show biz

Wimbledon was rocked by a stunning upset on Saturday as defending champion Iga Świątek was knocked out in the third round

There were tears on Centre Court as one Champion was knocked out of the tennis competition.

Wimbledon entered its sixth day of intense action on Saturday (July 4) as competitors battled to secure their place in the fourth round. The compelling order of play featured Emma Navarro (USA) going up against Marta Kostyuk (UKR) on Court Two, while Arthur Fery flew the flag for Great Britain on Court 18 against Belgium’s Zizou Bergs, amongst numerous other fixtures.

Yet it was Centre Court that left spectators utterly stunned as the Philippines’ Alexandra Eala squared off against Poland’s Iga Świątek. Presently sitting third in the global women’s singles rankings, Świątek, 25, is a six-time Grand Slam winner and was competing to retain her title.

Świątek secured her maiden Wimbledon crown last summer when she delivered a devastating 6-0, 6-0 final triumph over Amanda Anisimova. However, she has now been eliminated from this year’s tournament.

Throughout the gripping third-round encounter with 29th seed Eala, Świątek surrendered the opening set in an extraordinary tie-break, 21-19, before collapsing in the second set, going down 7-6 (11-9) 6-2.

While BBC One was broadcasting the Arthur Fery fixture, presenter Clare Balding broke in to confirm that Eala has created history as the first Filipino player to advance to the fourth round of a major championship, reports the Express.

Speaking live from the BBC studios at Wimbledon, in London, Clare announced: “Let us bring you up to date with a major shock. The defending champion, Iga Świątek, is out of Wimbledon, and Alex Eala is the first player from the Philippines ever to reach the fourth round here.

“A huge result, she is immensely popular all around the world, and gets really big crowds following her. Eala is only 21, and this is a massive moment for her, and indeed for the Philippines.”

Having clinched her winning point, Eala collapsed to the ground before swiftly rising to her feet to pay tribute to her opponent, Świątek.

Visibly overcome with emotion during her on-court interview, Eala reflected on her childhood, when such an achievement could only have been the stuff of dreams.

“I’m really emotional. For someone like Iga, who has won so many Grand Slams, or maybe like Serena or Venus, this achievement may seem small but for someone who grew up in the Philippines it is huge,” she said as the crowd cheered.

“I went to train with my brother and my grandfather every day after school with my ruffled socks, light-up shoes, and chubby cheeks, so to younger me, this is everything. But, obviously, just because I’m emotional does not mean I’m satisfied, so next round let’s go!”

All the latest action from Wimbledon is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

A highly divisive period drama starring Taylor Swift is currently available on Netflix as the hitmaker weds Travis Kelce in New York

It has its fair share of defenders but scored just 32 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

A 2022 period drama with an all-star cast including pop star Taylor Swift is currently available to stream on Netflix – but it’s not some of the star’s most acclaimed work.

The 1989 chart-topper has just tied the knot with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce on Friday, July 3 at a lavish ceremony in Madison Square Garden in New York.

Attended by around 1,000 guests and officiated by Hollywood A-lister Adam Sandler, it’s become one of the most publicised celebrity weddings in history.

For those looking to Netflix for their Swiftie fix to mark the occasion, you can currently stream her acclaimed behind-the-scenes documentary Miss Americana, a Netflix Original released in 2020.

However, she is also known for infrequent movie roles, including the critically maligned musical Cats and lending her voice to animated film The Lorax.

Her only acting role currently streaming on Netflix in the UK may be a surprise to fans as it’s David O Russell’s critical and commercial flop Amsterdam, a mystery thriller set in the 1930s.

Based on the real-life Business Plot case from 1933, an investigation into the death of a retired US general, Swift has a supporting role as Elizabeth Meekins alongside an all-star cast that also includes Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington and Anya Taylor-Joy.

Made on a budget of $80 million (£59 million), it was a box office bomb for 20th Century Studios with an estimated loss of more than $100 million (£74.9 million).

While it was critically panned, Amsterdam does have some defenders with one fan even claiming: “An instant classic. Given time, it will be regarded as one of the greatest films ever made. The cast is outstanding.

“I can’t remember ever seeing so many talented actors in one film like this before. Everyone brought their A-Game and absolutely nailed their respective performances.”

Unfortunately, not everyone shares their opinion as a Rotten Tomatoes user branded the film “A confused mess that was painful to watch”.

“An incoherent mess. A waste of the stellar cast,” another viewer slammed, and someone else wrote: “Honestly in contention for the worst movie of the 2020s.”

The film continues to be eviscerated on IMDb, with one user slamming Amsterdam as “Quite literally one of the most worthless movies I’ve ever seen.

“The first few scenes set up what could only be anticipated as an action packed murder mystery type movie, only to be followed by a nearly pointless flashback with categorically pointless scenes attempting to make you feel something for characters that make absolutely no sense.

“This movie had serious potential, with an amazing cast. I took three friends and I feel like I owe them several hours of wasting their life.”

Swifties have been warned to stick with Miss Americana this weekend, or perhaps stream her concert extravaganza The Eras Tour, which was filmed and released by Disney+.

Amsterdam is available to stream on Netflix.

LISA Faulkner and John Torode have been dealt another blow following her breast cancer diagnosis earlier this week.

The TV couple have reportedly learned that their cookery show, John & Lisa’s Weekend Kitchen, has been shelved after ten series.

Amid ongoing budget cuts at ITV, the show is notably absent from upcoming schedules.

According to The Mirror, the couple remain hopeful that the popular cookery programme could return to the channel at a later date.

An insider told the publication: “John remains a regular contributor to This Morning, where he has been fully supported by everyone, including hosts Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley.

“The truth is there are no current plans for series 11 of Weekend Kitchen but no final decision has yet been made over whether it will return in the future.

“And John is very much a part of the ITV family through his role as a regular chef on This Morning.”

ITV confirmed that no final decisions have been made yet regarding the future of the show.

The news comes after John suffered a major career setback last year when he left MasterChef.

An inquiry, ordered by MasterChef’s production company, upheld a claim that the chef had used an “extremely offensive racist term”, which he said he had “no recollection of”, and he subsequently departed the show.

His wife Lisa announced her shock cancer diagnosis on Thursday, revealing that she had already undergone surgery and was awaiting a course of radiotherapy.

Lisa is best known for her acting roles in shows including Holby City and EastEnders, and in recent years has carved out a successful career as a TV chef.

She won Celebrity MasterChef in 2010 before going on to front John & Lisa’s Weekend Kitchen alongside her husband.

Coronation Street has welcomed real-life family members to the Cobbles over the years

Soap operas blur the line between drama and reality when family members land roles on the same show.

Coronation Street star Isabella Flanagan plays Weatherfield’s Hope Stape, daughter of Fiz Brown (played by Jennie McAlpine), on the ITV show alongside her brother William, who portrays Joseph Brown, son of Chesney (Sam Aston).

The siblings also share a real-life connection to Emmerdale’s April Windsor star Amelia Flanagan, who is their big sister.

Cousins Brooke Vincent and Ellie Leach have both enjoyed successful stints on the show, while Rick Neelan actor Greg Wood is actually the real-life brother of Tommy Orpington star Matt Milburn.

Last month, Rosie Fleeshman became the latest member to follow in the footsteps of her famous sibling, Richard Fleeshman, enjoying a guest stint on Corrie. Their mum has also starred on the show.

Richard first graced the soap as Craig Harris in 2002, with his family, including father Tommy Harris (Thomas Craig), mother Angela Harris (Kathryn Hunt), and sister Katy (Lucy-Jo Hudson).

The family arrived in Weatherfield as part of a witness protection scheme, and they quickly stirred up some drama. Moreover, young Craig was central to several dramatic storylines during his tenure.

In 2005, he lost his entire family when his sister Katy killed their father Tommy in a rage, and their mother Angela took the fall. Unable to cope with the guilt, Katy later took her own life.

The character also embarked on a romance with Rosie Webster (Helen Flanagan), becoming her first boyfriend. Craig even plotted to flee to Berlin with Rosie.

However, in 2006, Craig departed alone and bid farewell to the cobbles. Since then, actor Richard has kept himself occupied, appearing in shows such as Call the Midwife and Death in Paradise, as well as stage productions.

Richard hails from a talented family, as his mum, Sue Jenkins, who joined the cast of Coronation Street as Gloria Todd in 1985, became a regular face at the Rovers Return pub. She worked alongside Julie Goodyear, who famously played landlady Bet Lynch.

Beyond her time on Corrie, Sue also portrayed Jackie Corkhill in Brookside from 1992 to 2001, and made a brief appearance in Emmerdale in 2008 as Bonnie Drinkwater.

