it.”
On the pitch, she’s a versatile defender – and off it, a qualified teacher with a sharp mind for sports science and biomechanics. “I’ve been coaching since I graduated from university,” she says. Charlotte has even founded her own girls’ football teams in schools, so when the audition came around, she gave it everything.
“I wore all my football gear, I had my equipment, I had cones, and I just put everything into this audition to give me the best chance of getting the job,” she recalls. “This felt like a perfect fit.”
This fun and heart-warming series features a star-studded cast – including an Emmerdale icon(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/Strike Global Ltd/Khuram Mirza)
In Football Fantastics , Charlotte plays coach Georgie, a footie fanatic. “She’s reliable, honest. Nothing is ever too much or a problem. She has all the patience in the world and a genuine love for children,” Charlotte says. But there’s more to the character than warmth and encouragement.
She adds, “I show a few skills. There’s some comedy, a little bit of sarcasm and life lessons.” Filming in Ripon was mostly smooth sailing, although living in a hotel room for two months and facing early mornings wasn’t her cup of tea.
“I’m not a morning person,” she confesses. “But it didn’t feel like it was hard because I was so in love with what I was doing. We were all well taken care of and there were footballs on set, so I felt very comfortable.”
She also bonded with some well-known faces, including Eva Fontaine and Emmerdale star Samantha Giles. “I was able to ask them how they prepared. There was a family vibe to the show, it felt very warm and welcoming,” says Charlotte.
Charlotte Lynch, Ollie Watkins, Jill Scott and Beth Mead are some of the big football names fronting the new programme as the Women’s Euro gets underway(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/Strike Global Ltd/Khuram Mirza)
“Samantha was my next door neighbour in the trailers. We’d meet at the snack table and chat. She was so easy to speak to and I absorbed everything.”
But don’t be fooled – acting isn’t new to Charlotte. Her love for performing was nurtured by her mum, who was also her school head teacher.
“She was passionate about bringing out your talents and abilities,” Charlotte says. She took part in school plays and later appeared in Remi R.M. Moses’ short film Saving Art (2023) as a nurse.
“I did commercials and body doubling, so I was quite familiar with what a set looks like, but acting on TV is a longer-term thing, and these amazing actors helped me.”
She has other talents, too, as Charlotte is also a singer, performing in her church choir, at her brother’s wedding – and even releasing tracks on Spotify.
“I took a break after moving on to football but I’m going to go back to the studio,” she says. However, football remains top of her list. “I’m going to play until I’m 100,” she says. “You can play at any age – you just need a team that suits your needs.”
Charlotte Lynch is a woman of many passions – from football and teaching to acting and singing. But the defender has faced hardship on her way to the spotlight.
She’s one of the breakout stars of CBeebies’ Football Fantastics and nurtures a friendship with an Emmerdale legend, but Charlotte Lynch admits she’s sometimes felt “excluded” during her journey to the limelight.
Behind the big names is former Millwall and Leyton Orient player Charlotte Lynch – a talent who’s been quietly going from strength to strength.
Charlotte uses her voice to make football feel accessible to everyone, and shares joyful messages filled with hope on Instagram. “I couldn’t find a team growing up so I felt excluded,” she says. “When my brother played for a boys’ team, my mum asked the coach if I could join.
“Eventually, I played for the boys but I was the only girl. You get side-eyed and whispers. But, if it’s something you’re passionate about, you really have to push through.”
Luckily, things have changed. “I want people to know they are welcome,” she says. “You don’t have to play at an elite level but you can get involved. I’m not better than anyone. I’m a footballer and you can be one, too, if you want to!”
Her advice? “Take a risk on the things you’re passionate about – you never know where it could take you.” Now, she’s bagged her first major role on the small screen, and it feels like everything is falling into place.
Football Fantastics follows a group of children who meet every weekend to play football(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/Strike Global Ltd/Khuram Mirza)
The new children’s comedy show kicks off the BBC’s Summer of Sport and the Women’s Euros. Set in Ripon, North Yorkshire, the show follows a group of lovable children who meet every weekend for their local football group, where friendships are made and epic adventures unfold.
With cameos from household names, catchy songs and big laughs, it was a no-brainer for Charlotte. “I received the email from the casting team and instantly felt a connection,” Charlotte says. “I really wanted this job. It’s so wholesome, which I love. Everyone can watch it.”
