kiss

When “Kiss of the Spider Woman” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, it was in the shadow of President Trump’s return to office.

Just days earlier, Trump had begun his term with a wave of executive orders to expand the country’s immigration detention infrastructure, fast-track deportations, remove protections preventing Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials from targeting schools and churches, and a declaration that the U.S. government would recognize only two sexes.

Referencing these developments ahead of the screening in Park City, Utah, writer-director Bill Condon told the audience: “That’s a sentiment I think you’ll see the movie has a different point of view on.”

Released in theaters Oct. 10, “Kiss of the Spider Woman” is set in the final year of Argentina’s Dirty War, the violent military dictatorship that spanned from 1976-1983. The story begins in the confines of a Buenos Aires prison, where newfound cellmates Valentin Arregui Paz (Diego Luna) and Luis Molina (Tonatiuh) find they have little in common. Arregui is a principled revolutionary dedicated to his cause, while Molina is a gay, flamboyant window dresser who’s been arrested for public indecency.

Undeterred by their differences, Molina punctuates the bleak existence of their imprisonment — one marked by torture and deprivation — by recounting the plot of “The Kiss of the Spider Woman,” a fictional Golden Age musical starring his favorite actress, Ingrid Luna (Jennifer Lopez), casting himself and Arregui as her co-stars. Transported from their dreary cell to the bright, indulgent universe of the musical, their main conflicts become a quest for love and honor, rather than a fight for their basic human rights.

When Argentinian author Manuel Puig began writing the celebrated novel, “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” in 1974, it was just a year into his self-imposed exile to Mexico as his native Argentina lurched toward authoritarianism. By the time the book was released in 1976, a military junta had seized control of the government. The next seven years were marked by the forced disappearance of an estimated 20,000-30,000 people, many of whom were kidnapped and taken to clandestine detention camps to be tortured and killed. Among those targeted were artists, journalists, student activists, members of the LGBTQ+ community and anyone deemed “subversive” by the regime.

Initially banned in Argentina, Puig’s novel has been adapted and reimagined multiple times, including as an Oscar-winning film in 1985 and a Tony Award-winning musical in 1993. With each iteration, the central elements have remained unchanged. And yet, as the 2025 adaptation arrived in theaters this month, this queer, Latino-led story of two prisoners fighting the claustrophobia of life under fascism feels at once like a minor miracle, and a startling wake-up call.

Tonatiuh, left, and Diego Luna in the movie “Kiss of the Spider Woman.”

(Sundance Institute)

In the months since the film’s Sundance premiere, the parallels between the fraught political climate of 1970s Argentina and that of our present have only become more pronounced.

Under Trump, an endless stream of escalating violence from masked federal agents has become our new normal. ICE officers have been filmed apprehending people outside of immigration court; firing pepper balls, rubber bullets and tear gas at journalists, protesters and clergymen; and, earlier this month, they descended from Black Hawk helicopters, using flash-bang grenades to clear a Chicago apartment building in a militarized raid that had men, women and children zip-tied and removed from their homes. As the country’s immigrant detention population reaches record highs, widespread reports of abuse, neglect and sexual harassment, particularly against LGBTQ+ detainees, have emerged from facilities across the U.S.

Amidst these headlines are people just like Molina and Arregui — activists, artists and human beings — finding their own ways to survive and resist an increasingly paranoid and repressive government. And while Arregui’s instinct is to remain unwavering in his cause, Molina’s is to retreat into the glamorous, over-the-top world of the “Spider Woman.”

In dazzling musical numbers expertly performed by Lopez, who delivers each song and dance with all the magnetism of a true Old Hollywood icon, both the prisoners and the audience can’t help but be drawn further and further into her Technicolor web.

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

(Roadside Attractions)

It might be easy to write these moments off as nothing more than a superficial distraction, as Arregui does early on, and characterize musicals as shallow and cliche. At first, Molina is happy to admit that’s why he loves them, but the truth is more complicated.

During Argentina’s dictatorship, discrimination and attacks by paramilitary groups against LGBTQ+ people became more and more frequent. Molina accepts the role society has cast him in, allowing himself to be the “monster,” the “deviant” or the “sissy” that people want him to be, while retreating mentally into the world of classic films and pop culture. For him, their beauty is a salve — an opportunity to abandon reality and cast himself in a role that doesn’t actually exist for him.

Though he never explicitly claims an identity, it’s made clear that he doesn’t just love “La Luna” — he wants to be her. And in their first feature lead role, the queer, L.A.-born actor Tonatiuh embodies all of Molina’s contradictions — his bluster, his pain, his radiance — to heart-wrenching effect.

As Molina and Arregui grow closer, the boundaries between reality and fantasy begin to melt, and their formerly rigid perceptions collapse along with them. Arregui takes on some of Molina’s idealism, and the musical he once saw as a tired cliche becomes something invaluable: a sliver of joy that can’t be taken from him. A cynic convinced of the world’s brokenness, he realizes that revolutions need hope too.

In the film’s final act, while the world around Molina hasn’t changed, he has. Still trapped within the confines of a society that is doing its best to crush him, he adopts Arregui’s integrity and realizes that he has a choice: “I learned about dignity in that most undignified place,” he says in the film. “I had always believed nothing could ever change for me, and I felt sorry for myself. But I can’t live like that now.”

Like the film within the film, “Kiss of the Spider Woman” isn’t an escape. It’s a lifeline — and a reminder that, even in the darkest of times, art has the power to transport us, sustain us and embolden us to be brave.

When British singer Kwn (pronounced kay-one) asked her friend-collaborator Kehlani to kiss her in the video for her seductive track, “Worst Behaviour,” she knew it was going to break the internet.

With steamy lyrics like “Cut the lights, turn the bass up, we gon’ hit some notes,” the original track was already making waves online when Kwn dropped it in November. It gained even more eyes when R&B superstar and five-time Grammy nominee Kehlani hopped on the remix, which they gifted to yearning fans on Valentine’s Day.

Supporters took to social media to film their live reactions and comment on the artists’ incredibly long make-out and seemingly undeniable chemistry.

“Are … we supposed to see this? Omg,” one person said on YouTube.

“This is gonna be somebody’s awakening,” commented another.

“It’s sickening how many times I’ve replayed this video lol,” declared another.

But if you ask Kwn, the two entertainers were doing just that — entertaining. As of mid-October the video, which was directed by Chris Chance, had more than 21 million views on YouTube — a number that still shocks Kwn each time she hears it.

“I’m super happy, man. I knew that song was going to be something, and I’m glad that the world took it in just as much as I did,” Kwn says about the track that she recorded live on Instagram in her childhood bedroom in Walthamstow in east London.

Shortly after, Kwn dropped yet another chills-down-your-spine, sapphic bedroom jam, “Do What I Say,” which is the second single from her latest EP titled “With All Due Respect.” As someone who’s been making music since she was a preteen — she picked up the drums first, then attended the acclaimed East London Arts and Music school — the 25-year-old crooner says the recognition is long overdue.

“I felt like so many people were doubting me and sleeping on me, especially after [I was] dropped from my label,” says Kwn, who was let go from U.K.-based Black Butter Records in mid-2024. The direct title, “With All Due Respect,” was meant to boldly signal that she’s “not playing games anymore,” she adds.

The nine-track EP kicks off with the “bite me intro,” in which Kwn sing-raps the commanding lyrics, “I don’t want to be humble no more/Baby, bite, bite, bite me/Bite me, bite me.” This confident energy carries throughout the project including on the EP’s second feature with fellow London girl group, Flo — whom Kwn calls this generation’s Destiny’s Child — on the sensual “Talk You Through It.”

