BBC Radio 2 listeners have been left convinced a radio host accidentally dropped the C-bomb live on air.
An unfortunate slip of the tongue appeared to hit the radio airwaves this morning – but did you hear it?
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BBC Radio 2’s Gary Davies appeared to drop the C Bomb on airCredit: Not known, clear with picture deskHe had a slip of the tongue live on airCredit: WARNING: Use of this image is subject to the terms of use of BBC Pictures’ Digital Picture
Gary Davies was live on air sitting in for Vernon Kay on his mid-morning show when the moment occurred.
The host appeared to trip over his words which left many to question if he accidentally dropped the C-word on air.
In the moment, Gary could be heard talking about the lyrics of one of the songs from band, The Divine Comedy.
The radio host said: “Check this one out, which has one of the best lines from a song ever.”
You don’t have to be afraid to put your dream in action, because you’ll never fade, Trina Vega, you’ll be the main attraction — in a “Victorious” spinoff.
Netflix announced Friday that “Hollywood Arts,” a spinoff of the Nickelodeon teen sitcom following a group of students attending a performing arts high school, is now in production. The new show will see Daniella Monet reprise her Trina role from the original series, which aired for four seasons on the kid-centric network.
“Coming back as Trina alongside such a dynamic, powerful cast of newcomers is something I feel very lucky and grateful to do,” Monet said in a news release, which announced the “Hollywood Arts” cast will also include young actors Alyssa Miles, Emmy Liu-Wang, Peyton Jackson, Martin Kamm and Erika Swayze.
“‘Victorious’ was in a lot of ways life changing for all of us, our cast is forever bonded by that experience, and to think that I have an opportunity to steward anything close to that is a feeling I can’t begin to describe,” Monet continued. “As an actress, producer, and mom, I am so eager to create something we can all be proud to share with the world.”
According to the logline, “Hollywood Arts” will see Trina return to her alma mater as “an unqualified substitute teacher” after struggling to make it as an actress. There, she will both clash and “unexpectedly” inspire the next generation of ambitious and talented performing arts school students.
In “Victorious,” which originally ran from 2010 to 2013, Trina was the untalented but overly confident older sister of Tori Vega, played by Victoria Justice. The cast of the hit teen series also included Ariana Grande, Avan Jogia, Elizabeth Gillies, Leon Thomas III and Matt Bennett.
The spinoff will also feature Yvette Nicole Brown as a guest star. Brown briefly appeared in “Victorious” as school principal Helen Dubois — a character who originated on Nickelodeon’s “Drake & Josh,” which ran from 2004 to 2007.
In addition to starring on “Hollywood Arts,” Monet will serve as an executive producer alongside showrunners Jake Farrow and Samantha Martin and director Jonathan Judge. (Dan Schneider, who created “Victorious” and whose alleged misconduct was at the center of the 2024 docuseries “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV,” is not involved.)
The 26-episode first season is expected to debut on Netflix in 2026 before hitting Nickelodeon and Paramount+. The series is currently in production in Ontario, Canada.
On the latest episode of Gogglebox, viewers tuned in to some exciting news as two different Channel 4 stars shared their engagement
21:57, 24 Oct 2025Updated 22:15, 24 Oct 2025
On Friday night, Gogglebox sibling duo Sophie and Pete Sandiford opened the Channel 4 show with some exciting news.
Sophie, who has been part of the series with her brother since 2017, announced her engagement on social media ahead of the show’s airing, with many fans quick to send their congratulations.
However, it seems her engagement bubble may be getting to her brother Pete. As the episode began, Sophie got her phone out to play a special song.
She said: “I’ll play a little tune for you now, if you know it, sing along.” The Channel 4 star then played the song Chapel of Love by The Dixie Cups.
Sophie started to giggle as her brother looked fed up with the mention of her big news as he joked: “I won’t have anyone say that you’re milking this.”
She replied: “Well, it’s not everyday you get engaged” He added: “That’s the idea!”
The Channel 4 star shared that her partner Ben McKeown had proposed on Instagram, showcasing her ring to her followers. She captioned the post: “WE’RE ENGAGED.”
Although it looks as though Pete gave his brother in law to be a warm welcome into the family as he replied: “The three amigo’s have officially become 4”, adding in a five-word response: “Welcome to the wolf pack.”
Her co-star Izzi Warner added: “Congratulations to you both, gorgeous! And aren’t you buzzing you had the perfect engagement nails.”
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While TOWIE star Amy Childs commented: “So happy for you.” Soap star Natalie Ann Jamieson, wrote: “Ahhhh congrats gorgeous girl!”
As Jenny And Lee wrote: “Congratulations to you both much love to ya Jenny and Lee x.”
It wasn’t only Sophie who was celebrating a proposal as Georgia spoke about her engagement with her best friend, Abbie.
Admiring her ring, she asked: “Isn’t it stunning?” as Abbie told her the ring was beautiful, she asked how it felt to be engaged. Georgia replied: “It feels phenomenal, I’m actually a fiancé!”
Georgia and Abbie joined the series back in 2018 and quickly became fan-favourites.
Throughout their time on the show, viewers have seen Georgia become a mum to two boys, Hugh and Ralphie, whom she shares with partner Josh Newby.
The Channel 4 star announced this month that Josh proposed to her while on holiday in Dubai.
VICTORIA Beckham has lost a trademark war against a beauty brand — because she is not famous enough in Norway.
Posh Spice argued that Norwegian firm Vendela Beauty’s VB logo would be confused with her global brand.
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Victoria Beckham has lost a trademark war against a beauty brand — because she is not famous enough in NorwayCredit: GettyVendela Kirsebom had filed a trademark application in September 2021 for her beauty brandCredit: Getty
She claimed both the designs were dominated by the letters VB, the layout was almost identical, and both businesses sell similar products.
The fashion designer, 51, provided Instagram followers, international magazine features and sales figures to prove she had a big presence in the country.
But Norway’s patent body decided that there was not enough evidence her brand was well-known enough in the Nordic state — and ruled they were different enough to avoid confusion.
Ex-swimwear model Vendela Kirsebom had filed a trademark application in September 2021 for her beauty brand, which sells a range of skincare, makeup, hair care and fragrance products.
It was registered in December 2023, before Victoria formally opposed it.
But the Norwegian Industrial Property Office ruled against her.
Senior legal adviser Tord Hestenes wrote in the judgment that while Victoria is well known in the industry, it “does not mean that her initials or the combined mark can be considered well-known for this reason alone”.
He said her evidence had limited value because her follower count did not actually show how many were in Norway.
He added that it had not been successfully proved how many Norwegians read the international magazines cited, and the sales figures provided covered the entire Nordic region — not just Norway.
Mr Hestenes ruled there was “no risk of confusion” over the brands.
He added: “Documentation in the case does not provide grounds for assuming that the opponent’s mark will be linked to the name Victoria Beckham.”
Victoria’s representatives have been approached for comment on the verdict.
Vendela’s logo on the left and Victoria’s logo on the right
Francis Ford Coppola wants an offer he can’t refuse — on his timepieces.
