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GK Barry was yelled out by a celebrity teammate during Soccer Aid after she ignored a pass to instead dance with the crowd just seconds into her time on the pitch

GK Barry appeared to leave a Soccer Aid teammate frustrated just moments into her time on the pitch. The Loose Women star was yelled at by Tom Grennan after she was too busy dancing with the crowd to see him pass her the ball.

The 26-year-old influencer, whose real name is Grace Keeling, was on England’s team at this year’s charity match and came on after replacing Tom Hiddleston in the 41st minute of the game. She quickly got the ball and passed it to Grennan, then turned to the crowd to celebrate, but missed Grennan’s return pass.

As Keeling celebrated, Grennan kicked the ball back to her and it rolled out of play. He appeared to yell something at her, gesturing to where the ball had rolled out of bounds, before turning his back.

Fans thought Keeling’s antics were “hilarious”. One said: “GK Barry in soccer aid is absolutely sending me”. Another added: “Literally love GK Barry so much”. A third said: “GK Barry is hilarious”. One called it an “all time soccer aid moment”.

Prior to the match, GK Barry sat down with Mirror to talk about Soccer Aid, particularly what her footballer girlfriend Ella Rutherford thought of it. “She’s really excited,” Keeling revealed. “I’ve never been one to understand football; I’ve never had the chance, but I feel like she’s loving telling me about it. She’s like ‘This is a corner’, and I’m like ‘OK’.”

Keeling joked that she and Rutherford were “swapping roles” and she was going to be “signing up to Portsmouth”. She also revealed how her girlfriend was helping her prepare for the match.

“I’m learning how to dribble,” she laughed, adding: “Learning what goal is ours that we have to shoot in. Ella’s got me on a high protein diet, which is hell – I’ve been doing a lot of that, a lot of eggs, a lot of mince, it’s disgusting but I’m hoping that will make me automatically become a footballer.”

As for advice on how to be on the pitch, Keeling says she’s noticed Rutherford is “very good at stopping people getting the ball”. But Barry is a “wuss”. “Her main thing is, you need to control the ball,” she explained, adding: “I get scared – if I’ve got a six-foot man coming towards me trying to get the ball, he might have to have it.”

Despite her excitement for Soccer Aid, Keeling joked it wasn’t her “bag”. She said: “Because I’ve watched Ella do it i sort of maybe kind of know what to expect a little bit, that’s what I’m telling myself.” But, the thought of 60,000 people attending is giving Grace the fear.

“I have a thing, I forget how to walk if I think someone behind me is looking at me,” she said, adding: “I do fear that I may skip onto the pitch or something like that. But it should be exciting, it’s the biggest thing I’ve done.” And despite being terrified she may embarrass herself, that doesn’t matter for Keeling as she’s taking part in an “amazing” event.

And Keeling admits that aligning herself with such a positive cause is “nice” for her due to the ages of her audience. “I think it’s amazing to tie in with that,” she said, adding: “Our team, there are so many types of people in different bits of the industry, so the amount of people we’ll be able to bring in and donate to the charity is amazing.”

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MADE In Chelsea stars Jamie Laing and his wife Sophie Habboo have come under fire for not having their baby properly secured while riding in a car.

The couple earned the wrath of fans for a clip in a video montage tribute Jamie made of Sophie which showed her holding their son Ziggy, six months, in the back of a car while it drove at speed down a motorway.

It also appeared that while Ziggy was not restrained in his infant seat, Sophie was also not wearing a seatbelt.

If the footage was filmed while they travelled on a motorway in the UK, then they would have been in violation road safety rules.

Children must be “in the correct car seat for their height or weight until they reach 135 centimetres tall or their 12th birthday, whichever is first,” according to road rules.

A violation of the above rule could result in a £500 fine, though the rule does not apply if the infant is travelling in a licensed taxi.

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There are some exemptions for wearing a seatbelt for adults, including some medical exemptions, but it is not known if these apply to Sophie.

A representative for Jamie declined to comment when approached by The Sun Online.

Jamie had posted the montage celebrating their son’s six month birthday, but to mainly pay tribute to Sophie and her achievements as a new mum.

However, their fans were not pleased about the baby not being in his car seat and let them know in the comments.

“Oh my goodness, you’re on a motorway, you’re not wearing a seatbelt and Ziggy is not in a car seat?!! Guys?!!! This is not good at all!!!” wrote one person.

Another added: “No seat belt with a baby are you for real.”

But some others stepped in to defend the couple and argued people should not judge them without knowing their circumstances.

“Everyone jumping on the carseat. What sad people you are, of all of the things you could get from this beautiful post you chose to judge her on that? Cos they aren’t allowed to have a misstep or a valid reason for not having it.”

A second person agreed: “Right, could also have been a taxi which makes it legal. Not everyone carries a car seat around with them.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has denied Bill Cosby’s request for a new trial after a civil jury recently found he was liable for $19 million in damages in a sexual assault case.

Judge Bradley S. Phillips ruled Friday that Cosby did not prove there was “any irregularity” in the court proceedings that would have prevented him from getting a fair trial and that the damages awarded to his accuser were not “excessive.”

“The Court finds that there was sufficient evidence … to support the jury’s finding that defendant’s conduct caused plaintiff’s damages,” Phillips wrote in Friday’s order.

In March, a jury awarded former waitress Donna Motsinger $19.25 million in damages after she sued Cosby in 2023, alleging that the disgraced comedian drugged and sexually assaulted her in 1972 after escorting her to one of his shows.

Motsinger, now 84, claimed Cosby picked her up at her home and gave her wine and a pill she thought was aspirin on the way to the venue.

“Next thing she knew, she was going in and out of consciousness while two men attending to Mr. Cosby were putting her in the limousine,” the original complaint said. “The last thing Ms. Motsinger recalls were flashes of light,” before waking up in her house in nothing but underwear.

Cosby has denied Motsinger’s allegations, as well as those brought by dozens of other women who said they had been drugged and sexually assaulted by the former actor. Cosby served about three years in a Pennsylvania prison on sexual assault charges before that case was overturned in 2021.

Cosby had filed a motion for a new trial in the Motsinger case in early April. Attorneys for Cosby did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Friday’s ruling.

Times staff writer Fedor Zarkhin contributed to this report.

Walt Disney Co.’s ABC has filed renewal applications with the Federal Communications Commission “under protest” after an order mandating a years-early review of the network’s eight television station licenses.

The criticism was part of the network’s applications for the FCC review, which were filed ahead of a deadline Thursday. In an objection to the early renewal, Disney’s New York station WABC called the FCC order “unlawful, arbitrary and unconstitutional” and said it was “legally indefensible.”

“The Commission had not demanded early renewal in over five decades,” the station wrote in its filing. “And it has never before demanded simultaneous license renewal applications from a group of stations commonly owned with a network as it has here. The order has no legitimate purpose.”

The licenses for the eight ABC-owned TV stations, including KABC in Los Angeles, were originally scheduled for renewal between 2028 and 2031.

The FCC order came shortly after ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel made a joke about First Lady Melania Trump looking like an “expectant widow” days before a gunman tried to breach the White House Correspondents’ Assn. gala last month that President Trump attended.

Trump has frequently threatened to have TV station licenses pulled when he is unhappy with their coverage, but the order is the first time the government has acted on his wishes, sparking anger from free speech advocates. The FCC has said the order is part of an investigation into whether Disney’s diversity and inclusion policies violate federal law and the agency’s rules against “unlawful discrimination.”

In its response, WABC said the “only plausible reason” to issue the order was to “punish the station for speech the government does not like.”

“The ultimate injury here is not to the station or its parent company. It is to the public,” WABC wrote. “When a broadcaster must weigh regulatory retaliation before making editorial decisions, the public loses access to journalism that is free from government influence.”

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in a statement Thursday that Disney filed its applications to renew its broadcast licenses only after the company was told its previous answers were “disingenuous, deficient and improper.”

“Contrary to Disney’s claim that the FCC called in their broadcast licenses for early renewal for no reason, the record shows something very different,” Carr said. “Broadcast licensees have a unique obligation to operate in the public interest. The FCC will follow the facts and law wherever they may lead.”

FCC Commissioner Anna M. Gomez, the panel’s only Democrat who has backed Disney in its fight, cheered the Burbank media and entertainment company’s filing, saying in a post on X that she was “glad to see them expose the FCC’s actions as nothing more than naked political retribution and an unlawful assault on free speech and a free press.”

Times staff writer Meg James contributed to this report.

A pair of nesting bald eagles has been spotted in Los Angeles County, according to a recent Instagram post from the L.A. County Department of Parks and Recreation.

