show biz

VENEZUELA Fury may have just bagged a £5million wedding gift from her Gypsy King dad Tyson – but the teenager’s first marital home is a far cry from the millionaire lifestyle she grew up in.

The Fury dynasty toasted the teenager’s lavish wedding, which included Peter Andre performances, towering cakes, and a dress with a 50ft train, this weekend. But now, the 16-year-old bride and new husband Noah Price, 19, have moved into a £46,995 static caravan that had been sitting unsold for months – after furious buyers blasted the company’s homes as “absolute s**t”.

And in true Fury fashion, the story behind their first home together is every bit as dramatic as the wedding itself.

The young couple snapped up the two-bedroom caravan, named Manor House, exactly as it stood on the forecourt of East Yorkshire firm Carabuild – with no bespoke upgrades, luxury add-ons or personalised touches.

At 42ft long and 14ft wide, the caravan spans 588 square feet – roughly the same size as a large London studio flat.

That means Venezuela, who has spent her entire life surrounded by unimaginable luxury, is swapping Tyson and Paris Fury’s jaw-dropping £8million mansion for a static home that is 21 TIMES smaller.

Tyson’s sprawling estate stretches across 12,286 square feet, sits on historic land over 200 years old and boasts all the lavish trappings you’d expect from one of Britain’s richest sporting dynasties.

Yet now his eldest daughter is embracing traditional traveller life with husband Noah – and it seems the pair are doing it the old-fashioned way.

A source previously told The Sun: “Venezuela wants to start her married life in the traditional style of a traveller, just like her parents did.

“She has lived in luxury since she was born, but is willing to swap her home comforts to go and live in a static caravan.”

The source added: “She thinks it did her parents no harm and is looking forward to taking care of all the domestics while Noah goes out to work. Her parents approve.”

And it seems Venezuela took that traditional vision very seriously.

Because the caravan itself had been sitting unsold for months before Venezuela and Noah bought it.

Carabuild, which describes itself as a “bespoke manufacturer of luxury static caravans and lodges”, first advertised the home back in January with an asking price of £46,995.

By February, it still hadn’t shifted.

The firm posted another sales video online showing off the caravan’s “oak exterior” and “cream and gold” interior while urging potential buyers to get in touch.

Then in March came what insiders described as an increasingly desperate push to finally get rid of it.

In a social media plea, the company wrote: “Springtime offer. Be in this home for Easter. Available right now from stock. No waiting, no travelling, no stress.”

But while the videos attempted to paint a picture of luxury traveller living, furious online reviews underneath told a different story.

One furious customer blasted: “Stay well clear of this man Zane from Carabuild.

“Once he has your deposit, you never see him again.

“The homes are absolutely sh*t flat packs.”

The disgruntled reviewer continued: “Cheap made kitchen, cheapest of the cheapest, trust me, I am not joking.

“Please stay away from this company.”

Others accused the firm of poor insulation, broken radiators and “paper-thin walls”.

One scathing Google review read: “If I could give lower than one star, I would.”

Another raged: “Don’t give them a pound.”

Despite the controversy surrounding the company, Venezuela and Noah still chose the static home as the place they would begin married life together.

Carabuild proudly revealed the newlyweds had bought the home.

Sharing a video of the caravan to their Facebook page, the company wrote: “Congratulations to the new Mr and Mrs Price.

“We had the pleasure of designing and building Venezuela Fury and Noah Price’s very first marital home.”

It marks the latest chapter in what has become one of the most talked-about celebrity weddings of the year.

Venezuela – the eldest daughter of boxing superstar Tyson Fury and wife Paris – married Noah in a lavish traveller wedding on the Isle of Man earlier this month.

The wedding itself was pure Fury extravagance.

There were 20,000 flowers, a towering 12ft wedding cake, 18 bridesmaids, vintage cream wedding cars and a surprise performance from Peter Andre.

Venezuela wore a dramatic fishtail gown imported from Italy, complete with a staggering 50ft train – paired, brilliantly, with white Crocs.

Netflix cameras filmed the entire thing for the family’s hit reality series At Home With The Furys.

Tyson, emotional throughout the day, called himself a “big softie” as he walked his daughter down the aisle before later joking in his speech: “I told you – you shouldn’t have done it!”

And despite the glitz, glamour and eye-watering spending, the newlyweds appear determined to keep one foot firmly planted in traditional traveller culture.

The young couple will settle in East Yorkshire once they return from their lavish £30,000 honeymoon in Marbella – another gift paid for by Tyson and Paris.

And the honeymoon wasn’t the only present the pair received.

Tyson also gifted the newlyweds a traditional gypsy wagon as a sentimental nod to their roots.

Meanwhile, some family members were said to be stunned after Tyson and Paris reportedly handed the young couple £5million to help kickstart their married life.