Kwn is kicking off the U.S. and Canada stretch of her With All Due Respect tour in Los Angeles on Tuesday at the Echo, which also marks her first ever headlining tour. Ahead of the sold-out L.A. show, she phoned in from London to share what she learned from touring with Kehlani, why she thinks artists should share their creative process and why she’s much more than just that viral moment. And cough cough, there’s more music on the way.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

“I’m really just being myself on stage and letting my personality out. So I think that’s what’s captivating people, which I’m glad about,” Kwn said.

(Michelle Helena Janssen)

You started making music when you were about 11 years old after your older sister took you to her friend’s at-home studio. How exciting was it for you to be learning how to lay tracks and produce tracks at such a young age?

I feel like it was always destined, to be honest. My nan showed me a video the other day of me tapping pens on the table and making beats from a super young age. I was probably like 9 or 10, and then my mom bought me a drum kit when I was super young as well. So that was the first instrument I picked up — the drums. Then obviously I was learning little bits in school like how to record myself and produce. Then my sister introduced me to that friend and he had a studio in his house. Any time my sister would go over there, I’d go with her, maybe like once a month or something and pretty much just watch his process. I’m a very visual learner so I was learning a lot just from watching people. I’d stay up really late and watch YouTube videos of people making beats and stuff.

You’ve been making music for a long time, but you didn’t release your first official song (“wn way or another”) until 2022. Take me back to that time. How did it feel to finally share your music with the world?

I was super anxious. You always think to yourself — ‘cause I signed to a record label back then as well — that as soon as you drop your first song, that’s it. You’re gonna go off. But that’s definitely not the case, d’you know what I mean? Also, it was such a long time coming because I’d written those songs so long before that probably in like 2018 and 2019. It was a long time coming, so it kind of felt like a release as well.

You were dropped from your label just days before you released your single “Eyes Wide Open,” which started catching people’s attention. Did you feel like you’d finally figured out your sound and the direction you wanted to go in with that song?

Yeah, 100%. As soon as I made that beat, I was like Ohhh. It’s clicked now. I was trying for so long to find what I was trying to do. I think I was struggling because I didn’t really understand where I was trying to go, so the people I was working with couldn’t aid me in trying to find the sound too. So as soon as I got that, I was like “Oh, this is it.” And then when I wrote it, I was like, I’ve never heard anything like this before — in the least big-headed way possible. That was definitely the moment for me where I was like “All right, this is going to do something. It has to.” If it doesn’t, then I don’t know. Obviously I’m going to keep going but it’s gotta make a little bit of a shift somewhere for me, and it did and I’m so grateful for it.

Speaking of “Eyes Wide Open,” you have a distinct style in all of your videos including “Worst Behaviour” and “Do What I Say.” You use a single frame that looks like it was shot in one take. It’s very cinematic. Can you talk about why that style resonates with you? Are you a film buff?

[Laughs] I watched a film called “The Boiling Point” and that is all shot in one take. When you watch a one take — not even just a music video — you don’t want to take your eyes off of it because you don’t want to miss anything. My director, Chris Chance, and I felt like the art of music videos kind of died a little bit. There were only a select few people that were really making [captivating] videos and things that were capturing your attention, so we were like we need something that is just going to keep your eyes on it at all times. And the one take just works, man. We did that one pretty quick. We didn’t have a lot of time because the house that we were shooting in was somebody’s actual house, and I think that their kids had come home. But we just wanted something that was just super captivating and just lures you in. “Lord I Tried” was a one take too. We knew that worked and that looked incredible. And then obviously we did it with “Eyes Wide Open” as well, then after that we were like we got to keep this going. It’s becoming a theme now.

Why do you enjoy showing your process for making songs on Instagram Live? I’m sure you can’t do it as much as you used to now.

It was my manager’s idea like back in 2019 or 2020. She was like “I think you just need to go on Instagram Live. Let people see your process.” And I was like “I don’t know,” but she was like “Just trust me.” At first, it was just me, her and maybe like two other people in there. Then I would do it here and there, and then after lockdown, I started doing it a bit more. I don’t know. It was just that you don’t get to see many artists’ process in the studio. I always think about people like Beyoncé. There’s only like a few videos of her in the studio and you always think to yourself like, “Man, I wonder how these people’s brains work.” There’s loads of videos of Pharrell and I think that’s what I love about him. I can always go on the internet and search up “Pharrell in the studio” and there will be something of him whether it’s with like Justin Timberlake or Timbaland or something. I think it’s just cool to see how people’s brains work and what makes the light bulb go off at certain moments. That’s what a lot of it is in my IG lives. You can see when my brain figures something out. I think it’s cool. We shouldn’t really gate-keep our processes. I’ll [hop] off to write the lyrics because I don’t want to give them everything because people will start stealing tips and tricks, ya know what I’m sayin’? Again, it just makes you human. We’re not like these robots that churn out the music. It takes time and people should get the privilege of being able to see that, especially like my core fan base. It was just a lot of them at the time. Now it’s a lot for me because there’s so many people that come on there and they’ll end up screen recording it and putting it on the internet and that bit, I’m like “Ah, guys, come on.” I should probably get back to it a little bit more, but this year I haven’t been in the studio as much as I usually am. But I’m definitely going to get back on there for sure.

In June you dropped “With All Due Respect.” Talk to me about the inspiration for the title and what your mindset was going into the creation of that EP.

I had a different title before and then we scrapped that. I was like it needs to be something that [shows] people that I’m not playing games anymore. I felt like so many people were doubting me and sleeping on me, especially after I was dropped from my label before. I was like, “Everyone’s sleeping on me.” I’m trying to get in with artists and producers, and they’re not hitting me back. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, but I know I can do this. And then it was Chris [Chance] that came up with that. He had sent me a list of like 12 different names [and] “With All Due Respect” was one of them.

“I think people are just starting to put out music that they genuinely love and we’re not chasing a trend or chasing a TikTok moment anymore,” Kwn said.

(Michelle Helena Janssen)

In a previous interview, you said that “With All Due Respect” is the first part of a two-part album and that you’re planning to release a B-side. Is that still the plan? If so, when can we expect that?

Yeah, absolutely. I’ve just been so busy with this promo stuff and then obviously we jumped straight into tour. It’s going well though. I’m excited about the next set of music. It’s very classic. That’s what it feels like timely.

I have to ask. Are you planning on dropping it sometime next year?

Yeah. It’s not going to be a year after that. I tell ya [laughs].

You toured with Kehlani last year (on the Europe stretch) and you said that the experience proved to you that you can really do this music thing. Fast forward just months later, you are in the midst of your first headlining tour. How does that make you feel? What was your mindset going into this tour?

I was definitely nervous. But I think I was nervous because I was like, you can fake streams. You can fake followers. You can fake all this stuff, but the one thing you can’t fake is people, real people buying tickets to your show. Not saying that I have fake streams or followers, because I absolutely do not. But the real telling is like people coming to see you at your shows, and the feedback that you get from that. And yeah, the reception has been great, man. It’s been more than I could have imagined. I’ll be honest. I have not seen a bad word about my show, which I’m really grateful for because that’s all I wanted to be honest. I just wanted to be able to have fun. I wanted to be able to engage with people. I’m not a dancer or anything, ya know, so I felt like it was going to be hard for me to engage with the crowd and give them a good show, but I’m really just being myself on stage and letting my personality out. So I think that’s what’s captivating people, which I’m glad about.

You’re kicking off the U.S. and Canada leg of your tour in L.A. on Tuesday. What can fans expect?

