show biz

After a concertgoer died in the audience at a Carson music festival on Saturday, an artist is outraged the show continued while the deceased was still on-site.

On Saturday, at Carson’s Anderson Memorial Park, Shari Sanders of Altadena was found unconscious in the VIP section of the city’s annual jazz festival.

Dr. Dionne Leslie, a festival attendee, told KTLA that she performed CPR on Sanders before paramedics arrived. “[I was] just trying to breathe air into that woman and for her to look up in that moment, I just thought that she was going to make it,” Leslie told KTLA.

Sanders was later pronounced dead after what her family described as a heat-related illness. The cause of death is still under investigation.

Representatives for the city of Carson and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Carson station did not immediately return requests for information or comment.

Now Sheila E., a legendary percussionist and frontwoman who headlined the festival, has criticized promoters, she said, for allowing the show to continue before Sanders’ body was removed around 5 p.m.

“I would have never, never gotten onstage if I would have known that her body was still sitting there with her family surrounding her,” Sheila E. said in video statement after the festival. “Production, whoever, the city, the mayor was there. All of you guys should have stopped the festival. I’m sorry. You should have stopped the festival.”

The drummer said she was distressed by the paucity of water stations available, and feared the triple-digit heat was a risk for fans.

“We heard that … there was only one water station, which was unfortunate because there was just not enough water for everyone,” she said. “Carson, you guys have to do better. This was horrible. Horrible. And I’m so sorry that I played because I would not have gotten onstage knowing that she was still there.”

Big Brother newcomer Catrin was at the centre of an explosive argument in the latest episode of the ITV2 show

A Big Brother housemate has been forced to sleep away from her co-stars after tensions reached boiling point.

The ITV2 reality competition returned to screens tonight (October 6) and saw the contestants enduring yet another day in the House of Revelations. The new theme is all about exposing the housemates’ real opinions about one another, which means they were forced to nominate face-to-face.

In the end Pauline received five nominations from Lynx, Philip, Rhianna, Rochelle and Catrin. While Rob received six nominations from Frankie, Lynx, Omar, Philip, Rhianna and Yasmin. The duo will go head-to-head in this Friday’s live eviction.

The nominations naturally left tensions high in the house, but it was newcomer Catrin’s choice to put Pauline up for elimination that caused a huge housemate clash, which led to Big Brother asking Pauline to sleep in the Snug instead of the Bedroom.

It started when Catrin approached Pauline because she “felt bad” about the nomination but Pauline walked away from her. But the conversation returned before bed time when Catrin decided to point out that Pauline has been ignoring her ever since the nomination.

The 23-year-old said: “I’m not invisible”. This only sparked an argument between the pair as Pauline explained that she is upset about being placed for eviction for the third time, not necessarily about Catrin’s vote. It later spiralled out of control when Pauline, Harry and Rob were caught having a private chat in the bathroom.

Referencing her spat with Catrin, Pauline said: “Is this place empty? Is it just us? What the f*** was that? Like don’t start on me, you literally just got here.”

She went on to fume: “I don’t even owe you a hello at this point. ‘Pauline, give me attention. It’s about me.’ It’s not about you, babe, you just got here. Like, you ain’t gonna get your moment girl.

“Go look for it elsewhere, you ain’t gonna find it here. That was so ridiculous. Is it really that deep that you just came… tried to come for me? Like, you look stupid, seriously, like you were looking for a moment.”

But she didn’t realise that Catrin was also in the bathroom listening to the entire conversation. An emotional Catrin then came out of the toilet and said: “Sorry, I just wanna say I’m in the toilet the entire time and I can hear the conversation, so, I can hear everything.”

Pauline replied: “Cause you really tried to make that moment about you and I wouldn’t go for it… it’s not about you. This week is not about you.” Catrin was left in tears as she argued: “Nothing is about me and I’m not trying to say that.”

“Oh my gosh. I can’t. No seriously, I can’t. And now she’s in tears and ‘I’m the bad guy, I’m the villain’. Like what the f***,” Pauline fumed as the new housemate stormed off in tears.

Upset by the conversion she overheard between Pauline and Rob, Catrin joined the other housemates in the bedroom seeking their comfort. Another argument soon erupted as Rochelle decided to defend the teaching assistant, telling Pauline to “pick on someone your own size”.

Big Brother ultimately had no choice but to separate Pauline, Catrin and Rochelle for the night.

Big Brother continues tomorrow night at 9pm on ITV2 and ITVX

The cause of death for Dennis Haskins, an actor best known for playing Principal Richard Belding across the “Saved by the Bell” franchises, has been revealed.

Haskins’ friend and longtime caretaker, Kimberly Snow, confirmed the actor’s Sept. 27 death and told The Times that Haskins had quietly battled Parkinson’s disease and was candid about other health issues. The actor died at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health cited Parkinson’s disease as the actor’s immediate cause of death,
according to his death certificate obtained by TMZ. Irritable bowel syndrome, depression, hypertension and benign prostatic hyperplasia were also listed as health conditions Haskins battled.

Snow, a former manager of Burbank’s since-shuttered Dimples Karaoke, shared the news of the actor’s death on Instagram, writing that Haskins was a staple at the joint, so much so that many of the patrons thought he owned it.

“A lot of people thought he owned it, but he didn’t,” the tribute read. “He just loved the place and its people. He enjoyed singing for people, meeting them, and taking selfies with his fans. Dimples closed down about 11 years ago, and people still associate him with his beloved ‘second home.’ He was known to most as Mr. Belding from Saved by the Bell, but to us, he was much more than that.

“About eight years ago, he became ill,” the post continued. “He had been silent about his fight with Parkinson’s, among other health concerns, because he did not want the attention. He did not want to have to tell people. He would say, ‘What do I even say?’ So I respected his wishes and stayed quiet, and I helped him through his journey into the next chapter of his life.

“Late last night, that journey ended for him.”

The actor played Mr. Belding across seven different series, including “Good Morning, Miss Bliss,” “Saved by the Bell,” “Saved by the Bell: The College Years,” “Saved by the Bell: The New Class,” “The Rerun Show,” “Robot Chicken” and “Victorious.”

A MAJOR noughties popstar could hardly be recognised as she cut of figure in a body skimming PVC jumpsuit.

Posing at an American football game across the pond, the former chart topper looked a far cry from her former boho image.

The pop star was none other than Unwritten singer Natasha Bedingfield who is best known for her hits in the early 2000s.

Natasha turned heads in a skintight black latex jumpsuit with puff sleeves and sporty white stripes.

The American football-inspired outfit featured her surname and the number 33 emblazoned across the chest.

She completed the look with white platform ankle boots, wearing her blonde bob loose with a full fringe.

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Sharing the look on Instagram, Natasha captioned the post: “Well, the rest is STILL unwritten”, tagging stylist Lizzy Rosenberg and the Buffalo Bills’ official account.

Text across the video read: “Bills half time latex fit”.

Fans rushed to gush over the outfit, with one writing: “OKAY BODYYYYY BEDINGFIELD!”

Another declared: “This outfit is going to go down in history as a instant classic”.

A third joked: “Half time???? Thassa more full time”.

Natasha was dressed up for a half-time performance at the Buffalo Bills’ game against the New England Patriots on Sunday.

The pop starlet now lives in New York with her businessman husband Matt Robinson and their son Solomon Dylan.

The singer is still making music and performing, releasing her latest single Dot Dot Dot in August.

And her 2004 smash hit Unwritten continues to win over a new generation of fans, with Natasha revealing last month that it was approaching an insane two billion streams.

SAVED by the Bell star Dennis Haskins’ cause of death has been revealed after the much-loved actor died aged 75.

His death certificate shows Dennis died on September 27 at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California.

The certificate, from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, lists Parkinson’s disease at the immediate cause of death.

It also lists irritable bowel syndrome, depression, hypertension, and benign prostatic hyperplasia as other significant conditions.

It was not publicly known that Dennis had Parkinson’s before he died and his former wife Sarah Quinones told TMZ he had even cut off communication with close pals to hide his diagnosis.

In his final years Dennis lived in an assisted-living facility and stopped returning calls and texts from Sarah and other close friends because he didn’t want anyone to know he was suffering from the illness.

Dennis found widespread fame playing Principal Belding on the hit show Saved by the Bell, as well as numerous spin-offs.