In the video posted Friday, the two eagles are perched on a high tree branch in an undisclosed location. Native nesting birds, like bald eagles, are protected under federal law, and disturbing active nests can “disrupt breeding and impact their success,” the department said in the post.

The department did not immediately respond to a request Sunday for comment about where the eagles took up refuge.

Southern California residents should give nesting birds plenty of space and avoid lingering near nest sites, the post said.

If possible, residents should hold off on tree trimming or vegetation clearing during nesting season. Dogs should also remain leashed and under control around trees and shrubs where birds may be nesting, and residents also should not fly drones near wildlife.

If a nestling is in distress, the department said to contact the San Dimas Raptor Rescue Center for advice at (626) 559-5732.

There are some big names that will be on show at London Stadium for Soccer Aid including some famous celebrities and plenty of former international footballers.

England squad in full: Robbie Williams (Manager), Wayne Rooney, Jermain Defoe, Jill Scott, Tom Hiddleston, Danny Dyer, Paddy McGuinness, Olly Murs, Joe Marler (GK), Theo Walcott, Toni Duggan, Steph Houghton, Jordan North, Angry Ginge, GK Barry, Jack Wilshere, Joe Hart, Sam Thompson, Chloe Burrows, Jack Whitehall and Owen Cooper.

World XI squad in full: Usain Bolt (Manager), Edwin van der Sar, Michael Essien, Jordi Alba, Leonardo Bonucci, Dimitar Berbatov, Nemanja Matic, Maisie Adam, Big Zuu, Nabhaan Rizwan, Nitro, Ali Krieger, Jen Beattie, Nicky Byrne, Dermot Kennedy, Chris O’Dowd, Richard Gadd, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Tobi Brown and Behzinga.

DUA Lipa and Callum Turner tied the knot today during an intimate ceremony attended by a handful of friends and family.

The superstar singer and Hollywood actor exchanged vows at Old Marylebone Town Hall this afternoon, watched on by close friends and family.

Dua, 29, stunned in a white hat, dress and gloves hand in hand with newly wedded husband, 35-year-old Callum, wearing a navy suit and tie.

Eight friends and family stood on both sides of the stairs at Marylebone Registry and tossed confetti as the beaming couple headed into a black cab.

It was a low-key affair making them legally man and wife ahead of their second wedding – a lavish three-day event in Sicily.

The London registry office spot is a favourite amongst celebrities, with Sir Paul McCartney and Liam Gallagher both married there twice.

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The Sun this week revealed how the A-list couple were planning a star-studded bash on the Italian island, kicking off on Thursday.

Showbiz pals including singers Charli XCX and Tove Lo are on the guestlist.
There are even whispers that Sir Elton John, who Dua collaborated with on the 2021 song Cold Heart, could perform.

Inspired by pal Charli, insiders say the ceremony will be a massive, luxurious affair.

“They have rented out multiple huge venues for the multi-event extravaganza,” said a source.

Fashion designer Simon Porte Jacquemus, the man behind the label Jacquemus, is believed to have created at least one of the dresses Dua, 30, will wear for her wedding celebrations.

The Sun first revealed James Bond contender Callum, 36, had popped the question to New Rules singer Dua in December 2024 after just a year of dating, and she confirmed the news in an interview with British Vogue last June.

Dua, who completed her 81-date, £100million-grossing Radical Optimism Tour in December, said at the time: “I want to finish my tour – Callum’s shooting, so we’re just enjoying this period.

“I’ve never been someone who’s really thought about a wedding, or dreamt about what kind of bride I would be. All of a sudden I’m like, ‘Oh, what would I wear?’.

“This decision to grow old together, to see a life and just be best friends forever – it’s a really special feeling.”

The singer also revealed Callum had her engagement ring made especially for her, after discussing it with her sister Rina, who is expected to be a bridesmaid along with her best friends.

“It’s very exciting,” said Dua. “I’m obsessed with it. It’s so me. It’s nice to know the person that you’re going to spend the rest of your life with knows you very well.”

Just like friend Charli, Dua chose a legal ceremony at a UK registry office before jetting off to have an overseas bash.

Brat singer Charli married The 1975 drummer George Daniel at Hackney Town Hall last summer wearing a Vivienne Westwood mini-dress before saying ‘I do’ again in the picturesque coastal village of Scopello, Sicily.

Old Marylebone Town Hall in central London is a favourite amongst celebrities, with Davina McCall getting hitched to her hairdresser husband Michael Douglas there earlier this year.

Sir Paul McCartney was a big fan, marrying his first wife Linda there in 1969, then holding his third wedding to Nancy Shevell there in 2011.

Oasis singer Liam Gallagher did the same, tying the knot to Patsy Kensit there in 2011, then singer Nicole Appleton in 2001.

OLIVIA Attwood has vowed she’s “not clearing up any rumours” after her cryptic social media post sparked suggestions of issues with Pete Wicks.

The Love Island alum, 35, uploaded a glam snap showing her posing side-profile in a polka dot top.

Olivia, who split from her footballer husband Bradley Dack earlier this year, following a “breach of trust” from his side, has since started dating pal Pete Wicks.

She and the TOWIE alum shared a very public kiss in London and appeared to be going from strength to strength before her mysterious message this week.

Taking to Instagram on Saturday, Olivia shared a series of images with a caption that read: “Staying out of trouble,” complete with two angel emojis.

Now she has added text over her recent picture post upload, which saw her with a glass in hand and raising a cheers, and posted: “Not clearing up any rumours.

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“If I didn’t do it, I still might”.

The snap was contained within a picture dump captioned “Left overs’ and included images of her posing by a pool, dipping her toes in the sea while enjoying snacks and a handful of mirror selfies.

Despite the intriguing remarks, fans recently spotted a sign things we on track between the pair.

One person seemed to spot Pete’s dog in one of her recent snaps.

“Yay to Rodney. Was hoping to spot some subtle Pete hints and also wondered if the dogs are mates with each other! (So invested),” one person penned.

While another added: “Yes Rodney!!!!!!!”

And a third penned: “Hard launching Rodney!”

“Stitch, Lola & Rodney,” penned another, spelling out how Olivia’s pups Stitch and Lola, were now pally with Pete’s dog Rodney.

The talked-about pair reportedly begun their relationship at the Brit Awards on February 28.

A source close to the pair told us at the time that they were “dating and enjoying their time together.”

Their apparent romance heated up last month as they jetted off to St Tropez for a cosy holiday.

He was also spotted at her intimate birthday dinner earlier this month as they soft launched their relationship.

Away from her romantic life, Olivia this weekend posed in a bikini following her bum treatment.

reality beauty was snapped face down as the daring bum pic revealed her covered in wires undergoing a treatment known as Truflex.

The non-invasive procedure acts as a muscle stimulant which aims to strengthen, tone, and firm the glutes.

Olivia added the caption: “We are not f****** around this season.”

VENEZUELA Fury fumed at new husband Noah and ranted “I’m trying to talk” after he made a noisy interruption during her latest TikTok.

The Netflix star and newlywed, 16, was talking to her social media fans about how her glowing tan had started to fade when her spouse chipped in.

The teenage newlyweds have just returned from their £30k honeymoon and are settling into life as a married couple.

Though Noah’s love for playing live music, now the pair are back on home turf, appeared to have left her irked.

Venezuela was seen in a white top and glammed up with red lippie, speaking direct to the camera after one fan quipped: “They toned the tan down”.

The teen left her brunette locks in a poker straight style and accessorised with silver hoop earrings.

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She flaunted her glittering diamond ring and glam nail extensions for her clip, clearly eager to make some strong TikTok content.

The TV star told one of her online followers: “I know how pale I am, but you don’t understand how hard I work to get that colour”.

Noah can be heard in the background and he asked: “Who is that?” to which she replied: “I am making a video”.

Attempting to continue her clip, she said: “And the magazine made me look so pale”.

Noah then sat on the sofa and began to strum his guitar, prompting her to squeal: “I am trying to talk!”

She added: “Does anyone else get driven insane by a guitar?

“Go, sing!”

Noah then interjected: “Don’t delete it,” referring to the clip, and she retorted: “I’m not deleting it, I haven’t deleted it.

“Anyway I give up!

“Noah’s a great guitar player because I can’t talk,” before urging him to “sing then sing with confidence”.

Noah, mid flow, could then be heard in the background as he said: “Whose ringing my phone this time of day oh my God,” during an interruption to his performance.

Fans were quick to comment on the light-hearted lovers’ tiff.

One wrote: “Stop they obviously adore each other”.

A second posted: “You two are so cute he adores and loves you and ya picked a go one x” as a third joked: “Welcome to married life”.

A fan wrote: “That was the most chaotic video I understand with the random guitar noise tho,” as another noted: “I can see who is the boss in that house”.