A good time! I keep saying it’s really a special experience to be able to do these small, intimate shows. And I know people are like, “You could’ve sold out this venue and you could’ve done this venue …” And I’m like, yeah but these intimate, almost like one-to-one moments and experiences with people is what they will appreciate a lot more in the long run. And I know I am too. I be walking into these venues and I’m like “Oh, this small. Like we definitely could’ve gone bigger.” But I’m like nah. This is what it’s about. Everybody’s gotta start somewhere and I think it’s just important, like I said, that we can have these intimate moments with each other. It’s a super super special experience, it feels great.

From Cleo Sol to Sasha Keable to Odeal to Elmiene and several others, it truly feels like the U.K. R&B scene is having a moment. How does this make you feel to be a part of such good company?

It’s great. I feel like music was kind of on a decline for a little bit. It felt like no one was really excited about music, but I feel like now it’s like “Oh, people are really getting excited about things again.” I think people are just starting to put out music that they genuinely love and we’re not chasing a trend or chasing a TikTok moment anymore. I feel like it’s just genuine music that everybody’s loving, so it feels good right now. The scene feels great.

Ace Frehley, who played lead guitar as a founding member of the face-painted, blood-spitting, fire-breathing hard-rock band Kiss, died Thursday in Morristown, N.J. He was 74.

His death was announced by his family, which said he’d recently suffered a fall. “In his last moments, we were fortunate enough to have been able to surround him with loving, caring, peaceful words, thoughts, prayers and intentions as he left this earth,” the family said in a statement.

In his alter ego as the Spaceman, Frehley played with the original incarnation of Kiss for less than a decade, from 1973 — when he formed the group in New York with Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons and Peter Criss — until 1982, when he quit not long after Criss left. Yet he was instrumental to the creation of the band’s stomping and glittery sound as heard in songs like “Detroit Rock City,” “Rock and Roll All Nite,” “Strutter” and “I Was Made for Lovin’ You.” In the late ’70s, those hits — along with Kiss’ over-the-top live show — made the group an inescapable pop-cultural presence seen in comic books and on lunch boxes; today the group is widely viewed as an early pioneer of rock ’n’ roll merchandising.

A member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Frehley rejoined Kiss in 1996 for a highly successful reunion, then left again in 2002 to return to the solo career he’d started in the early ’80s. In 2023, Kiss completed what Simmons and Stanley called a farewell tour with a hometown show at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

This obituary will be updated.

All Creatures Great and Small viewers were left ‘screaming’ at their screens as they watched a fan-favourite share an unexpected kiss.

Viewers were left reaching for the tissues during the opening moments of All Creatures Great and Small as Channel 5 audiences witnessed Tristan Farnon (Callum Woodhouse) wrestling with his demons.

A memorial ceremony took place in Darrowby to remember those who lost their lives in the conflict, and it became apparent that his wartime experiences had left deep scars, with brother Siegfried (Samuel West) discovering him separated from the gathering.

Yet his spirits lifted considerably when ‘Captain Farnon’ received a summons from the village’s newest residents, the Beauvoirs, requesting assistance with their horse Philbrick.

A mix-up arose regarding which Farnon sibling was actually required, with both Tristan and Siegfried arriving simultaneously, each keen to assist Philbrick’s captivating owner, Charlotte (Gaia Wise), whose mum and dad are rather well-known in actual life.

The brothers lavished attention on Philbrick, and viewers at home were soon forecasting that romance was brewing, reports the Manchester Evening News.

As events progressed, Charlotte extended an invitation to Tristan for the highly sought-after performance at Orley Castle.

When her horse became poorly, Tristan and Siegfried dashed to the rescue and successfully treated the creature. But it was evident that something special developed between Charlotte and Tristan as they twirled together in the stables before sharing a tender kiss.

Fans quickly flocked to X to express their reactions to the scene, with one viewer writing: “I SCREAMED.”

A second chimed in: “Stopppp Tris and Charlotte are so cute.”

One fan penned: “Charlotte and Tristan sitting on a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!!!” Another chimed in with: “OH THEY’RE TOO CUTE.”

Callum Woodhouse, who worked alongside Gaia, was full of compliments for his co-star. He remarked: “Gaia’s absolutely amazing. I think we had a really nice chemistry on set. She’s a great actress.

“And I think her character, Charlotte Beauvoir, is a great addition. Tristan is maturing, becoming more independent, and taking on more responsibility.

“I think he’s past that stage now, where he’s jumping from girl to girl. So, is he ready for something more serious? It’s been really fun to play.”

All Creatures Great and Small is available to watch on My5.

“Kiss of the Spider Woman,” a sexual and scatological dazzler about an inmate‘s obsession with a favorite musical, sounds like the kind of thing some folks won’t watch even if they, too, were locked in a prison for years. Their loss. In the spirit of the film, I’ll try to change their mind.

It’s 1983 Argentina, the last days of a militarized dictatorship under which 30,000 people have been disappeared. Scraggly, severe Valentin (Diego Luna) is a political prisoner with ties to the revolutionary underground. His new cellmate is a brazen chatterbox named Molina (Tonatiuh), a gay window dresser serving an eight-year sentence for indecency in a public bathroom. They have zero shared interests. But to pass the time — and, more importantly, to get Valentin to put down his biography of Lenin and talk a little — Molina recounts the plot of a Golden Age spectacular starring the fictional movie star Ingrid Luna (Jennifer Lopez), a red-lipped, pineapple-blond beauty whose vintage posters brighten their wretched gray walls.

“I hate musicals,” Valentin complains.

“Then I pity you,” Molina says breezily, charging into the first scene.

Through beatings and starvation, poisonings and betrayals, all under the gaze of the oppressive warden (Bruno Bichir), Valentin and Molina escape into Technicolor in a desperate need for distraction. The writer-director Bill Condon (“Chicago,” “Dreamgirls”) has savvily, unabashedly reworked the 1993 Broadway extravaganza (already a bold adaptation of the 1976 experimental novel and 1985 Academy Award-winning drama). He’s double-cast Luna and Tonatiuh as the film-within-a-film’s leads and changed the imaginary tale from a Nazi propaganda flick to a melodramatic but moving South American romance between a glamour queen and a noble photographer. Its themes of love and sacrifice come to mirror Valentin and Molina’s own relationship.

The songs themselves are the same rather-forgettable numbers by John Kander and Fred Ebb who did a zingier job mixing fascism with feathers in “Cabaret.” “Live inside me on a movie screen,” Lopez’s Ingrid sings, luring Molina to get lost in daydreams. Behind her, dancers gyrate like victims being electrocuted. (I wouldn’t have minded more jolts of morbid humor.) Unhummable as the music is, its message has a spark: In the war for liberation, it’s OK to take mental breaks.

In fact, pleasure is necessary, especially for the regularly tortured Valentin who seems to have been numb for a long time. (Communist memoirs don’t stir the soul.) A hardline ascetic, Valentin won’t even alert the medics when he’s sick, in case they give him morphine.

The two roommates comically bicker about what scant pop culture Valentin knows, taking shots at “Raging Bull,” Meryl Streep and his own crass insistence that Ingrid’s character, Aurora, is frigid due to some kind of childhood trauma. (“Oh, God, let her be,” Molina sighs.) Yet, their conversation always pirouettes back to the gap between the real world and the movies.

“I hate to break it to you,” Valentine says, “but nobody sings in real life.”

“Well, maybe they should,” Molina huffs.

Maybe in confinement they can’t.

Condon smartly limits who sings and why and when. In the 1985 drama, which starred Raul Julia and William Hurt (who won the Oscar for Molina), both men remained trapped in this horrible dungeon and never sang a song. On Broadway, all of the characters — even cranky Valentin — crooned numbers the whole way through. But Condon draws a thick line between reality and fiction to highlight how much his leads need the freedom for radical self-expression.