Dennis, from Chattanooga, Tennessee, initially played the role of Principal Belding on the show Good Morning, Miss Bliss from 1988-1989.

The series then became Saved by the Bell, which aired on NBC until 1993, followed by Saved by the Bell: The New Class from 1993-2000.

Dennis earned the nickname “America’s Favourite Principal” for his performance.

His character’s exasperated ‘Hey, hey, hey, what is going on here?’ as he struggled to control his students became one of the show’s most iconic lines.

Dennis also reprised his role in the spin-off specials Saved by the Bell: The College Years in 1993 and Saved by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas in 1994.

He starred alongside Mario Lopez, Lark Voorhies, Tiffani Amber Thiessen, Elizabeth Berkley, Mark-Paul Gosselaar and the late Dustin Diamond, who died in 2021 after a brief battle with cancer.

Before launching his TV career, Haskins attended the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where the school said he was deeply involved in campus life.

He worked as a music manager, agent and concert promoter, reportedly counting Tom Jones among his clients.

Dennis then made his network TV debut on the 1979 pilot episode of The Dukes of Hazzard.

Aside from his defining role as Mr Belding, Dennis racked up more than 100 acting credits over his decades-long career.

Dennis’ agent Jay Schachter told TMZ: “It’s a tragic loss. Everyone loved Mr. Belding and those of us who got to know Dennis, loved him even more.

“He was a great person, and he loved, I mean absolutely LOVED his fans.”

Hit Northern Irish police series, Blue Lights, aired its second episode on Tuesday night with the series also available to watch in full on BBC iPlayer

Blue Lights recently returned with series four.

The hit Northern Irish police series is back with its fourth season, which is available to watch in full on BBC iPlayer now, and Tuesday night saw episode two air.

A teaser for series four reads: “Three years into their jobs as response officers, Constables Grace Ellis, Tommy Foster, and Annie Conlon are operating at their limit, facing a new threat on the streets that the police can barely control.

“Meanwhile, the murder trial of Gerry Cliff exposes a dangerous and long-buried secret that leads to chaos both inside the police and across the criminal underworld.

“As they grapple with big decisions about their future, Grace, Tommy and Annie must find the courage to face the greatest threat they have ever encountered: the truth.”

Meanwhile, a synopsis for episode two saw: “In the wake of the attack on Amira, Grace’s determination puts her in danger, while Mo spirals further with violent consequences.”

Many fans have already binged series four, taking to Twitter, now X, to share their thoughts one person said: “Such a brilliant show. Season 4 binged over 2 days. Not sure where it goes from here, would love more. I grew up with Cagney & Lacey, that really made me smile #BlueLights.”

Another viewer wrote: “@BBC thank you for another brilliant series of #bluelights, hopefully they’ll find a way to come back for a fifth season.”

A different account put: “Just finished episode two of #BlueLights it’s brilliant! No spoilers!” while another person added: “Two episodes into #BlueLights S4, @sgfmann you were indeed correct, it’s great – gripping & so pertinent.”

Elsewhere, another show watcher praised: “Just finished S4 of #BlueLights, surely one the best cop dramas ever produced, the writing, acting and filming are all top notch.

“Edge of my seat every episode. If that was the last, then what a way to go out! Deserves every award coming it’s way!”

While a different account added: “Finished watching #bluelights series 4 . I hope the BBC plan on doing more it’s probably one of the best shows I’ve watched on the beeb in recent years .. not sure how exactly most storylines seemed to be wrapped up!”

Blue Lights is available to watch on BBC One and BBC iPlayer

Jaime Winstone was close to tears as she emotionally discussed how close she was to being the first celebrity to be voted off this year’s Strictly Come Dancing algonside Carlos Gu

Strictly’s Jaime Winstone was seen holding back the tears as she opened up on the stress of the first dance-off of the series. The actress found herself in the bottom two on Movie Night following the public vote.

Thankfully for the daughter of Ray Winstone, the judges were all on her side, unanimously voting to let her return to the dance floor next week. But speaking to host Ellie Taylor on It Takes Two, Jaime, 41, was clearly emotional as she opened up on the experience alongside her professional dance partner Carlos Gu.

She revealed her emotional rollercoaster after narrowly avoiding the chop. Instead, celebrity hair stylist Chris Appleton was sent packing alongside Amy Dowden.

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Jaime said: “It has been really emotional, there were certain things that Chris said yesterday – you really do go back to that child in school going ‘I don’t fit in’ – when actually some of the greatest things about you are what make you stand out.

“Yeah, a lot of insecurities happened yesterday. But you know, it’s not how you fall, it’s how you get back up again.” Carlos was caught in his first dance-off in three years. And he revealed the situation had left him heartbroken. But he claimed his feelings were more for his partner than himself.

He said he felt the decision was “unfair”, with his words leaving Jaime to well up. As she clutched her partner’s hand, he went on to praise how much she had grown as a dancer in such a short space of time.

In the dance off, Chris and Amy performed their Cha Cha to I’ll Be Ready from Baywatch, before Jaime and Carlos performed their Cha Cha to Oh, Pretty Woman from Pretty Woman.

Carlos also recently shared his heartache at friend Amy’s early exit or the second year running. Speaking out about the early elimination, Carlos took to Instagram on Monday. He said: “My heart is broken!!! To my sister from another mother @amy_dowden, to @chrisappleston1, I wish people could [have] had more chance to see what a beautiful human you are!”

On Sunday night, Strictly aired it’s first results show of 2026. According to ratings data shared by Digital i, Sunday’s show drew in 4.5million viewers, compared to 6.2million last year.

This comes after it was reported that the first live show of this year’s series peaked at 5million viewers. This dropped by more than a million year on year, as 2025’s first live show attracted an average of 6.2million views.

But a Strictly spokesperson said: “Strictly was the most watched programme of the night, with a peak of five million viewers. As ever, overnight ratings do not give the full picture of all those who watch in an on-demand world.”

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OSCAR-WINNER Eva Marie Saint has died at 102.

The American actress died at her LA home on Tuesday, her family confirmed.

Eva Marie was the oldest living Oscar winner.

In 1955, the star scooped up an Academy Award for her big screen debut playing opposite Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront.

The New York Times wrote in its review that “amid scenes of carnage, she gives tenderness and sensitivity to genuine romance”.

She starred in North by Northwest as a seductive blonde spy in 1959.

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A pet project of architect Frank Gehry, a smaller concert hall to complement his legendary Walt Disney Concert Hall, is taking shape in downtown Los Angeles for an opening next September.

Elements Gehry devised to set it apart are already visible, as construction on the $337-million addition to the Colburn School of Performing Arts reveals details the architect conceived years ago.

The centerpiece of the expansion will be a 1,000-seat concert hall named for Pasadena philanthropists Terri and Jerry Kohl with an in-the-round design meant to create intimacy between the performers and the audience. The hall will include an orchestra pit and a stage similar in size to the one at Disney Hall so it can accommodate grand orchestra, opera and dance performances.

The Colburn Center, still under construction, in downtown Los Angeles last week.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Gehry set out to create an immersive hall that would inspire artists and envelop the audience, said Meaghan Lloyd, his chief of staff and right-hand at his firm, Gehry Partners.

“Frank’s passion was bringing the audience closer to the performers and getting the relationship between the two just right, so that the audience can feel the performers, the performers can feel the audience reacting,” Lloyd said.

Kohl Hall will be part of the school where Colburn’s symphony orchestra, bands, youth string programs and children’s choirs will perform. It will also be available for rent for outside productions such as jazz and classical music concerts. It is expected to be in use more than 200 times a year.

Architect Frank Gehry with a model of his design for an addition for Colburn School.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

The hall will open with a concert on Sept. 25, the Colburn School announced Tuesday. The weekend celebration will include inaugural performances at the Dance Center, a new dance instruction and performance venue being built as part of the 100,000-square-foot Gehry-designed addition.

The new Dance Center will double facilities for the school’s Trudl Zipper Dance Institute. The dance facilities will include a 100-seat theater for dance and four professional-size studios for dance instruction and rehearsal.

Beginning next year, the hall will be the home of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, a group of professional musicians about half the size of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. LACO concerts will feature premieres of new fanfares by celebrated film composers, including a work by John Williams to be performed at LACO’s inaugural concert in the hall.

The fanfares are curated by Grammy nominee and singer Seth MacFarlane, best known as the creator and star of “Family Guy.”