The Academy Award-winning director is selling seven watches from his personal collection, including his custom F.P. Journe FFC Prototype, estimated to sell for more than $1 million, according to a statement from Phillips, the New York City-based auction house. Phillips will hold the auction on Dec. 6 and 7.
The sale could help stanch losses from last year’s box-office flop “Megalopolis,” which cost over $120 million to make and was largely financed by the 86-year-old director. The movie grossed only $14.3 million worldwide.
The film, Coppola’s first since his 2011 horror movie “Twixt,” premiered at Cannes last year to largely negative reviews. The Times’ Joshua Rothkopf called it a “wildly ambitious, overstuffed city epic.”
At a news conference at Cannes, Coppola discussed the tremendous amount of his own money that he had sunk into the film, saying that he “never cared about money” and that his children “don’t need a fortune.”
Among the Coppola timepieces also going under the hammer are examples from Patek Philippe, Blancpain and IWC.
But the headlining piece is the F.P. Journe FFC Prototype that features a black titanium, human-like hand that resembles a steampunk gauntlet that articulates the hours when the fingers extend or retract.
Francis Ford Coppola’s custom F.P. Journe FFC timepiece uses a single hand to indicate all 12 hours.
(Phillips)
The watch was a collaboration between Coppola and master watchmaker François-Paul Journe that began following a conversation the pair had during a visit he made to the filmmaker’s Inglenook winery in Napa Valley in 2012.
Coppola asked Journe if a human hand had ever been used to mark time. That question sparked a years-long conversation during which the watchmaker grappled with how to indicate the 12 hours of the dial using just five fingers.
Journe found his inspiration in Ambroise Paré, a 16th century French barber surgeon and an innovator of prosthetic limbs in particular, including Le Petit Lorrain, a prosthetic hand made of iron and leather that featured hidden gears and springs enabling the fingers to move, not dissimilar to a watch mechanism.
“Speaking with Francis in 2012 and hearing his idea on the use of a human hand to indicate time inspired me to create a watch I never could have imagined myself. The challenge was formidable — exactly the type of watchmaking project I adore,” said Journe in a statement.
Journe eventually created six prototypes and delivered Coppola’s watch to him in 2021.
“I’m proud to fully support the sale of this watch through Phillips to fund the creation of his artistic masterpieces in filmmaking,” he said.
Coppola first became interested in the watchmaker when he gifted his wife Eleanor an F.P. Journe Chronomètre à Résonance in platinum with a white gold dial for Christmas in 2009, prompting the director to extend an invitation to Journe to visit him at his Napa winery.
Eleanor Coppola, a documentary filmmaker and writer, died in 2024 after 61 years of marriage. Her F.P. Journe timepiece is also part of the auction and is estimated to fetch between $120,000 to $240,000.
The Great British Bake Off judges Dame Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood have opened up about their judging roles on the popular Channel 4 show and how they’re perceived by viewers
Prue Leith has jumped to the defence of her co-star, Paul Hollywood(Image: Channel 4)
Prue Leith has leapt to the defence of her fellow judge, Paul Hollywood, over his so-called “horrible” image on The Great British Bake Off. Speaking from the iconic tent at Welford Park in Berkshire, the Bake Off judges shed light on their roles and how they’re seen by fans of the Channel 4 programme.
Prue, a South African-born restaurateur, pointed out that they’re perceived quite differently by the public, with her being seen as “kind” and Paul as “horrible”, but when it comes down to the brass tacks of scoring, they’re pretty similar.
The chef disclosed that their chat about the bakes in Cake Corner is generally to “inform and remind” the viewers, as, in reality, Prue and Paul could “do it in two seconds”.
Prue told Radio Times magazine: “The audience often say that I’m kind and Paul’s horrible, but if you look at our scores out of 10, we’re never more than one point apart. I think I’ve given one 10 in nine years… I can’t remember to who though!”.
She continued: “I used to say, ‘It’s not worth the calories’. That is my absolute judgment about any baking, because you know it’s full of fat and sugar, so: ‘Do I really want to eat this? Am I prepared to get fat?'”
However, it appears Prue had a change of heart regarding this particular remark, as people would say they “felt judged” for enjoying cake and thought she was being “fattist”.
Paul stated: “I’ve never given a 10, only a 9.5. A handshake is very close to a 10. These are amateur bakers, but if they get a handshake from me, it means it’s very professional.”
Prue added that Paul often claims he won’t be giving out any handshakes, but inevitably his hand will “come out” when a bake is so impressive that he “can’t resist”. She also mentioned the idea of her own version, the “Prue pat”.
In other developments, Paul, who has been on the show since 2010, reportedly showed a different side away from the cameras. Briony May Williams, who came fourth in the 2018 series, broke down in tears when “every element” of her showstopper went awry.
On the show, the chef labelled her creation “a disaster” as she “overcooked” the mirror glaze and was unfortunately left with uncooked pastry. However, Paul’s off-camera actions revealed a gentler side.
She disclosed: “I never got a [Paul Hollywood] handshake. I did, however, get a Hollywood hug off-camera when I was really upset about my cake on Cake Week, my showstopper, because it was really bad.
“I was upset, I was sat on my bench crying and I realised someone was stood behind me and I turned around and it was Paul.
“He gave me a really big hug and he said, ‘It’s okay it’s only a f*****g cake’. And yeah, that just really made me laugh.”
You can catch The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice on Channel 4 on Friday, October 24, from 8pm to 9pm.
PALOMA Faith shocked fans after announcing she’s pregnant with her third child – but did we just miss the signs?
The Only Love Can Hurt Like This songstress, 44, dropped several subtle clues before revealing her big news on Friday.
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Paloma wore baggy outfits and big clothesCredit: InstagramShe was also careful about how she posedCredit: InstagramShe dropped a not-so-subtle hint in this captionCredit: Instagram
Firstly, fans might have noticed that Paloma had been wearing lots of baggy clothes in her recent social media activity.
Do you wish that discovering shows playing at live theaters around Los Angeles was as easy as finding movies in local cinemas? Now it is. A new nonprofit called Theatre Commons L.A. — founded by some of the city’s most prominent theater leaders — launched earlier this week with easy-to-navigate local theater listings for more than 100 houses big and small.
The listings can be filtered by date, neighborhood and genre, and users can simply click on links to buy tickets. I’ve tried it and am happy to report that it takes all the guesswork and Googling out of finding a show that fits your schedule and suits your interests. It also introduced me to a whole host of new shows that I didn’t even realize were playing.
“Theatre Commons LA is about making it easier to make theatre in Los Angeles — and easier for people to find and enjoy it,” wrote Pasadena Playhouse producing artistic director Danny Feldman in an email. “By connecting artists, companies, and audiences, we’re working to build a more connected ecosystem for LA’s bold, local, living theatre.”
That connection is key. Because Los Angeles is a tough city to get a handle on. I’m old enough to remember getting hopelessly lost when I first moved here — crying in my old Toyota Corolla on freeway offramp, clutching a Thomas Guide that I could not make heads or tails of. Ironically, given the subject of this newsletter, I was trying to get to a theater downtown.