In 2024, Richard appeared on Loose Women and spoke to panellists Kaye Adams, Kelle Bryan, Linda Robson, and Jane Moore about his role on sci-fi show, The Ark and paid tribute to his mum’s time on Brookside.

“She was amazing in that show”, he said. “I was allowed to watch certain episodes growing up. Some of them were a little bit past my bedtime. It was an amazing show and such a great following.”

The revelation of Sue and Richard’s roles on Corrie left fans astounded. On X, previously known as Twitter, one viewer posted about Sue’s stint on Corrie.

Another fan responded: “That’s Richard Fleeshman’s mum!” A third person commented: “Wow, all this time watching and I never knew that, I can see her son in that photo now.” Yet another added: “Her real-life son played Craig Harris, son of Psycho Tommy!”

Richard’s dad is David Fleeshman, who appeared in Boys from the Blackstuff, and he credited his parents for inspiring his successful career. He said, “I grew up with both of them being around the industry fully, so it was just everything I knew.”

Coronation Street airs weekdays on ITV and ITVX

Based on chilling true story all episodes are streaming for free

A ‘phenomenal’ series that blends period drama with spine-chilling horror has been hailed by devoted fans as a ‘televisual masterpiece’.

Remarkably, the show is also rooted in a genuinely unsettling true story — and even better, it can be streamed right now at no additional cost.

At the time of writing, The Terror is currently available on both ITVX and Channel 5. The former additionally hosts its second season, though that particular instalment follows an entirely different storyline.

A third season was released in the US earlier this year, subtitled Devil In Silver. However, this chapter was adapted from a novel and has yet to reach UK audiences.

In the meantime, viewers can revisit the series from the very beginning. The Terror is a historical anthology drama, with its first two seasons drawing upon real-life events, though both remain fictionalised interpretations, reports OK!

Legendary director Ridley Scott serves as executive producer across both seasons. The opening season charts the journey of Royal Navy polar expedition vessels HMS Erebus and HMS Terror as they venture into uncharted waters, resolute in their mission to locate and confirm the existence of the fabled Northwest Passage.

The ships soon become trapped in ice, leaving the crew to endure savage conditions and mounting internal tensions, all while being stalked by a terrifying and mysterious presence. It draws inspiration from the actual 1845 Franklin Expedition, where those two vessels genuinely became trapped in ice within the Arctic while seeking the Northwest Passage.

However, the programme dramatises the potential terrors they might have encountered.

Meanwhile, the second series, titled Infamy, takes place along America’s western coastline during the Second World War, delving into Japanese bakemono folklore – a malevolent phantom that torments a Japanese American community from Southern California through to internment camps and Pacific battlefields.

Audiences have heaped praise upon the series, particularly its opening instalment. One enthusiast proclaimed: “It’s such a masterpiece that I watched it twice, back to back.”

Another added: “I binge-watched season one, couldn’t stop. Amazing performances.”

A fellow admirer wrote online: “I have watched a lot of horror shows and movies…but nothing makes me feel dread and unease like this one. The pacing is perfect, the atmosphere bleak, the music beautifully haunting, the dialogue is fantastic, and the story is amazing. Best horror show of all time for me.”

Meanwhile, one viewer declared: “Quite simply, a televisual masterpiece, mixing true-life tragedy, fictional horror and majestic period thriller. A magnificent accomplishment.”

Another viewer chimed in: “This is a remarkable series, which takes on a journey of suspicion, disaster, tragedy and terror. The first episode didn’t exactly captivate me, but by episode three I was obsessed, and subsequently had to binge watch the whole series.”

The Terror is streaming on ITVX and Channel 5.

Casualty usually airs on BBC One on Saturday night, but today’s episode was pulled from the lineup because it would have clashed with the channel’s World Cup coverage

Casualty fans have been left fuming after the show was removed from the TV schedule tonight.

The medical drama usually airs on BBC One on Saturday night, but tonight’s episode was pulled from the lineup due to live BBC sporting coverage of the FIFA World Cup match between Canada and Morocco. The next episode will instead air next Saturday, July 11.

But fans have expressed their disappointment over the schedule shake-up, with some suggesting that Casualty should be moved to a different channel, such as BBC2, BBC3 or the BBC iPlayer. “Casualty hasn’t had a permanent slot for years you move it about all the time or don,t show it at all it is the only thing worth watching on a saturday night,” one frustrated viewer posted online.

“Couldnt Casualty move to BBC3 or 4?” another asked, as a third suggested, “just put it on iplayer!” One more wrote, “Why is it not on bbc tonight again, what’s wrong with the bbc all we get is sport.”

“Why couldn’t they put casualty on bbc2,” a fan added. “Why can’t we have a dedicated sports channel,” one more shared.

The drama is now approaching the conclusion of its “Lethal Legacy” box set, which has centred on the military past of Flynn Byron (Olly Rix). Stevie Nash (Elinor Lawless) has also featured prominently throughout the box set, with her affair with trainee doctor Matty Linlaker (Aron Julius) – the son of her close friend Dylan Keogh (William Beck) – taking centre stage.

In recent episodes, viewers have grown increasingly worried about recovering alcoholic Dylan after he was seen accepting a glass of champagne while delivering a speech at a function. A synopsis for next week’s episode reads: “Dylan is confronted by Matty about his drinking, but assures him it was just a one-off.

“However, as he treats a burns victim, he begins to suffer debilitating flashbacks to his drinking binge and flees from the unit. Faith avoids feeding Pearl as she prepares to return to work, leaving Iain concerned.

“Laura admits she is scared to speak at the council meeting, Rash worries about his presentation, and Jan confesses to Jacob that she has developed feelings for Siobhan.”

Casualty returns to BBC One on Saturday, July 11.

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THIS is the moment Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine got emotional as he made his late manager’s dream come true at BST Hyde Park.

The pop rock band headlined the London festival on Friday night in front of 75,000 people and dedicated a performance of Memories to Jordan Feldstein, who died suddenly in 2017.

Adam told the crowd at BST Hyde Park, which is sponsored by Vodafone: “This band playing Hyde Park was one of his dreams for us. And we’re making it true now and it’s un-f***ing-believable.

“It’s bittersweet because he’s not here tonight. So, this of course goes out to Jordan, our friend. My friend since I was born.

“I think that some of these songs mean something different to every single person that appreciates them.

“I know that you’re all thinking of someone and all that energy, it kind of comes together, especially on a beautiful night.

“Take a look around you guys, it’s unbelievable. Look at all this, it’s crazy.”

Jordan guided the band since its launch in 1994 until his sudden death from a pulmonary thromboembolism, a blood clot in the lungs, almost nine years ago.

Memories, which was released in 2019, includes the lyrics, “here’s to the ones that we got, cheers to the wish you were here, but you’re not” and “toast to the ones here today, toast to the ones that we lost on the way”.

Speaking previously about his childhood friend and long-time manager, Adam said: “It was a tragedy foisted upon us and far and away one of the saddest moments of our lives, and personally of mine.

“This is a kid I’ve known since we were in diapers. He was one of the most important people in my life from a very early age.”

He closed out the rendition of Memories by pointing to the sky in honour of Jordan.

Adam’s emotional speech on behalf of the six-piece band was met with cheers.

It was a fitting moment during the nostalgic evening, which saw Maroon 5 perform their greatest old-time hits including Sunday Morning and She Will Be Loved.

One Republic, Jess Glynne and Ella Eyre had earlier performed throughout the day.

On a recent summer day at Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences, students ambled through yawns, braces and acne into their creative writing class. The day’s lesson tackled “style,” that elusive, ultra-subjective choice of expression.

“Who was the first author you encountered to do something different on the page?” asked the teacher, Clarke E. Andros.

They named Dr. Seuss, Shel Silverstein and Lemony Snicket before moving on to a précis of Joy Williams’ flash fiction. “These stories are weird — she’s weird,” Andros warned.

In some ways, high school looks much the same as it did 20, even 100 years ago: sleepy eyes either light up or glaze over when a teacher poses a Socratic question. Nervous laughs and unexpected insights emerge as young people use stories to make sense of themselves and the world around them.

The idea of the “Great American Novel” took shape in the aftermath of the Civil War, when a fractured nation looked to literature to define itself. As classrooms evolved, so did the canon that reflected America’s changing identity.

But the syllabus today is at a tipping point. Forces — some visible, some harder to see — are upending literature and education itself. American students are in a decade-long reading recession, while fewer students are reading for pleasure than in previous generations.

Reading scores among high school seniors are at their lowest in decades, according to federal testing data, while schools across the country are grappling with how to respond to waning attention spans and artificial intelligence. The Los Angeles Unified School District has begun a course correction, voting to limit student use of laptops and tablets during class — the first major American school system to do so.

We spoke with five high school English teachers across the city — three from LAUSD, one from a charter and one from a private school — to find out what literature belongs in today’s classroom, and which stories can help us understand America, past and present.

Interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity.

Raquel Olvera, Roosevelt High School, Boyle Heights

What books in the American literary canon are you teaching (old and new)?

In 11th-grade American Literature, as part of the LAUSD-approved Odell curriculum, we read four book options: “Friday Night Lights,” “Beloved,” “The Great Gatsby” and “The Warmth of Other Suns.” For my 10th-grade World Literature course, I like “Antigone” and “Things Fall Apart.” I also teach “In Cold Blood,” using it to explore Americans’ fascination with true crime and what the genre reveals about race, gender, class and the justice system.

What’s one work from the canon adults should revisit today?

“The Great Gatsby.” When I read it in high school, I wasn’t engaging with its undercurrents of racism, xenophobia, antisemitism, gender or sexuality in the way I do now. Its themes of power, wealth, consumerism and American identity remain as relevant as ever.

What are English teachers up against in the classroom in 2026?

Besides large class sizes and underfunding, I think public educators are largely battling apathy. Students and young people aren’t engaging with books like they used to. A side effect of that is a lack of empathy and curiosity. At the very least, you can model what it means to be a reader and a writer, and hope that years later, students remember that one nerd English teacher who showed them what humanity can look like.

Schehrezade Lodhy, Da Vinci Schools, El Segundo

What books in the American literary canon are you teaching (old and new)?

Students really enjoy Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” — it’s all about the human condition and cancel culture, forbidden love and lies and deceit, with witches in the forest. In poetry, we explore a range of American voices, from Walt Whitman and Langston Hughes to Amanda Gorman, and sometimes even song lyrics. I also use “The Moth: Storytelling” podcast when students are working on personal essays. The goal is to make literature, poetry and storytelling as accessible as possible. At a charter school, we have quite a bit of autonomy with what we teach.

What’s one work from the canon adults should revisit today?

James Baldwin’s “Giovanni’s Room” and “Go Tell It on the Mountain.” I read Baldwin a few summers ago, and that was quite an education for me. Unfortunately, some of the content is a bit too mature for high school, but I do talk about Baldwin a bit in my classes when we cover African American authors.

What are English teachers up against in the classroom in 2026?

Artificial intelligence, big time. I really pared back technology in my class, and we’ve pivoted back to paper and pencil. Going into my 18th year of teaching, my biggest goal is re-creating that experience of thinking critically for oneself and studying literature through a critical lens. We’re in this era of going back to the basics. With decreased attention spans, teachers are being forced to become even more creative. It feels like we’re reinventing ourselves every year.

Aiden Brown, John F. Kennedy High School, Granada Hills

What books in the American literary canon are you teaching (old and new)?

From an educationally traditional background, I still believe in canon disruption — mixing the new and old. In American Lit, I’ve taught “Their Eyes Were Watching God” 11 times now. It’s a hard one to get on the first try because the vernacular is so particular, but when we read it physically while also listening to the audiobook, it’s such a great novel to hear. I pair it with bell hooks’ “All About Love.” I teach “Macbeth” from a performance-based lens, making it less intimidating. My favorite book is “Frankenstein,” written by a teenage girl who invented science fiction. My ninth-graders’ favorites were “Fahrenheit 451,” “The Odyssey” (Emily Wilson translation) and “Persepolis,” a graphic novel about a girl discovering punk rock and rebelling against the established order.

What’s one work from the canon adults should revisit today?

All of the lonely young men need to reread “The Great Gatsby,” and anyone freaked out by the state of the world should read “Parable of the Sower.” One quote from the book hangs on a poster board in my classroom: “A community’s first responsibility is to protect its children — the ones we have now and the ones we will have.”

What are English teachers up against in the classroom?

Teenagers are still the funniest people on the planet. As the world around them becomes more atomized, I find that they’re increasingly interested in connection. In the classroom, we are seeing skill loss and a decreased ability to focus on a task. I don’t think that’s just because of AI or the pandemic — it’s also phones, screens and the world kids are growing up in. One thing teachers seem to agree on is a return to pen and paper.

Clarke E. Andros, Crossroads School, Santa Monica

What books in the American literary canon are you teaching (old and new)?

A newer addition I would recommend is “Hunger: A Novella and Stories” by Lan Samantha Chang. Especially in California, we have a lot of great Asian American literature, including works by Amy Tan, but I enjoy the writing level in Lan’s — it’s accessible to students but pushes them, all about intersectional identity and the first-gen experience. A lot of the Latino students I’ve taught in Los Angeles also connect with that book.

What’s one work from the canon adults should revisit today?

“Of Mice and Men.” Revisiting it today opens up deeper conversations about labor, social conciousness and power. Steinbeck creates a microcosm of American society, where disability, gender, race and class are all represented and shaped by an economic hierarchy. The characters are left navigating a world where people often turn on each other rather than challenge the systems around them. It’s novella-length, so you could read it in a Sunday morning.

What are English teachers up against in the classroom in 2026?

We’re up against systems that often prioritize ed-tech and third-party vendors over smaller class sizes and more teachers. When I was at LAUSD, it was clear from our superintendent — who just stepped down over his fraud investigation — was just in bed with tech. It’s hard for me to imagine the folks in power didn’t look at [the failed AI chatbot venture] and see it as a grift.

On the flip side, at hyper-competitive, elite schools like this, students are approaching high school with college in mind rather than with high school in mind. When students understand the value of the process, they’re less likely to look for an easy shortcut like AI.

Adam Tan, Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies, Mid-City

What books in the American literary canon are you teaching (old and new)?

With independent reading, memoirs are big, like “Crying in H Mart” and Sylvia Plath’s fictionalized “The Bell Jar.” Younger kids gravitate to “Musashi,” a celebrated epic based on a famous samurai. We have a lot of Korean American students here, so they like “Pachinko,” dealing with racism and the Korean population in post-World War II Japan. I’ll also throw in “The Bluest Eye.”

In ninth grade, we read “Slaughterhouse-Five,” “Of Mice and Men,” “The Thief and the Dogs” and “Romeo and Juliet,” with the film adaptations to use media literacy. In American Literature, the major texts are “The Great Gatsby,” “The Things They Carried” and “The Crucible.” We also read nonfiction articles, including pieces on AI and robots, while focusing on rhetorical devices.

What’s one work from the canon adults should revisit today?

“The Catcher in the Rye” benefits from the distance of adulthood. It’s a novel about disillusionment and the search for identity, but when you revisit it, you also see that it’s very much a love story. I often encourage students to look for forms of love beyond romance — love for family, friends and fellow human beings. Even today, students can tell you that the biggest phony in the book is Holden himself. The novel reminds us that while literature may not have answers to the world’s problems, it can help us examine our wounds and find solace in art.

What are English teachers up against in the classroom in 2026?

A lack of accountability in the modern world. In general, we have a school district focused on 100% graduation rates, no F’s. [LAUSD] wanted everything on computer, and now they want less computer time, which is great, but not everyone at top management is on the same page. Teachers are often trying to balance what the district wants with what we know our students need.

What I try to instill instead is an intrinsic desire to grow as a thinker. How do you make sure students are reading without taking the joy out of it? A lot of us are going back to pen and paper. Despite all the concerns about AI, I still think the soul and spirit of young people is as strong as ever. The core is not rotting.

The Crown star Olivia Colman’s 2022 drama has been hailed ‘funny and moving’ by fans.

Olivia Colman fans don’t have long left to watch her “emotional, silly and joyful” film.

Fans of The Crown star Olivia Colman are running out of time to catch her “phenomenal” film before it disappears from Netflix. The 2022 movie, set in Ireland, centres on a 12 year old boy, Mully (played by Charlie Reid) who lives with his father in County Kerry following his mother’s death from cancer.

Upon uncovering his father’s dark secrets, the youngster runs away and encounters a woman named Joy (Colman) and her newborn baby. Gradually, the unlikely pair begin to form a bond during a chaotic, emotional road trip across Ireland, finding healing, friendship and redemption along the way.

Joyride is the film in question, and it is available to stream on Netflix until July 31.

Viewers flocked to IMDb to share their opinions on the film, with one describing it as “phenomenal, funny and moving”.

They wrote: “This is one of those films that I didn’t want to end, terrific from start to finish, it was moving, funny, and in this day and age where stories seem to be frequently repeated and copied, it felt original.”

“A couple of times it made me tear up, so moving, what was so good, was seeing the effects the unlikely duo had on each other.

“Olivia Colman is one of my all-time favourites, and she’s phenomenal here, her accent was spot on, equally matched by young Charlie Reid, who was superb.”

Another viewer praised it as “emotional, silly and joyful”, adding: “Fantastic chemistry with the cast, and a wonderful balance of emotions throughout. At times it’s a little confusing, but it all makes sense in the end. And isn’t that what life is like?