One then referred to At Home With The Furys star’s role as the head of her six siblings and posted: “You being the oldest sibling has given you great patience”.

A user then quipped: “I can see who is the boss in that house”.

Following her lavish wedding earlier this month, Venezuela has traded her parents’ £8million mansion on the Isle of Man for a plush static home in East Riding of Yorkshire.

The young wife, who is the daughter of Tyson, 37, and Paris, 36, yesterday revealed her glam new wardrobe.

She also got a chance to show off her impressive tan from her luxury honeymoon.

Venezuela and Noah tied the knot on May 16, in a no expense spared wedding.

They then headed off on their lavish honeymoon to Marbella, as they continued to celebrate their marriage.

Onlookers said that the couple “couldn’t stop smiling” during their holiday.

One source told The Sun: “They looked completely smitten. Everyone in the restaurant noticed them straight away.”

Venezuela’s parents Tyson and Paris paid for their lavish honeymoon as a wedding present.

Meanwhile, before heading off on their romantic trip, Venezuela gave fans a tour of her and Noah’s marital home.

Along with their wedding and their expensive honeymoon, Venezuela’s parents also paid for the static home and gave her a cash lump sum.

A source previously revealed to us: “Tyson and Paris gave Venezuela and Noah a wedding present of £5million to kick-start their life, obviously, they were over the moon.

“Some family members thought it was a lot of money for a young couple so there were some mixed feelings – but it’s up to Tyson and Paris.

“Tyson also paid for the honeymoon and got them a traditional gypsy wagon as a sentimental gift. Tyson’s got one in his front yard.

NIALL Horan spoke about the pain he’s living with after Liam Payne’s early death.

The singers met as contestants on The X Factor where they were formed into world-famous boyband One Direction alongside Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, and Louis Tomlinson.

Liam passed away in October 2024 after falling from a balcony in Buenos Aires and Niall managed to see his friend in Argentina shortly before his death.

“I’m glad of that, it means my last memory of him was happy,” he told The Times.

“It still feels surreal. On day one I was, like, ‘Nah, it didn’t happen.’ Our friendship was a bond that was there for ever even if we hadn’t seen each other for a while and it’s wild that one day, like the flick of a switch, he’s gone.”

Niall also said he has stayed in contact with Liam’s family.

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“All our families are in touch, they shared those experiences too,” he said.

The Irish lad also wrote a song for Liam on his new album, Dinner Party.

“I think it’s his type of song, he liked Coldplay, he loved songs like You & I by One Direction, songs that went somewhere,” Niall explained adding, “It’s funny, actually, now you say that, thinking about the stuff he liked.”

He also described the “light and shade” of his grief over Liam’s death.

“When I think of Liam’s passing, there is sadness, but it also makes me laugh and smirk because of the memories we had. I’ll go to places and think of something stupid in a hotel or something random that makes me laugh,” Niall said.

“We always had good fun in Australia because we were able to get out and go to the beach. Liam wasn’t too bad at surfing. I can barely swim.”

On a lighter note, Niall also opened up on the possibility of an One Direction reunion.

“God knows. I mean look at Harry there, look at Louis, the boys are flying, so God knows, but everyone still asks about it, it’s exciting.”

Sunday Brunch hosts Tim Lovejoy and Simon Rimmer returned with a new guest panel

A Sunday Brunch guest issued an apology on Sunday’s show as they admitted “I sound terrible”.

Tim Lovejoy and his co-host Simon Rimmer once again welcomed several famous faces onto the show, including Boyzone, Michael Ball, Priya Kansara, Anna Dimitriadis, Celyn Jones and Freya Ridings.

As usual, they also served up a variety of delicious dishes for their guests to enjoy, alongside chef Paul Leonard. At the start of the show, Tim and Simon introduced this week’s guests as many viewers were excited about the line-up.

Previously taking to social media, one person said: “What a line up”, as another echoed: “Love Michael Ball so will watch this one.”

However, it wasn’t long before one guest issued an apology live on air after they made a “showing off” admission.

During the introduction today (Sunday, May 30), Welsh actor and director Celyn Jones was asked about his impressive moustache where he revealed it was “for a role I’m doing at the moment.”

He added: “I lost my voice yesterday.” When asked what he had been doing to lose his voice, he continued: “I’m just trying to win another BAFTA really.”

When asked more about how the new role is going, he said: “It’s a film called Oh Magnus”, with a new filmmaker, he then teased: “I play the worst teacher that ever lived.”

Hosts Tim and Simon later sat down with the Welsh actor, who has previously won a BAFTA, who teased his new role, as well as revealing all about upcoming period drama Madfabulous, which will be released in cinemas next week (June 5).

After sitting down for his interview, Celyn added: “I’m so sorry, I sound so terrible. I’m not in pain, I should’ve been more disciplined on set yesterday, I was showing off.” He then continued: “I was over acting.”

A brand new Instagram page was previously set up for the Oh Magnus film account, which shared an exciting post this week of a directing clapper. Captioning the post: “It begins…”, Celyn Jones and others were tagged as excitement starts to build.

One person wrote: “Can’t wait can’t wait can’t wait.” Another said: “Don’t know what you’re making but it’s bound to be good!”

A third added: “How exciting, so looking forward to the progress.”

Also on the Sunday Brunch show today was Freya Ridings who opened up about her new album release, which she admitted took three years to perfect, as well as Boyzone who opened up about their final farewell tour.

Sunday Brunch airs every Sunday at 10am on Channel 4

When Craig Ferguson left CBS’ “The Late Late Show” in December 2014, fulfilling a pledge made public the previous April, it was assumed by some that it had something to do with not being offered the chair being vacated by his illustrious lead-in, David Letterman. (Stephen Colbert, you may be aware, was named the new “Late Show” host.) Others simply couldn’t believe anyone would just walk away from such a job, which Ferguson had held for two weeks shy of 10 years, because, even in the less prestigious 12:30 time slot it seemed like a prize — but mostly because he was so good at it.

“That’s one of the odd things about that particular genre of television,” he told me in 2016. “The minute I started at 12:30, the question became when and do you want and how are you going to get 11:30? But I never wanted 12:30, never mind 11:30. Why is that a thing?”

Ferguson went on to other things. He’s hosted game shows (currently the CW’s “Scrabble,” with puckish energy); toured as a stand-up (he’s on the road into June); hosted a history-themed panel show, “Craig Ferguson: Join or Die”; launched “Joy, a Podcast,” which is as close as he’s come to the confessional freestyling of “The Late Late Show”; and published “Riding the Elephant: A Memoir of Altercations, Humiliations, Hallucinations & Observations.”

His latest show, premiering Saturday on CNN, is “American on Purpose,” which shares a title with his first memoir, a reference to the Scottish-born Ferguson becoming an American citizen. Timed generally to the 250th anniversary of the United States, it finds Ferguson in a five-episode crazy quilt of observations, interviews, inquiries, stunts, games and documentary vignettes forming a comical, but not unserious, somewhat wayward look at American ideas and ideals — freedom of speech, capitalism, patriotism, individualism and immigration. It’s a vision wide enough to include monster trucks, lowriders, underground comedy, Miami street art, Texas barbecue and haggis tacos, dreamed up by Ferguson and executed by celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson.

Ferguson, a Scotsman, having haggis tacos on “American on Purpose.”

(CNN)

“You know me,” Ferguson said when we spoke over video call recently. “Less format is better for me always.”

His caveat to the producers was that he wouldn’t “make an anti-American show. I wouldn’t make a show pointing out everything that’s wrong. I feel that’s a market that’s heavily catered to. I’m not a f—ing idiot, I’m not making propaganda, I won’t make a jingoistic show. But I want to make a show which is celebratory,” Ferguson says. “And I want to be clear that the show I make for CNN will be the same as if I was making it for Fox News. It has to be my point of view, which is upbeat without being dumb — I hope. I feel like we got pretty close.” This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

A good friend of mine, an Englishman, recently became an American citizen and had only wonderful things to say about the naturalization ceremony, the diversity of his fellow new Americans, and the graciousness of the people conducting it. What was your experience?

My ceremony was in Pomona fairgrounds in 2008. And I think it was 2,000 of us; I think it was 1,999 new Mexican Americans and one new Scottish American. And it was f—ing wonderful. And it is moving. I kind of wish it for my friends who are born here, American citizens, because you have to remove your everyday, “Oh my God, did you see the news today” cynicism, and remember what this place is about — freedom, second chances, third chances, escape, representation, individualism, different ideas coexisting in one country, wildly different points of view somehow managing to get along. That is f—ing beautiful. What I still feel as an immigrant American is a certain gratitude that doesn’t leave you. I’m not blind to the faults of the United States. Show me a country that doesn’t have faults. We talk about the bloody past. Show me a country that doesn’t have a bloody past. Humans have a bloody past. I’m not saying there’s nothing wrong, but I’m not looking at that in this show. I’m looking at what makes me feel great about this place, and it is a great place, an aspirational place. To my mind, we are still the big foam finger number one. I don’t think there’s anyone can touch us for … unusualness. We’re really unusual.