Visitors to L.A., and even plenty of seasoned Angelenos, often find the city sprawling and fragmented. The vast landscape is carved up by thriving neighborhoods, each with singular identities molded by unique cultural, business and arts offerings. TCLA aims to bring these diverse theaters together under a common umbrella to pool resources, and promotional and engagement opportunities, as well as to expand a sense of community in a difficult moment for the art form.
“It is no secret that the last few years have been particularly hard for theater in LA from the pandemic to the recent wildfires and curfews,” Center Theatre Group’s artistic director Snehal Desai wrote in an email. “What has become clear during this period is that the Los Angeles theater community is rich in artists, talent and leadership but our resources are scattered and there is not a consolidated place for information and outreach,” he continued. “Theatre Commons LA is a way to bridge those gaps — to share knowledge, opportunities, and support so that everyone, from small ensembles to major institutions, can thrive together. It creates the space our community has been asking for — where artists, institutions, and audiences can come together to imagine what Los Angeles theatre can be next.”
A volunteer steering committee, including Desai and Feldman, launched TCLA and its listings website with the financial support of the Nonprofit Sustainability Initiative. Last month, the Perenchio Foundation made a substantial investment meant to sustain the organization’s future growth, including the hiring of an executive director. (Please see the photo caption above for a list of the other steering committee members.)
Earlier this week also marked The Times’ launch of “The 52 best places to see plays and musicals in Southern California,” curated and written by Times theater critic Charles McNulty, assistant entertainment editor Kevin Crust (who also edits this newsletter) and me. The list contains short summations of each theater’s defining traits and connects to a map that plots each theater in its own pocket of the city. It was a real labor of love and I urge you to use it in conjunction with the new TCLA website to plan your next night out.
I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt, mulling over more than a dozen entertainment options for the weekend. All of them good. Here’s this week’s arts and culture news.
On our radar
Complexions Contemporary Ballet comes to the Music Center on Friday and Saturday.
(Rachel Neville)
Complexions Contemporary Ballet The New York-based company celebrates its 30th anniversary with “Retro Suite,” a collection of works from 1994 to the present, created by co-founding artistic director and principal choreographer Dwight Rhoden. Complexions is known for its high-energy mashup of traditional ballet with hip-hop and street dance, as well as for the multicultural makeup of its troupe and its novel approach to incorporating visual art and theater into its choreography. — Jessica Gelt 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. musiccenter.org
Children make art at the 2024 Grand Ave Arts: All Access event.
(John McCoy)
Grand Ave Arts: All Access A day of free art, music and culture along downtown Los Angeles’ cultural corridor. Participating institutions include the Broad, Center Theatre Group, Classical California KUSC, Colburn School, Dataland, Gloria Molina Grand Park, L.A. Opera, the L.A. Phil, Los Angeles Central Library, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Metro Art, MOCA, the Music Center and Redcat. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday. Grand Ave. from Temple to 6th Street, downtown L.A. grandavearts.org
Cyndi Lauper wrote the music and lyrics for the new musical “Working Girl,” based on the 1988 movie.
(Larsen & Talbert / For The Times)
Working Girl This musical adaption of the 1988 film — directed by Mike Nichols, written by Kevin Wade and starring Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver and Melanie Griffith — has assembled an all-star team of its own. The music and lyrics are by Cyndi Lauper, Theresa Rebeck has written the book and Christopher Ashley directs. The Wall Street Cinderella story centers on a Staten Island secretary who, tired of being misused, underestimated and passed over, cunningly takes her corporate future into her own hands in a revenge tale that has everyone rooting for the underdog. Yet another La Jolla Playhouse world premiere that has “Broadway hit” written all over it. — Charles McNulty Tuesday through Nov. 30. La Jolla Playhouse, Mandell Weiss Theatre, 2910 La Jolla Village Drive. lajollaplayhouse.org
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The week ahead: A curated calendar
FRIDAY Tiago Rodrigues In “By Heart,” the Portuguese playwright and actor invites 10 audience members onto the stage to learn a poem as he shares stories of his grandmother and explains the connections created by the words. 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. UCLA Nimoy Theater, 1262 Westwood Blvd. cap.ucla.edu
SATURDAY John Giorno “No Nostalgia,” an exhibition devoted to the late poet, artist and activist (1936-2019) who turned words into performance, sound installation and painting. The show includes a select group of Giorno’s work ranging from early prints to his black-and-white text and rainbow paintings, a selection of materials from Giorno’s archive showing how he pieced together his poems and his 1969 work Dial-A-Poem. 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, through April 25, 2026. Marciano Art Foundation, 4357 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. marcianoartfoundation.org
The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra performs Saturday at Zipper Hall in downtown L.A. and Sunday at the Wallis in Beverly Hills.
(Brian Feinzimer for LACO)
Romantic Resonance When a talented 19th century French pianist named Louise Farrenc became tired of giving concerts accompanying her flutist husband, she founded Éditions Farrenc in Paris, which became one of the country’s leading music publishing houses. She also gained a smallish reputation as a composer of mainly salon pieces for piano. But she had far greater ambitions nearly impossible for a woman at that time to realize. Farrenc composed three large-scale symphonies that are only now, more than a century after her death in 1875, being noticed. Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s music director, Jaime Martín, is one of her champions, and he is pairing Farrenc’s impressive Schumann-esque “Second Symphony,” written in 1845, with Brahms’ “First Piano Concerto,” featuring the dauntingly virtuoso pianist Marc-André Hamelin. — Mark Swed 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Zipper Hall, 200 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A.; 4 p.m. Sunday. The Wallis, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills. laco.org
Night of Ritual and Revelry LACMA hosts this after-hours party with a focus on plants. The evening includes open galleries, plant-themed activities, a costume contest, food and drink, plus an outdoor screening of the 1986 cult classic “Little Shop of Horrors” hosted by Meatball. Guests must be 18 or older to attend. 7 p.m. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Smid Welcome Plaza, 5905 Wilshire Blvd. lacma.org
Ragamala Dance Company performs Saturday at Broad Stage.