“Olivia Colman shines as always, but the real star is Charlie Reid. Some wonderful interactions between them and excellent continuity touches and themes – the dialogue is as entertaining as it is raw.

“A joyful escapade that’s a welcome break from the rinse and repeat action and romcoms.”

One devoted fan added: “It warmed my heart, made me laugh, and cry a little… what more could you ask of any movie?”.

Filmed on location in County Kerry, Colman opened up to Yours magazine about taking on the role: “I loved the character of Joy.

“I couldn’t get her out of my head once I’d read the script. I loved how it was all put together. I loved the story and I really wanted to do it.”

Joyride is leaving Netflix on July 31.

HEIDI Katona cut a chic figure as she posed for a set of glamorous new snaps ahead of a night out.

Kerry Katona’s daughter posed up a storm in a series of selfies before heading out with a pal.

The 19-year-old regularly shares fashion and lifestyle content with her 40,500 Instagram followers.

Sharing the snaps, Heidi joked that she and her friend were “not sold separately”.

Fans went wild for the pictures, with one writing: “Beautiful Heidi.”

Another simply declared: “Jaw on the floor.”

Heidi is no stranger to the spotlight, having previously appeared on The Voice Kids.

But the teenager has plenty of other career options in mind and is currently studying A-levels in sociology, psychology and criminology.

She is considering her university options, although she has also previously revealed she would love to pursue a singing career or enter the I’m A Celebrity jungle.

One reality show she won’t be signing up for anytime soon, however, is Love Island.

Heidi has admitted she doesn’t feel she has “enough life experience” for the ITV2 dating show – and wouldn’t want mum Kerry watching her kiss someone on television.

She has also ruled out following her mum onto OnlyFans.

Speaking previously about her ambitions, Heidi said: “I couldn’t do OnlyFans. Mum has said I can’t do it either.

“It is not the route in life I want to take, I want to be a lawyer or a property developer.”

Heidi’s Dad is former taxi driver Mark Croft who Kerry also shares her son Max, 17, with.

The couple were married from 2007 to 2010, with Heidi born in 2007.

PRINCESS Andre has shared a brand new sneak peek of her highly anticipated makeup business ahead of its official launch.

The 18-year-old daughter of Katie Price and Peter Andre has even revealed the brand’s name to fans.

Princess is nearing her takeover of the beauty market and has now teased her launch for her very own brand, after landing huge beauty deals in the past. 

Taking to her Instagram, Princess can be seen at her preview launch with images of her and pink balloons in the background. 

The newfound beauty owner can be seen in white corset top, mouthing the words: “omg those makeup products you used are SO good.”

Following the popular online trend, makeup mogul Mitchell Halliday  replies: “They’re your products.”

Princess then adds an “oh yeah” before spinning around and blowing a kiss.

The pair were both shown holding makeup products presumably from Princess’ new line. 

The beauty guru added the caption: “Preview Launch, so excited to share with you all what I’ve been working on for so long (heart emoji).”

Alongside, she added the handle to her new brand’s beauty page that has already racked up thousands of followers. 

It’s revealed that the name of her business is set to be By Princess. 

Fans and celebrities alike flooded the stars comment section, GK Barry penned: “Congrats Queen (heart emoji)”

“Love you sweetie (heart emoji)” wrote proud dad Peter. 

Former Towie star Bobby Norris chimed: “Congrats darling!! Xx” which was echoed by Princess’ allegiance of fans.

News broke of Princess’ business venture last year following her second deal with high street giant Superdrug, as the face of their affordable cosmetics line, Studio London.

But now the star is ready to step out on her own and launch her own makeup line.

An insider at the time said: “Princess loves everything to do with make-up and people love her ‘get ready with me’ videos. 

“It’s very savvy of the teen to launch her own line, she knows everyone always wants to know what she’s using, so why not make her own?”

Princess has had a very successful few years, which has included landing her own reality show and passing her driving test, before splashing out on a brand new Audi A1. 

She has vowed to be a millionaire before she turns 20 and she’s well on her way. 

As well as working with Superdrug, she was also an ambassador for online retailer PrettyLittleThing, and launched her own jewellery range.

New reads abound for your vacation tote throughout the weeks of July, with fiction picks featuring a Carnival cruise casualty, a highly entertaining jewel heist at the Waldorf-Astoria, and a Soviet-era madcap adventure. In nonfiction, authors consider how we define wild places, how we pigeonhole the aging, and how languages live or die. Happy reading!

FICTION:

A Real Animal: A Novel
By Emeline Atwood
Catapult: 368 pp., $29
(July 7)
After surviving a sexual assault, narrator Lucy stalks her college campus as a leopard. Don’t spend too much time worrying about whether this transformation is real, or not; Lucy’s knowledge of her fierceness is the point, a fierceness she employs as she struggles to negotiate her independence from parents who wish she’d come home to recover and men who offer up their desires and ignore hers. It’s an astonishing debut with a compelling voice.

Man Overboard!: A Novel
By Kathleen Rooney
Gallery Books: 208 pp., $27
(July 7)
Readers expecting something akin to Rooney’s wondrous previous novel, “Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk,” should remember that that book followed “Cher Ami “ and “Major Whittlesey,” a story about a pigeon and a World War I Army officer. In other words, Rooney doesn’t repeat herself, and in “Man Overboard!” she’s concocted a hilarious adventure tale of a man floating in the Gulf of Mexico, adrift with himself, his thoughts, and a few sea creatures.

Astronaut!: A Novel
By Oana Aristides
W. W. Norton: 272 pp., $28
(July 14)
Imagine a dystopia set neither in the future nor in fantasy; that’s the 1989 Romania 7-year-old Lia inhabits, its adults living in fear of Communist dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu, its infrastructure strained by deprivation, and its reality so scrambled that calling an explorer an “astronaut” instead of “cosmonaut” risks punishment. When Lia sets out to buy her mother a birthday gift, she sets in motion a series of weirdly probable yet totally weird events.

City of Widows: A Novel
By Nadia Hashimi
William Morrow: 432 pp., $32
(July 28)
During the two decades of American occupation, Afghanistan experienced a sort of peace, one in which women could be educated, work as professionals, and even serve in the military. When the U.S. left in 2020, those same women found themselves — regardless of their individual status — subject to Taliban restrictions that deny differences in gender, desire and ambition. Hashimi (“Sparks Like Stars”) shows how desperate and daring the women become.

Cool Machine: A Novel
By Colson Whitehead
Doubleday: 368 pp., $30
(July 21)
First “Harlem Shuffle,” then “Crook Manifesto,” and now, “Cool Machine,” the highly anticipated “Harlem Trilogy” conclusion from the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning Whitehead. The inimitable Ray Carney, who started out as a minor criminal, is now Sterling Furniture’s “Northeast Regional Dealer of the Month,” a respected businessman. It’s the mid-1980s, and when Ray’s beloved wife Elizabeth gets turned down for a small-business loan, he takes matters into his own hands, in his own former ways.

NONFICTION:

How to Kill a Language: Power, Resistance, and the Race to Save Our Words
By Sophia Smith Galer
Crown: 304 pp., $33
(July 7)
Smith Galer’s nonna spoke an Italian she called “dialet”; her mother spoke “dialet” and English; Smith Galer herself speaks only English. What do we lose, the author asks, when a language dies? The answers she found are powerful, like an enzyme to treat HIV that was found in a tree that was discovered because a researcher spoke Samoan. Unsurprisingly, she also found that language death often corresponds to ecological and cultural devastation.

The Earth Said Remember Me: How to Revive Our Memories and Restore Our Planet
By Jason Dove Mark
W. W. Norton: 224 pp., $25
(July 14)
Perhaps art will be the thing that preserves the environment, even if humans can’t save it. “Go outside. Bear witness. Make a record. Pass it on,” writes Mark in this eloquent, impassioned plea for us all to remain involved in environmental action. The more we appreciate the natural world, the more we’ll want to care for it, share it with others, and help future generations understand how some changes are natural and not all are inevitable.

Aging Out: An Exploration of Caregiving, Community, and How Americans Grow Old
By Lucy Schiller
Flatiron Books: 272 pp., $30
(July 14)
Services for the elderly range from luxury assisted-living facilities to special digital devices meant to bypass phone scams, but as Schiller explains, these things not only commodify a natural life passage — they separate older people from their natural communities. The author was inspired to investigate our country’s aging population when she cared for a grandmother who died from COVID; the book weaves the personal with the political in a meaningful way.

Dad, Love, Me: A Memoir
By Matthew Quick
Avid Reader Press: 320 pp., $30
(July 21)
Novelist Quick (“The Silver Linings Playbook”) turns to memoir in recounting his contentious relationship with his father, whom he’s losing to dementia. While the author has had big highs (like the movie adaptation of “Playbook”), he’s also experienced deep lows, including alcoholism and severe creative block. Somehow, through recovery (which he credits to Jungian therapy), he affords both his imperfect, ailing parent and himself grace.