It’s a very optimistic show. Is that how you feel personally about the future of the country, and humanity?

Like most people, I have my moods. I got a real boost of optimism [hanging out] with very clever academics who kind of guard the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. And you say to them, “People say the country’s never been this divided.” They always laugh. They laugh at the idea it’s never been as bad as this, the rhetoric has never been this hateful. They’re like, “It’s always been like this. It’s always been an argument. The whole point of this place is that it is an argument.” The guys who started this country, some of them hated each other with just as much venom and outrage and indignance as political players hate each other today. I find that quite encouraging. Like I said, I’m not blind to the fact that there are issues and faults and deep things to worry about. But that’s not what this show’s about. It’s as if I was a musician, and I decided to write a happy song. People say, “Why aren’t you sad?” I’m like, “Well, I get that sometimes, but this song is a happy song, this is a rock song. I’ll do a power ballad later on.” It’s not terrible to to do something upbeat every now and again.

What did you discover in the course of making the show?

There were many things, actually. In L.A., I did a kind of run around with the guys who make the lowrider cars, and the community and the story of how that came about are really fascinating, a kind of parallel run of the rise of the automobile in America, but how it was taken on by the Mexican culture. Another that really stuck with me was in the Everglades, when I was with the Gladesman there, finding out that a large percentage of them [were descended from] displaced Scottish peasants, cleared out of the Highlands to make room for sheep for the landowners; they went to Canada, and they drifted all the way down to the southern tip of the United States. These guys there could trace their ancestry back to 100 miles from where I grew up. Americans would be kicked out of most of the countries of the world. So it makes us awesome. I mean, 40% of this country can trace themselves through Ellis Island, through that administration building in New York. That’s insane.

Ferguson at Venice Beach in a segment on the show.

(CNN)

When did you get interested in history?

In Scotland, we’re surrounded by it all the time. There’s a lot of stuff still lying around from a long time ago. American history became interesting to me because it was so attached to Scotland. The Scottish Enlightenment is really kind of the origin story of the Declaration of Independence. Knowing that the philosophy that was coming out of Edinburgh in the 1700s was directly feeding into what these guys were doing, it felt like the continuation of a certain strain of Scottish history. It didn’t end with “Highlander” or “Shrek.”

There’s a road movie element to the series. Do you take trips around the country on your own time?

All the time. I don’t think you can know the United States unless you’ve driven across it at least a couple of times. If you can take a car from New Orleans to Northeastern Maine, Florida to Washington state, it’s worth doing. One of the things that was in the engine for me when I started this [series] was, I’ve seen over the years a lot of — probably more in Britain than in America — lazy kind of pseudo-intellectual documentaries where somebody will say, “Well, you know, the thing about America is…” Well, which America are you talking about? And they will go and get some guy that lives on his boat in Fort Lauderdale with a hat that’s got “Who Farted?” written on it and tell you that’s America. That guy’s there and he’s awesome, but it’s not the whole story. You know what I mean? It’s like saying “Well, you know, Hitler was a vegetarian.” That’s true, he was. But it’s not really the whole f—ing story, is it?

It was the summer of 1949 when a 22-year-old, newly hired Milwaukee photojournalist was assigned to take portraits of an unknown 23-year-old actor passing through town on a publicity tour. John Ahlhauser spent 30 minutes capturing seven photos of the up-and-coming starlet. One was published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Ahlhauser took the other six home.

That unknown actor was Marilyn Monroe (although her legal name was still Norma Jeane Mortenson).

To celebrate Monroe’s 100th birthday on June 1, five photos from the shoot are being auctioned off through proxy bidding until Tuesday morning, when the live auction will occur. The photos were shot as part of a promotion for Monroe’s brief role in the Marx brothers’ final feature together, “Love Happy.” According to Ahlhauser’s daughter, Mame O’Meara, these pictures represent an unguarded and unedited version of the celebrity.

“When we took it to ‘Antiques Roadshow’ — which it did not get on at that moment — they said these are before she got her nose job, before she went platinum, and that she had developed a look in her eye in January of 1950 that really kept you out of her personal space,” O’Meara said. “They describe these seven little pictures as windows into her soul.”

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran one photo in 1949 and a second image was used in Gloria Steinem’s 1988 book, “Marilyn: Norma Jeane.” In 2011, all of Ahlhauser’s work was placed in a trust, including his photos of Monroe.

Monroe’s estate was controlled by Anna Strasberg, the second wife of Monroe’s acting coach and close friend, Lee Strasberg, since his death in 1982. O’Meara explained that the family waited to release Ahlahauser’s photos of Monroe because of the “contention” over Anna Strasberg’s ownership of Monroe’s image. Strasberg died in 2024.

“Strasberg was fighting in court for all of the images of Marilyn, and we put these in a trust and actually worked to keep them quiet at that time,” O’Meara explained.

When Ahlhauser died in March 2016, O’Meara and her five siblings inherited hundreds of their father’s yellow Kodak photo boxes. Inside the boxes were his photos of Monroe, organized with the “sleeve dated and with the assignment on the outside.”

“I wanted to touch absolutely everything in the boxes,” O’Meara said. “[My siblings] were both gracious, and none of them wanted to, and so I have had the privilege the last six years of going through every print he ever made, and I’m just working on the negatives now.”

However, O’Meara and her siblings aren’t entirely ready to let go of Monroe yet. While they’ll be auctioning off five of the photos, they’re planning to keep two.

“We’re selling these five, and people can take the copyright and put them on coffee mugs, or make an AI movie, or whatever they want to do with them,” O’Meara said, laughing. “We’ll just keep the two really nice ones that he was so proud of. We’ll keep those in his collection, and we can sell prints if we feel like it.”

While Ahlhauser’s photo of Monroe may become his most iconic image, the session didn’t feel like a particularly notable event in his career. It wasn’t as impactful as when he photographed the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago or civil rights marches in 1960s Mississippi. But for O’Meara, that’s where the beauty of these photos lies.

“They are both really nobodies; they’re both people doing a job,” O’Meara said. “And yet, when I look at those pictures, I think they both had to really allow themselves to let the camera find the vulnerability, and that to me is the art in it.”

The title of Violet Grohl’s debut album, “Be Sweet to Me,” started as an inside joke.

“‘Be Sweet to Me’ is a phrase that my best friend and I say to each other when we’re play-fighting,” says the rising singer. “It’s what we do to put an end to it. Like, ‘Oh, be sweet to me!’”

The phrase might also carry a double meaning, one Grohl is still parsing. At some point in the naming process, someone in her circle asked Grohl if she was making a plea. Remembering that moment, Grohl pauses to consider.

“I guess it can be seen as a pretext for the album. Just … be sweet,” she says. “But at the same time, it’s literally just what my best friend and I say to each other when we’re calling each other idiots.”

Intentional or not, no one could blame the 20-year-old for inserting an earnest request for audiences to proceed with kindness as she readies her debut album, which finally landed Friday.

The reasons are pretty self-explanatory: Grohl is the eldest child of modern rock icon Dave Grohl, the highly decorated founder and centerpiece of Foo Fighters and onetime drummer of Nirvana, and his wife, former model and TV producer Jordyn Blum. In an age of “nepo” accusations and internet dogpiles, it would be completely understandable for Grohl to feel anxious about her album’s reception.

But if she is, it doesn’t show. On a warm day in mid-May, Grohl appears relaxed and self-assured — but not arrogant — as she idles on a sofa in a cozy Studio City ADU owned by her publicist. Encased in a long, black sleeveless dress, she’s giving a mixture of off-duty rock star and summer goth. Her arms host an array of intricate tattoos; I spot a raven, a skull and a vintage lace fan. Next to her is a bulging Balenciaga mini bag, and a pair of oversized sunglasses on her head are perched atop a mop of jet black curls. The high contrast of her pale, makeup-less skin and swept back hair makes her round, gray-blue eyes appear even more pronounced.

“Everyone wants you to be an idealized version of … not even yourself, but of what they want you to be,” she says. “Sorry, that’s just not gonna happen with me.”

(Bella Newman)

Any time spent with her reveals that Grohl is the sort of person who is ultra-sensitive to the energy of places, people and even the long-deceased. In her free time, Grohl is an avid lover of anything paranormal. “The same time I got into horror movies, I started watching ‘Ghost Adventures’ on Travel Channel,” she says. “It totally sent me down this rabbit hole of the supernatural.”