(Three Phase Multimedia)
Ragamala Dance Company Ragamala Dance Company — founded and run by the mother-daughter trio Ranee, Aparna and Ashwini Ramaswamy — brings Aparna’s most recent work, “Ananta, the Eternal,” to BroadStage with live music accompaniment. The company specializes in the South Indian dance form Bharatanatyam, and the troupe is known for its soulful embodiment of classical dance techniques and its bold and beautiful traditional costumes. — Jessica Gelt 7:30 p.m. BroadStage, Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center, 1310 11th St., Santa Monica. broadstage.org
Songs of Emerging Endangerment This sound installation by artist TJ Shinn, commissioned by the local multidisciplinary arts organization Clockshop, is set to sound hourly from dawn to dusk. The project features a 30-foot-tall sculptural air raid siren that mimics bird calls to map systems of global migration. Opening Saturday, 2-4 p.m., and through Feb. 22, 2026. Los Angeles State Historic Park. 1245 N. Spring St. clockshop.org
SUNDAY Colburn Orchestra Grammy Award-winner Carlos Miguel Prieto conducts the flagship ensemble from the Colburn School of Music in a program featuring Ravel, Dvořák and Schoenberg. 3 p.m. The Saroya, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge. thesoraya.org
The Heart Sellers Lloyd Suh, author of “The Far Country,” a finalist for the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for drama, examines the deracinating effects of immigration in his work. In “The Heart Sellers,” two immigrants, one Filipino, the other Korean, strike up a friendship after a chance meeting at that quintessential American crossroads: the supermarket. Set in 1973, after the 1965 Hart-Celler Act abolished the national quota system that restricted immigration from non-European countries, they bond over what they left behind, the strange universe they’ve entered and the challenge of cooking a frozen turkey. Jennifer Chang directs this comedy about the power of friendship to redefine the idea of home. — Charles McNulty Through Nov. 16. South Coast Repertory, Julianne Argyros Stage, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. scr.org
MONDAY Bright Harvest: Powering Earth From Space This documentary follows Caltech professors Harry Atwater, Ali Hajimiri and Sergio Pellegrino on their quest to provide an endless supply of clean sustainable energy for the 2023 launch of the Space Solar Power Demonstrator. Followed by a Q&A with the three professors and filmmaker Steven Reich. Admission is free; reservations recommended. 7:30 p.m. Beckman Auditorium, Caltech, 332 S. Michigan Ave., Pasadena. caltech.edu
TUESDAY Carrie A screening of Brian De Palma’s 1976 adaptation of the Stephen King horror novel, starring Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, John Travolta, Amy Irving and William Katt, hosted by drag entertainer Jackie Beat. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. Vidiots, Eagle Theatre, 4884 Eagle Rock Blvd. vidiotsfoundation.org
WEDNESDAY Pacific Jazz Orchestra’s Big Band With Jane Monheit Step into the elegant past for a program of timeless swing music, big band standards and seductive ballads. 7 and 9:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday. Blue Note L.A., 6372 W. Sunset Blvd. bluenotejazz.com
THURSDAY
Lon Chaney in 1925’s “The Phantom of the Opera.”
(Universal Pictures)
The Phantom of the Opera L.A. Opera’s tradition of presenting classic silent horror films for Halloween continues this year with the 1925 version of “Phantom” starring Lon Chaney. Frank Strobel conducts the L.A. Opera Orchestra performing Roy Budd’s original score live. 8 p.m. Thursday and Oct. 31. The United Theater on Broadway, 929 S. Broadway, downtown L.A. https://www.laopera.org/performances/2026/phantom-of-the-opera
Mark Ryden The new solo exhibition “Eye Am” envisions a lurid, mischievous world via twelve paintings and a selection of drawings. Opening reception 5-8 p.m. Thursday; book signing, 1-3 p.m. Oct. 31; exhibition continues through Dec. 20. Perrotin, 5036. W. Pico Blvd. perrotin.com
Nicole Scherzinger Just months removed from her Tony Award-winning triumph as Norma Desmond in “Sunset Boulevard” on Broadway, the former Pussycat Dolls singer makes her Walt Disney Concert Hall debut. 8 p.m. Thursday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com
Culture news and the SoCal scene
The Laura Gardin Fraser “Lee-Jackson Monument” at the “Monuments” exhibit at MOCA.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
Los Angeles is home to the “most significant American art museum show right now,” writes Times art critic Christopher Knight in his review of “Monuments,” which opened Thursday at the Brick and the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Geffen Contemporary. Featuring nearly a dozen, mostly Confederate, statues that have been toppled or removed from public spaces over the past decade, the show “pairs cautionary art history with thoughtful and poetic retorts from 20 artists, including a nonprofit art studio,” writes Knight.
I wrote a preview of the show, which includes a few backstories about the people featured in the decommissioned statutes. Men like “newspaper owner Josephus Daniels, who helped foment the 1898 Wilmington massacre in which a mob of more than 2,000 white supremacists killed as many as 300 people in the course of overthrowing the city’s duly elected biracial government.”
Times theater critic Charles McNulty wrote a column examining the ways that various playwrights are engaging with the idea of AI in their work. For examples, he digs into two plays, Lauren Gunderson’s “anthropology,” which is staging its North American premiere in a Rogue Machine Theatre production; and Jordan Harrison’s “Marjorie Prime,” which is having its Broadway premiere this fall. “Gunderson and Harrison are looking ahead to see how AI might be super-charging our disembodiment. To anyone paying attention, business as usual is no longer an option. The very basis of our self-understanding is on the line,” McNulty writes.
“Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha” at Pasadena Playhouse, created and performed by Julia Masli and directed by Kim Noble.
(Jeff Lorch)
McNulty also attended opening night of performance artist and comedian Julia Masli’s one-woman show, “Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha,” at Pasadena Playhouse. He describes the 75-minute improvisational work as “less a traditional comedy show than an experiment in collective consciousness. It doesn’t take much to transform a room of jaded strangers into a representative slice of compassionate humanity.” That’s because Masli devotes her time in the spotlight to solving audience members’ problems, finding their shared empathy in the process.
Times classical music critic Mark Swed has been chronicling the departure of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s beloved musical and artistic director, Gustavo Dudamel. In a recent column, Swed writes about the hoopla on display during the “first three love-fest weeks of Dudamel’s final season.” There was lots of “Gracias Gustavo” merch, and a daylong “Gracias Gustavo” block party at Beckmen YOLA Center in Inglewood, which included a performance by rapper D Smoke. And let’s not forget Tuesday night’s “Gustavo’s Fiesta” at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Dudamel also gave “four soul-searching performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2,” Swed writes. “His Mahler is neither overly exuberant nor constrained by grief and Berliner decorum. This performance heralds a new Dudamel, conductor of prophetic grandeur.”
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A rendering of a still image from Refik Anadol’s giant LED wall, “Living Paintings Immersive Editions,” at Jeffrey Deitch.
(From Refik Anadol Studio)
Last September, I wrote a feature on immersive media artist Refik Anadol and his plans to open the world’s first museum of AI arts, called Dataland, in downtown’s Grand L.A. complex across the street from Walt Disney Concert Hall. Anadol hoped to open the museum — which features five distinct galleries in a 20,000-square-foot space — this year. But this week, the artist announced that the project is now set to debut next spring. Anadol also released a first look at one of the galleries called Infinity Room. You can watch the teaser, here.
Everybody is talking about the brazen jewel heist at the Louvre. You can almost hear the key-clacking of dozens of hopeful screenwriters already drafting their spec scripts. The story is too outrageous to feel true — masked men cutting through a window in broad daylight and entering a gallery full of people before escaping without a trace on a pair of motorcycles. The value of the precious jewels they got away with is estimated to be about $102 million. If you have been living under a rock for the past week, you can read all about it, here.
— Jessica Gelt
And last but not least
Did you know that L.A. is experiencing a golden age of pizza? Neither did I. Fortunately, Times food critic Bill Addison has compiled a list featuring 21 of the city’s best slices.
Viewers will see Ashley Jensen and Alison O’Donnell return to their roles as DI Ruth Calder and DS Lorna Tosh McIntosh, who find themselves drawn to a remote village following the chilling murder of an elderly woman.
This week, the BBC unveiled a sneak peek trailer of what’s in store in the upcoming series, hinting at strained loyalties.