Meaghan Lloyd, chief of staff and partner at Gehry Partners, left, and Sel Kardan, president and chief executive of the Colburn School, look over construction of the Terri and Jerry Kohl Hall.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Part of the hall’s commercial appeal is expected to be its size, in a sweet spot between the 2,265-seat Disney and the popular 415-seat Herbert Zipper Concert Hall already on the Colburn campus. The nearby Dorothy Chandler Pavilion seats about 3,200 guests. The Peacock Theater at L.A. Live seats 7,100.

Kohl Hall’s in-between size “is the missing piece of the venue puzzle” for Los Angeles, Colburn President Sel Kardan said.

A key feature already in place, hanging from the ceiling, is an array of steel clouds packed with concrete, designed to improve acoustics and evoke a sense of airiness. The clouds were made in the Netherlands by a firm with a history of building steel ship hulls that now specializes in building complex steel constructions like the clouds using digital data.

Visitors stand underneath concrete sound clouds designed to improve acoustics.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

The exterior metal cladding of the addition features a luminescent pink paint coating called Pink Kandi.

Japanese acoustical engineer Yasuhisa Toyota will serve as the hall’s acoustician, as he has for all of Gehry’s concert halls, beginning with Disney Hall.

The long-awaited Colburn School addition will be the third Gehry-designed building on Bunker Hill, which already has Disney Concert Hall and the Grand LA, a $1-billion apartment, hotel and retail complex he designed for New York mega-developer Related Cos.

The Colburn School dates to 1950 and moved to its current location downtown in 1998, where it has more than 2,000 students, most of whom range from middle school to college age.

TOM CRUISE has built a career on cheating death, but even the veteran star couldn’t escape a crash landing at the weekend.

The Hollywood heavyweight is facing one of the most humiliating moments of his career after Digger, his first film since the last Mission: Impossible, bombed with critics and at the box office.

And it comes at the end of a bruising year for the star, from the collapse of his whirlwind romance with actress Ana de Armas to his daughter Suri dropping his surname.

The satirical black comedy took just £15million globally in its opening weekend, and industry experts fear it could lose as much as £100million.

It is one of the weakest debuts of Cruise’s career — a bitter result for a film billed to be the start of his next big chapter, as the ageing star looks to slow down the stunts and be taken seriously.

Instead, his bold attempt to prove he could move beyond the action-man image has been met with a resounding thumbs down.

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The film scored a C+ CinemaScore, one of the lowest ratings of his career, while critics have been sharply divided.

Cruise, 64, plays a balding, pot-bellied Texan oil tycoon in the movie, directed by Oscar-winner Alejandro G Inarritu, the man behind Birdman and The Revenant.

It was meant to be a daring creative swing for a star who has spent decades being synonymous with blockbuster action.

But audiences appear to just want the old Tom back.

The film’s £125million production budget, coupled with an estimated £75million marketing spend, means its disappointing box-office debut is unlikely to justify its hefty price tag.

Reviews were so divisive that Warner Bros reportedly resorted to running “decide for yourself” adverts in the run-up to release, after estimates were repeatedly revised down.

One fan summarised it as: “Tom Cruise’s Digger is a disaster — I couldn’t wait for it to be over.”

For Cruise, who has been box office gold since Risky Business and Top Gun in the Eighties, the figures will make uncomfortable reading.

His last major disappointment was 2017’s The Mummy, but since then he has enjoyed one of the biggest career resurgences in Hollywood.

Top Gun: Maverick became a global phenomenon, while Mission: Impossible kept him at the top of the action game well into his 60s.

Digger was supposed to prove there was another side to him. Instead, it marks his lowest box office opening in nearly 20 years.

Though Cruise certainly did everything he could to sell it.

He threw himself into the campaign, appearing on Travis and Jason Kelce’s New Heights podcast, dancing through the spirit tunnel on The Jennifer Hudson Show and landing his first magazine cover story in two decades with a topless shoot for GQ.

He even brought the Prince and Princess of Wales to the London premiere at the end of last month, where they met the cast.

Defending the film after the mixed reviews, Cruise told a screening audience: “OK, the door’s open. Now I want to push it again.”

He added: “This film is handmade. People want to see real things.”

But the response has left the awards buzz that once surrounded Digger fading fast.

Cruise had been tipped to land his first competitive Oscar after years of nominations, but those hopes now look considerably more distant.

It could also force the Hollywood veteran to reconsider whether audiences really want to see him outside of blockbuster action. There is already a clear indication of where he may go next.

Rather than continuing to take creative risks, Cruise is returning to familiar territory with a sequel to 1990’s Days Of Thunder, co-starring Anne Hathaway, while Top Gun 3 is also in the works, with him reprising his role as Maverick.

For a star whose career has been built on refusing to play it safe, it could be that the safest option is exactly what he needs.

Speaking to GQ, Cruise said: “Life, I’m coming right at it. It’s coming at me and I’m coming right at it.”

He certainly was not wrong about the second part.

Because Digger is far from the only thing to have knocked him off his stride this year.

In July, it emerged that his 20-year-old daughter Suri had seemingly severed her final tie with her famous father, after more than a decade of estrangement.

The college student has dropped the Cruise surname entirely, opting to go by Suri Noelle, her mother Katie Holmes’s middle name.

She publicly registered to vote in Pennsylvania, where she is studying, under the new moniker.

Suri was born in April 2006, and her parents tied the knot six months later.

They divorced in 2012 over irreconcilable differences, and the pair’s last public appearance together was that same year.

Insiders have since claimed Cruise and Suri have not seen one another privately in more than a decade.

Katie, meanwhile, has been enjoying a summer of love after making things official with a new man on her arm — artist Jason Bard Yarmosky — who is said to have helped her move on from the “trauma” of her marriage to Tom. But Tom’s love life has been rather more bruising.

Last October, Cruise suffered an even more public heartbreak, when The Sun exclusively revealed he had split from Ana de Armas after less than nine months together.

The star was first linked to the Cuban-born actress, 37, in February 2025, and they went public in the spring after being pictured holding hands during a break in Vermont.

Two months later, Tom whisked Ana to Madrid on his private jet, before they flew to London by helicopter for her 37th birthday, sharing selfies and describing it as “a fun night out on the town”.

She was also his date to David Beckham’s 50th birthday party in May 2025.

But a source close to the couple told The Sun at the time: “Tom and Ana had a good time together but their time as a couple has run its course.

“They are going to remain good friends but they aren’t dating any more.

“The spark had gone between them but they still love each other’s company and they’ve both been really adult about it.”

A year on, the contrast between the former couple could hardly be starker. While Cruise licks his wounds, Ana appears to have moved on in spectacular fashion.

She has been linked to Venezuelan musician Beto Montenegro after the pair were spotted dancing at a concert in Madrid and sharing kisses on a romantic getaway to Spain’s Formentera island.

Before that, she was briefly pictured with venture capitalist Marcelo Valente in Los Angeles following the Cruise split.

A source said of Beto: “He’s an extremely charming and sophisticated guy, and he checks all the boxes Ana’s looking for right now.

“It’s an exclusive relationship, and they’ve had a pretty magical summer.”

Ana has also been getting back in front of the cameras, with a strong slate of projects, including espionage thriller Impunity.

Her John Wick spin-off Ballerina has kept her firmly in the blockbuster world, too.

And just this week she was pictured rubbing shoulders with an A-list crowd at a private Louis Vuitton party in Paris, joining Emma Stone and Chloe Grace Moretz.

She looked every inch the Hollywood star in a long-sleeved blouse, carrying a Louis Vuitton box clutch with gold trim.

There is still some unfinished business between the exes. Their joint project, Deeper, has been put on hold because of budget issues.

It all leaves Cruise facing a very different end to the year than the one he had planned.

He has, of course, bounced back from career setbacks before, and with Top Gun 3 and Days Of Thunder 2 on the way, he will be hoping a return to familiar territory can restore his reputation.

But for now, the man who has spent a lifetime defying gravity is facing being brought back down to earth.

STRICTLY star Aston Merrygold has shared an emotional tribute following the death of his beloved mother-in-law Carole.

The JLS singer, 38, thanked wife Sarah’s mum for welcoming him into her family and being a devoted grandmother to their three children.

Sharing his heartbreak on Instagram, Aston wrote: “I still can’t believe this but thank you.”