When I ask if she’d ever made contact with any ghosts, Grohl nods emphatically before describing a trip to a hunting estate near the Scottish Highlands. “It is the most haunted place I’ve ever been in my whole life,” she says. “I walked into the house, and it was like a blast of cold air, chills everywhere. It’s this instinctual feeling of, I’m not alone here … I heard footsteps and disembodied voices, I saw shadows, I had crazy f–ing dreams. It’s so eye-opening, but it’s not evil or negative.”

Chilling films and Lynchian surrealism pervade the tracklist of “Be Sweet to Me,” which relies on symbolic lyricism to illustrate coming-of-age stories. From a sonic perspective, listeners will be thrilled to know that her debut does not just make for an entertaining listen — it’s a dedicated towpath to the very squealing heart of alternative rock, built by an artist who understands her music history on a granular level. Across a tight 11 tracks, “Be Sweet to Me” careens across late-’80s and ‘90s experimental genres, from ripping alt-rock on “Bug in the Cake” to hazy dream pop on “Mobile Star” to aggro Clinton-era alt metal on “Often Others,” and even a bit of chugging hardcore on “Cool Buzz.”

As many references as she brought to the recording process, led by producer Justin Raisen (a known collaborator of Charli XCX and Kim Gordon, who made the introduction), Grohl is not attempting to cosplay the grunge era. Instead of simply mirroring influences, she deftly puts her own spin on each arrangement with inventive, grabby arrangements, razor-sharp production and her versatile vocals, which can bellow like Courtney Love, murmur like PJ Harvey or turn ethereal like Elizabeth Fraser.

“Justin has a crew of musicians that he works with, and they’re all close friends of his,” Grohl explains of the album’s backing band, which Raisen assembled to mimic the Wrecking Crew, a loose collective of session players who appeared on some of the most beloved albums of the 1960s and ‘70s. “They’re the coolest, most talented, genuine music lovers, and seriously talented musicians … I’d never been in that kind of recording environment before. Everyone would throw out ideas or I would share a reference, and whatever it was about the song, [we’d ask] how we can build and make it a completely new, different thing.”

Growing up in Tarzana/Woodland Hills, Grohl says she’s been singing ever since she could speak. In a baby book, her mother wrote how Grohl, at 8 or 9 months, was “babbling and singing.” She took piano lessons with a teacher who taught her any Beatles song she wanted to learn. She later picked up the ukulele, and then a guitar. Now, it’s any piece of gear, from bass to drums to a lap dulcimer. “I just love messing around with different instruments and seeing all the different sounds I can make,” she says.

Grohl also had an ideal music-taste mentor in her father, who told his eldest all about Björk and acquiesced to playing Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab” on repeat. “I think I was 4 or 5, and I remember sitting in front of his computer, and he was talking about how she was from Iceland,” Grohl says of those days. “And I was like, ‘Oh, she’s the princess of Iceland. That was my idea of Björk from a young age. Björk’s ‘Hunter’ music video was a turning point for me.”

By adolescence, while on the road with the Foo Fighters, Grohl would make herself useful by assisting the band’s tour manager. She remembers: “I had a walkie-talkie, I would hand per diems out to people, I would run the envelopes around, and bring my dad a towel after the show, stuff like that.” The live-music atmosphere may have also sparked Grohl’s curiosity in songwriting, which she says began as a way of journaling. “I have cassette demos that I made with a tiny one-track recorder,” she remembers. “Then I started learning how to use Logic right before I turned 13, and that opened up this whole new world.”

One night in May 2018, on a break from the East Coast leg of the Foos’ Concrete and Gold tour, the elder Grohl headlined a benefit concert for the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, where he encouraged his daughter, then only 12, to join him onstage to sing Adele’s “When We Were Young.” A few weeks later, back on tour, Grohl jumped onstage to help sing backup on a few tracks. “It wasn’t my first time singing on a stage, but it was my first time singing on a stage with that many people in [the audience],” she says of the second experience. “I was really scared, but once it was happening, and once it was over, I was like, ‘Oh, this is what I want to do. This is my purpose.’”

Chilling films and Lynchian surrealism pervade the tracklist of “Be Sweet to Me,” which relies on symbolic lyricism to illustrate coming-of-age stories.

(Bella Newman)

From there, Grohl became something of a live fixture — a beloved Foos adjunct performer. But clearly one with her own trajectory. In pre-pandemic 2020, Grohl joined the surviving members of Nirvana at the Art of Elysium Gala, where she sang “Heart-Shaped Box.” The next year, father and daughter recorded a duet of “Nausea” by L.A. classic punk favorites X. In 2022, Grohl opened the second tribute to late Foos drummer, Taylor Hawkins, with an aching rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”

It should definitely be said that Grohl is hardly pulling a Jakob Dylan as it relates to her parentage — a detail that actually makes her appear that much more self-actualized and approachable, simply because she isn’t trying to circumvent reality or engage in a furious round of name-dropping. She freely discusses the long evening car rides around Los Angeles she’d take with her dad and two younger sisters during the pandemic, the car becoming a music-recommendation feedback loop, with older and younger generations trading off DJ duties. “My sister and I introduced him to Jockstrap,” Grohl chuckles when I ask what bands she introduced her dad to during those rides. “I’d play him old jazz standards, hip-hop. It was a constant thing.”

During those evening rides, Grohl also drank up the city’s otherworldly, vaguely haunted visage. “There’s something special about L.A. that I can’t fully describe,” she says. “There’s inspiration everywhere, so many beautiful people and historic buildings. I love art about L.A. — when people reference L.A. in their music, movies, or books. I grew up here, and I’ve lived here my whole life. I just feel that deep connection to it all.”

Like any great artist, Grohl is a product of her surroundings, and that can’t help but include a very specific, unlikely upbringing. In her own matter-of-fact way, Grohl shrugs as she acknowledges the inescapable pressure of her last name. “Everyone wants you to be an idealized version of … not even yourself, but of what they want you to be,” she says. “Sorry, that’s just not gonna happen with me. You’re not gonna convince me to change. I’m doing this because I love music, and that’s all I’ve ever known. Everyone’s gonna want me to be something, and I’m not the person that will give in to that.”

A TIKTOK rapper has shocked fans when he revealed he is the son of a huge 90s boyband star.

The cheeky lad didn’t hold back as he roasted his famous father for his “s*** music” as he poked fun at him at one of his gigs.

The rising TikTok star in question is Phoenix JD, who is the son of James ‘Spike’ Dawbarn, 51, from 90s’ boyband, 911.

In a new post this week, the young rapper shared a video from backstage at one of his dad’s gigs.

In the clip, Phoenix was seen mocking his dad as he rehearsed with 911 bandmates Lee Brennan, 52, and Jimmy Constable, 54, who are supporting Blue on their tour.

Addressing his followers, Spike’s cheeky son said: “There’s their little soundcheck. I don’t know why they need to do a soundcheck, still sound s**t!”

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“But yeah, and then this is them on stage. There’s me dad on the right.”

Poking fun at Spike, he said: “Thankfully, I don’t get my musical ability from him, you know, I’ve got a bit about me.

“I hope he doesn’t see this now. He’ll kill me.

“But hey, this is him at 51 still trying to do back flips – and nearly decked it.

“I would’ve flipping loved it if he decked it.”

Phoenix also added he only went to the gig “to see Blue”.

Fans of 911 from back in the day went wild for the video, with one joking: “Oi your dad was a legend to us fossils!!”

Another quipped: “Lmfao! The way your roasting your dad! I’ll have you know 14-year-old me loved your dad’s band!”

This fan said: “I was obsessed with 911 still love them now! You’ve got your dad’s humour!”

Meanwhile, along with Lee and Jimmy, Phoenix’s dad Spike had a huge amount of fame in the 90s.

The band formed in 1995 when Jimmy met Spike whilst working as a dancer on the show The Hitman and Her.

The trio sold out arenas thanks to their hits like Bootyshakin’ and A Little Bit More.

Spike previously looked back on his time in the trio and joked that he was “treated like Harry Potter at the Dursley’s house”.

Appearing on the BBC’s Boyband Forever doc, the star spoke about his bizarre living arrangements when the band were in their heyday.

“Jimmy got one bedroom, Lee got another bedroom and I was in the cupboard like Harry Potter,” he explained.

“On a mattress, in a cupboard. It’s literally where you’d just throw a load of coats in there.”

“And I just didn’t care to be honest, I wasn’t bothered,” he laughed.

In their early days, the band would tour schools across the country and perform for students.

“I used to come in, press play, do your singing and dancing routines, do your bit then load yourself back in the van and go to the next school,” he said.

This article contains spoilers for the series finale of “Hacks.”