“Kiss of the Spider Woman” is about a lot of things: Valentin reconnecting with his emotions, Luis discovering that he’s more than a self-described trivial sissy. (“I cringe every time you make fun of yourself,” Valentin growls.) But it’s fundamentally about those scenes in which the palette and polish of the film shifts and cinematographer Tobias A. Schliessler switches from handheld to Steadicam. The putrid chamber drama becomes a fantasia, befouled rags turn into tuxedo pants and it’s finally safe to belt how they feel.

Earlier incarnations of this story had activism as the end goal, Valentin for his principles and Molina for his new friend. Condon is more focused on their humanity. Caring for each other makes this bleak world worth fighting for. Without joy, we’re already in chains.

People will come out of “Kiss of the Spider Woman” gushing about Tonatiuh and with good reason. Striding confidently into his first starring role, the L.A.-born breakout talent is a bright new discovery with shining eyes and brash exuberance. He needs to be excellent for the movie to succeed and he’s pretty darned close, even pulling off a glib beat where Molina recoils from a battered man and quips, “If I looked like that, I’d want a bag over my head too.” There are scenes where he comes off arch and a little telegraphed, although in fairness, that’s also just who Molina is — performance is protection. And when Tonatiuh cowers from the guards, we get a hint of what Molina has suffered without Condon ever having to show the abuse.

To keep things faithful to 1983, Tonatiuh’s Molina doesn’t identify as transgender — the character sticks to the limited vocabulary of the time. But you see Molina’s subtle disappointment when Valentin, trying to be supportive, insists, “You’re not a monster, you’re a man.” And Condon has tweaked a climactic refrain, changing the pronoun to “Her name was Molina.”

Playing Ingrid-as-Aurora — the heroine of a film that, even its biggest fan admits, is “no ‘Citizen Kane’” — Lopez is shellacked under two layers of diva artifice. But at this point in her career, she’s suited to being an icon. She’s long since given up pretending she’s still Jenny from the Block, and Condon has shaped the role of Ingrid to her like a corset. You hear it in the line, “No matter how hard Hollywood tried to make her all-American, she never stopped being Latin” and more than that, you see it in Lopez’s delight as she flashes her legs and tosses her hair. She knows she can nail this role and she really hoofs it. There’s a wide-angle shot of a nightclub where Condon gives her and a dozen background performers a full, uncut minute to twirl. Most impressively, Lopez grabs a martini, slowly does a one-legged spin to the ground and then uncoils herself to stand back up and cheer.

She has a harder time commanding the screen in a third role, when Ingrid also acts the part of the sinister Spider Woman, a spiky-haired, taloned jungle goddess who smooches her prey to death. The movie’s stiff Spider Woman set pieces are a relic of the ’90s musical that put Chita Rivera in a massive web. Trapped in them, Lopez can’t do much more than a predatory grin. But it’s still better than how Condon’s “Chicago” chopped up its choreography into close-ups (and here, there’s still a few gratingly askew camera angles). The new film is the director’s penance: an apologia to musical lovers who want to see the star do every inch of the dancing.

Still, my favorite performance has to be Luna’s, whose Valentin is at once strong and vulnerable, like a mutt attempting to fend off a bear. He’s the only one who doesn’t need to prove he’s a great actor, yet he feels like a revelation. Watching him gradually turn tender sends tingles through your heartstrings. For his second role as Ingrid’s onscreen boyfriend, Condon resurrects a discarded number from the original musical where Luna croons about being “An Everyday Man,” his warm voice perfectly imperfect. Even when he’s grouchy and filthy, you get why Molina would imagine Valentin as the ideal romantic lead.

I don’t want to spoil the ending other than to say that Condon adds an exclamation point to his insistence on music as emancipation with a new scene set after the fall of the junta and its right-wing abduction squads. The camera looks down at the jail as the inmates spill into the courtyard. Then it pulls up for an aerial shot of the entire block. We see citizens flood the streets. We hear honking horns and spontaneous street music. The whole country is free to sing.

It was a week Crescenta Valley football coach Hudson Gossard will never forget.

It began with him having to switch from defensive coordinator to offensive coordinator after coaching changes. Then his wife had to undergo surgery. Then he had to take care of final preparations for Crescenta Valley to open its new stadium on Sept. 5.

“It was an unbelievable atmosphere,” Gossard said. “High school kids dream of playing on their own high school campus. It was something awesome, something special.”

Gossard was almost in tears after what happened before the game against South Pasadena. He said before every game he receives a kiss from his wife, Codi. She was driven from the hospital and surprised him with a kiss.

“She’s a saint,” he said.

Gossard went to the press box to call the plays just like his father, Dennis, who passed in June after some 50 years being involved with Crescenta Valley football.

Crescenta Valley ended up winning the game 42-21. The emotions and memories won’t be forgotten.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].

DANNY Jones reportedly ‘legged’ it from the NTAs after accepting an award with Maura Higgins.

The pair reunited as I’m A Celeb won the gong for Reality Competition.

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All eyes were on Danny Jones and Maura Higgins after their illicit snog at the Brit Awards six months ago.

They stood apart on stage as Danny delivered the acceptance speech.

Meanwhile, the singer performed with band McFly to open the show, then was seen with Maura to collect the gong.

But then he scarpered.

On the award win, runner-up Coleen Rooney later said: “It’s amazing, it was a tough category. We’ve had a fantastic year.”

Co-star Oti Mabuse said to press: “Our king of the jungle Danny has left already!

“He wanted us to say he is on tour so he had to leg it.”

Last month, Danny shared holiday snaps with wife Georgia and son Cooper.

The king of the jungle sported a tan after he jetted off to a mystery European seaside location.

He posted a string of assets onto his Instagram profile as he strolled through the streets with Georgia and their seven-year-old son Cooper.

The young family beamed from ear to ear as they enjoyed each other’s company by the sea.

United States President Donald Trump has unveiled his slate of picks for the Kennedy Center Honors, an annual awards show designed to honour actors, musicians, designers and creative professionals who have dedicated their lives to the performing arts.

On Wednesday, Trump appeared on stage at the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, one of the premier stages in Washington, DC, in a show of power over the national cultural institution.

“We’ll make it better than it ever was, frankly,” he said of the awards show. “ It’ll be something that people are going to be very proud of.”

This year’s five honourees include disco singer Gloria Gaynor, country music performer George Strait, the rock band Kiss, British comedian Michael Crawford and actor Sylvester Stallone, star of the classic films Rocky and Rambo.

Trump, a former reality TV star, also revealed that he would host the award show himself. In his opening remarks, he suggested his allies strong-armed him into taking the hosting gig.

“I’ve been asked to host. I said, ‘I’m the president of the United States. Are you fools asking me to do that?’” Trump said. “ So I have agreed to host. Do you believe what I have to do?”

Wednesday’s announcement was Trump’s latest foray into the arts, as he seeks to reshape the US’s cultural institutions to reflect his agenda.

Exerting power over the Kennedy Center

During Trump’s first term, from 2017 to 2021, the Republican leader never attended the Kennedy Center Honors, breaking with a longtime presidential tradition.

Since the ceremony’s beginnings in 1978, presidents have been regular attendees, except in rare cases, including Cold War-era negotiations and the 1979 Iran hostage crisis.

But since returning to the White House for a second term in January, Trump has not only sought to make his presence known at the Kennedy Center, but he has also sought to wield power over its programming.

On February 7, Trump announced he would purge the Kennedy Center’s governing board and declared his intention to lead the institution as its chair.

“I have decided to immediately terminate multiple individuals from the Board of Trustees, including the Chairman, who do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture,” Trump wrote at the time. “We will soon announce a new Board, with an amazing Chairman, DONALD J. TRUMP!”