He remembered meeting Carole for the first time, thanking her “for accepting me into your family with open arms and an amazing smile”.

Aston also praised her “for being the most loving thoughtful and HAPPY nanny to Grayson Macaulay & Riley”.

In the moving post, the singer recalled Carole telling him how much she wanted him to marry her daughter.

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He wrote: “You telling me at Sarah’s 30th after a few Tia Marias you can’t wait for me to marry your daughter (I did sh*t myself abit)”.

Aston also remembered her helping him organise a move with now wife, dancer Sarah Lou, and giving him her blessing ahead of their marriage.

Among his most treasured memories was a cuddle with Carole shortly before eldest son Grayson was born.

The sweet post also paid tribute to the bond she shared with her grandchildren, saying: “We all absolutely adore you and we always will”.

The heartbroken star said journeys to see the family would now feel different without her.

“It wont ever be the same going over that bridge but every time i do i’ll be looking out for the little rainbow and also give a wave to Nanny’s house,” he wrote.

He ended his tribute: “Until we get to have Nanny’s biscuits and a tea again..

“The mother of my bride, Our super Nanny, we love you and will always miss you.. Thank you Razzle”.

Family has long been at the heart of Aston’s life, with the singer sharing sons Grayson, eight, and Macaulay, six, and daughter Riley, two, with Sarah Lou.

And eldest son Grayson is already showing signs of following in his famous dad’s footsteps.

In August, the tween joined Aston on stage at Colchester Castle Park to sing Jessie J’s Price Tag.

The proud singer danced alongside his son before lifting him onto his shoulders, later commenting on a clip: “My star boy.”

Aston previously described his sons as “mini showmen”, revealing they had picked up their love of performing from watching their parents sing and dance at home.

Speaking to PA, he previously said: “We haven’t pushed them in any way to do it.”

LEGENDARY R&B singer Freddie Jackson has died at 70 as family and friends mourn the icon’s passing online.

The singer, known for his hit song Rock Me Tonight (For Old Times Sake), passed away on Monday, just days after his milestone birthday.

Freddie’s family announced the sad news on his Instagram on Tuesday.

“It is with profound sadness and heavy hearts that we share the passing of our beloved Freddie Jackson, who went home to rest last night,” the post read alongside a photo of the iconic vocalist.

“Freddie was more than a legendary voice. He was a kind, generous soul who loved his fans, his family, his friends, and his music with everything he had.

“For decades he gave us the songs that became the soundtrack to our love stories, our celebrations, and our most treasured memories. That gift will live on forever,” the caption continued.

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“To everyone who ever sang along, danced, or felt something when Freddie took the stage: thank you. You were family to him, and he carried your love with him always.

“Please keep his family, friends, and loved ones in your prayers during this difficult time. Details regarding arrangements and how to honor his legacy will be shared in the coming days.”

The family concluded the post, writing, “Rest in peace, Freddie. Your legacy and your voice will live on forever.”

They did not reveal the artist’s cause of death.

Fans shared their grief and condolences to Freddie’s loved ones in the comments.

“Another Legend Gone…Another Legacy left behind. This sucks! Grateful for the gift he shared with an unforgiving world,” professional wrestler Elijah Burke (Da Pope), wrote.

“Oh man Freddie one of. The true greats!!!! I had the pleasure of working on a song duet with him and Natalie Cole! Superb!” singer Narada Michael Walden added.

“Three days after his birthday. Rest well and Thank you for all the wonderful songs throughout the years here with us on earth,” a fan said.

“Awww man. Such a cool brother. So talented too ! One of the Greats,” chimed in a fourth.

“Heartbreaking news!!! Rest in Paradise Freddie,” a fifth echoed.

Freddie’s music career took off in the 1980s, with his chart-topping hits, You Are My Lady, Have You Ever Loved Somebody, and Jam Tonight.

The New York native kept performing until his death, singing his old hits and songs from his newest album, My First Love, released in May 2023.

He hit the stage in June for a performance at a winery in Philadelphia and was among the headliners at an 80s Night Concert in Fort Worth, Texas, in April, per his recent Instagram posts.

In one of Freddie’s latest posts, he thanked fans “for all the love” on his birthday and shared a photo of himself in a white suit.

Several years ago, DreamWorks Animation veterans Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado pitched the studio an original story centered on friendship and steeped in Filipino culture.

That draft became the animated film “Forgotten Island,” which opened in late September and counts singer H.E.R., Liza Soberano and Dave Franco among its voice cast. The movie focuses on best friends Raissa and Jo, who will soon be separated when Raissa goes to college in the U.S., and the final adventure they take to the fantastical island of Nakali.

The movie opened to a softer $13 million in the U.S. and Canada and has so far made $23.6 million at the domestic box office over two weekends. Globally, “Forgotten Island” has brought in $38.5 million on an $80-million production budget.

That opening haul is lower than the average for original animated films from a major studio, which is about $14.6 million, according to the FranchiseRe movie industry newsletter. But the studio is hoping the movie — which has garnered a strong 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes — will pick up steam and benefit from the relative lack of animated competition at the box office until the early November debut of “The Cat in the Hat,” developed by Warner Bros. Pictures Animation.

“Forgotten Island” is a big bet for Glendale-based DreamWorks Animation, which like many studios, has largely depended on sequels to drive box office success.

Original animated stories — or original movies at all — have become rarer gambles in Hollywood these days, when sequels and reboots feel like safer options. But Crawford and Mercado knew they wanted to develop a new story together.

The pair, who wrote and directed the film, have been friends for nearly two decades after they met at DreamWorks Animation as storyboard artists. Together, they’ve worked on 2011’s “Kung Fu Panda 2,” 2013’s “The Croods” and 2022’s “Puss in Boots: The Final Wish.” The two bonded over their similar sense of humor and their love for movies, and their longtime friendship was apparent in their easy banter during a joint interview shortly after the “Forgotten Island” premiere last month.

Early on, Crawford and Mercado knew they wanted to tell a story set in the Philippines that celebrated Filipino culture. Mercado is Filipino American and Crawford’s wife is Filipino, so a movie that authentically represented Filipino culture was important to them. In the film, the island of Nakali has many creatures inspired by Filipino folklore, and the characters casually use Tagalog words alongside English.

“There’s a sophistication in terms of respecting that the audience is smart, and doing our part as filmmakers to make sure that the visual storytelling and the context gives everything the audience needs to know,” Mercado told me.

Audiences, too, are more comfortable with content in other languages these days, as I wrote last week about Neon’s Korean-language thriller “Hope.” After all, kids will sing Korean lyrics in K-pop songs, and even “Puss in Boots: The Final Wish” interspersed Spanglish into the story.

“It feels timely to update the way we tell stories, to not treat the audience like, ‘They won’t understand this,’ but really treat them with respect,” Crawford said. “It just felt right to chase authenticity and let go of expectations, especially of what an animated movie should be and has been, and really do something fresh because it’s just coming from who we are.”

In the last few years, animation has been a powerhouse at the box office. Disney and Pixar’s “Toy Story 5” and Universal Pictures, Nintendo and Illumination’s “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” have each crossed $1 billion at the global box office, two of only five movies to do so this year. In 2024, Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” was the highest grossing movie in the U.S. and Canadian markets.

Original stories have been tougher. Pixar has recently struggled to match the theatrical success of its prior original films and the slower start for “Forgotten Island” may be a sign of similar hurdles for new stories. But culturally accurate storytelling has paid recent dividends — just look at the success of Netflix’s “KPop Demon Hunters,” which won two Oscars, broke streaming records and sold out theatrical singalongs.

“We believe that there is a platform and space for everyone’s story, for people to feel seen and to know they matter,” Mercado said. “Even when they see a story that is specifically Filipino, if we’ve done our job right, we’ve shown you that you could connect to the story, whether or not you have this experience with the Filipino community or the culture.”

With “Forgotten Island,” Mercado and Crawford also want to push the boundaries of animation beyond its perception as films just for kids. Later this year, films such as Laika’s PG-13 rated “Wildwood” and Brad Bird’s noir film “Ray Gunn” will test the audience appetite for more adult animated and original fare.

“We’re in a time of massive sequels,” Crawford said of stories today. “When you expand where you’re telling them and who is telling them, you naturally get originality. This year has been really exciting for original stories in both animation and live action. You are taking a chance on originality, but it pays off.”