“Some family members thought it was a lot of money for a young couple,” one insider told The Sun.

“But it’s up to Tyson and Paris.”

For now, though, despite the millions, the honeymoon and the reality TV cameras, Venezuela and Noah are preparing to start married life in the very caravan that buyers warned people to avoid.

Lupa Systems, the media and tech holding company owned by James Murdoch, is set to acquire nearly half of Vox Media.

As part of the deal, Murdoch’s company will own Vox Media’s podcast network, Vox.com and New York Magazine, once an asset of his father, industry giant Rupert Murdoch. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the price tag was reportedly over $300 million, the New York Times reported citing people familiar with the deal. The goal of the investment is to bring “influential journalists, top-rated podcasts, and digital brands with large social footprints” to Lupa and help grow its media portfolio, the company announced Wednesday.

“This acquisition aligns well with our existing holdings and investments and reflects both our interest in the forward edge of culture and our deep commitment to ambitious journalism and agenda-setting conversations,” Murdoch said in a statement.

The three new assets will function as a subsidiary of Lupa Systems and will keep the name Vox Media. The deal includes New York Magazine’s popular verticals like The Cut, Vulture and Intelligencer, as well as Vox’s most successful podcasts like “Today, Explained” and “Pivot with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway.” Jim Bankoff, Vox Media’s current CEO, will continue to lead the company.

The other Vox Media properties, which Murdoch did not purchase, include websites like Eater, The Dodo and The Verge. These platforms will be run under an unnamed new company by the current president of Vox Media, Ryan Pauley.

This investment strengthens Lupa Systems’ position in the evolving media landscape. The business has other holdings including the parent company of Tribeca Film Festival, the owner of Art Basel, Robert DeNiro and Jane Rosenthal’s entertainment company Tribeca Enterprises, and Bodhi Tree Systems, an investment platform behind a popular Indian streaming service.

This is one of the largest deals Murdoch has closed since he and his family resolved a $3.3-billion dispute last year. The conflict centered on the future of the family’s media empire, which includes Fox News, The New York Post and The Wall Street Journal. In the settlement, James Murdoch received roughly $1 billion and his elder brother, Lachlan, assumed power over the family’s assets.

Before the legal blowout, Murdoch previously served as the chief executive of major global media companies like 21st Century Fox and Europe’s Sky Group.

The billionaire told the New York Times that, with this new acquisition, he didn’t want a “daily news business.” He wanted “longer-form, thoughtful journalism that can really speak to the culture.”

HIS fans have been speculating that something isn’t quite right between Jake Quickenden and his wife Sophie Church over the past couple of days.

And now his pals have ­confirmed to me that the couple, who married in 2022 and have two children together, have formally separated.

Former X Factor star Jake, who has also appeared on I’m A Celeb and Dancing On Ice, and Sophie are understood to have told their close friends and family about their decision to split.

“Jake and Sophie have ended their marriage but they remain incredibly amicable,” a pal told me.

“There is still a huge amount of love and respect between them.

“Their main priority has always been, and continues to be, their children, and they are fully committed to being the best parents possible.

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“Over time, they started to grow apart and Jake and Sophie have had some long and honest conversations about this.

“While they might not be together any more, they are still on great terms and are looking to the future, co-parenting together. Maintaining a happy and supportive family unit together is their focus now.”

Jake and influencer Sophie got together in 2018.

They dated for three years before he popped the question during a holiday to Rhodes in 2021.

Jake spoke about his love for Sophie in the days following their wedding in Ibiza a year later, saying: “I thought it was an angel walking down the aisle.”

He went on to admit they wrote their own vows, joking: “I was saying, ‘I won’t leave empty wrappers in the cupboard any more’. I said, ‘I’ll still love her when she makes a noise when she eats like a squirrel’.

“I said at the end, ‘I think there’s only one true love and you’re my soulmate’.”

Although it hasn’t worked out, I’m glad to hear they’re still on good terms.

MGK’s swipe after Yung’s ticket rap

THEY were once close friends and collaborated on Acting Like That and Body Bag in 2020 and 2019’s I Think I’m Okay but Machine Gun Kelly has now declared war on Yungblud.

The US nonentity took a swipe after Doncaster rocker Yung spoke out about the ­rising cost of live music tickets.

In a video posted on Instagram, Yungblud – who cancelled several dates of his North American tour last year – said: “Live music has become inaccessible, that’s a fact. Artists are cancelling all the time based on lack of ticket sales, because it is an issue, it’s completely unaffordable for people.”

But MGK lashed out: “You cancelled a tour because you couldn’t sell tickets, blamed it on mental health then got paparazzi’d at Nobu the next day Pinocchio. Your tour tickets are the same price as every other artist. Shut the f* up you ­silver-spooned preachy w**r.”