By February 12, the new Kennedy Center board had made good on its promise to elect Trump as chair.

Since then, Trump has expanded his reach into the country’s arts and culture spheres. On Tuesday, for instance, his administration revealed it would undertake an “internal review” of several Smithsonian museums, to “ensure alignment with the President’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism”.

Trump also teased his new vision for the Kennedy Center Honors — and appeared to troll critics who expressed outrage over Republican proposals to rename the performing arts centre after the Republican leader.

“GREAT Nominees for the TRUMP/KENNEDY CENTER, whoops, I mean, KENNEDY CENTER, AWARDS,” Trump wrote on social media in the lead-up to Wednesday’s announcement.

He pledged the revamped award show would reflect “the absolute TOP LEVEL of luxury, glamour, and entertainment”.

A crackdown on crime in the capital

The Kennedy Center Honors is expected to air on the TV channel CBS in December, and it broadcasts from its eponymous theatre.

In Wednesday’s speech, Trump tied the upcoming ceremony to his broader campaign to crack down on crime in Washington, DC.

“ In the coming months, we’ll fully renovate the dated and, really, the entire infrastructure of the building and make the Kennedy Center a crown jewel of American arts and culture once again,” he said.

“ We have the right location, and soon we will be a crime-free area.”

Earlier this week, Trump invoked the capital’s Home Rule Act to take control of the local police force, and he deployed members of the National Guard to patrol the city’s streets, despite the fact that violent crime in the city was at a 30-year low.

Trump, however, has denied the legitimacy of those statistics, a claim he made again at the Kennedy Center on Wednesday.

“ You’re gonna see a big change in Washington crime stats very soon — not the stats that they gave because they turned out to be a total fraud. The real stats,” he said.

Trump also faces legal limitations to his efforts: The capital’s police can only be federalised for a period of 30 days, barring congressional action.

When asked about that limit at Wednesday’s news conference, Trump indicated he would seek to retain control of Washington’s police for the long term.

“ If it’s a national emergency, we can do it without Congress,” Trump said, though he added that he would introduce a crime bill that would allow him to extend his control over the local police.

“ We’re going to do this very quickly, but we’re going to want extensions. I don’t want to call a national emergency. If I have to, I will, but I think the Republicans in Congress will approve this pretty much unanimously.”

Trump ‘very involved’ in honouree selection

The Republican leader also hinted at a potential political bent to the reimagined Kennedy Center Honors.

He has previously denounced the Kennedy Center’s programming, pledging to nix artistic productions like drag shows and book classic Broadway hits instead.

In response, over the past year, the touring production of the hit Broadway musical Hamilton cancelled its scheduled stop at the Kennedy Center, as did comedian Issa Rae and the opera Fellow Travelers.

Performers in a touring production of Les Miserables also boycotted performances at the Kennedy Center to protest Trump’s changes.

Still, Trump doubled down on the programming changes, saying his ratings success on the reality TV show The Apprentice testified to his arts-industry smarts.

“I shouldn’t make this political because they made the Academy Awards political and they went down the tubes,” Trump said on Wednesday.

“They’ll say, ‘Trump made it political,’ but I think, if we make it our kind of political, we’ll go up, OK? Let’s see if I’m right about that.”

He also confirmed that he had played a large role in selecting this year’s Kennedy Center honourees.

“I would say I was about 98-percent involved. No, they all went through me,” Trump explained, adding that he turned down “plenty” of candidates, including “a couple of wokesters”.

Looking ahead, Trump said the Kennedy Center would feature heavily in his plans to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding in 2026.

“I’m going to be president for the Olympics. I’ll be president for the World Cup. And the 250th is going to be maybe more exciting than both,” Trump said. “It’s a great celebration of our country. We’re going to be using this building for a lot of the celebration.”

When is a kiss not just a kiss? Season 2 of Netflix’s “Arcane” delivers a long-awaited payoff between two characters with such a deep emotional bond it inspired a “Bennifer”-style portmanteau: CaitVi. Co-executive producer Amanda Overton, who wrote the saga-defining scene, explains that Vi (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld) has “lost everyone she loved,” and it’s during a moment of fear and honesty that she tells Caitlyn (voiced by Katie Leung), “Everyone in my life has changed. Promise me you won’t change.” Caitlyn reacts by inching closer, brushing her finger gently against Vi’s face before their lips meet in a soft, breathless kiss. “I won’t.” The enduring portrait comes at a cost. “We had Vi ask this impossible question at the wrong time, but she’s so vulnerable and desperate,” notes Overton. “Caitlyn lies at this moment because she thinks that’s what Vi needs to hear.” Her bold choice blooms into Vi returning the embrace. “We worked with Christelle [Abgrall], the director, to create the passion and longing they had for each other that was built up over the season. Because it was their first kiss we needed it to be romantic in every way.” See, even lies can be romantic.

July 21 (UPI) — The new chief executive officer at Astronomer is speaking out following last week’s Coldplay concert kiss cam controversy, as he acknowledged the now viral video has raised brand awareness for the tech firm.

Pete DeJoy, co-founder and interim CEO, issued a statement Monday — called “Moving Forward at Astronomer” — after former CEO Andy Byron and Astronomer’s head of Human Resources, Kristin Cabot, were caught in an embrace Wednesday night on Coldplay’s jumbotron at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. Both Byron and Cabot, who are married to other people, ducked out of the camera shot when they saw themselves on the screen.

“The events of the past few days have received a level of media attention that few companies — let alone startups in our small corner of the data and AI world — ever encounter,” De Joy said.

“The spotlight has been unusual and surreal for our team, and, while I would never have wished for it to happen like this,” he added, “Astronomer is now a household name.”

DeJoy stepped into his new role at Astronomer, “a company that I’ve proudly poured my entire professional life into helping build,” over the weekend after Byron tendered his resignation.

On Monday, DeJoy seized the company’s current spotlight to highlight its true mission.

“Over the past few years, our business has experienced incredible growth. What was once a mission to help companies with Apache Airflow has turned into so much more,” DeJoy said.

“We’re privileged to sit at the center of our customers’ data and AI strategy, powering data pipelines behind in-game analytics of your favorite sports team, LLM powered chatbots for customer support, training AI for self-driving cars and every mission-critical process in between,” DeJoy continued in an attempt to steer attention away from the controversy.

Astronomer’s “mission is bigger than any one moment,” he said.

July 19 (UPI) — Software developer Astronomer says former Chief Executive Officer Andy Byron resigned amid controversy following his attendance at a recent Coldplay concert.

New York-based Astronomer confirmed Byron’s resignation on Saturday and said co-founder and Chief Product Officer Pete DeJoy is its interim chief executive officer while its board of directors seeks a permanent replacement for Byron.

“Astronomer is committed to the values and culture that have guided us since our founding,” Astronomer officials said Saturday in a post on X.

“Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met.”

Byron is married but was caught attending a Coldplay concert with another woman on Wednesday night at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.

The stadium’s “kiss cam” zeroed in on Byron with his arms wrapped around a woman standing in front of him during the concert, NBC News reported.

When they realized they were on the kiss cam, Byron ducked out of the camera shot, while the unidentified woman covered her face.

Coldplay’s lead singer Chris Martin noticed the pair’s reaction during the concert and opined: “Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.”

The video of the moment went viral, and social media sleuths identified the man as Byron.

Astronomer placed him on leave on Friday before accepting his resignation a day later, according to NBC News.

The tech firm is a relatively small company with fewer than 500 employees and noted the viral incident’s impact on its operations.

“While awareness of our company may have changed overnight, our product and our work for our customers have not,” Astronomer said in its X post.