Stuff We Wrote

Film shoots

Number of the week

The Tom Cruise-led “Digger” tanked at the box office last weekend with a domestic debut of $8 million, good enough for fifth place.

The Warner Bros. film was plagued by very mixed reviews from critics, as well as a challenging marketing campaign. The film stars Cruise as an aging oil tycoon whose drilling operations trigger a catastrophic climate change disaster. Worldwide, the film brought in $20 million on a production budget of $125 million.

It’s been a tough theatrical year for Warner Bros., which has seen a string of disappointments before “Digger.” Beyond the cinema, the company is now in the process of being absorbed by Paramount Skydance, with the merger set to finalize Tuesday.

What I’m watching

It’s been yet another busy week, so about the only thing I was able to watch was a few WNBA playoff games. Since the Sparks were left out of the playoff picture again, I’ve sort of adopted the Golden State Valkyries as the next best California team to root for, and what a wild game that was over the weekend against the Las Vegas Aces.

On the set of CBS’ legacy soap opera “The Bold and the Beautiful” at the Sunset Las Palmas Studios in Hollywood, two actors were caught in a fiery exchange.

“Do you want to know where Jack was last night?” actor Skyla Lynne asked with a sly grin. “He was with me.”

From behind a monitor displaying a vertically oriented feed, the director interjected: “Could you pause a bit more in between those lines? We might want to do an episode break there.”

The scene wasn’t for an episode of the famous soap opera. It was part of the 40-episode second season of “Hollywood Starlet,” a new microdrama series from “The Bold and the Beautiful” head writer Bradley Bell and his son Oliver.

“I’ve been doing soap operas my whole life, and it felt like there’s been a buzz about microdramas, and it really felt like a natural extension to the stories that we do,” Bradley Bell said. “[On soap operas] we build two cliffhangers usually on Fridays to keep the viewers over the weekend. Here, you do it every couple of minutes. It’s like speeding up the dance routine, but it’s really right in our lane of soap operas.”

Microdramas are the scrollable, cliffhanger-heavy stories built for phone screens. They are giving audiences a new way into the kind of stories that once belonged to traditional soap operas and telenovelas. The so-called vertical format originated in China a few years ago and has drawn a growing global audience thanks to its short, addictive nature. Hollywood names, including Issa Rae and Kevin Hart, are joining in.

Now, Bell is moving into the space. The 16-time Emmy winner and his son Oliver recently launched a production company called Red Flair Entertainment to capitalize on the format.

“Hollywood Starlet,” their first production, premiered Sept. 3 on aTwist, a new vertical series app founded by industry veterans Jana Winograde, former president of Showtime; Susan Rovner, former president of Warner Bros. Television; and Lloyd Braun, former chairman of WME.

Oliver Bell, founder of Red Flair Entertainment, is producing the micro series, “Hollywood Starlet,” being filmed at Sunset Las Palmas Studios in Los Angeles.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

Bradley Bell says it was Oliver who hatched the idea.

“I saw this unique format and was fascinated by it,” Oliver Bell said. “I noticed some areas that we could quite easily improve on.”

Microdramas first came across Oliver’s social media feed around a year and a half ago when he was still in college. The 24-year-old said he quickly “fell down a rabbit hole” and became so obsessed with the format that he wrote his dissertation at the University of St Andrews in Scotland on soap operas and microdramas.

After he graduated in December, he and his father founded Red Flair Entertainment and started to develop “Hollywood Starlet,” with Oliver serving as an executive producer and his father as a producer.

The series — which costs about $175,000 to $220,000 a season to produce — is being financed by aTwist. Red Flair has a backend deal, allowing it to share in subscription revenue the show generates for the platform.

After filming two seasons of “Hollywood Starlet,” Red Flair plans several more vertical series across many different genres, like horror and romance, the Bells said.

Oliver grew up visiting sets and eavesdropping on writing meetings from under his father’s desk. The family’s storytelling line runs back to his grandparents, William Bell and Lee Phillip Bell, who created “The Young and the Restless” and “The Bold and the Beautiful.” Oliver says he’s carrying on that legacy in a very Gen Z way.

“In a way, microdramas are just the natural evolution of the soap opera,” Oliver Bell said. “You could kind of trace the legacy through that and the modernization of serialized TV.”

His father, who was working on episode 9,911 of “The Bold and the Beautiful” while speaking with The Times, said the short-form stories can reach younger viewers who might be daunted by the soap’s decades of history.

“It’s like cracking open a book, and it’s hard for people to get into it to learn the history,” he said. “So having smaller, bite-sized pieces is appealing to us.”

“The Bold and the Beautiful” has aired continuously for 39 years, but it’s now one of American TV’s last soap operas. Until the 1980s, 10 to 12 soaps typically aired at once, said Elana Levine, a media professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee who studies the genre. Today, five remain: four on broadcast TV and one, “Days of Our Lives,” is on streaming only.

“It makes sense to take this storytelling form that has been super popular and enduring in the U.S. and find a way to translate that into the mobile devices that we carry around us all of the time,” Levine said.

While soap operas historically targeted a mostly female audience, microdramas reach a much broader audience, said Michael Berry, director of UCLA’s Center for Chinese Studies, who has studied the rise of vertical series.

“It gives us essentially the main beats that we would get from a soap opera format, but it’s happening in a much more compact and addictive way,” he added.

Cameramen prepare for a scene on the set of the micro series, “Hollywood Starlet,” being filmed at Sunset Las Palmas Studios in Los Angeles.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

Lou Trabbie, the soap’s production designer, had never heard of a microdrama before working on “Hollywood Starlet.”

“It’s all going in a different direction. You just adapt and move forward, and that’s what we see here,” Trabbie, who’s worked in the industry for 38 years, explained. “It’s really great to see how these are done with smaller crews. I feel like this is where the business is going.”

“Hollywood Starlet” shoots on the same Sunset Las Palmas soundstage as “The Bold and the Beautiful,” filming during the soap’s monthly dark week.

The first season, 45 short episodes, was shot in six days at the start of summer with a non-union cast and crew of 45. Less than a week after its release, much of the same crew was back to start working on season two.

Oliver Bell said the series used non-union crew due to “budgetary restrictions.”

At a time when major film and TV shoots are leaving the state, microdramas are one of the few areas of production that are growing locally.

Excluding China, vertical video is expected to generate $150 billion globally in revenue this year, according to consulting firm Owl & Co. Most of that comes from TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels.

Sunset Las Palmas Studios, where “La La Land” and the first two seasons of “I Love Lucy” were filmed, dedicated an entire sound stage in June to standing sets for vertical series. The sets include a courtroom, a bar/restaurant, an apartment, an office and a hospital.

Paxton Fuller, left, executive producer of “Hollywood Starlet,” walks with Sean Griffin, Vice President of Sales and Business Development, for Las Palmas Studios, through a courtroom set on the stage meant specifically for microdramas.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

Still, the Bells don’t think microdramas will replace soap operas. The two formats, they argue, can “coexist.”

“Coming into someone’s living room or bedroom, soap operas were almost like an extension of their family that they can count on for years and decades with the same actors. The same families that have watched since day one,” Bradley Bell said. “It’s a different type of viewer for microdramas.”

Oliver Bell added: “We’re trying to grab the scroller’s attention, not necessarily ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ viewer … Microdramas are unavoidable through social media. [It’s] conditioning our brains and how we process media.”

David Ellison emerged with his prized Hollywood juggernaut Tuesday as the merger of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery officially closed.

The $111-billion transaction culminated a year-long battle by the 43-year-old tech scion to add Warner Bros. Discovery to his family’s growing portfolio.

The Ellison family now controls one of the largest traditional media companies ever formed, with HBO, CNN, CBS, Comedy Central, TBS, Food Network, two traditional Hollywood studios and two major streaming services.

Shares of the new company began trading under the ticker SKYD, a switch from last week when the company went by PSKY for Paramount Skydance. Ellison has called the merged company, Skydance, the name he selected two decades ago when he began building his Hollywood studio.

This is a developing story.

Four in a Bed viewers jumped to the defence of one team after comments made by another contestant.

Four in a Bed viewers have been left furious over one contestant’s feedback.

A new series of the Channel 4 competition recently took place in Northern Ireland, concluding with a payment day episode airing on Friday, October 2.