The Savage Landscape: How We Made the Wilderness
By Cal Flyn
Viking: 448 pp., $35
(July 28)
In “Downton Abbey”, the Dowager Duchess of Grantham starchily asked “What is a ‘weekend?’” In this book, journalist Cal Flyn asks — more affably, but with equal intensity — “What is a wilderness?” Her answer: Depends on your perspective. In other words, nearly every place on Earth teems with life. It’s only humans who have attached words like “wild” and “unexplored” to regions where they feel uncertain, afraid, and even awed.

Patrick is a freelance critic and author of the memoir “Life B.”

VICTORIA and David Beckham have celebrated 27 years of marriage with sweet tribute posts on their wedding anniversary.

The superstar couple said “I do” in 1999, and have been smitten with each other ever since.

Today, they thrilled fans when they each shared posts to commemorate their long and happy marriage.

Victoria, 52, posted a picture of herself lovingly kissing her husband on the cheek, and penned: “After 27 years of marriage, four amazing children and countless matching outfits, you’re still my *everything*.

“Happy anniversary!! I love you so much.”

While David, 51, shared a slew of pics from their time together, dating back to when they first met.

The smitten husband then wrote: “29 years together. 27 years married & you have given me everything I could ever wish for.

“Our proudest achievement will always be our family 🩷 I love you & Happy Anniversary.”

The famous couple said their “I do’s” on July 4, 1999, with their first-born Brooklyn as their ring bearer.

The big day came after the two started dating in 1997 and Becks popped the question the following year.

Posh and Becks sat on golden thrones at the altar and spent all the money needed to have their dream wedding.

According to reports, they splashed out around £500,000, making it one of the most extravagant celebrity weddings.

Along with Brooklyn, the couple also share three more children – Romeo, 23, Cruz, 21, and Harper, 14.

However, their eldest son is currently embroiled in a bitter estrangement with David and Victoria.

In January, Brooklyn made a dozen explosive accusations in a ruthless statement hitting out at his family.

The aspiring chef called out his famous parents for their “inauthenticity”, accused them of making bribes and scolded the family for their treatment of his wife on their wedding day.

In a shock move, he also sent his parents a legal notice warning they can only contact him via lawyers.

In the extraordinary “desist” letter, he also instructed them not to “tag” him on social media.

But in a surprising twist, last month Brooklyn filmed a World Cup advert taking a savage swipe at his family’s estrangement.

It showed the eldest Beckham boy throwing down his match tickets onto the coffee table, which appeared to show a £250,000 designer watch gifted to him by his dad and a stack of unopened letters.

The ad went live on social media after we revealed Brooklyn spurned his sister Harper’s attempt at a reconciliation.

The teenager was pictured delivering a letter to the house Brooklyn shares with his wife Nicola Peltz, 31.

They quickly hit back at the Beckhams, claiming the letter felt like an “orchestrated move by his family” – insisting it “made them feel uncomfortable.”

A spokesman for the couple added: “That photographers were in place as the letter was hand-delivered says it all.

“This was choreographed for the cameras.”

But a source close to the Beckhams called it “another untrue and unfair accusation”.

About six months after Toni Morrison died in the summer of 2019, Literary Cleveland began hosting annual community tribute parties on the Nobel Prize-winning author’s birthday, Feb. 18. Lorain, Ohio — a suburb of Cleveland — is where Morrison was born and raised, and where she set several of her novels. During these gatherings, participants were prompted to read aloud from their favorite Morrison works, and share why they savored those particular lines.

Over time, these meetings began to feel increasingly intimate, even “sacred,” according to Literary Cleveland’s Executive Director Matt Weinkam, which prompted him, in tandem with Ohio Humanities head Rebecca Asmo, to brainstorm how to take their program state-wide. “This is Toni Morrison, one of our greatest writers,” Weinkam recalls thinking. “We needed to do something bigger.”

At the time, Weinkam and Osmo were also trying to figure out how to commemorate America’s semiquincentennial. Weinkam was listening to Morrison’s entire oeuvre on audio and realized that when you organize the 11 novels in a certain order, “they tell the history of America.” So how, he thought, “could you use the literature of Toni Morrison to view our country through a different lens — through her lens?” He says they knew honoring Morrison as a consequential figure not just in literature but also in the context of American history would be central to Ohio’s celebration of the semiquincentennial.

“[But] only as the project was coming together did we strike on the fact that her novels trace American history from ‘A Mercy,’ set in 1690, through ‘God Help the Child,’ in the 2010s. Not only does her work re-center African Americans in the story of our country, it also tackles major events from our founding, through slavery, to the impact of Jim Crow, to the great migration and beyond.”

In the months leading up to the 250th anniversary, they decided to bring the Morrison salons they were curating in Cleveland to all 88 Ohio counties. For assistance they connected with Britt Lovett, a strategist, community leader and fellow Morrison acolyte.

“People say that reading Toni Morrison is challenging,” says Lovett. “[But] reading Toni Morrison is like my grandmother speaking to me.”

In February, on what would have been Morrison’s 95th birthday, they officially launched “Beloved: Ohio Celebrates Toni Morrison,” a yearlong homage including readings, workshops, lectures and a monthly book club that meets on Sunday evenings. They intentionally programmed the book club so that it would take readers through our U.S. history utilizing Morrison’s vision: Weinkam proposed reading Morrison’s novels in the order in which they are set rather than the order in which they were published. “That simple shift,” says Lovett, “changed everything.”

They began with “A Mercy,” one of Morrison’s later novels, published in 2008 — which is set in the late 17th century, before slavery took hold and the country became “racialized.” Next came “Beloved,” then “Sula” and “Jazz.” “Experiencing the novels this way reveals how Morrison traced generations of Black American life across centuries of our nation’s history,” Lovett says. “What may appear to be individual stories become part of a larger narrative about memory, freedom, family, belonging and the ongoing project of America itself.”

For Morrison, writing fiction was a form of “literary archaeology,” excavating history, and how the past hovers over the present. Her quest was what she termed “rememory.”

Eddie S. Glaude Jr. is a Princeton professor and author of “America, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows the Nation’s Anniversaries” who has studied Morrison. “She understood the ongoing national effort to disremember — this startling combination of dismembering and remembering — to protect the innocence of America,” Glaude says. “Instead, her novels relentlessly expose the horror and the magisterial efforts on the part of ordinary people to overcome them. In doing so, she takes us to the beating heart of this fragile experiment — something we desperately need to remember in this 250th year of the country.”

In 1973, as an editor at Random House, Morrison published and collaborated with collectors in compiling “The Black Book,” a seminal volume that tells the story of the African American experience in America in the form of an encyclopedic scrapbook that spans from 1619 through the 1940s. There is no narrator, and this is intentional. The visuals — newspaper clippings, slave auction notices, patent applications by Black inventors, photographs, sheet music, relate their own powerful story “Black life as lived” — great joy juxtaposed with the tragedy and legacy of slavery. From her work on that groundbreaking assemblage emerged the idea for “Beloved,” which won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

Nearly seven years after Morrison’s death at 88, we are living in a golden age of Morrisonia. Three extraordinary new books, published this year, shed light on the brilliance and complexity of Morrison’s life and work, and place her as an American eminence, a visionary who saw fiction as a means through which to recast her country’s story. “On Morrison” by Namwali Serpell; “Toni at Random: The Iconic Writer’s Legendary Editorship” by Dana Williams; and a posthumously published collection of Morrison essays entitled “Language as Liberation: Reflections on the American Canon.” Serpell writes that “Morrison has shaped the way we think about everything.” Morrison herself said that she wrote to “think the unthinkable,” to write novels that were “relentlessly black,” giving no deference to the “white gaze.” Her refusal to sugarcoat the interior and exterior lives of her characters, whether enslaved or traumatized by the past — by events in American history — was purposeful.

“You’re confronted with horrific acts of violence,” Serpell says. “Not to present it in spectacular fashion, nor to feed any kind of voyeuristic or prurient interest on the part of the audience, but to use quiet language — beautiful language — in order to actually get us to step back and think about why this violence is happening and where it’s coming from.”

In that way, Morrison’s work was always a radical experiment — and is perhaps why, according to the American Library Assn., “The Bluest Eye” her 1970 debut — continues to be one of the most frequently “challenged” books in the U.S. “Beloved” runs a close second. But this also is among the reasons her books are considered must-reads in the classroom, and contemporary classics.