“We’re continuing to do what we do best: helping our customers with their toughest data and AI problems.”

In the past year, seven of the UK’s 10 busiest airports have increased the cost of dropping off a loved one before travel – to the point that London Luton is now more expensive than a stay at the Ritz

Drop-off charges at one major UK airport have risen so much it’s more expensive – minute by minute – seeing a loved one off than staying at the Ritz hotel in London.

Most of the UK’s busiest airports have upped the prices of their drop-off zones, commonly known as “kiss and fly” areas, where travellers can say a quick farewell to their loved ones before jetting off. In the past year, seven of the aviation hubs have either increased prices or reduced how long drivers can stay before higher fees are applicable.

Luton Airport currently has the highest per-minute cost the UK’s busiest airports – charging £5 for five minutes before the £1 a minute fare rolls in for a maximum of 20. These prices rose steeply following the renovation of Luton’s drop-off zone after it was torched in a fire in October 2023. Before the fire, it was £5 for 10 minutes followed by the £1-a-minute charge.

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For a deluxe king room at Mayfair’s Ritz hotel, you’d pay £1,149 per night, which works out at around 91p a minute. The airport said the charge helps maintain the flow of passengers and traffic, claiming that the majority of visits are within five minutes. They signposted customers to the mid-stay car park, which is a ten-minute walk to the airport terminal.

It tells The Times: “With a £5 fee, the barrierless system keeps passengers and the traffic flowing, with the average time spent in the area well within five minutes. For those with more time, drivers have a range of free and paid-for drop off, pick up and parking options to choose from.”

According to the RAC, these kiss and fly charges are “bordering on the ridiculous”. Rod Dennis from the RAC said: “Drivers will be understandably aghast at the prospect of paying as much as £7 for what amounts to nothing more than opening the boot so a friend or relative can collect their luggage and catch their flight.

“The problem is a lack of practical — and affordable — alternatives for getting to many airports. Faced with the choice of a double-decker bus with lots of luggage, or forking out for a taxi, it’s easy to see why people feel they have no option other than to drive.”

Many of the major airports ask drivers to pay before or after they arrive and late payment charges are issued if a payment isn’t made within 24 hours or by midnight the following day.

Graham Conway from Select Car Leasing, based in Reading, said: “Failingto pay for drop-off parking or exceeding your time limit can really hit you in the wallet. It’s all too easy to forget to log on and to then remember with a sense of dread when it’s too late.”

The fallout from last night’s heart rate challenge continued on tonight’s Love Island – but one pair seemed to be growing closer as Ben and Alima shared a shock kiss

Fans have been left stunned after Alima and Ben shared a passionate kiss on Love Island. Last night, fans watched on as the Islanders took part in the iconic heart rate challenge, although some were more racy than others.

Viewers watched on in shock as Helena whispered “I can’t wait to f***k you” in Harry’s ear – and it was clear the feelings were reciprocated.

During the challenge, Ben was left in disbelief by Alima’s racy performance, and it was no surprise that his heart rate rose the most by her. However, the feelings weren’t reciprocated on the night, as Alima’s heart rate was raised the most by Harrison.

Despite this, Alima’s heart rate seemed to be raised by Ben after the challenge, as the two got surprisingly close to each other. Speaking about the moment, Ben said: “You’ve got it. The face card’s a joke! Look at you pulling me closer.”

“I’m just very touchy, Alima responded as she held onto Ben’s hand. In a shock move, the pair gazed into each other’s eyes as they shared a passionate kiss.

Love Island fans couldn’t believe their eyes when the moment happened, as they took to X, formerly known as Twitter to share their disbelief. “BEN AND ALIMA?????” exclaimed one, as another said: “Alima and Ben was not on my 2025 bingo card.”

“I’ve just opened ITV to see Alima kissing Ben of allllllll people? BFFR,” penned a third shocked fan, while another said: “WHY ARE BEN AND ALIMA KISSING!!”

It’s unclear whether the kiss will lead to anything more, as Alima opened up to the girls in the dressing room after the shocking move. “The chat was good, but it was very flirty and just banter. I need to find out if there’s substance,” she said.

Elsewhere tonight, Shakira was made aware of what was going on behind her back as the gossip spread throughout the villa. Obviously, she was less than impressed and proceeded to call things off with Harry. She was left feeling embarrassed, explaining that she felt like the entertainment of the villa with Harry’s behaviour.

It was the second time in two days she’d been left upset by his actions. Just the day before, Harry left her in tears when he decided to snog his ex Helena in the Snog, Marry, Pie challenge.

Are Shakira and Harry really over for good? And will Harry and Helena continue with their ‘unfinished business’?

Love Island continues tonight at 9pm on ITV2 and ITVX.

Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.

Ex-Spanish football chief Luis Rubiales will appeal at the Supreme Court after fine for forcibly kissing Jenni Hermoso is upheld.

Disgraced former Spanish Football Federation chief Luis Rubiales will appeal to the Supreme Court the confirmation of his $12,600 (10,800-euro) fine for forcibly kissing Jenni Hermoso, his lawyer said on Wednesday.

After a keenly awaited trial that gripped the country, Spain’s top criminal court in February found Rubiales guilty of sexual assault for the kiss at the 2023 Women’s World Cup, which generated global outrage.

The Audiencia Nacional also cleared him of a separate accusation of coercion for allegedly forcing Hermoso to downplay the incident afterwards.

Both parties contested the sentence, which fell short of the two-and-a-half-year prison term sought by prosecutors and infuriated feminist groups that condemned the punishment as too lenient.

Rubiales maintained that the kiss was a consensual “peck” between friends celebrating during a medal ceremony after star forward Hermoso had just helped Spain beat England in the final in Sydney, denying any coercion.

The court said in a statement on Wednesday that it had rejected the appeals of the defence team and prosecutors, maintaining the conviction and the fine.

“The kiss was not consensual”, and Hermoso “expressed her displeasure with what happened, as she herself confirmed in the trial, as well as her teammates”, the court wrote.

“It cannot be said that a kiss in those circumstances was frequent or common or usual.”

The court also confirmed that Rubiales, former women’s national team manager Jorge Vilda and two former senior federation officials, Albert Luque and Ruben Rivera, were cleared of the coercion charge.

Rubiales’s lawyer, Olga Tubau, told the AFP news agency that he would appeal the verdict at the Supreme Court.

A separate request by the prosecutors to rerun the trial, notably due to doubts over the judge’s impartiality, was dismissed.

The court also maintained a ban on Rubiales from going within a 200-metre (656-foot) radius of Hermoso and from communicating with her for one year.

The kiss led to a global uproar that forced Rubiales to relinquish his post, saw him banned from all football-related activity for three years and plunged the federation into a prolonged period of turmoil.

The affair made Hermoso, the all-time top scorer for the national women’s team, an icon of the fight against sexism and macho culture in sport.

Rubiales is also embroiled in an investigation into alleged financial irregularities totalling millions of euros related to the Spanish Super Cup’s relocation to Saudi Arabia, which involved a company owned by Barcelona great Gerard Pique.

Rubiales has dismissed the allegations as “falsehoods”.

Damian Homer, 51, was convicted of murder and attempted murder in November 2024 after launching a brutal attack on his partner and her mum while their two young children were at home

A quiet spring evening in a Worcester suburb erupted into chaos when police and paramedics swarmed a residential street, responding to a harrowing double stabbing on March 2, 2024.

Inside the house, Damian Homer stood at the door, blood staining his t-shirt. His partner Stacey Hill and her mother Wendy Francis lay injured on the floor – both stabbed in a frenzied attack that left one dead. The horrifying details of the case have been revealed in full in the BBC Two docuseries Murder 24/7.