It saw Belfast city-centre luxury apartments owner Melissa criticise Enniskillen hotel owners Shaun and Aoife over their taste in decor. Having walked into her home for the night, she had commented: “It’s nice and bright,” before inspecting the panelling and wallpaper above the bed.

She said: “We’ve got panelling here, an LED light and this pattern here, there’s far too much going on, it’s a bit tacky.” She also rated them a low score of six for facilities, for a lack of fridge and coffee machine in her room.

“That’s disappointing,” the hosts had remarked at the time, before bringing up the issue around the payment day table. “I really hope there is some justification for these comments,” Shaun added.

During Friday’s episode, Aiofe asked Melissa about her “harsh” criticism of the decor, with Melissa replying: “It might have been your personal taste, but you need to keep it as neutral as possible.”

Shaun hit back: “I think the language, dated and tacky… there’s so many words available to us.” Melissa argued: “What I say is what I think.” Another contestant jumped in to say that Melissa didn’t need to use the word tacky, though she stood by her comment, saying she didn’t know what else to use to “describe three different patterns”.

“Busy,” Shaun quickly replied. Melissa said: “Tacky to me, I don’t think it’s that bad of a word.” “It’s too subjective,” Shaun added, saying: “It really undermined the value of the rest of the feedback.”

He went on: “An overall six is a hard score,” saying it was a “strategic” move of Melissa to underpay her competitors. He added to the cameras: “Feeding back in that way, it was low in quality, high in ego and that isn’t a set of characteristics that command respect.”

Melissa meanwhile said: “I never knew tacky was such an upsetting word.” Viewers jumped in to Shaun and Aiofe’s defence, with one writing: “Calling someone’s decor tacky is rude and untrue.”

Another called Melissa “awful” after her comments, while someone else said: “Oh shut up Mel! The decor might not be to your taste but it is not tacky, and a standard white bathroom is not dated. She really rates her own abilities.”

Another said that Mel “showed her true colours”, while someone else said Mel was “desperate to mark every B&B down just so she wins the competition”.

Four in A Bed is available to watch on Channel 4

MACKLEMORE’S replacement on Ed Sheeran’s under-fire tour has been revealed and the stand-in singer has spoken out on Gaza live on-stage.

Brit singer Ed‘s Loop series of US gigs descended into chaos when his support act and pal Macklemore was dropped by promoters over his pro-Palestine stance.

Billionaire businessman Robert Kraft banned the American musician, real name Benjamin Haggerty, from his stadium after he made a speech on stage in support of Palestinians amid the ongoing conflict with Israel.

At the time, Robert deemed his words “hate speech” and the move sparked a mass exodus of support acts who all quit 35-year-old Ed’s tour in solidarity with the Thrift Shop hitmaker.

Ed continued to perform alone, but he has now been joined by surprise guest, The Fray’s Isaac Slade.

The rock band’s former frontman, 45, opened proceedings at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Saturday, with his band’s hits, which included How to Save a Life and You Found Me.

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Despite politics taking precedence over performances during the Loop tour, Isaac had his say.

He told fans: “What’s happening over there [in Gaza] is wrong, but if we’re going to get through it, we’re going to need people to step into that middle place, that common ground.

“That bonfire in the middle of the field that sees both sides, that understands that peace is not a lack of conflict. Peace is not a blank canvas that we need to guard and be polite.”

“[Peace] holds enough beauty, enough tragedy, enough sorrow, enough joy and life if we learn how to integrate it and hold each other in balance.

“We will find a way through this together”.

It isn’t the first time that Isaac, who quit The Fray in 2022, has appeared on the tour.

He also took to the stage in Toronto in August.

Following the Macklemore controversy, which saw Billie Eilish‘s brother Finneas, Irish acts Aaron Rowe and Beoga, and Danish pop star Lukas Graham withdraw in solidarity, Ed spoke out.

Ed insisted in a statement that he would not be drawn on voicing his own views on the Israel/Gaza conflict publicly but is committed to ensuring his gigs are a place of “safety and sanctuary” for people from all ethnicities, faiths and backgrounds.

He also made it clear that he was not personally responsible for Macklemore’s departure and had been trying to find a solution with promoters and billionaire Robert, who owns Massachusetts‘ Gillette Stadium.

New England Patriots owner Robert had accused Macklemore of having a “broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community”.

It was Macklemore declaring “Free Palestine” ahead of his protest song Free Hind’s Hall, written about pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University, which sparked the controversy.

In his own statement, Macklemore insisted his stance was a “criticism of apartheid and genocide” and not of the Jewish people.

Ed wrote on social media: “Macklemore coming off tour was the promoter’s decision, it was not mine.

“I would never let down the fans who had made plans, nor would I abandon the touring crew and the other support acts and musicians who rely on me for work and to make a living.”

He added that fans at his shows did not want a “political forum” and that despite his apolitical stance he is “not complicit”.

Ed and Macklemore’s friendship goes back 13 years and the latter said he hoped it would continue despite them having had “difficult conversations”.

The other acts also highlighted their friendships with Ed and their gratitude for being given the opportunity to perform on such a high-profile tour, but said they could not continue with clear conscience knowing a fellow artist had been “silenced”.

The documentary is now available to stream on BBC iPlayer, but there is a strong viewer warning

BBC viewers have struggled to watch a heartbreaking documentary that they say “cuts deep” as a strong warning has been issued.

Just last night (Monday, October 5), BBC Two took viewers back to 2000 in a cast that shocked the UK. Damilola Taylor was just 10 years old when he was stabbed and killed in what became one of the country’s most high profile killings.

He was stabbed in the leg just metres from his home whilst leaving an after school club. For the first time for some, Damilola’s friends and family speak out about that tragic event, sharing previously unheard testimony, including that from Star Wars actor John Boyega.

Damilola: The Untold Story revisits the young boy’s killing, 26 years on as it premiered on BBC Two last night (October 5). However, for those that missed it, it can be streamed on BBC iPlayer, but viewers have warned it is a hard watch.

Taking to X, one person wrote: “I watched the documentary on bbc (yes bbc) on the senseless murder of Damilola Taylor, Rip poor little lad, heart breaking, although the documentary was focal on Damilola and the those immediately impacted, it also drew the lens back to show the amount of kids murdered.”

Another said: “I’m not sure I have it in me emotionally to watch this Damilola Taylor documentary”, as a third admitted: “That Damilola Taylor documentary is so heart wrenching.”

A fourth added: “This Damilola Taylor documentary cut deep. Imagine stabbing a 10 year old innocent boy and leaving him to bleed to death. Those two brothers are evil with so much hate in their hearts.”

A fifth replied: “It was a very hard watch. I had to pause a few times. RIP Damilola, Mr Richard and Mrs Grace Taylor.” Another penned: “The ending of the Damilola Taylor documentary, I can count my family members and school friends in that montage of lost souls. I started watching the doc as a mother, ended it as a child, if that doesn’t speak to the cycle… and its longevity then idk what does.”

Taking to TikTok to share the recommendation, one true crime fan admitted it was a “heartbreaking watch”, adding: “Be warned because it’s quite shocking.”

One person replied: “Just watched this last night… so sad.” Another commented: “Absolutely heartbreaking you’re right, so incredibly sad.” A third wrote: “This will be a hard watch.”

Taking viewers back to the final 24 hours of his life, the documentary also explores the years it took to bring a conviction. Two brothers, who were themselves aged 12 and 13 at the time, were convicted of manslaughter.

An official synopsis reads: “Made 26 years after the murder of 10-year-old Damilola Taylor shocked Britain, this documentary returns to his story with new testimony that sheds fresh light on what happened to him.

“Actor John Boyega, who was eight when Damilola died and was one of the last people to see him alive, joins Damilola’s childhood friends to return to his final months and the years of youth violence that followed his death.”

Damilola: The Untold Story can be streamed on BBC iPlayer

Nicole Brown Simpson wore a long-sleeved cover-up by the beach, despite the warm weather. “We kept telling her, ‘C’mon, get in the water.’ She wouldn’t,” Denise Brown recalls of a Hawaiian vacation with her sister, Nicole, and the rest of her family, including her brother-in-law, O.J. Simpson. “We didn’t know it then, but he’d beaten the [hell] out of her the night before in the hotel room. We found out later, after she was killed, when we were reading her diaries.”