The brief clip reveals escalating tensions within the team as a colleague discusses the crime scene that DI Calder and McIntosh were summoned to.
He remarks: “I hear it was pretty bad up there.” To which DI Calder responds: “Yeah, about as bad as it gets.”
While the exact details of the incident aren’t revealed, it seems the victim has met a brutal end, reports the Daily Record.
One distressing scene features an elderly man appearing distraught as he questions: “Who did this to her?”
Another man, seemingly speaking to the DI in a separate scene, points out that the ‘obvious’ suspects will need to be investigated first, to determine their involvement in the crime.
A succession of faces then flash on-screen, implying these individuals could be implicated in the murder.
However, Ruth and Tosh might be barking up the wrong tree as a woman accuses them of seeking a ‘scapegoat’, followed by a shot of a young man breaking down in tears.
Before the teaser trailer concludes, a montage of nail-biting scenes flash on-screen, including people running, a woman being chased and a building exploding.
A synopsis for the series reads: “As Calder and Tosh are drawn to a remote village following the sinister murder of an elderly woman. As they begin to unravel life in this close-knit community, shocking, long-buried secrets rise to the surface with unexpected consequences for all – including the team.
“In the isolated hamlet of Lunniswick, the body of the retired social worker Eadie Tulloch has been out in the elements for a number of days.
“Suspecting the residents are holding back about their relationships with Eadie, Calder and Tosh begin to unravel a complicated web of lies. Worse still, there’s a personal link to the case for one of the team, testing loyalty to the limits.”
Alongside Ashley and Alison returning to their respective characters, viewers will also witness Steven Robertson, Lewis Howden, Steven Miller, Anne Kidd, Conor McCarry, Angus Miller and Eubha Akilade making their comeback to the BBC drama.
Additionally, Samuel Anderson joins the cast for series 10 as the new Procurator Fiscal Matt Blake.
Shetland will return on November 5, with the first nine series currently available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
HEIDI Klum has dropped a NSFW clue about her highly-anticipated Halloween costume – one week before her exclusive annual bash.
The German model is known for being the talk of Hollywood every October 31 with her over-the-top party and outrageous outfit.
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Heidi Klum has dropped a clue about her Halloween costumeCredit: InstagramThe star sent fans wild when she shared this NSFW pictureCredit: Instagram/heidiklumHeidi previously shared this photo to tease what she could be dressing up asCredit: instagramHeidi is known for her over the top looks at her A-list bash – seen here last HalloweenCredit: Getty
Each year, the star rocks an even crazier Halloween ensemble than the previous year and it seems that 2025 will be no exception.
Speaking about their “bedroom sports”, the blonde stunner told The Sunday Times: “Sport en chambre is my favorite exercise — it sounds better in French.
“I have a younger husband,” she gushed.
What could Heidi Klum be dressed as for Halloween?
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Throughout the spring and summer of 2020, across the U.S. and the world, millions of quarantined citizens appeared nightly at their windows and balconies, offering thanks to the healthcare workers whose lives were dedicated to saving theirs. In my little corner of Silver Lake, 7 p.m. commenced a daily cacophonous communal concert of pots and pans banging, trombones and trumpets blaring, dogs and coyotes howling: a grateful group roar. I was 67 with a history of respiratory illness: extra high risk. My younger neighbors, knowing this, grocery-shopped for me, sweetening my mornings with fresh milk and fruit during those long, grim days.
“Sacrament” is Susan Straight’s homage to a small fictional band of ICU nurses battling the 2020 COVID-19 surge at a San Bernardino hospital. Her 10th novel follows the beat she’s been covering, and living, since her first. “Aquaboogie,” her 1990 debut, was set in Rio Seco, a fictional stand-in for Riverside, where Straight grew up and still lives. The first in her bloodline to graduate high school, Straight earned an MFA at the University of Massachusetts and brought it home to UC Riverside, where she’s been teaching creative writing since 1988. Her twin passions for her homeland and lyrical artistry bloom on every page. “All summer, there had been fewer cars on the road in Southern California, and everyone remarked on how with no smog, the sunsets weren’t deep, heated crimson. Just quiet slipping into darkness.”
As Susan Straight’s work invariably does, “Sacrament” challenges the prevailing notion that the overlooked Californians she centers in her work and in her life are less worthy, less interesting, less human than their wealthier, whiter, more visible urban counterparts.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
The Los Angeles Times dubbed Straight the “bard of overlooked California,” and “Sacrament” proves the praise. Straight’s African American ex-husband and three daughters; her Latino, Filipino, white, Native and mixed-race neighbors; and her immersion in overlooked California bring new meaning to the advice “write what you know.” Straight’s personal and literary missions extend to who she knows.
In “Sacrament,” Straight turns her singular focus to a handful of nurses camping in a wagon train of funky, sweltering trailers near the hospital they call Our Lady. Separated from their spouses and kids — “Six feet apart or six feet under,” Larette’s son Joey chants — Larette, Cherrise, Marisol and their colleagues are themselves underprotected from the virus, which they eventually contract, and from the domestic dramas that seep from home into their pressure-cooker days. Fearful that her mom will die, Cherrise’s teenage daughter, Raquel, convinces Joey to drive her to the hospital from the date farm where Raquel has been deposited into her Auntie Lolo’s care. The drive should take two hours, but the teens are MIA for two nightmare days. Having narrowly escaped a would-be captor, Raquel remains haunted by her near fate. “The fingers in her hair pulling so hard her scalp felt like it had tiny bubbles under the skin. Wait till I pull your hair for real, bitch. She heard him even now.”
Diving deeper than the quotidian insults of her characters’ loneliness, poverty and fear, Straight brings us inside their exhausted minds. Attempting a nap, Larette lies on the break room cot, eyes closed, to no avail. “Ghost fingers in her left palm. Her right hand holding the phone on FaceTime for the wives. The husbands. The children who were grown,” she writes. “All their faces. Stoic. Weeping. Biting their lips so hard.” Later, Larette tells her husband, “Everyone you see on TV, banging pots and pans, everyone doing parades, it’s so nice. But then I have to be all alone with — their breath. Their breath just — it slows down and it’s terrifying every time.”
Perhaps most painful among the nurses’ many miseries is their isolation: the secrets they keep in hopes of sparing their loved ones an iota of extra suffering. “None of us are telling anyone we love about anything, Larette thought. She hadn’t told [her husband] anything true in weeks.”
As Straight’s work invariably does, “Sacrament” challenges the prevailing notion that the overlooked Californians she centers in her work and in her life are less worthy, less interesting, less human than their wealthier, whiter, more visible urban counterparts. Programmed to equate “rugged independence” with success, many advantaged Americans first appreciated human interdependence (berries in our cereal, test kits on our porches) in lockdown. In Straight’s world, raising each other’s kids, feeding each other’s elders, keeping each other’s secrets, mourning the dead and fighting like hell for the living is not called exigence. It’s called life.
“Sacrament” broadens the reader’s understanding of community beyond flesh-and-blood friends, family and neighbors. The love and care that flow within her community of characters draws the reader into their bright, tight circle, making the characters’ loved ones and troubles feel like the reader’s own.