After five seasons and (thus far) 12 Emmys, “Hacks” has come to an end. The story of how Deborah Vance (Jean Smart), a 70-something comedian of the Joan Rivers type, and Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder), a prickly 20-something comedy writer, came together to resurrect both their careers was a roller coaster ride of intergenerational judgment, wins, setbacks, ruthless behavior, personal growth, power reclamation and much general hilarity.

Deborah sees Ava as entitled and self-righteous, Ava sees Deborah as washed-up and boring. Eventually, of course, they realize they are kindred spirits who do their best work together.

In Season 5, Deborah attempts yet another comeback. Having walked off her late-night show rather than fire Ava in Season 4, she is determined to rewrite her premature obituary by playing Madison Square Garden. When that too is snatched away, she pivots (with much difficulty and hilarity, including a show-stopping monologue by Laurie Metcalf’s tour manager Weed) to Central Park, where she is finally allowed a moment of glory, basking in the adulation of applauding thousands.

But that is not the end of “Hacks.” In the final episode, Deborah reveals she has cancer and rather than undergo treatment, she is choosing to “go out on top” with the aid of a Zurich clinic. She asks Ava to accompany her, after they take a girls trip to Paris. After an emotional meltdown, Ava agrees, hoping to persuade Deborah to change her mind. She does, but only after Deborah realizes that she cannot bear to walk away from the jokes she could write about dying. And so the show ends, with the two women walking arm in arm, first in Paris and then in Las Vegas, working on Deborah Vance’s final show.

Here, Times TV and culture critics Robert Lloyd and Mary McNamara discuss the ending, and legacy, of “Hacks.”

Deborah, left, decides she doesn’t want to get treatment for cancer despite Ava’s protests. Deborah changes her mind when she realizes she could write jokes about dying.

(HBO Max)

Mary McNamara: Hey there, Robert; are you as devastated as I am that we have no more “Hacks” to look forward to? The only solace I can find is the news that creators Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs and Jen Statsky are planning to release a DVD box set of the series. And the possibility that there could be a movie sequel — I for one want to see Deborah Vance’s death tour, especially since you know she’ll beat the odds and survive.

Seriously, though, sad as I am to contemplate life without “Hacks,” I am equally thrilled that the show so thoroughly stuck its landing. Finales are always a crap shoot and I appreciated how this season managed to show growth and cosmic justice while never tipping into treacle. I love that everyone ended on a win — including Marty! (Christopher McDonald) — and I didn’t even mind that suddenly Deborah had cancer (what?), was choosing assisted suicide (double what?) or that we were whisked to Paris (sure, I guess, why not?) because it made just enough narrative sense to set up Deborah’s decision to live because she just couldn’t leave good material on the table. “I may not have 30 years, but I do have one more hour,” may be the best line from a TV finale ever.

It is too easy to think of people like Deborah as clawing back their careers for fame, validation or money rather than a deep and essential love of their art. Having Deborah decide to prolong her life with chemo because she could not resist mining this final seam of comedic gold was a coup de grace.

What did you think?

Robert Lloyd: Hail, Mary. Reviewing the first-season finale, I wrote that the series was at heart a romantic comedy. And though many timely points were made along the way about artificial intelligence, the fate of late-night television and the awfulness of rich jerks who control media companies — Deborah’s Madison Square Garden show was undermined by the network head she named on national television in her resignation speech — the show asserted itself as a love story once again in the end. Where earlier seasons had depended on creating friction between Deborah and Ava, this one was mostly of concord, their only real clash being Deborah’s decision, introduced late in the season, to end her life (in a clean, posh way); her climactic change of heart spared us a medical tearjerker, but, believe me, I shed plenty of tears along the way. Unlike most seasons of “Hacks,” the fifth and final was orchestrated very much as a feel-good experience — “Ted Lasso” has nothing on it. A fairy tale, almost, as you point out, full of fairy-tale endings and plot points that were as good as magic. It could be contrived and improbable and old-fashioned in its triumphs snatched from the jaws of defeat, and I completely loved it.

Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) didn’t get the Madison Square Garden show she imagined, but she did get one at Central Park.

(HBO Max)

McNamara: The series had a lot to say about a lot of things (including vengeful power brokers/network executives) that feel particularly pointed now. But I deeply appreciated that while underlining the real obstacles Deborah and Ava faced, the writers showcased and explored how the bad choices each women had made, and defended, also contributed to their situations. Obviously having the great Jean Smart in the driver’s seat helped a lot — she revealed the woman beneath the diva even in Deborah’s most outrageous actions. The writers did not shy away from calling attention to the blatant sexism female comedians faced (and continue to face) or how the “woke” women of Ava’s generation are often able to see that kind of injustice more clearly.

It was, as you say, more rom-com than morality play, and rom-coms are often based on discovering that the differences that initially divide are too often based on, well, to put it in its original form, pride and prejudice. So while there was some hilarious and spot-on commentary about intergenerational miscommunication, there was also a clear message of how important it is for people with vastly different experiences to listen to, and learn from each other, which also feels incredibly important at this moment in time, especially given the show’s essential, and deeply human, respect for creative work. What motivated Deborah and Ava, and virtually every character in “Hacks” — agent Jimmy (Downs), his assistant Kayla (Megan Stalter) and later Randi (Robby Hoffman); Deborah’s staff, including Marcus (Carl Clemons Hopkins), Damien (Mark Indelicato) and Josefina (Rose Abdoo) — was a belief in the importance, and difficulty, of the creative process. It’s something that is rarely, if ever, the work of a single individual — as Deborah finally acknowledges at the opening of the Diva casino. Or as Laurie Metcalf’s Weed makes clear in her hilarious monologue before the Central Park gig.

1

2

1. Creativity isn’t the work of a single individual: Damien (Mark Indelicato), Marcus (Carl Clemons-Hopkins) and Deborah (Jean Smart) at work on the casino. (HBO Max) 2. Deborah’s crew at her Central Park show. (HBO Max)

Lloyd: In a way Deborah’s speech summed up what we’d already been seeing through an especially generous season that served as “Hacks’” tribute to itself and its people. It was a party to which most every significant and many minor characters were invited, including Metcalf and McDonald; Luenell as comedian Miss Loretta; Poppy Liu as Deborah’s personal blackjack dealer, Kiki; Jane Adams as Ava’s mother, Nina; J. Smith-Cameron as Deborah’s estranged sister, Kathy; and Kaitlin Olson as Deborah’s daughter, DJ, who finally got her mom to partner with her on “The Amazing Race” and was allowed to sell her detachable earrings on QVC.

Gifts were distributed widely, including a previously unseen interview with Deborah’s late husband and co-star, Frank (Peter Strauss), giving her credit for their success — credit he had previously accepted for himself — and thus removing a giant thorn that drove the early plot. These kind-hearted acts of closure were performed both for the benefit of these very real, made-up people, and for We the Viewers, who have made them our family. Declarations, or at least demonstrations of love, were abundant, not merely between Deborah and Ava, with the characters acting as our proxies, feeling what we want them to feel, and what we feel for them ourselves. (There are moments this year when Einbinder — whose brilliance Smart could seem to outshine, but who was never less than an equal partner — absolutely killed me, just in the tender way she gazed upon Deborah.) That’s why it’s so hard to let go of a show like this, even when we know it’s time to say goodbye. You can only stretch an arc so far before it breaks.

McNamara: You’re right, of course. But I still want to see the “Hacks” movie.

After a complete shakeup at CBS’ “60 Minutes,” ousted correspondent Cecilia Vega said she had been facing pressure to insert political bias into her stories and dealing with censorship.

“I very much fear what comes next for … the future of the legendary broadcast,” Vega said in a social media post on Thursday referring to “60 Minutes.”

Vega, who had worked at the newsmagazine for three years, was fired alongside the program’s executive producer, Tanya Simon, and fellow correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, who notoriously clashed with CBS News Editor in Chief Bari Weiss over a segment on President Trump’s immigration policies.

The latest shakeup follows multiple controversial moves by Weiss, who’s set on remaking the institution long defined by tradition. She arrived at CBS News in October with no television experience, installed by Paramount Chief Executive David Ellison after he acquired her digital news outlet, the Free Press, with a mandate to change the network.

Ellison’s political intent has been brought into question as he owns CBS’ parent company. The billionaire and his father, Larry Ellison, built a friendly relationship with the Trump White House as Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery still needs regulatory approval.

Ellison’s pronouncements that CBS News needs to move more to the political center has led to the perception that the network is trying to placate Trump with more positive news coverage, even as “60 Minutes” has remained tough with its White House reporting.

“Our responsibility is to preserve that legacy and vital mission by building a show that thrives in the 21st century,” wrote Weiss in her note to staff. “That requires a new approach: expanding ’60 Minutes’ beyond a one-hour television broadcast, deepening its role across CBS News.”