John Freeman is an executive editor at Knopf who oversees Morrison’s publishing program. “Her books persist today because they beckon us doubly: they invite us to look clearly at what America is, to come to grips with the fantasies and shadows developed to avoid this awful knowledge,” Freeman says. “They also tell us one phenomenal love story after another.”

Through her book club, cultural icon Oprah Winfrey introduced millions of readers to Morrison by featuring four of the author’s novels. “From ‘The Bluest Eye’ through ‘Beloved,’ ‘Jazz,’ ‘Home,’ ‘A Mercy’ and ‘Love,’ Morrison’s words have helped me become more of myself,” Winfrey says. “She understands the lives of Black women like no one else I’ve ever read. Reading her, I’ve often felt seen in places I didn’t know how to name.”

In Morrison’s essays, lectures and other public comments — including as a professor at Princeton for nearly two decades — she occupied the role of public intellectual, always teaching us how to view America’s evolution as a country, and how it became “racialized.”

In a Granta interview conducted late in her life, she challenged the interviewer to consider that the concept of “whiteness” is peculiarly American: “Think about it, “ she prompted. “If you come to this country from Germany or Russia, or anywhere you got off the boat, got on the land, in order to become an American, you have to be white. That’s the quality that brings the country, its people together — having a non-white population. My concept is that if you were from Sweden, you were Swedish. You didn’t have to say, ‘I’m a white Swede.’ You know what I’m saying?”

As we prepare to celebrate America’s 250th, it’s useful to reflect on how Morrison viewed the intersection of fiction, history and memory, how the mission of her fiction was to uncover truths omitted by the standard historical records and history’s “sages.” In her 1987 essay, “The Site of Memory,” she utilized a river as a metaphor to discuss how imagination excavates forgotten histories and people. “All water,” she wrote, “has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was. Writers are like that: remembering where we were.”

Haber is a writer, editor and publishing strategist, and co-founder of the Ink Book Club on Substack. She was director of Oprah’s Book Club and books editor for O, the Oprah Magazine.

A MAJOR US band has cancelled all of their UK tour dates including a massive headline festival appearance. 

The popular nineties group pulled out of their tour just hours before their first UK show due to “medical issues”, leaving fans devastated. 

The American punk rock band, Alkaline Trio, have revealed to fans the sad news that they are unable to continue on their UK tour. 

Frontman Matt Skiba, Dan Andriano and Tosh Peterson make up the Chicago originated group.

The trio were all set to perform last night in Birmingham but hours before the show was set to start, the band released a statement on social media.

It read: “We are immensely sorry but we must cancel our dates in England, including tonight’s show in Birmingham, due to medical issues Matt has been suffering from that have worsened.

“He’s gonna be okay but needs to be treated stateside as soon as possible.

“We will be back healthier and stronger!

“Refunds are available at the point of purchase.”

Not only will the band miss their upcoming UK tour dates to return to the States, but they have also been forced to cancel their highly anticipated headline performance at 2000trees Festival. 

Frontman Matt went on to share a video to fans from London Heathrow Airport, expressing his gratitude for “all the love and support”.

He added: “You guys deserve a better show than I can throw right now. I got numbness in my feet, numbness in my hands as you can tell I’m losing my voice so I can’t really talk, walk, play or sing. But I’m okay.”

After the news broke fans rushed to the comments, one user said: “Sorry to hear this and get well soon.

“Have flights and accommodation booked for the Manchester gig on Wednesday as no Dublin date. Dang.”

Another added: “Gutted to hear this guys, was so looking forward to seeing you again in London tomorrow, but know this decision wouldn’t have been taken lightly. Get well soon Matt.”

“Me looking at my tickets for London and 2000trees (crying emoji) Get well soon, Matt! Wishing you a speedy recovery fam,” a third added.

“It is what it is. Just a shame cus I was literally about to leave my hotel when I saw the message,” penned a fourth.

The band, whose name derived from Matt Skiba simply flicking through a dictionary to find a cool word to stick in front of the “Trio”, was founded in 1996 and went on to sell over a million albums.

Matt is well known for serving as the co-lead vocalist and guitarist of Blink-182 from 2015 to 2022.

Alkaline Trio are best known for songs like ‘Stupid Kid’ and ‘Private eye’. 

The band shot to fame when they released their debut single ‘Sundials’, in 1997.

A hypnotizing deep dish of star wattage, family meltdowns, racial tensions and Texas-sized steaks served for breakfast, George Stevens’ 1956 drama was taken extremely seriously in its moment — 10 Oscar nominations seriously. The most notable of those were for Rock Hudson and, competing against him in lead actor, a posthumously honored James Dean. Taken together, the two represent a fascinating dichotomy that was happening in screen acting, a burrowing into psychology that was leaving other more traditional stars behind. (Elizabeth Taylor and Mercedes McCambridge make for another great pairing in the movie.) Roughly 25 years later, the film would inspire the TV series “Dallas,” even down to having a main character with the initials J.R. Go luxuriate in the original epic.

“Giant” is playing Sunday at the Academy Museum. Tickets here.

The bass legend and superproducer Don Was didn’t expect to be covering Curtis Mayfield’s Civil Rights-era anthem “This Is My Country” on the road in 2026. But lately, the chaos in the United States made the song seem regrettably apropos.

“It wasn’t supposed to still feel potent. It was supposed to be something that served a moment,” said Was, who included the defiant single on his 2025 album “Groove In the Face of Adversity.”

“It’s shocking to be here in 2026 and, whatever distance we traveled from 1966 until now, to see it all get reset,” Was said. “That song’s a more powerful statement now than it was then. It was inconceivable that it would still be relevant — this is supposed to be the utopian age of Aquarius. This is not the way it was supposed to turn out.”

Was remembers the tumult, violence and hope that came out of that era in his hometown of Detroit. The city’s music, famed for rough-hewn virtuosity from blues to soul to techno, is the spring that waters “Adversity.” It is, remarkably, the 73-year-old’s first solo album after a career spanning the pioneering electro-pop band Was (Not Was) and deep producer relationships with the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Bonnie Raitt.

He also spent years in Bob Weir & Wolf Bros with the late Grateful Dead founder, and will play from the Dead’s landmark “Blues for Allah” on his tour that stops at Lodge Room on July 7.

With a backing band of studio killers dubbed the Pan-Detroit Ensemble, “Adversity” has an expansive modern atmosphere, yet a lived-in, filament-bulb quality in the playing that carries through funk, jazz, rock and R&B. It’s largely a covers record, but you wouldn’t know it from the depth of the revisions — veering from the Yusef Lateef standard “Nubian Lady” to Hank Williams’ “I Ain’t Got Nothin’ But Time,” closing with funk group Cameo’s “Insane.”

“I’ve been carrying it around in my head for 30 years,” Was said. “This first album to me is really a handshake, a ‘nice to meet you,’ this jambalaya of Detroit sounds.” While much of the source material comes from elsewhere, the cumulative mood is extremely personal to an artist who has spent his life helping the greats find true expression.

“I’ve come to admire artists who are willing to go in deep inside their most personal thoughts for the sake of helping the listener understand their own lives,” he said. “To help them deal with the trauma of being human — especially in these times, man.”

Tops on that list is the late Grateful Dead founder Bob Weir — who died in January at 78 — as a model for a band staying fearless and uncompromising. Was, still heartbroken about the loss of his friend and bandmate, recalled their first time on tour.

“When Bobby called asking me to play bass with the Wolf Bros, I thought at the very least, this is going to be a master class in losing self-consciousness and forgetting about fear,” Was said. “If the band stumbled, the audience wouldn’t walk out. They appreciated the fact that you were trying to do something new for them. Then there’d be a couple moments every night with an incredible exchange between the musicians and you can feel the audience becoming a member of the band.”

Playing the Dead’s “Blues for Allah” on this tour — an LP rooted in Middle Eastern scales, pirouetting time signatures and improvisational telepathy — put him in communion with his old friend.

“I used to think that songs like ‘King Solomon’s Marbles’ were just jams and conversations on the spot. But when we really got into it, there’s a form underneath and you can take tremendous liberty with that form,” Was said.

Was’ production career was built on a similar principle.

His early band Was (Not Was) remains a visionary electro-pop act with subtle, salient politics. “Out Come the Freaks” is a favorite on Pride month dance floors — “If you just wanted to do poppers and dance all night, it worked, and if you wanted to think about the government careening out of control, it worked too,” Was said of the band’s club material.

The late Ozzy Osbourne sang on the band’s international hit “Shake Your Head,” alongside a winking, very game Kim Basinger. The actor was a replacement after Madonna backed out, leaving the proto-rave tune one of the era’s most unlikely collaborations.

He recalled Ozzy fondly. “In 1975, this folk group I was in booked us to open for Black Sabbath at the Toledo Sports Arena, playing for a bunch of 14-year-old white boys on amphetamines,” Was said. “They weren’t having it. I’ve heard the tape of that show, and the drummer was bleeding from being hit by so many bottles that we had to stop playing. That was my first exposure to Ozzy, so I was a little afraid to do the session, but he was up for an adventure.”