The incident is one of many chronicled in Brown’s new memoir, “For My Sister Nicole: Love Shouldn’t Hurt.” The book chronicles who Nicole was — from her happy SoCal childhood to meeting beloved celebrity and football star Simpson at the age of 18 (he was 30) to the physical and mental abuse she suffered over seven years of marriage. Brown also reveals the troubling incidents she witnessed behind the scenes, and pairs them with the knowledge she has now of what could have been done to help her sister.

(Blackstone Publishing, Inc.)

Nicole and her friend Ronald L. Goldman were murdered outside her Los Angeles home in Brentwood in June 1994. The brutal homicides set off a media frenzy, and overnight, Brown became the voice for her slain sister.

Images of an angry and sobbing Brown became the media’s hallmark of grief during the criminal trial, particularly when Simpson was acquitted in 1995. He was found guilty in a subsequent civil trial, yet still awarded custody of the divorced couple’s two children.

Now, 69, with sleek silver hair and a voice raspy from the many speaking engagements tied to her advocacy work, Brown has devoted her life to raising awareness about domestic violence. “It’s too late for Nicole,” says the former model who moved from her native Southern California to Florida decades ago. “I want this book to help others avoid what happened to her.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

We’re meeting today in downtown L.A., very close to the courtroom where the trial happened, and to the former LAPD headquarters Parker Center where Simpson was booked after Nicole’s death. Is it difficult being here? Should we have done this somewhere else?

No. This is where it all happened, so it’s OK for me to be here to talk about [the book]. It should start here. And I’m glad it’s with the L.A. Times because Nicole was here in Los Angeles, as was all the chaos. Everything started here.

Denise Brown.

(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)

It’s been 32 years since your sister’s murder, yet this is the first book you’ve written about what happened.

I had a [previous] book deal, but I wasn’t ready.

It was really hard going back because you think about all the things that should have been, that could have been, that she missed out on, especially with her kids. And everything was so public. It was so out in the open, with everybody looking at you. If you were too happy and laughing, it was, “Oh God, she doesn’t even know how to grieve.” If you’re crying, it’s, “My God, can’t she just get over it?”

I understand why people make these kinds of comments now, because if you’ve never been through something so horrific, you don’t know how to act. You don’t know how you’d respond.

Aside from raising awareness about domestic abuse issues, you haven’t spoken much about your sister’s life or murder until the 2024 Lifetime docuseries, “The Life & Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson.” It was the first production that included interviews and involvement from you and your sisters, which is stunning because there have been so many docs and dramas about the case.

I know. And without asking Nicole’s family, can you really make a good documentary?

A girlfriend of mine who is a producer wanted to [make a documentary] at the 10-year mark, and I just wasn’t ready. Then she asked me at the 20-year mark. I said, “No, this doesn’t feel right yet.” Then on the 30th, I asked my sisters [Tanya, Dominique and Wendy], “Do you guys want to do this?” And it was “Yes, let’s humanize Nicole. Let’s bring her back because she was lost in all of this.” Ron and Nicole were both lost. The trial has been done and saturated. Let’s humanize her, get videos of when we were kids. Stuff like that. So that’s what we did.

In the book you write that the docuseries provided new revelations about Simpson.

What I found out all these decades later shocked me. I learned after Simpson moved down to Florida with the kids, there were 17 calls to 911. There was an FBI raid. I don’t know what it was for, but the police came to the house 17 times?! I was friggin’ livid when I heard that. Where were the advocates? Where were the people protecting those children out there? They would have been protected by my mother and father, by all of us. Coming off that, I thought that it’s time to write a book.

We know so much more about recognizing the signs of domestic violence now than we did in the 1990s. The progress is of course welcome, but it also has to be hard applying that knowledge in hindsight to your sister’s case.

Back then I saw. I was privy to. I was there. I was involved. But I didn’t know it was domestic violence, and that’s what I want people to understand. Don’t read this book like it’s something that I knew about all along because I didn’t. I thought [the fights] were isolated incidents because they didn’t happen every single time I saw Nicole. They were years apart. I learned about domestic violence patterns after the murder.

Can you talk about what was in the diary you found in her home after she was gone?

A couple of months after her murder, my dad was reading her diaries, and I saw him lying on the bed, just broken. He said take a look at these, and it was Nicole’s writing and about the things that were happening. And I sat there like, “Oh my God. We were there.” We were there when this happened, like on a vacation in Hawaii. But we were not in the room with them.

Nicole wrote in her journal of that trip that once they were in their hotel room alone, he beat her and threatened to hang her off the balcony. But the diary wasn’t admissible in court. And maybe it wouldn’t have even made a difference given the lack of awareness about domestic abuse patterns.

Domestic violence, the jurors didn’t really understand it. They thought if you’re not dead after he’s finished strangling you, it’s not domestic violence. Jurors even said, “This is not a domestic violence trial. This is a murder trial.” Well, lo and behold, the ultimate form of domestic violence is murder.

Your passionate statement to a reporter during pretrial hearings marked the first time a member of your family publicly expressed doubt regarding Simpson’s innocence. From then on the press made a point of painting you as the furious, avenging sister.

Why wouldn’t I be angry? My sister was slaughtered, for God’s sake. I became the spokesperson for our family after I went upstairs to the press room [during the hearing] and said to a reporter: “If O.J. so innocent, why is he trying to suppress all the evidence?!” I couldn’t sit there and watch the so-called Dream Team [Simpson’s defense] constantly berating Nicole and belittling her and turning her into something that she wasn’t.

Before testifying in criminal court, you testified before Congress in 1994, urging lawmakers to fully fund programs and shelters supported by the Violence Against Women Act.

It was a bipartisan act from Orrin Hatch and Joe Biden, who were both senators at the time. Bill Clinton signed it into law after Nicole’s murder. I went to Washington and spoke before Congress because the funding was all [tied up ] in state appropriations. I was the first one to speak. I thought I was going to die. But it all worked out [laughs].

How did you deal with such an immense loss in private?

I ran every day for like an hour and a half until I collapsed because there was so much anger in me. My mom said, “Denise, I’m really worried about you because you’re just so angry,” and I said, “Why wouldn’t I be?!” She said, “I know, but you need to be able to deal with it.” So she invited our pastor over to the house who was a friend of the family. He said to me, “Denise, this is not God’s doing. This is the evil of man.” And as soon as he said that, there was something that just came off my shoulders. I could breathe again. You’re right. This is the evil of man. So I was the one who kept saying from the very beginning that I knew who did it: Simpson.

Nicole emerges as a whole person in this book, which after all these years feels long overdue.

Nicole was a wonderful person. Even when he gave her a Ferrari for her birthday, she didn’t give a s— if there was French fries in the gear shelf. Her kids, her friends, her people meant everything to her, and that was taken away from her by a f—ing monster. She was the best wife. All she wanted was her two kids, a white picket fence. The American family. So for her to put up with everything that she went through, it just breaks my heart because she was such a good person. Stubborn as all hell, but that’s OK. You don’t get murdered because you’re stubborn.

And people ask, “Why didn’t you just grab her by the hair and take her out [of that marriage]?” Well, because she was an 18-year-old girl who knew what she wanted, and she wanted him. She was totally in love with him, and she was not going to listen to her sister.

Your sister did eventually leave. She had been divorced for two years before she was killed. During that time, she wrote in her diaries that Simpson stalked her at the gas station, the supermarket, when she ate out, and your family witnessed it.

She did get away — for two years, and he couldn’t handle it. His ego could not handle it. His narcissistic behavior couldn’t handle it.

He was there for every move she made. She’s with a boyfriend having dinner, and he’s there, plopping his ass down at the table and having dinner with them. And at the supermarket?! C’mon, he doesn’t shop.

People [like him], they’re just so obsessed with control. And they’re narcissists. I don’t believe she could have ever gotten out of her situation because [of all the support he had]. He was so loved.

Why do you think she kept the abuse from you?

I asked [a family friend] why they think she hid the abuse. They said she was trying to protect her family and her friends, and to me that made all the sense in the world because that’s exactly what a victim does. The abuser will threaten the family. That’s their MO. I’m going to kill you. Your family. The dog. Our kids. Something you love will get hurt, and you’re the only one that knows about it. You’re the only one who knows how bad and how mean he can actually be.

Simpson died in 2024. What has that meant to you?