Vega claims, in her statement, that “in recent months, my producing teams and I have experienced efforts to insert political bias into our stories.” She also said that reporting teams are holding back on submitting specific story pitches, due to the “fear of the internal repercussions.”

“Let’s call this what it is: censorship, both imposed and self-driven,” Vega wrote. “It is dangerous for the show and dangerous for democracy.”

She said that in working at “60 Minutes” she’s had to keep stories rooted in fact and away from “questionable editorial suggestions.”

“I know from many conversations with colleagues that many producing teams and correspondents working on the show today have had to fight to maintain editorial independence with regularity,” Vega said. “I am far from the only ’60 Minutes’ correspondent who has asked herself, ‘What is my personal red line? How much can I push back before I pay the price?’”

In a statement, a CBS News representative said, “We respect Ms. Vega and her contributions, but her claims are not based in reality.”

Vega joined the newsmagazine in 2023, becoming the program’s first Latina correspondent. Before that, she worked for over a decade at ABC as the network’s chief White House correspondent and co-anchoring “Good Morning America.”

Several journalists like ABC’s John Quiñones and former Univision anchor Jorge Ramos offered words of support for Vega’s remarks. Quiñones commented, “Journalism is stronger because of your voice, your courage and your story-telling, Cecilia,” and Ramos wrote in Spanish that he respects and admires her.

Vinnie Jones is best known for playing villains on screen, but the actor and former footballer has shown a touching side.

Fans of Vinnie Jones are not used to seeing this side of him in his documentary series.

Celebrated actor and footballer Vinnie Jones is primarily recognised for portraying violent offenders and hardmen, but he has subsequently revealed a gentler nature.

The star presents a Clarkson’s Farm-style documentary series entitled Vinnie Jones in the Country, which follows him undertaking substantial projects at his extensive West Sussex rural property while confronting his own personal struggles.

In the third series of the programme, which broadcasts on Discovery+, he discussed acquiring the estate from its former owner and the commitments he made to her.

He was filmed clearing the barn at the property’s perimeter when he discovered some vintage photographs which had been abandoned by the woman. He explained how the former owner acknowledged it was a “struggle” to maintain it, noting: “She was terrified of losing her legacy.

“She didn’t want people coming in and splitting it up,” he stated. Numerous individuals had expressed interest in the property, but the owner was determined to sell to Jones.

He purchased the property while she remained alive and promised she could reside there until her death.

Handyman Paul Worby remarked on his friend’s compassionate character, observing: “That is a side of Vincent that not a lot of people see. He has got a very kind side.

“You know, he was very good to me when I was down. He kind of resonates with people who are at a bad stage in their life and tries to give them a bit of a pat on the back.”

Jones revealed one of the touching gestures he made honouring the former owner, explaining: “Part of the deal was, there is a little field down there called Mum’s Field. Her mum is buried down there. I put the ashes down there with her mum.”

While Worby and Jones examined the woman’s belongings, Worby remarked: “It’s someone’s life isn’t it, it’s someone’s memories.

“That’s why I get emotional about it all,” Jones responded. The actor purchased the property in Petworth, West Sussex, in 2022, several years following the death of his wife, Tanya.

She passed away after a battle with cancer and Jones has previously spoken about how relocating to the countryside “saved him”.

Vinnie Jones in the Country is available to stream on Discovery+

MUSIC star Frankie Valli has sadly cancelled his upcoming 2026 tour dates amid ongoing health issues. 

The Four Seasons frontman, 92, made the decision to end his highly anticipated farewell tour early, leaving fans devastated. 

The singer, who had been embarking on his tour The Last Encores, took to his Instagram to reveal that he would now be ‘focusing on health’ before performing again.

In a touching statement alongside a photo of him onstage, he penned: “I’m so sorry to disappoint the folks who have purchased tickets to my shows.

“But I have decided to take the rest of the year off from touring to focus on my health.”

He went on to reveal that he would hopefully will be back once his health returns. 

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“I’m looking forward to getting healthy and seeing you all again soon. Thank you for all your good wishes,” he added.

The music legend was met with floods of comments from fans sending him well wishes. 

One user said: “Stay healthy! We will work around whatever schedule keeps you going! You are a treasure.”

Another added: “Thank you for all these years of fabulous music. It’s been wonderful. Sending prayers that we will once again see you in concert next year!”

“No need to apologize. You’ve given us some of the greatest songs ever written. Take care of yourself,” wrote a third.

With a fourth commenting: “We love you, Frankie! (heart emoji)”

Valli is known as one of the founding members of the 60’s group The Four Seasons. 

The group dominated the music industry and delivered classics such as Can’t Take My Eyes Off You, December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night) and Sherry.

Valli’s rep Victoria Varela in a statement to Variety revealed the decision was made to keep fans out of ‘limbo’, as the star continues to regain his health.

She said: “Promoters want to prolong things and not give people their money back, but he needs to not keep rescheduling these shows. 

“He realized he needed to take a break and get his health in order, and that is the true issue – he wants to get better without prolonging, through the rescheduling process, the pain of people who’ve bought these tickets.” 

She also confirmed that throughout the next six months Valli will be spending time getting well and may well consider touring again in 2027.

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder has come to an end on BBC and Netflix, but there are plenty of loose ends to tie up in a potential third season

Pip Fitz-Amobi has one final mystery left to unravel.

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder made its eagerly anticipated return this week for a second thrilling season, adapted from the bestselling novels by Holly Jackson.

On this occasion, Pip Fitz-Amobi (played by Emma Myers) investigates the disturbing disappearance of Jamie Reynolds (Eden H Davies), the elder brother of her friend Connor (Jude Morgan-Collie).

Elsewhere, Max Hastings (Henry Ashton) stands trial for drugging and assaulting female classmates, yet proceedings are thrown into disarray when Jamie surfaces before crucial evidence can be presented.

Now that another compelling six-part series has concluded with a breathtaking cliffhanger, we examine all the loose ends that a potential third season would need to resolve, reports Bristol Live.

**Warning – this article contains major spoilers for A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder season 2 and minor spoilers from the third book, As Good As Dead.**

Will Charlie and Flora face justice?

By the conclusion of Pip’s second investigation, the truth behind Jamie’s disappearance is revealed to be her neighbour Charlie Green (Jack Rowan), who had been hunting for Child Brunswick — the son of a notorious child killer who had lured his sister to her death.

Child Brunswick had been assigned a fresh identity under a witness protection scheme, and is unmasked as security guard Stanley Forbes (Misia Butler). Stanley meets his end in the finale at Charlie’s hands, who subsequently flees alongside his wife Flora (Anna Brindle).

By the season’s conclusion, audiences might question whether police eventually apprehend them. The third instalment in Jackson’s series, As Good As Dead, offers some resolution to this, though the adaptation may potentially pursue an alternative direction.

When will Max Hastings get taking down?

Pip finds herself incensed at the close of the second series when predator Max evades punishment, despite testimony from his victim Becca Bell (Carla Woodcock), after he attributed his offences to murder victim Sal Singh (Rahul Pattni), who couldn’t refute the accusations.

In the final episode, Pip conducts a funeral for Stanley and endures harassment from Max, who appears to have acquired a new girlfriend. She’s additionally enraged by graffiti daubed on a neighbouring structure stating “Child killer burn in hell Child Brunswick”, presumably created by Max or his associates.

Max cannot face retrial, but has Pip devised a plan to bring about his downfall? Again, this matter is explored in As Good As Dead and will presumably feature in the third series.

Who is Pip’s stalker?

Season two featured Pip receiving threatening communications from an unidentified stalker, which could represent further provocations from her adversary Max or potentially sinister warnings from another danger concealed in the darkness.

In the finale, her bedroom suffers an intrusion and she discovers repeated instances of the message “Who will look for you when you’re the one who disappears?” on her laptop.

This enigma provides the foundation for Jackson’s third instalment in the series, so everything will be unveiled should A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder progress.

Will Lauren and Robin split up?

A significant departure from the novels in season two involves the arrival of Max’s cousin, Robin Hastings (Freddie England), who starts a relationship with Pip’s friend Lauren (Yali Topol Margalith).

In the penultimate episode of season two, Lauren is last spotted at a family meal with Robin, Max, and their relatives, suggesting they remain together by the finale.

Nevertheless, in Jackson’s books, Lauren actually starts seeing a character named Ant Lowe, who hasn’t featured in the television adaptation. Fans may consequently witness her romance with Robin take a somewhat different trajectory in the third season.

What’s season three’s storyline?

Fans eager to discover what unfolds next are urged to read the third and concluding book in the series, As Good As Dead.