A Stones confidant and producer from 1994’s “Voodoo Lounge” up until 2023’s “Hackney Diamonds” (where Andrew Watt took the helm), Was had nothing but praise for the band, and still admits to a twinge of fandom in their presence.

“There’s never been a day in the studio with the Rolling Stones where I didn’t look around the room and go, ‘Oh my God,’” he said. “I’ve known Mick for over 30 years, but the last time they played L.A. at SoFi Stadium, Mick came walking down that stage and I was like, ‘Wow, there he is, it’s 1965 again.’”

With Dylan, he recalled the mercurial genius’ impish side. “I was producing Dylan, and George Harrison came in to play guitar. Bob was messing with him, Bob pushed the engineer aside and he ran the tape machine. George had never heard the song before, didn’t know what key it was in, and Bob just starts the tape. George played a respectable solo, but clearly it was rough. Bob, just to be funny, stopped the machine and said ‘That’s it, perfect.’ George turns to me and said, ‘What do you think, Don?’ And Bob goes, “Yeah, what do you think, Don?’ I’m looking at these two guys and time slowed down. I remembered trying to sell my car to get a ticket to go to New York to see the Concert for Bangladesh. Now they’re asking me what I think. I was paralyzed.”

“A voice appeared in my head,” he said, “Telling me, ‘He’s not paying you to be a fan.‘ So I said to George, ‘It was good, man. Let’s see if we can beat it.’ You can’t allow the iconography to dictate the outcome in the studio. You have to put that aside.”

As president of Blue Note Records, the estimable jazz label he’s led for more than a decade, Was relentlessly looks forward. He’s released restless modern records by Domi & JD Beck, Fathers, Makaya McCraven and Julian Lage (the hotshot jazz guitarist now playing with Dylan). He’s refreshingly optimistic about challenging music in streaming’s ruthless economy.

“Don’t make music for the delivery system,” Was said. “I don’t think about streaming, I think about touching people. If you do that, nothing has changed fundamentally in the music business. If your purpose is to get under people’s skin and make them feel something, that’s the same job it was for Mozart. How people listen can keep changing, but I don’t think the palette of human emotion changes, and that’s who you’re addressing.”

Was came from a working-class industrial city, making music reflective of Detroit’s technological upheaval and economic neglect. “Adversity” is a beacon to keep playing in spite of everything.

“I think that the salvation of musicians is that no matter what happens, what technological advancements come along, there’s still nothing like the experience of being in the same room as people who are playing together,” Was said. “It’s always been tough, man. It’s harder these days to buy a Ferrari as a musician, but I don’t know that that’s necessary. I have total confidence that the opportunity is there for anybody who is willing to give the audience a meaningful experience.”

COMMUTERS were left stunned when they realised they were sharing a train platform with A-list acting royalty.

One eagle-eyed passenger spotted a Hollywood star casually waiting at the station before boarding a train – but would you recognise her?

With no security team in sight and not even a friend with her, Margot Robbie was seen alone at a Paris train station.

Disguised beneath a huge floppy hat, the actress blended into the commuters going through the station as she patiently waited for her train to arrive.

The 35-year-old stood scrolling on her phone, seemingly oblivious to both the video being recorded and the excited fans around her.

An onlooker later shared the clip online, soundtracked by a song from Barbie, the blockbuster film in which Margot famously starred.

In the short video, the fan appeared unable to believe their luck after spotting the Australian-born actress.

Fans quickly took to the comments to speculate about why Margot might be in the French capital, with one suggesting she is likely gearing up for filming of the new Ocean’s 11 prequel.

Production on the prequel is expected to begin in Paris in July before moving to the south of France, 

The movie is set at the 1962 Monaco Grand Prix and filming is set to take place in Nice and Monaco from August to October.

The film, which Margot is producing and which stars and is directed by Bradley Cooper, is due for release next summer.

Another commenter said the fan should have introduced themselves, before sharing their own story about meeting the actress.

They wrote: “In 2022, I met her and her husband in a small pub in the Lake District, of all places.

“I had just got engaged 10 minutes earlier, so everything already felt surreal. I went over to her table and told her about the engagement. She was the first person I told and the first person to congratulate me.

“She introduced herself and was just so, so lovely. I love telling that story.”

Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.

July is another month absolutely packed with essential repertory screenings at venues all over Los Angeles. It’s genuinely impossible to attend everything that feels like a must-see. Joshua Rothkopf and I compiled a list of the 10 movies you need to see in L.A. this month to help in making some tough decisions.

On Monday at the Academy Museum will be a 30th anniversary screening of Wes Anderson’s debut feature, “Bottle Rocket,” which introduced the world to his still-evolving mix of whimsy and melancholy with an unmistakably specific sense of style. Anderson will make a rare Los Angeles appearance at the event, along with actor Luke Wilson and producer James L. Brooks.

The New Beverly will have a double bill on July 9 and 10 of Paul Brickman’s “Risky Business” and Steve De Jarnatt’s “Miracle Mile,” two neon-drenched artifacts of the 1980s that both feature scores by the German electronic group Tangerine Dream. (Be sure to also note the screening of “Sorcerer,” featuring another of their pulsing scores, below.)

On July 10 there will be a 35mm screening at the Academy Museum of Brian De Palma’s paranoid 1981 thriller “Blow Out,” starring John Travolta as a sound recordist who accidentally captures a political assassination. Anyone who still hasn’t gotten enough from the Fourth of July will want to see this for the thrilling fireworks display as part of its finale.

On July 12 at the American Cinematheque’s Los Feliz Theatre will be a screening of Alexander Mackendrick’s show-biz noir “Sweet Smell of Success” in 35mm with an introduction from filmmaker Shane Black, who presumably learned a thing or two about snappy, acid-drenched dialogue from the film. Black will also be appearing at the Culver Theater on July 22 for a 10th anniversary screening of his crime comedy “The Nice Guys.”

As part of the American Cinematheque’s ongoing 70mm festival, on the 22nd there will be a screening of Damien Chazelle’s 2022 “Babylon,” a bold and ambitious look at the early days of Hollywood starring Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt. It was a box office disaster when it came out but has already seen a passionate fan base grow around it.

Have a killer holiday

There is something rather wholesome about the fact that Steven Spielberg’s 1975 seaside horror-thriller “Jaws” has become the official unofficial movie of the Fourth of July. Set amid a beach community suddenly beset by a great white shark as the town prepares for the holiday, the movie is a mix of ’70s-style ramshackle, good-natured ease and precison-tooled action that prefigures the blockbuster era of the ’80s. Even now at more than 50 years old, there is something undeniable about the movie’s ability to entertain, delight and terrify an audience.

This weekend “Jaws” is playing at venues all over the city, including the Frida Cinema and the Academy Museum, as well as Vidiots, the Gardena Cinema and other theaters.

An underground masterpiece

When acclaimed avant-garde filmmaker Ken Jacobs died last year at age 92, the world lost one of its most singular voices. In tribute to Jacobs and as a celebration of the 250th anniversary of America, on Sunday at 2220 Arts + Archives, Los Angeles Filmforum will show his “Star Spangled to Death,” a six-and-a-half-hour masterpiece that took decades to complete.

Beginning work on the project in the 1950s, Jacobs would eventually premiere the film in 2004. It is an epic compilation of his own imagery, some of it of his longtime friend and colleague Jack Smith, along with found footage that coalesces into a grand statement on nothing less than the state of the nation. Jacobs himself described the film as a portrait of “a stolen and dangerously sold-out America, allowing examples of popular culture to self-indict.”

A tribute to Marjane Satrapi

In tribute to Iranian French cartoonist and filmmaker Marjane Satrapi, who died at age 56 last month, the Los Feliz 3 will have a 35mm screening of her 2007 animated film “Persepolis” on Thursday. Director Ana Lily Amirpour will introduce the movie, which was nominated for an Oscar for animated feature.

Based on Satrapi’s own autobiographical graphic novel, “Persepolis” is about a young girl coming of age during Iran’s Islamic Revolution told with bold line drawings and a belief in the freedom of the imagination.

Love, crime and sweat

Some movies arrive seeming ready made as cult revival objects. Ross Glass’ 2024 “Love Lies Bleeding” was overlooked when it was first released but seems ripe for rediscovery. In a story that knowingly plays with the motifs of classic film noir and crime dramas, Kristen Stewart plays a hapless, easily manipulated loner in a small dead-end town who falls in with a mysterious and charismatic drifter played by Katy O’Brian. Their chemistry is electric and gives the film a real charge.