Spoiler alert: The nurses’ sacrifices, strengths and foibles; their families, robbed not only of their moms and wives and daughters but also of any shred of safety; and their patients — who have tubes stuffed into their urethras and down their throats, blinking their desperate last moments of life into iPads as they take their final breaths — will likely make the reader see and respect and love not only these characters, but the consistently brilliant author who gave them life on the page of this, her finest book.
Maran, author of “The New Old Me” and other books, lives in a Silver Lake bungalow that’s even older than she is.
Celebrity Traitors stars Jonathan Ross and Cat Burns could be about to come to blows in the latest episode of the hit BBC show, a body language expert has predicted
Celeb Traitors stars Jonathan Ross and Cat Burns set to come to blows(Image: BBC)
The talk show legend, 64, and viral TikTok singer Cat, 25, are both taking part in the hit reality series in which a host of famous faces live in a castle and have to work out which of them is one of the titular Traitors, all guided by Strictly Come Dancing‘s Claudia Winkleman.
Both Jonathan and Cat are in fact Traitors, as is comedian Alan Carr but the other contestants are all Faithfuls, and now body language expert Judi James has explored the ‘subtle but revealing’ signs that things were not right between them during last night’s episode.
Normally, during the part in the show where the Traitors remove their hoods, there is often fits of laughter between them. But explaining what was different this time, Judi explained: “Last night’s meet-up was different though because, for Jonathan and Cat, the masks never came off. They surveyed each other without any signals of relief.”
She added: “Their body language was subtle but revealing, proving they, both now recognise they are enemies. Last night’s meet-up was different though because, for Jonathan and Cat, the masks never came off. They surveyed each other without any signals of relief.
“We saw them ignore Alan to stare at each other, and Jonathan performed a thin ‘smile’ of recognition, which was returned by Cat. There was no pretence between them, but no open declarations of war. Jonathan let Cat know he knew what she was doing and she stared him back to let him know she intends to carry on doing it.”
Jonathan adopted a dominant, alpha pose, leaning his weight onto his hands that clutched the rail in front, leaning forward in a way that could be seen as an attempt to to silently ‘threaten’ Cat. What’s more, the singer smiled when she looked at Alan but the smile quickly faded when she clapped eyes on Jonathan.
It’s also been noted that Cat moved her ‘weight from one foot to the other,’ and this can imply a ‘fight or flight’ stance when coming face-to-face with an enemy.
But the body expert also explained how Cat held her own, adding: “Cat even showed higher status to Jonathan, raising her chin and her brows when she spoke to him and looking down her nose while he bowed his head down low.”
At the end of last night’s episode, Stephen Fry was banished from the castle despite being a Faitful. Speaking to his fellow celebrities, Stephen said he had the “best fun for years” and called the group “an extraordinary and wonderful bunch of people”.
Insisting he would hold “no hard feelings” over his banishment, he said that being involved had been a “privilege and an honour” that had filled him with “deep delight”.
On spin-off, Uncloacked, Stephen said he thought Cat, Joe and David were the Traitors, but he got the shock of his life when he found out the truth…
“Jonathan?! FFS!” he said. “Oh he played a blinder, we knew he was a superfan, but he convinced me he wanted to be Faithful!”
“Alan?! What will Paloma say? Wow does he want to end the realtionship?! Alan Carr, I don’t believe it! Two big dogs, and one small Cat!”
The Celebrity Traitors continues on 29 October at 9pm on BBC One.
Kitty has provided plenty of comedic material for her husband over the years – the most famous being his hilarious sketch about Kitty trying to put her tights on.
Michael and Kitty live together in Hampstead, London,
When did they get married?
Michael and his wife Kitty tied the knot in 2003.
He wrote in his 2010 book Life and Laughing: “She was the girl I had been looking for. In the romantic comedy that was my life, this would have made a good ending.
“We would fall happily ever after. Within moments of seeing her and chatting to her I was totally up for that ending. Unfortunately, she wasn’t.”
But the comedian managed to woo Kitty, and the pair began dating.
He revealed on Desert Island Discs that his family found it difficult to accept he had a girlfriend.
McIntyre said: “Unfortunately my grandma didn’t really like it when I got a girlfriend. She was trying to break us up which was funny for a while but then it became quite vicious, an untenable situation.”
However, Michael developed a strong relationship with Kitty’s own parents – Alexandra and Simon Ward, an actor who starred in Young Winston.
After he passed away in 2012, Michael revealed: “He was one of my closest friends. He would come to my gigs in the early days.”
Do they have any children?
The pair have two sons together named Lucas and Oscar.
Both of Michael’s sons have been the subject of his comedy sketches.
Michael pictured with his sister-in-law Sophie WardCredit: Rex
In a sketch about the nightly struggle of putting his sons to bed, the comedian joked: “You never love your children more than when they’re unconscious, but still breathing.”
In another gag about his kids, he said: “My son’s got two words: car and map, that’s all he can say. ‘Car, car, map, car!’
“I’m fairly worried he’s trying to escape. So if the next word is passport, we’re in serious trouble.”
When is the Wheel back on TV?
The Wheel is spinning its way back onto BBC One and iPlayer.
Hosted by Michael, three contestants and seven celebrity experts will once again be answering questions for cash prizes as the show enters its sixth season.
The new series kicks off on Saturday, October 25, 2025 at 8.20pm.
Let’s just kick the elephant out of the room right away. It’s hard to write a guide to Highland Park without addressing the “G” word. The neighborhood has been described as a poster child of gentrification, and for anyone who spends time there, it’s easy to see why.
Get to know Los Angeles through the places that bring it to life. From restaurants to shops to outdoor spaces, here’s what to discover now.
Within the Northeast neighborhood nestled between downtown L.A. and Pasadena, you’ll see the Highland Park of the past: find remnants like the stone castle that was once the home of Charles F. Lummis, a poet and journalist who famously walked from Cincinnati to Highland Park — yes, you read that correctly — to accept a job at the Los Angeles Times in the mid 1880s. (He later went on to found the Southwest Museum, L.A.’s first museum, close by.)
You’ll see the Highland Park that remains: a working-class hub where bandas practice outside for all to hear, the smell of street tacos fills the air, multigenerational families play together at the park and iconic fixtures like the 22-foot-tall Chicken Boy statue that hovers over North Figueroa like a friendly mascot.
And you’ll see the Highland Park that’s emerging: an L.A. hot spot where young people flock to sip on fancy cocktails along York Boulevard and hang out at a chic Prohibition-era bowling alley.
Somehow, all these versions exist together. These days, it’s common to see luxury companies like Le Labo, which sells candles for upward of $90, move next door to small businesses such as the beloved Mexican family-ownedDelicias Bakery & Some that has been serving fresh pan dulce for nearly 35 years. The community collectively mourned when its100-year-old historic movie theater closed last March.
As one of L.A.’s first suburbs, Highland Park began the 20th century as an artsy oasis that was dotted with charming Craftsman homes. By the 1960s, the neighborhood had transformed into an epicenter for Latino life. The evolution of Highland Park has brought all the usual tensions between longtime residents and newcomers, many of whom were priced out of areas like Silver Lake and South Pasadena.