Homer had launched a violent assault on Stacey and Wendy in a terrifying outburst, even pausing mid-attack to ask Stacey – bleeding and helpless – for a kiss. As she lay critically wounded, Stacey described hearing the “noise the knife made in my mum”.

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Wendy, 61, had rushed to the home after her daughter called in fear, having seen the reflection of a knife in Homer’s pocket in their mirrored wardrobe.

When officers arrived, they restrained Homer against the wall. As he was arrested for attempted murder, he claimed: “Stacey went to stab me, then Wendy came in and they both tried to stab me. I had to protect myself… it’s a good job I did otherwise I’d be the one dead.”

Paramedics found Stacey surrounded by blood, urgently asking them to check on her mother and her two children who had been inside the house at the time. Police carried the two young children to safety, telling them: “Keep your eyes tight, tight, tight” as they were taken past the bodies.

While Stacey, 38, was rushed to hospital, Wendy went into cardiac arrest. Despite efforts to save her, she was pronounced dead at 9:18pm on March 2, 2024.

In police interviews the following morning, Homer claimed he loved Stacey and described a domestic argument escalating. He alleged Stacey tried to grab a knife first, which he took and placed in his pocket. Then he claimed Wendy stormed in and jumped on him, prompting him to draw the knife:

“We fell over and the knife went into her. Stacey was shouting, and she went to grab another knife… and came towards me. I launched at her. And she just froze on the spot.”

But his version immediately raised suspicions. He referred to a “second knife” Stacey had supposedly grabbed – yet when police searched the property, no second knife was found.

With Stacey in critical condition and Wendy dead, investigators turned to other sources. The couple’s children – now in the care of relatives – gave troubling accounts. A social worker noted they played with dolls, identifying one as “Daddy… he’s bad”.

One child said: “One of them got blood on Daddy’s T-shirt, and they were screaming. Daddy was in the kitchen, Mummy was lying down on the kitchen floor, and Nanny’s blood was dripping. Dad was throwing the knife he’d got in his hand, and it hit both of them.”

Homer’s violent past also began to emerge. His former boss Clair recalled his threatening outburst during a disciplinary meeting: “How fing dare they… if I find out it’s you I’m going to fing hurt you.”

He also had a suspended sentence for assaulting Stacey in 2020.

Detectives reviewed the couple’s mobile phones, uncovering evidence of a deteriorating relationship. On the day of the attack, Stacey had texted her mother: “I’ve had to come upstairs… believe me when I say I’m done.”

In another message to Homer, she wrote: “Find somewhere else to live… you’re lucky I ain’t called the police on you.”

To which he replied: “Lol. Only if you buy me out.” Concerned, Stacey’s aunt phoned emergency services:

“She’s just told me her chap’s got a knife in his pocket. Please get there quick.”

When Stacey was finally able to speak, she gave a harrowing account of that night. After a day out at a garden centre, Homer started drinking and grew increasingly aggressive. She went upstairs to get away, and spotted a knife in his pocket via their mirrored wardrobe:

“I said to my auntie, ‘Call the police, he’s got a knife.’ I called my mum and said, ‘Mum, Damo’s got a knife and I think he’s going to kill me.’”

Stacey tried to leave, but Homer pulled her back and began assaulting her. “He was swinging me around the kitchen and punching me in the head. I heard my mum come through the door and say, ‘Get your hands off my f***ing babbi.’ I breathed a sigh of relief – my hero had come to save me.”

But Homer didn’t stop. Instead, he pulled out the knife.

“We both ended up curled up on the floor… he pulled the knife out of his back pocket and stabbed my mum in the left side of her chest, for ages. All I could hear was the noise the knife made in my mum.”

“I tried to get on my mum to stop any more stab wounds being inflicted. He started panicking and as he did that, he came down to me and asked me for a kiss.”

Stacey, stabbed in the chest with a collapsed lung, was losing consciousness. But her thoughts were still with her mother:

“I kept asking about my mum but I could tell by the look on their face that it was bad news.”

Stacey’s detailed testimony, along with the children’s accounts, forensic evidence, and Ring doorbell footage capturing Wendy’s final moments, left police confident Homer’s story was false. He was charged with murder and attempted murder.

Though he initially claimed self-defence, Homer later pleaded guilty and was sentenced in November 2024 to life imprisonment, with a minimum term of 20 years.

“Everybody loved Damo,” Stacey reflected. “But when you were living with him 24/7, the mask started to come away. The first time he hit me, he said sorry. But there was no point in ever being happy, because I knew it wouldn’t last.”

“The biggest thing for me was losing my mum. But every time I think about giving up, I look at what my mum did for me. She saved my life and I know now what I have to do for my kids. I have to be the mum to them, that she was to me.”

Murder 24/7 is available to stream now on BBC iPlayer.

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Standing near the ledge of a magnificent canyon in Utah’s Dead Horse Point State Park in the hours before sunset, my fiancée Gia and I looked each other in the eyes as we read our vows. But our officiant was nowhere in sight.

That’s because she was darting around the rocks, seeking the perfect angle to capture the moment with her camera. We hired Aimée Flynn as our photographer, but she became our officiant as well. She was also our location scout, wedding planner and even our tour guide. On the short hike to our ceremony spot, she told us about the park’s flora and fauna and how “Thelma and Louise” was filmed at a spot below where we stood.

For Flynn, it’s all part of her job as an elopement adventure photographer. Those who pursue this style of specialized wedding photography forgo old-school events for unique adventures, guiding couples through the most intimate ceremonies in nature’s most spectacular settings. Flynn, who’s based in Flagstaff, Ariz., photographed one couple embraced in a Spider-Man-style kiss while climbing on sheer rock face in Moab and another under the moonlight at Yosemite’s Glacier Point after a middle-of-the-night hike in total isolation.

Aimée Flynn goes to great lengths — and heights — to get the shot.

(Aimée Flynn Photo)

Elopement adventure photography was born in earnest 10 years ago, pioneered by Maddie Mae, a wedding photographer who’d grown disillusioned with traditional weddings. “There was a lot of discontentment from people feeling pressure to do things they didn’t want, like the garter toss, or who had family members trying to make the event about them,” recalls Maddie Mae, who goes by one name. “Eighty percent seemed like they just wanted it to be over with.”

There were already photographers taking couples out in gorgeous outdoor settings, but “I didn’t see anyone offering a full-day experience treated with the same importance as a big wedding,” Maddie Mae says.

Maddie Mae changed the game — her elopement adventures took people wherever they wanted to go, giving them permission to have whatever kind of ceremony they desired. When she shot her first elopement in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park, she was transformed. All the traditional wedding details were stripped away: There was no venue, no decor, no distracting crowd, no strict timeline. Just two people committing their lives to each other in nature, which she calls “the most sacred of sanctuaries.”

“It was the first time I’d seen a couple where they were fully present in their eyes the entire day,” Maddie Mae says. “It was the purest form of a wedding.”

Other photographers followed in Maddie Mae’s footsteps, especially after she began leading workshops on elopement adventures; the three other photographers I interviewed for this piece, Flynn, Traci Edwards and Karen Agurto, all took her courses.

Karen Agurto photographed a couple in the Lava Tube at the Mojave National Preserve in the Mojave Desert.

(Karen Agurto Photography)

Elopement adventures remained a “very niche” field until the COVID-19 pandemic, Flynn says. “People couldn’t have their big weddings but still wanted to get married.” (Maddie Mae received 284 inquiries in May 2020 alone.)

The photographers emphasize that their job involves much more than taking beautiful pictures. “These couples are rejecting the default template, which opens this world of possibilities,” Maddie Mae says. “But then they wonder, ‘Where do we go, what do we do, how can we make this ours?’ Elopement photographers are experience creators.”