The film will show on Thursday at the Frida Cinema as part of its ongoing Nu-Classics series, along with a conversation between actors and online personalities Maggie Mae Fish and Abigail Thorn.

In an interview at the time of release, Glass talked about the film’s appeal, saying, “It’s people meeting each other and falling in love for the first time and those whirlwind sort of first few weeks. Going into it, I don’t think I was specifically thinking of it as horny, but I definitely knew going into it that I wanted it to feel sweaty and intense.”

Road to nowhere

Though it is a movie we have talked about here before, it is always worth mentioning when there is a screening of William Friedkin’s 1977 “Sorcerer.” It will be playing tonight in the main room at the Academy Museum in a recent 4K restoration, which should be big and loud. The score by Tangerine Dream should be even more brain-rattling than usual in that venue.

The film notoriously first opened a week after “Star Wars” in 1977 and was left in the dust, though it has more recently become revered as one of Friedkin’s best — a movie of relentless, ratcheting tension. An adaptation of the novel that also inspired 1953’s “Wages of Fear,” Friedkin’s film is about a group of desperate men, each on the run from something, who must transport a truckload of nitroglycerine through a dangerous South American jungle.

New this week

• Amy Nicholson found “Minions & Monsters” to be a “delightful dingbat homage to Tinseltown set during the transition from silents to sound.”
• Carlos Aguilar spoke to Minions creator Pierre Coffin about all the old-school movie homages in the new film and its cameo from no less a film figure than George Lucas.
• Katie Walsh reviews Jon Erwin’s “Young Washington,” calling it “propaganda in the form of a history lesson wrapped in a summer blockbuster.”
• Tim Grierson reviews “Romería,” an autobiographical tale from Spanish writer-director Carla Simón starring newcomer Llúcia Garcia, noting “Simón and her star bracingly recall the electricity of youth.”

Celebrity Gogglebox fans were left baffled after a famous face failed to make an appearance on the programme

A familiar face on Celebrity Gogglebox was missing from the latest instalment.

The Channel 4 spin-off show returned to screens on Friday (July 3) for a brand new episode, welcoming back firm favourites, such as Denise Van Outen and Johnny Vaughan, Nick Grimshaw and niece Liv and pals Richie Anderson and Ellie Simmonds.

There are several new additions to the new series too, including Olivia Attwood and her mum Jennifer, and Harry and Matt aka Nitro and Legend from Gladiators.

Finishing off the line-up are Strictly star George Clark and content creator Max Balegde, as well as comedian and actor, Julian Clary and actor and television presenter, Nigel Havers.

But for the latest instalment of the beloved show, instead of comedians Babatunde Aleshe and Mo Gilligan – who film in South London – making an appearance, Mo was with fellow comedian and I’m A Celebrity star Eddie Kadi, with Babatunde absent.

Reacting to Babatunde being missing, one confused person wrote on X: “Where’s @BabatundeComedy tonight @MoTheComedian?” Meanwhile on Gogglebox’s Instagram, Mo shared a video of him and Eddie which also left fans puzzled by Babatunde’s absence. “BABATUNDE?! WHERE THE HELL IS HE?!” declared a second fan. A third wrote: “Where’s Babatunde?”

Meanwhile, talking about being on Celebrity Gogglebox, new star Olivia Attwood said it “was chaotic but in the best possible way”. She explained: “It’s not often that we agree on things which I think the viewers may find entertaining.

“My family are huge fans of the show so it’s a real honour to be a part of such an iconic British programme.”

Strictly 2025 finalist George Clarke also said: “I loved it, mainly because it gave me a full excuse to take the mick out of Max on national TV.

“He reacts to everything, so you’re never bored. It’s so easy to get into as well, you just sit there, say exactly what you’re thinking, and before you know it, we’ve gone completely off track!”

Coronation Street legend Nigel Havers also shared: “It’s a dream come true working with Julian on Gogglebox. I can’t think of a better way to spend an evening… (Julian wrote this).”

Celebrity Gogglebox airs at 9pm on Friday at Channel 4

JOHN Torode’s wife Lisa Faulkner has given fans an emotional update after revealing her shock breast cancer diagnosis.

The 54-year-old announced the news on Thursday and divulged that she had already undergone surgery and will be moving onto a course of radiotherapy.

She took to her Instagram stories today to thank her fans for all of their support over the last 24 hours.

Lisa penned: “Thank you for all of your support and your lovely messages. i promise I will read every word.

“So many of you going through this or someone who is. Your love and kindness has really touched me and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

The former EastEnders actress told her fans yesterday why she’d been quiet on social media.

She divulged: “I know I’ve been very quiet on here, reason being I have had to have surgery for the early stages of breast cancer.

“I had surgery two weeks ago, it was quite a big op but it’s all good and I’ve my results back and they’ve got everything out.

“So it’s all clear and I just need now to have some radiotherapy in a few weeks.

“I just wanted to say I’ve got a bit of healing to do but I’m good. I’m well and feeling so much better and I’m so grateful I went for my mammogram.

“I just wanted to say don’t put them off, go, because they found this and without that mammogram it wouldn’t have been picked up.

“Thank you to our wonderful NHS and the fact we can have these mammograms and we can get treatment early.”

Within moments of her sharing the difficult news, Lisa was inundated with support from her famous pals and followers.

Actress Tamzin Outhwaite said: “Love you Lise. You’ve got this my darling.”

Another added: “Sending so much love your way, lovely xx.”

Before a third said: “Sending love and hugs.”

Lisa is best known for her various acting roles and in recent years has become prolific as a TV chef.

Her famous telly husband John Torode has yet to comment on the gutting news about his partner.

It is the latest in a long line of blows for John who was sacked from his role on MasterChef following an investigation at the BBC.

He was given the boot from the programme following an investigation which was launched based upon the conduct of his co-star, Gregg Wallace.

DETAILS from Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s elaborate wedding have been revealed, including the custom dress the singer wore and who stood beside them on their big day.

The couple exchanged vows on Friday at Madison Square Garden in New York City in an extravagant ceremony.

The U.S. Sun obtained a press release from Taylor’s rep shortly after the nuptials, which revealed some specifics about the special occasion.

Both the bride’s and groom’s looks were created by Christian Dior Haute Couture, designed by Jonathan Anderson, Creative Director of Dior Women’s, Men’s, and Haute Couture Collections, in close collaboration with the newlyweds.

Their shoes were custom-made by Christian Louboutin, and Taylor wore Cartier jewelry, per the release.

Some fans had already suspected that Taylor would wear a Christian Dior gown after she appeared to drop an Easter egg during an outing in April.

Taylor stepped out with a buttercup yellow Dior bag from Anderson’s debut show in the spring, leading many to speculate that she’d chosen him as the designer for her wedding dress.

The “royal wedding” is the designer’s first couture wedding dress for a world-renowned celebrity.

The lovebirds also did not have the traditional bridesmaids or groomsmen; instead, Taylor’s brother, Austin Swift, served as her Man of Honor, and Travis‘ brother, Jason Kelce, served as his Best Man.

It was a day to remember for the pair and their guests, as comedian and friend Adam Sandler officiated the ceremony.

Screens outside The Garden flashed signs that read, “JUST&T MARRIED!” about an hour after the ceremony began.

Fans showed their love for the beloved couple, gathering outside the venue and singing Taylor’s hit song, Love Story.

The reception is currently underway, continuing the three-day wedding festivities with 1,000 guests in attendance.

Rumors previously circulated that Taylor and Travis had already tied the knot in a private ceremony in Tennessee.

However, The U.S. Sun exclusively spoke to a relative of Taylor’s before the ceremony, who assured that the NYC bash would be the couple’s first wedding.

It was previously believed that Taylor’s BFFs, Selena Gomez and Gigi Hadid, were a part of the songstress’s bridal party.

It was also thought that Taylor’s childhood best friend, Abigail Anderson, would serve as her Maid of Honor.

Abigail made a major faux pas with her wedding ensemble when she was seen wearing the exact same $800 Sau Lee dress as Laura Kruk, the fiancée of New York Giants wide receiver Juju Smith-Schuster.

Hundreds of other celebrity guests stunned in their “black tie” ensembles, including Ed Sheeran, Karlie Kloss, Bradley Cooper, Dakota Johnson, and Ellie Goulding.

Many of Travis’ NFL buddies and their wives also attended the big event.

The high-profile affair prompted a massive police presence, street closures, and parking restrictions around the venue.

The U.S. Sun exclusively revealed that some NYPD cops expressed their frustrations over the large-scale event taking place during a near record-setting heat wave and the July 4 holiday.

Police have also posted up outside of Taylor’s $50 million Tribeca compound, which served as the headquarters for the wedding day.

It doesn’t appear the chaos will die down anytime soon, as the festivities are expected to continue into the weekend.

No other public events have been booked at the venue until next week.