In spite of that, Highland Park has managed to hold onto its roots and small-town charm. This is in part thanks to nonprofits like the Highland Park Heritage Trust and community members who have been working to preserve the neighborhood’s rich history and cherished cultural hubs.
“A lot of the identity is still here, things that just make it feel like home,” says Michael Nájera, 35, whose family has lived in the neighborhood for three generations. He and his wife co-founded a running club calledTofu Scramble that meets at local coffee shops on Friday mornings.
“There’s a strong sense of community here. Even with everything going on these days, it’s amazing to see people out — some of us because we can, and others at risk because they have to,” he adds, referring to the recent ICE raids. “And still, this feels like a place where it’s OK to be brown and to be outside.” It’s common to see local businesses displaying Know Your Rights cards in support of their neighbors.
Rocio Paredes, a director and photographer who attended Franklin Middle School and High School in Highland Park, adds that “Chicanoism is very engraved in our DNA here.” You can see the culture’s influence in spaces like the Centro de Arte Público and the Mechicano Art Center, both of which were home to Highland Park’s Chicano Arts Collective, an organization that helped advance the political aims of L.A.’s Chicano movement in the 1970s. And also at local restaurants. At Las Cazuelas, a family-run Salvadoran pupuseria that’s been open since 1985, Parades says, “It’s like a f— time capsule.”
From historic Craftsman homes, beautiful hills, bountiful green spaces, cuisine from various cultures, vintage shops of varied prices and a vibrant nightlife scene, there’s so much to appreciate about Highland Park.
What’s included in this guide
Anyone who’s lived in a major metropolis can tell you that neighborhoods are a tricky thing. They’re eternally malleable and evoke sociological questions around how we place our homes, our neighbors and our communities within a wider tapestry. In the name of neighborly generosity, we may include gems that linger outside of technical parameters. Instead of leaning into stark definitions, we hope to celebrate all of the places that make us love where we live.
Our journalists independently visited every spot recommended in this guide. We do not accept free meals or experiences. What L.A. neighborhood should we check out next? Send ideas to [email protected].
The new BBC documentary dives into the ‘truth of being a young woman thrust into the spotlight’
Little Mix’s Perrie Edwards is set to feature in the BBC documentary centred on iconic girl groups(Image: BBC)
Perrie Edwards is set to reveal what it’s really like being part of a girl band.
After the success of last year’s Boybands Forever, BBC Two is launching its female equivalent, Girlbands Forever. The three-part documentary will explore ‘girl band fever throughout the 90s and beyond,’ featuring personal contributions from the Little Mix star, along with singers from Atomic Kitten, Sugababes and All Saints.
A preview for the upcoming programme provides a taste of what audiences can anticipate, with interview clips from some of the celebrity participants scheduled to appear. It delves into the nostalgic 90s and noughties period when ‘girl band fever’ was rampant, reports OK!
Presenter Sara Cox describes the period as an “era of young women suddenly having a voice,” before noting: “But it was a small window”.
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The brief 25-second trailer also shows Perrie discussing the backstage challenges of Little Mix, who rose to stardom after triumphing on The X Factor. She disclosed: “We battled the social media trolls together.”
The girl group entered the limelight during the early 2010s, so their journey provides a unique viewpoint on the difficulties female bands encountered in the social media era.
According to the BBC, audiences can anticipate hearing from Heidi Range (Sugababes), Kelle Bryan (Eternal), Kerry Katona (Atomic Kitten), Melanie Blatt (All Saints), Perrie and Su-Elise Nash (Mis-Teeq).
The programme will also feature chats with industry names such as Andy McCluskey, Clara Amfo, Darcus Beese OBE, Lucie Cave, MNEK, Nicki Chapman, Pete Tong, Pete Waterman, Scott Mills and Tulisa.
Girlbands Forever is a product of Louis Theroux’s production house, Mindhouse. Ahead of the show’s debut, Louis expressed: “I couldn’t be more thrilled to be part of making this wonderful series.
“I well remember when the Spice Girls, Eternal and All Saints burst on the scene in the 90s. It was a special time in pop music and British culture generally.”
He added: “Then in their wake came a parade of girl bands, made up of girls who were all in different ways beautiful, talented and often very funny.
“Going back and rediscovering all that music and those videos and the interviews they did has been an absolute pleasure.”
Girlbands Forever debuts on BBC Two and iPlayer on November 1.
DAVID and Victoria Beckham have publicly thrown their support behind their eldest son Brooklyn in a rare social media move that has tongues wagging.
Brooklyn, 26, showed off his kitchen skills in a new Instagram video, flipping fluffy buttermilk pancakes to Eric Clapton’s Wonderful Tonight.
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David and Victoria Beckham have supported eldest son Brooklyn on social media amid their family feudCredit: GettyBrooklyn shared another cooking video on Instagram last nightCredit: InstagramDavid and Victoria were seen to be liking the postCredit: Getty
While he’s been keeping his distance from the famous family for months, both Posh and Becks quietly “liked” the clip in a huge hint that the frosty feud could be thawing.
The gesture comes after Brooklyn and wife Nicola Peltz failed to publicly support Victoria on socials as her hit Netflix documentary landed earlier this month.
They were also notably absent from her Paris Fashion Week show and the premiere of the documentary.
The couple snubbed David’s lavish 50th birthday celebrations earlier this year in a move that left the family heartbroken.
Sources previously claimed the rift had reached breaking point, with Victoria and David having “accepted they won’t see Brooklyn for the foreseeable future.”
Meanwhile, the Beckhams’ other children are busy making their own mark in the spotlight.
Romeo, 23, is following in his dad’s football footsteps, Cruz, 20, has formed a band and is gigging around London, and 14-year-old Harper is said to be keen on following in her mums footsteps into fashion and beauty.
Victoria recently defended her kids from “nepo baby” criticism, telling The Sun: “It’s not their fault — give them a chance.”
Cruz is releasing his first single today and has already received critical acclaim, being signed to a top music management company — all off his own bat.
“Cruz has got music coming out soon,” Victoria told The Sun.
“He’s spent the last ten years learning his craft — much like I did with Roland — learning to play instruments.
“He taught himself to play about seven instruments. He writes his own songs, he’s put a band together.
“He’s properly done it from the grass roots up. He hasn’t just come in and sung his songs, or demanded anything.
“I mean I can’t really give him any advice — the industry has changed so much.
“But I told him, ‘Don’t expect immediate success’. It’s almost better if it isn’t an immediate success.
“You know, it’s like with my fashion thing — it’s taken me 20 years to get it to where it is.
“You’ve got to start small and build it up. And that’s exactly what he’s doing, playing tiny venues, no fuss, doing his thing.
“I am so proud of him.”
She added: “But he is a nepo. I mean, I feel sorry for these kids that are considered nepo-babies.
“The kids are simply the kids of their parents. It’s not their fault.
“Give them a chance. What matters is that people are good and kind.
“It is fine to be ambitious, but it is more important to be kind. Let the music speak for itself before you judge.”
Cruz Beckham’s new singles “Optics” and “Lick the Toad” are out today.Credit: cruzbeckham/TikTokCruz teased the single earlier this weekCredit: Instagram
A new expanded edition of Maia Kobabe’s award-winning graphic memoir “Gender Queer” will be released next year.