On the pitch, she’s a versatile defender – and off it, a qualified teacher with a sharp mind for sports science and biomechanics. “I’ve been coaching since I graduated from university,” she says. Charlotte has even founded her own girls’ football teams in schools, so when the audition came around, she gave it everything.
“I wore all my football gear, I had my equipment, I had cones, and I just put everything into this audition to give me the best chance of getting the job,” she recalls. “This felt like a perfect fit.”
This fun and heart-warming series features a star-studded cast – including an Emmerdale icon(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/Strike Global Ltd/Khuram Mirza)
In Football Fantastics , Charlotte plays coach Georgie, a footie fanatic. “She’s reliable, honest. Nothing is ever too much or a problem. She has all the patience in the world and a genuine love for children,” Charlotte says. But there’s more to the character than warmth and encouragement.
She adds, “I show a few skills. There’s some comedy, a little bit of sarcasm and life lessons.” Filming in Ripon was mostly smooth sailing, although living in a hotel room for two months and facing early mornings wasn’t her cup of tea.
“I’m not a morning person,” she confesses. “But it didn’t feel like it was hard because I was so in love with what I was doing. We were all well taken care of and there were footballs on set, so I felt very comfortable.”
She also bonded with some well-known faces, including Eva Fontaine and Emmerdale star Samantha Giles. “I was able to ask them how they prepared. There was a family vibe to the show, it felt very warm and welcoming,” says Charlotte.
Charlotte Lynch, Ollie Watkins, Jill Scott and Beth Mead are some of the big football names fronting the new programme as the Women’s Euro gets underway(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/Strike Global Ltd/Khuram Mirza)
“Samantha was my next door neighbour in the trailers. We’d meet at the snack table and chat. She was so easy to speak to and I absorbed everything.”
But don’t be fooled – acting isn’t new to Charlotte. Her love for performing was nurtured by her mum, who was also her school head teacher.
“She was passionate about bringing out your talents and abilities,” Charlotte says. She took part in school plays and later appeared in Remi R.M. Moses’ short film Saving Art (2023) as a nurse.
“I did commercials and body doubling, so I was quite familiar with what a set looks like, but acting on TV is a longer-term thing, and these amazing actors helped me.”
She has other talents, too, as Charlotte is also a singer, performing in her church choir, at her brother’s wedding – and even releasing tracks on Spotify.
“I took a break after moving on to football but I’m going to go back to the studio,” she says. However, football remains top of her list. “I’m going to play until I’m 100,” she says. “You can play at any age – you just need a team that suits your needs.”
I didn’t think my level of loathing for the Max sequel to HBO’s “Sex and the City” could get any higher, and just like that, along came Season 3.
You see what I did there? Like every single person who has written about “And Just Like That…,” I have used the title in a naked and half-assed attempt to be clever.
Which honestly could also be the title of the series.
We’re midway through the third — and one can only hope final — season, and I am hoarse from screaming at watching these beloved characters behave as if they had done some sort of “Freaky Friday” switch with 13-year-olds.
Which is actually an insult to most 13-year-olds.
In the course of the barely-recognizable-as-human events that make up this latest episode, Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) prolonged her inexplicable bout of homelessness by acting shocked — shocked! — that Seema (Sarita Choudhury), having found her a dream house, would expect her to make a bid over asking price; Lisa (Nicole Ari Parker) dealt with the grief over her father’s death by whining about the amazing send-off orchestrated by his friend Lucille (Jenifer Lewis) despite it including a performance by … Jenifer Lewis; and Charlotte (Kristin Davis) continued to behave as if it were perfectly normal for her husband Harry (Evan Handler) to keep his prostate cancer diagnosis secret from everyone including their children, who would no doubt handle it better than Charlotte.
All of which paled in comparison to the latest installment in the emotional horror show that is the second-time-around courtship of Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Aidan (John Corbett), which has been under threat since it was revealed in Season 2 that Aidan’s 15-year-old son Wyatt (Logan Souza) has some issues, including a recent ADHD diagnosis. Events lead Aidan to impulsively announce that he and Carrie will have to put their relationship on hold until Wyatt turns 20 (when, as everyone knows, parental responsibilities officially end).