I don’t have to look over my shoulder. Actually, the funny thing is, I was never afraid. There was never a fear of running into him. But is there a relief that he’s gone? I didn’t even know he was sick, and I hope he suffered the way Nicole did. I wish it would have been longer. You can quote me on that.

Is there ever any closure for you?

You try to move on. You never forget. It’s always there. So to go back, it just ripped my heart out. In 32 years I’ve not told my sister I love her, like we did every single phone call, every single time we left each other. It was always, “I love you. I’ll see you later.” But it was never goodbye. We never said goodbye to each other because that’s so final. It was always, “I’ll see you later.”

What impact do you hope this book has on readers?

I just really want your readers to know, if it can happen to Nicole, it can happen to you. It can happen to anybody: rich, poor, Black, white, gay, Democrat or Republican.

At the end of the book, I say that I think Nicole was put on this earth to be the person that shines the light on domestic violence. The 24-hour national domestic violence hotline didn’t exist before Nicole. The Violence Against Women Act didn’t exist before Nicole. There weren’t a lot of shelters. There wasn’t a lot of education. There weren’t PSAs. She changed that.

PRINCESS Andre has broken her silence on romance rumours after being spotted out with a Love Island bad boy.

The 19-year-old was spotted out with Harrison Solomon, 23, on Friday night at the VIP launch night of Shocktober Fest at Tulleys Farm.

Princess and Harrison, who shot to fame on the ITV2 show in 2025, were also seen at a Thorpe Park event the night before.

This has raised a few eyebrows and many have been left wondering if the pair are an item.

Princess, who is the daughter of Katie Price and Peter Andre, took to TikTok to clear some things up.

She took to the social media platform and wrote: “Rumours are really funny.

out & about

Princess Andre, 19, spotted with Love Island bad boy for 2nd night in a row

PRINCESS PAL

Princess Andre, 19, spotted enjoying night out with Love Island bad boy, 23

“Firstly we are part of the same management hence being at the same events.

“Also, just because a boy and a girl are laughing doesn’t mean anything romantic, me and Harrison.”

On Friday, the duo were seen spending most of the night with each other and their wider group of pals for the fun-filled evening.

Harrison brought his little sister along for the evening and made sure to keep a watchful eye over her whilst Princess enjoyed spending time with two of her best pals.

They also enjoyed an event at the popular theme park with their pals.

Despite appearing very chummy, however, a source close to Princess insists the pair are just pals.

“They share the same management company as Harrison recently signed to the same reps as Princess. There is nothing romantic going on,” they insisted.

Harrison took part in the 12th series of Love Island in 2025 and entered the villa as a bombshell.

During his stint in the villa he was slammed by Women’s Aid for ‘misogyny and sexism’ in a statement because of his treatment towards Lauren Wood while in a love triangle with Toni Laithes.

“Despite these positive steps, we still see unhealthy patterns of behaviour on these shows, showing just how steeped in misogyny and sexism our society still is.

“Women are often lied to, slut-shamed and manipulated, as well as laughed at behind their backs.

“Misogyny and sexism lay the foundation for the tolerance of abuse and violence – it reinforces a culture that excuses and trivialises violence against women and girls.

“More must be done to educate contestants on sexism and misogyny, and it is a great credit to viewers who take to social media, continuing to call out these behaviours as soon as they see them.”

In response to the statement, Harrison told Daily Mail: “I have seen the backlash and it’s hard to digest.

“I would disagree with a lot of it in terms of my respect for women, I do respect women.

“The worst has been from Women’s Aid. I know myself and the girls on the show too, Toni said she knows I’m not a bad person, just went about situations in the wrong way, but the Women’s Aid statement wasn’t nice… it’s not nice coming out of the villa to my mum upset by that so I would say that’s been the hardest.” 

The acclaimed actor stars as the sweet-natured Adam Trask in Netflix’s East of Eden

East of Eden viewers are wondering where they’ve seen one of the show’s stars before.

The Netflix series is an adaptation of John Steinbeck’s novel of the same name and stars a glittering cast including Florence Pugh as literary legend Cathy Ames, while Mike Faist and Christopher Abbott portray the brothers who fall for her, Charles and Adam Trask.

Netflix’s synopsis reads: “This fresh interpretation of Steinbeck’s masterpiece will explore the multigenerational saga of the Trask family, focusing new attention on its indelible antihero, Cathy Ames.”

The seven-part series arrived on the streaming platform just last week and it is currently at the top of Netflix’s most-watched TV series in the UK list. As fans dive in to the episodes, many have wondered about one particular cast member.

Christopher Abbott plays the sweet-natured Adam Trask who shows kindness to Cathy Ames when she appears bloodied and beaten at the door of his home, shared with his brother, who at first is much more sceptical of their new arrival. Adam nurses her back to health and they go on to marry.

Even before he whisks her away to California however, cracks have started to show. While it is a place he has always dreamed of, Cathy does not share that dream and she makes no secret of it.

Google searches for Christopher Abbott’s past movies and TV shows have soared since East of Eden’s debut, so where might viewers know the star from?

What films and TV shows has Christopher Abbott been in?

His breakout role was as Charlie Dattolo in the HBO series Girls. He was a recurring cast member, portraying the kind boyfriend of Marnie Michaels (Allison Williams). More recently he has had leading roles in Poor Things alongside Emma Stone, 2025 horror film Wolf Man and 2022 comedy-thriller, Sanctuary.

He is no stranger to literary adaptations and previously took the lead role of Yossarian in Catch-22, a TV series based on the Joseph Heller novel of the same name.

Discussing his role as Adam, Christopher told Netflix’s Tudum: “He’s a character that has lived a lot of different lives, and he’s sort of changed his personality throughout it.

“He starts off, like, hopping trains and living like a vagabond and stealing stuff and then becomes a different human when he has son. It’s a big epic arc to track.”

East of Eden is now streaming on Netflix.

The unpredictable crime drama follows the puzzling deaths of four guests at a dinner party

MobLand star Emmett J. Scanlan is starring in a new murder mystery alongside Celebrity Traitors’ Sharon Rooney.

Channel 5 has released a first look at their upcoming thriller, An Impossible Way to Die, which follows two detectives who are tasked with uncovering the mysterious deaths of four guests at a dinner party.

The six-part series has been described as “gripping” by the broadcaster, and follows Sharon Rooney’s character, DS Katie Salter, whose quiet local policing life is upended when she is thrust into a high-pressure murder investigation with DI Niall Conway, played by Emmett J Scanlon.

Described as a character-driven, unpredictable drama exploring identity, protection, power, and corruption, the story will see DS Katie Salter “happily solving everyday crimes until fate drags her into an impossible murder mystery”.

The synopsis continues: “Four people sat around a table seemingly set for a dinner party – except they are all dead. The only clue is a scorpion crawling out of one of the victim’s mouths.”

It continues: “Salter is not your stereotypical damaged and tormented TV detective. Smart, diligent, and committed to her family, tensions quickly surface when Salter is partnered with DI Niall Conway, lead investigator on the case. Salter’s measured, grounded approach clashes with Conway’s all-consuming dedication to the job.

“At first, the two detectives appear fundamentally incompatible. Yet, as the investigation deepens and the pressure intensifies, Conway begins to recognise the value of Salter’s empathy, optimism, and instinctive understanding of people.”

The synopsis adds: “As the case grows increasingly impossible, secrets are unearthed and conspiracies emerge, lives are put at risk as the detectives race against time to connect seemingly disparate cases and unmask a killer before it’s too late.”

DS Katie Salter actress Sharon Rooney is best known for playing Rae Earl in My Mad Fat Diary and was recently seen competing in the latest series of The Celebrity Traitors. While Emmett J. Scanlan is famed for portraying Paul O’Donnell in Paramount+ crime series MobLand, his other recent roles include A Working Man, Gangs of London, and How to Get to Heaven from Belfast.

Coldwater and Vigil star Lois Chimimba will star alongside Rooney and Scanlan, and will be joined by Black Mirror’s Jonny Lavelle and This Country’s Ashley McGuire.

The crime series is scheduled to air in 2027 and has been penned by Death is Paradise’s Jillian Mannion, alongside Ciara Conway, David Persiva, Robin Ganderton, and Rowena Johnson.

Adam Wimpenny serves as director for the thriller, which is executive produced by Clapperboard’s Mike Benson and Myf Hopkins. Amber Howorth also serves as producer

An Impossible Way to Die will air on Channel 5 in 2027