For non-readers, here’s a brief synopsis, according to HarperCollins: “Pip Fitz-Amobi is haunted by the way her last investigation ended. Soon she’ll be leaving for Cambridge University but then another case finds her… and this time it’s all about Pip.

“Pip is used to online death threats, but there’s one that catches her eye, someone who keeps asking: who will look for you when you’re the one who disappears? And it’s not just online. Pip has a stalker who knows where she lives. The police refuse to act and then Pip finds connections between her stalker and a local serial killer.

“The killer has been in prison for six years, but Pip suspects that the wrong man is behind bars. As the deadly game plays out, Pip realises that everything in Little Kilton is finally coming full circle. If Pip doesn’t find the answers, this time she will be the one who disappears…”

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder season 2 is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

The Hawkstone Farmers Choir was crowned the winner of Britain’s Got Talent 2026 after they sang an original song called This Is Home in the final on ITV last night

Amanda Holden has expressed her delight following the crowning of the 2026 Britain’s Got Talent winners, The Hawkstone Choir.

The 10 acts, which include Golden Buzzer winner and singer Matty Juniosa and PowerPoint comedian Ted Hill, performed again for the judges – Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon and KSI. The winner, Hawkstone Farmers Choir, won £250,000 alongside the Royal Variety spot, and was ultimately decided by a public vote.

For the final, The Hawkstone Farmers Choir sang an original song called This Is Home. The choir sang the emotional song whilst stood in front of a backdrop of the local countryside through the changing seasons. They dedicated the song to anyone who is struggling.

In a video shared to Simon Cowell’s Instagram, Simon and Jeremy Clarkson could be seen celebrating together moments after Hawkstone Farmers Choir’s win.

“Wow, wow, wow,” Simon started before panning the camera so that Jeremy could join in from over his shoulder. That was incredible,” Jeremy said. Simon remarked that he could see how nervous Jeremy got upon seeing the choir perform and whislt waiting to see in they would win. Jeremy continued: “They worked so hard, thank you for having us.”

Simon added: “They did deserve it.” He wrote in the caption: “Wow wow wow. I am genuinely thrilled. A very very very happy choir, and so they should be.”

Amanda Holden also took to social media to express her joy that her golden buzzer act won for a second year running. Captioning the post: “Omfg. I couldn’t be more delighted that the brilliant @thehawkstonefarmerschoir won the whole thing @bgt!! I haven’t stopped crying. They deserve every second of the elation and joy!!! So BLOODY PROUD!!”

One user commented: “Sooo super happy they won! Well done. I couldn’t hold back the tears. So glad they have a voice – what a special final,” another said: “So bloody proud of them all absolutely smashed it, massive congratulations guys such hard working worthy winners chuffed to bits for them.”

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At this year’s Sundance Film Festival, filmmaker William D. Caballero won the NEXT Special Jury Award for Creative Expression for his intensely personal, multimedia feature debut, “TheyDream.” During his acceptance speech, he made a powerful statement.

“In case ICE were ever to harm me or kill me, this film will serve as the truth of who I am, and who my family is, before Fox News or this administration ever makes us out to be the villain[s],” he recalls paraphrasing during a recent interview.

Blending live action footage with different animation techniques — as well as the 3-D-printed miniatures that have been a fixture of Caballero’s work for more than a decade — “TheyDream” honors the filmmaker’s Puerto Rican loved ones, particularly his mother, Milly.

She collaborated with him in the making of this one-of-a-kind portrait of loss, resilience and shared healing. Their heartfelt exchanges throughout this process are also shared on-screen.

“Seeing her light up and become transformed throughout was just invigorating, because it allowed us to talk about heavy things and bond throughout the process of creating a story that’s personal [for us] both,” Caballero says. “It’s like, ‘Let’s guide each other and instead of me taking your stories and making magic with them, let’s make this magic together.’”

The brilliantly unconventional piece of autobiographical storytelling will screen as the closing night film of the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF) on Sunday. Recently, John Leguizamo and Ben DeJesus joined the film as executive producers.

Starting with his 2013 short film “How You Doin,’ Boy? Voicemails From Gran’pa,” Caballero has used miniatures to immortalize his loved ones. That bite-sized introduction to his Boricua grandfather’s humorous wisdom evolved into the HBO Latino show, “Gran’pa Knows Best.”

“When I started working on ‘Gran’pa Knows Best,’ I knew that 3-D printing was this new technique,” he says. “But I’d never seen anyone that looked or sounded like my grandfather in it. I realized that it could be a really creative method to preserve his voice and his story. “

Then came the 2017 short “Victor & Isolina” about his grandparents’ relationship, and more recently in 2022, he debuted “Chilly and Milly,” which focused on his parents. Some of the sets from these shorts, tiny replicas of places familiar to Caballero, and a few of the miniature characters were reused in “TheyDream.”

“Being able to create these things in miniature is almost like getting back in touch with the idea of play,” Caballero explains. “As a child, you invent lots of stories all the time. But now as an artist, I’m able to tell stories that touch upon reality and painful memories, but also hopes and dreams in a way that hearkens back to the innocence of childhood.”

Filmmaker William D. Caballero will screen “TheyDream” on Sunday at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF).

(William D. Caballero)

“TheyDream” is a culmination of the eclectic and nimble artistic practice that Caballero has developed since he studied digital art at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.

“I’d always just been attracted to new ways of expressing myself and expressing stories. And I say this both in a way that brings me pride, but also brings me a bit of a headache, because I don’t think I’ll ever be a conventional filmmaker,” he says, laughing.

Still, working outside the margins of traditional moviemaking requires great adaptability.

When Caballero received funding for “TheyDream” in 2021, the money wasn’t enough to conceive it as he had originally envisioned it: entirely told with 3-D-printed figures in physical sets. The lack of resources forced him to rethink his approach, and he opted for hiring two Puerto Rican animators, Julisse Tinoco and Frank Martinez, each of whom animate in distinct styles, to help him create some of the sequences needed.

“This all goes back to the resourcefulness that I learned when I was young,” Caballero says. “When you’re born Latino and low-income in this society, you can’t let yourself be written off or you’re already defeated before you even begin.”

Caballero grew up in housing projects in New York City, and later in a trailer in his grandmother’s backyard in Fayetteville, N.C. Both of his parents were disabled.

Filmmaker William D. Caballero poses as his father for a reference shot in the making of his 2026 film “TheyDream.”

For Caballero, he says the arts have provided an escape that he “needed in order to survive and not feel weighed down by American consumerism, by poverty and by feeling trapped.” Whenever grief has perturbed him, Caballero has processed it through creativity.

With “TheyDream,” he wished to extend that vehicle for self-reflection to his mother. The film addresses complicated familial bonds and his mother’s experience caring for others.

“Throughout the years, we’ve lost several of my family members that we were both close to, but my mother especially,” he says. “She feels their absence much stronger than I do. I live in Los Angeles, my mother still lives in North Carolina. Knowing that she was alone in the mobile home, it just made me feel like, ‘That can’t be good for her.’”

His mother, he says, deals with self-esteem issues because her identity has for so long been reduced to being a caretaker for elderly relatives, who, inevitably, pass away — leaving her feeling like a failure. In reality, it was thanks to her devotion that they added years of life.

Caballero’s mother was at the Sundance premiere of “TheyDream,” where she witnessed how others saw her through the film she helped her son craft.

“I wanted her to feel like, ‘Mom, look at all these people that are clapping for you. They’re clapping for you because you are a hero. You deserve to hold yourself high and be strong and know that there’s something incredible in your story that’s indicative of the stories of many low-income Americans, regardless of race,’” Caballero says, visibly moved.

A prolific and highly regarded artist (he is a 2018 Guggenheim Fellow), Caballero has several other projects in the works that he’s trying to shop around. One of them is an episodic series titled “Second Fiddle,” about a 15-year-old Latino boy who gets accepted to a prestigious summer youth orchestra camp — and whose overbearing mother decides she’s going to stay in the camp with him.

Caballero’s mother, Milly, got the animated treatment in “TheyDream.”

“I never saw a Latino playing violin on TV or the big screen. I didn’t see any quirky, nerdy, artsy Latino kids like I was,” he says. “And I felt in my core that [it] was just wrong and something that I could change.”

Another project, “Raúl Playing Game,” is “an adult version of Pixar’s ‘Inside Out,’ ” that takes place in the mind of a closeted bisexual man. Caballero himself is bisexual. In 2022, “Raúl Playing Game” was selected for the LALIFF Inclusion Fellowship, which provided support for a short film version that serves as proof of concept for a potential TV show.

“I always wanted to make sure that I was telling authentic stories even if not necessarily always positive stories,” he says. “I’m very happy that I never lost track of that. Because I do believe that we need to tell our own stories, in our own unique voices, before someone else does it for us.”