Oni Press has announced that “Gender Queer: The Annotated Edition” will be available in May. The special hardcover edition of the seminal LGBTQ+ coming of age memoir includes commentary by Kobabe as well as other comic creators and scholars.
“For fans, educators, and anyone else who wants to know more, I am so excited to share ‘Gender Queer: The Annotated Edition,’” Kobabe said in the news release. “Queer and trans cartoonists, comics scholars, and multiple people who appear in the book as characters contributed their thoughts, reactions, and notes to this new edition.”
The new 280-page hardcover will feature “comments on the color design process, on comics craft, on family, on friendship, on the touchstone queer media that inspired me and countless other people searching for meaningful representation, and on the complicated process of self-discovery,” the author added.
Released in 2019, “Gender Queer” follows Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, from childhood into eir young adult years as e navigates gender and sexuality and eir understanding of who e is. The books is a candid look into the nonbinary author’s exploration of identity, chronicling the frustrations and joys and epiphanies of eir journey and self discovery.
A page from “Gender Queer: The Annotated Edition” by Maia Kobabe.
(Oni Press)
“It’s really hard to imagine yourself as something you’ve never seen,” Kobabe told The Times in 2022. “I know this firsthand because I didn’t meet someone who was out as trans or nonbinary until I was in grad school. It’s weird to grow up and be 25 before you meet someone who is like the same gender as you.”
In addition to commentary by Kobabe, “Gender Queer: The Annotated Edition” will feature comments from fellow artists and comics creatives Jadzia Axelrod, Ashley R. Guillory, Justin Hall, Kori Michele Handwerker, Phoebe Kobabe, Hal Schrieve, Rani Som, Shannon Watters and Andrea Colvin. Sandra Cox, Ajuan Mance and Matthew Noe are among the academic figures who contributed to the new edition.
“It’s been almost seven years since I wrote the final words of this memoir; revisiting these pages today, in a radically different and less accepting political climate, sparked a lot of new thoughts for me as well,” Kobabe said in the news release. “I hope readers enjoy this even richer text full of community voices.”
A page from “Gender Queer: The Annotated Edition” by Maia Kobabe.
Simon Cowell is set to join forces with Spice Girl icon Mel B and Jonas Brother singer Joe Jonas for a brand new show called Who’s In The Band, and a pilot will be recorded next week
04:48, 24 Oct 2025Updated 04:50, 24 Oct 2025
Simon Cowell is pictured at Britain’s Got Talent auditions this month in Blackpool, Lancashire(Image: Getty Images)
One of Simon Cowell’s new projects has been described as “a big two fingers up to ITV“.
Spice Girl icon Mel B and Jonas Brother singer Joe Jonas will work alongside Simon for the latter, which ex-TV presenter turned producer Richard Bacon says will be popular with teenagers and young adults.
But the Netflix series, Simon Cowell: The Next Act, has particularly excited the TV industry. It is believed Netflix executives “felt bringing a name like Simon in for a factual entertainment show was a power move for the network”. Another source said the programme will be “a big two fingers up to ITV” after the cancellation of The X Factor in 2021.
But a source close to Simon, who created the global X Factor franchise, has denied there is “a rivalry”. They added: “There’s no rivalry nor residual issue – Simon’s focus is entirely on new formats and discovering talent.”
The X Factor, though, was scrapped after nearly 20 years on British TV screens and, at its peak, attracted 10 million viewers on a Saturday evening. It was the launching pad for a number of top-selling British music acts in the last two decades, from One Direction to Little Mix and Leona Lewis.
But Simon, who is thought to be worth £475million, continues to work with ITV on Britain’s Got Talent, which is still a staple after more than 18 years. His latest ventures, though, on other networks have television circles excited, it is understood.
The source told the Daily Mail: “Success on Netflix would be priceless retribution against ITV for the way The X Factor came to a close.” This theory is rejected by Simon, born in Lambeth, south London, whose new show Who’s In The Band will be presented by K-Pop Demon Hunters star Rei Ami, 30.
Simon’s latest search for talent comes after the Britain’s Got Talent auditions was sent into chaos when he fell down another set of steps, making it the latest in a series of mishaps for the long-time judge.
He missed the first two days of filming in Birmingham after the incident, leaving producers to call in Stacey Solomon to temporarily fill his place on the panel. The star then later reappeared on the third day of auditions with a visible graze on his forehead, explaining only that he’d had “an accident.”
His absence was finally addressed during the show’s Blackpool auditions, when a choir made up of ambulance staff took to the stage. Amanda Holden joked: “I thought they might be here in case anything went wrong with you again because you were poorly last week.”
IRINA Shayk poses again for Victoria’s Secret — and looks like she’s never been away.
The Russian beauty, 39, features in a new festive campaign for the lingerie brand.
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Irina Shayk is back posing again for Victoria’s SecretCredit: Victoria’s Secret/CMGIrina returned to modelling for the brand last year following an eight-year hiatusCredit: Victoria’s Secret/CMG
AI is driving the stock market to record highs, dominating countless debates about the value of human labor, and radically rewiring the way schools approach education. It’s also causing a stir in the art world, with media artist Refik Anadol poised to open Dataland, the world’s first museum of AI arts, inside the Frank Gehry-designed Grand L.A. complex in downtown Los Angeles next spring.
A first-look at the Infinity Room gallery at Dataland.
(Dataland)
The 25,000-square-foot museum was originally scheduled to open this year, but Anadol announced Thursday that the opening has been pushed back to spring 2026. Anadol also unveiled a sneak peak at the Infinity Room, one of the museum’s five discrete galleries. The immersive room features Anadol’s distinct swirling colors and images and will be infused with AI-generated scents, creating a multisensory experience powered by its very own AI model, called the Large Nature Model.
The Infinity Room design dates back to 2014 when Anadol created his first immersive data sculpture at UCLA. He described it as an exploration into the future of the Light and Space movement. It was essentially a 12-by-12-foot cube, with mirrored walls, ceiling and floors. Projectors emitted pulses of black-and-white imagery that used data as a pigment. To date, the Infinity Room has toured 35 cities and been viewed by more than 10 million people.
Another look at the Infinity Room, which has been viewed by 10 million people on tour.
(Dataland)
“The work emerged from my exploration of the idea that information can become a narrative material capable of transforming architectural space into a living canvas. The question driving me was simple but profound: What happens if there is no corner, no floor, no ceiling, no gravity?” Anadol wrote about his concept for the Infinity Room in a blog post on his website. “At DATALAND, Infinity Room enters a new era. This iteration embodies the technical and conceptual leaps our studio has made over the past decade. Where the original used generative algorithms, this new incarnation incorporates our decade-long research into what I call “machine hallucinations” — the dreamlike, surreal realities an AI can generate from vast datasets.”
The Infinity Room is meant to be a multisensory experience.
(Dataland)
In an interview last year, Anadol said “ethical AI” is essential to his practice. Unlike most large AI models, Anadol secured permission to use all of his sourced material, and said all of the studio’s AI research was performed on Google servers in Oregon that use only renewable energy.