Aidan puts his relationship with Carrie on hold because of issues related to his teenage son, Wyatt (Logan Souza).
(Craig Blankenhorn / Max)
Not surprisingly, this plan does not work out, and in this episode, Aidan celebrates the fact that Wyatt is attending a week-long wilderness camp (um, what?) by showing up at Carrie’s apartment, where he immediately breaks a window by throwing a pebble at it. You know, like he used to in the old days before Carrie had a jillion-dollar apartment with 19th century windows that, as she says, “survived the Mexican War, the Civil War, the Draft Riots of ‘63” (memo to Carrie — New York saw no action in the Mexican War).
After going to obsessive lengths to replace the glass, Aidan then confesses that he and his ex Kathy (Rosemarie DeWitt) had to force Wyatt onto the plane (how they managed to be at the gate as unticketed passengers to do this remains a mystery), an event so upsetting that Aidan and Kathy were forced to comfort each other with sex.
For one brief and shining moment, I waited for Carrie to call time of death on one of the unhealthiest relationships this particular universe has seen (and that’s saying something). Instead, and impossibly, she said she understood.
Apparently love means ignoring every sign God could think to send you. Not only did Aidan have sex with his ex, he forced his unmedicated, unsupervised 15-year-old with ADHD onto a plane headed to the Grand Tetons. (Whether the poor kid made it to camp or is currently having a meltdown in the Jackson Hole airport is never mentioned.)
But then Carrie, and the series, has continued to treat Wyatt’s condition, and his father’s obvious irritated denial of its realities, as simply a logistical obstacle in her fairy tale love story. This would barely make sense if Carrie were still in her 30s, and it makes absolutely none for a woman of her age.
I begrudge no one the desire to reboot a groundbreaking series, and two years ago, the prospect of seeing these iconic 30-somethings as mid-to-late 50-somethings was certainly appealing to one who shares their mature demographic. If only Michael Patrick King, the force behind “And Just Like That…,” allowed any of them to have matured. I don’t mean physically — stars Parker, Nixon, Davis and Kim Cattrall (briefly glimpsed at the end of Season 2) — are fit and lovely and obviously older. I mean emotionally, spiritually and psychologically.
“And Just Like That…” has had two and a half seasons to make these women seem like actual people who might exist, if not in real life, then at least the “Sex and the City” universe (remember the opening credits, when Carrie gets splashed by a bus? Hyperrealism compared to the eat-off-the-sidewalks vision of “And Just Like That…’s” New York.)
Instead, the series seems determined to prove that age is just a number by forcing its leads, now including Choudhury and Parker, to act as if 50 is the new (and very stupid) 30.
I get that Miranda is coming to grips with her newly discovered queerness, but surely a successful, Harvard-educated lawyer who has survived a divorce and raised a teenage son would have a bit more confidence and self-awareness in love, real estate and basic guest etiquette — after moving in briefly with Carrie, she eats the last yogurt!
Charlotte has always been an original Disney princess, all wide eyes and faith in the restorative nature of small animals and florals, but at 55, her high-strung reaction to her husband’s prostate cancer (caught early, easily treatable) is helpful to no one. And don’t get me about her little foot-stamping approach to motherhood or how she speaks about her dog.
Aidan’s shocking confession did little to derail Carrie or their relationship.
(Craig Blankenhorn / Max)
As for Carrie, well, it’s one thing to be a relentlessly hopeful romantic addicted to tulle, stilettos and problematic men in your 30s, but Carrie’s pushing 60 now, so when she agreed, with no demur, to Aidan’s absurd five-year plan, I wondered if she had simply gone mad.
Watching as she subsequently rattled around her huge, empty (if incredibly luxe) apartment wearing a see-through, Ophelia-like dress stuffed with roses or traipsed through Central Park wearing a hat the size of a hot-air balloon only exacerbated my fears. Dressing like Marie Antoinette to attend a luncheon at Tiffany’s isn’t sassy fashion sense — it’s a cry for help.
She most certainly needs help. The reunion with Aidan seemed too good to be true, and thus it is proving to be. Even a 30-something Carrie would have known that being in a relationship with a father means being in a relationship with his children. But the notion that she must be kept separate from Wyatt is not just unsustainable — it’s insulting.