Traci Edwards captured an elopement at Yosemite National Park.

(Traci Edwards / Adventure + Vow)

Maddie Mae photographed a couple who kayaked and said their vows on an Alaskan glacier.

(Maddie Mae / Adventure Instead)

For starters, the photographers double as trip planners. Sometimes, Agurto, who’s based in Orange County and shoots entirely in California, says she has some blanket recommendations — no Death Valley in the summer or Big Sur during mudslide season, for instance — but each couple is different. Some have clear visions for their adventure while others are more open. Edwards, similarly, has seen all sorts of requests, from a couple who would go anywhere in the desert under a night sky (she chose Joshua Tree) to one who wanted to be photographed on a specific 11-mile hike in Washington. She encourages couples to choose a place that “matches their relationship.” During the elopements, her husband Bill takes photos via drone and shoots video.

(Maddie Mae, who is in a different echelon in terms of pricing and clientele, has photographed elopements in more than 20 countries, including at the Dolomites in Italy, the deserts in Namibia and glaciers in Iceland. She says at this point in her career, clients often give her free rein.)

My fiancée and I knew we wanted to get married somewhere beautiful in a location new to both of us, and we found Flynn after searching online. We had originally planned for Canyonlands rather than Dead Horse Point — not because of the unromantic name but because we’d never heard of it. But Flynn explained that the national park had more restrictions and less privacy while Dead Horse offered equally monumental vistas.

She educated us about the pros and cons of sunrise versus sunset shoots (we chose sunset), recommended hair stylists and makeup artists for Gia, made restaurant suggestions and encouraged my idea of a kayaking trip on the Colorado River the day after our wedding as a nice contrast with our hikes in Canyonlands and Arches the two days before the ceremony. (Quick aside: We found lodging on our own. If you’re heading to Moab, definitely go to Red Moon Lodge, which features cozy rooms that open onto majestic views, a garden, a pond and an outdoor space where one of the co-owners, Danny, teaches yoga classes.)

Aimée Flynn left her former career as a therapist and started chasing what she calls “peak existence on top of the world moments.”

(Aimée Flynn Photo)

Flynn says communication is crucial, which keeps couples calm if things go awry. The photographers build flex time into their schedule so if bad weather looms, they can shift ceremony timing by a few hours or even a day.

Another must is a bag of emergency provisions, in case they have to save the day. Agurto’s bag includes hairspray, Band-Aids and Tylenol; Flynn’s has safety pins, blankets, clear umbrellas and eyelash glue (“when people are hiking, their eyelashes can come undone”); and Edwards says snacks are a critical item (she witnessed one person almost pass out in a remote area), as is a sewing kit (“I’ve sewn several brides back into their dresses after a zipper broke or sleeve ripped on the trail,” she says).

Above all, the photographers prioritize creating emotional connections as much as capturing epic pictures. “With AI, you could fake these photos, but the people who hire elopement adventure photographers want the full experience,” says Flynn.

Maddie Mae has photographed couples on all seven continents.

(Maddie Mae / Adventure Instead)

At ceremony time, Agurto, who used to teach yoga, starts her couples off by asking them to close their eyes and do a breathing exercise. “I want to calm them and get them in the moment,” she says. (We adopted that idea and it helped us savor the experience.) The photographers also make sure to give couples as much privacy as needed — that’s what zoom lenses are for, Flynn notes, while Agurto adds that she offers to wear headphones during the vows.

After exchanging vows and rings, Gia and I sipped prosecco, ate brownies and danced to Langhorne Slim’s “House of My Soul,” while Flynn continued shooting (taking a break only to share some bubbly), sometimes asking for specific poses but mostly letting us be.

And while the ceremony is obviously the emotional centerpiece, the day doesn’t end there. For us, the rest of the evening was almost as memorable, a mix of jaw-dropping beauty and carefree fun. Flynn took us to different spots for more photos as the sun was setting. Then she took out lanterns for us to pose with in the moonlight. Flynn’s infectious enthusiasm made us feel like models or movie stars on a photo shoot. (Enhancing that feeling was the way people reacted when they saw us hiking in formal wedding attire and boots.)

Later still, we drove to Arches National Park, with Flynn enjoying her work so much she went well beyond the four-hour window we had hired her for.

The evening ended with Gia and I standing beneath North Window Arch, illuminated by the nearly full moon, with a sky full of stars behind us. It was as romantic and as visually stunning as it sounds. Because Flynn does her job so well, we were able to fully relax into the moment, trusting that we would have both our memories and exquisite photos to preserve this day forever.

The author and his wife Gia under the stars in Arches National Park.

(Aimée Flynn Photo)

THE widow of tragic The Wanted star Tom Parker has a “kiss me quick” moment at the seaside with her dad-to-be boyfriend.

Kelsey Parker, 34, who is eight months pregnant, also checked out rings with 27-year-old tree surgeon Will Lindsay.

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The loved-up couple went on a windswept walk in Brighton with Kelsey’s two young children by Tom.

The singer died in 2022 aged just 33 from brain cancer.

Before going public with her new relationship in September last year, Kelsey said she knew her late husband would “send the right man for her.”

Tom captured the hearts of fans as one-fifth of chart-topping boyband The Wanted, known for hits like Glad You Came and All Time Low.

Even while undergoing treatment, he continued to perform, famously taking to the stage with the band in emotional final performances during their reunion tour.

Since his death, Kelsey has worked tirelessly to honour his legacy.

She has organised an annual charity football match in his name to raise funds and awareness for brain cancer research – a cause that now means everything to her.

The Sun revealed last year that Kelsey had found love with tree surgeon Will Lindsay, two years after Tom’s death.

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LOUIS Tomlinson and Zara McDermott’s chemistry was on full display during their Costa Rica holiday.

The One Direction star and Love Island beauty couldn’t keep their hands off each other on a sun-soaked day out.

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They were spotted hiring a quad bike, with Louis, 33, taking the lead as they cruised through town.

The History singer wore an orrange T-shirt and white shorts, which he teamed with black sunglasses and a baseball cap.

Zara, 28, stunned in loose white trousers and a crop top layered over her green bikini.

At one point Louis puffed on a cigarette while they waited for their ride, with a smitten Zara wrapping her arms around him.

Louis returned the affection by gently squeezing her bum and planting a kiss.

They were later seen grinning at each other before hopping on the quad bike and driving away.

Louis flew the Strictly star out in first class to a secluded villa last week.

He’s currently working on new music there and wanted to spend some quality time with Zara after going public with their romance.

She was previously seen locking lips with her new pop star beau as they dined at a restaurant.

A source said: “Louis and Zara are going from strength to strength.

“He got his team to organise her first-class travel from London to Costa Rica.

“It meant Zara was unable to attend the TV Baftas but she is keen to spend as much time with Louis as possible.”

Louis will be back in the UK for Soccer Aid next week and is set to play on the England side with Zara’s ex Sam Thompson.

Zara split from former Made In Chelsea star Sam in January, moving out of Sam’s West London home, and leaving behind the two cats they shared.

She has decided to skip Soccer Aid to avoid an awkward run-in with her ex.

Zara and Louis confirmed their romance on holiday in Los Angeles over a month ago.

The pair were snapped holding hands in a sweet PDA during their trip to the US.

The Sun revealed they were an item after they were spotted enjoying an overnight stay at The Suffolk in Aldeburgh in exclusive photos.

It came amid reports that Zara had formed close bonds with Louis’ sisters Phoebe and Daisy.

They recently teased a new reality show, with sources claiming Zara has been helping them behind the scenes thanks to her experience as a TV presenter and documentary maker.

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