What, she’s never experienced, met or even read about children with ADHD or post-divorce trauma? Or is she such a delicate flower that she can’t handle being around a teenager with anger management issues? She lives in New York, for heaven’s sake, the city that invented anger management issues.
Frankly, Aidan’s behavior is far more concerning than Wyatt’s, a flag so big and red that Carrie could make a stunning sheath dress out of it.
Which she appears to be doing, instead of, you know, acting like the grown-ass rich widow she is and calling Aidan out on his bull.
“And Just Like That…” purports to celebrate the mid-life do-over, just as it purports to show that women in their 50s are just as vibrant, complicated and fun as women in their 30s. Both are admirable goals, neither of which the series achieves. Even with its title — ”And Just Like That…” — this series seems determined to erase everything that might have made the older versions of these characters interesting and resonant.
Like the ability to buy a house or say the word “cancer” or get out of an unhealthy romantic relationship before it spits right in your eye.
Sciver-Brunt understandably did not comment on whether there would be any changes in the immediate aftermath of the Bristol defeat, saying she had “full confidence” in all the players.
She also highlighted England’s significant improvement in the powerplay, where they restricted India to 35-3, but India’s counter-attack appeared to catch the bowlers off guard and they deviated from their plans.
In the powerplay 33% of their deliveries were on a good line and length at a run-rate of 4.2, but that dipped to 15% in the middle overs as India added 103-1 and 11% in the final four overs as Amanjot Kaur and Richa Ghosh took the game away from England.
Lauren Bell was one of few England players to come away from the Ashes with credit and has continued that form this summer, taking 2-17 at Bristol as she now leads the attack with much-improved maturity and consistency.
She executed her slower-ball plan effectively, setting the field accordingly and forcing India’s batters to adjust to her.
But India have been smart, and England have not responded quickly enough. Linsey Smith, who starred against West Indies with her left-arm spin, has been clearly targeted with 0-41 from three overs at Trent Bridge and 0-37 off three at Bristol.
It is unfamiliar territory for England, who are so dominant at home – prior to the Windies series, they had won 79.3% of their completed white-ball games at home since 2020.
They should not be written off after just two matches against a side that are turning into genuine World Cup contenders, particularly on home turf, and it is not yet crunch time for England or Edwards in terms of whether they can turn this around.
But the new coach is said by those around her to be ruthless, and unafraid to make tough decisions if best for the team.
This is England’s first challenge under her leadership, and how Edwards responds to it will reveal just how much has really changed in the set-up which was previously accused of cosiness and complacency.
A BRIT former flight attendant accused of smuggling £1.2 million worth of cannabis today appeared in front of a Sri Lankan court.
Part-time beautician Charlotte May Lee was arrested last week after cops found two suitcases stuffed with 46kg of syntheticdrugkush — which is 25 times more potent than opioid fentanyl.
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Charlotte May Lee today appeared in a Sri Lankan courtCredit: BBC Breakfast
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Charlotte May Lee booking picture after she was caughtCredit: Sri Lanka Police
If found guilty, South Londoner Charlotte could face a 25-year sentence.
The Brit appeared in front of a court today after languishing in a “hell-hole”prisonfor days.
Charlotte from Surrey was stopped by Sri Lankan customs officials after stepping off a flight fromThailandon Monday last week.
Speaking from behind bars Charlotte said she had “no idea” that there were drugs in her luggage when she left Bangkok.
She claimed: “I had never seen them before. I didn’t expect it all when they pulled me over at the airport. I thought it was going to be filled with all my stuff.
“I had been in Bangkok the night before and had already packed my clothes because my flight was really early.
“So I left my bags in the hotel room and headed for the night out. As they were already packed I didn’t check them again in the morning.”
The young Brit believes the huge amount of illegal substances were planted in her luggage in a planned move by dangerous dealers in Southeast Asia.
Kush, a highly addictive synthetic drug, has claimed the lives of thousands in West Africa where it first appeared in 2022 – and is spreading globally at an alarming rate.
The dirt-cheap drug is cut with an array of additives including acetone, the opioid tramadol and formalin, a toxic chemical commonly used to preserve bodies in mortuaries.
More to follow… For the latest news on this story keep checking back at The Sun Online
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