Taking the higher ground, a rep for Yungblud – real name Dominic Harrison – replied: “He genuinely hasn’t got time to engage in this.”

Dom should now let his music do the talking. His last three studio albums went straight to No1, and earlier this year he landed a Grammy for his rendition of pal Ozzy Osbourne’s 1972 hit Changes.

MGK, meanwhile, has never hit the top spot here . . . 

Kylie strikes chord with pal Chris

KYLIE MINOGUE has revealed Coldplay frontman Chris Martin helped bring her new song Light Up to life by sending her a voice note.

I joined a handful of Kylie’s biggest fans at Spotify’s Listening Lounge in London ahead of the launch of her new Netflix docuseries simply titled Kylie, which dropped yesterday.

She explained: “I was coming out from the studio on the phone to Chris while I was working on [album] Tension.

“I told him some of the lines I had, and he asked if he could put some chords to them. Within half an hour, I had a voice note back from him.”

She added: “I can’t imagine Chris is ever very far away from a guitar or drums.”

As well as her new music, fans are finding a new resonance in Kylie’s older tracks following the docuseries – particularly 2023 release Story.

In the Netflix show, Kylie reveals that the closing track from her Tension album was actually about her second cancer diagnosis in 2021.

She sings: “I didn’t let the world know, I was fighting a big fight. Fighting a dark light. Raging hard on the inside.”

Kylie is one of life’s fighters.

Madge point

MADONNA has taken a swipe at Charli XCX after the Guess singer said she reckons dance floors are “dead.”

On her new song Rock Music, Charli sings: “I think the dance floor is dead, so now we’re making rock music.”

Madge’s dance-heavy new album, Confessions On A Dance Floor: Part II comes out on July 3, and she certainly doesn’t agree.

Her original Confessions On A Dance Floor in 2005 was one of the top albums that year and one of the best-selling records of the 21st Century.

So in response, Madge posted this snap on Instagram last night and wrote: “If your dance floor feels dead, maybe you’re playing the wrong music.”
Ouch.

All dolled up

THE PUSSYCAT DOLLS might have been forced to cancel their US tour but they want us to know it is business as usual.

Kimberly Wyatt, Nicole Scherzinger and Ashley Roberts came together in pink outfits to perform at a Huda Beauty event in London.

It was the first official comeback performance ahead of their shows later this year.

They hit Europe and the UK in September.

Frank in new goal

HE co-wrote one of the world’s best football songs with 1996 classic Three Lions, and now Frank Skinner is at it again.

Ahead of Euro 2028, Frank has written a new poem to kick-start BT’s partnership with the competition.

“If you properly care, then you’re properly there,” the poem reads.

“Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh, West Bromwich, ready to cheer, to revere and pay homage to our teams and our dreams, our fists punching the air or clenched in despair.”

Let’s hope it’s not the latter.

UNA HEALY has quit alcohol because she was sick of having a “rotten hangover”.

The Saturday’s star, who is five months sober, said on Instagram: “I’ve been asked, ‘Is it hard? Is it tough?’ Well, it is hard.

“Sometimes you feel like you’re missing out but you’re not missing out on that rotten hangover.

“If it’s one day without feeling like s**t because of drink, then bring it on.”

The Netflix show has found itself in the top 10 in multiple countries, bringing in over 13 million views this week

A controversial Netflix show dubbed “super dark” continues to break records in over a dozen countries worldwide.

The Roast of Kevin Hart livestream was finally released on Netflix earlier this month (May 10), having been hosted by Shane Gillis during Netflix is a Joke Fest. Featuring savage punchlines from the likes of Dwayne Johnson, Pete Davidson and Katt Williams, the show continues to divide fans.

Running for just under three hours, a Netflix synopsis reads: “Kevin Hart is in the hot seat and ready for all the smoke as roastmaster Shane Gillis and a dais of A-listers unleash a raw and ruthless night of laughs.”

Despite its controversy, the show has found its way onto Netflix’s Top 10 list, breaking records to sit in top place in 15 countries this week. According to Netflix’s Tudum, from May 11 to May 17, The Roast of Kevin Hart sits in first place in the Top 10 Shows with 13.5 million views.

But views continue to be divided as one person wrote on Rotten Tomatoes: “It’s no different than any other roast.. it’s light but super dark gut wrenching comedy. It’s an enjoyable watch.”

Another said: “This is the edgiest, funniest roast I’ve seen. It was not afraid to push the boundaries of comedy, something we need more of. I applaud the boldness and vision. I’d love to see more like this.”

A third added: “Omg!!! This was a proper roast, crying laughing, whilst walking around the room saying No! No! No! He didnt just say that.”

However, some viewers were unimpressed as one person wrote: “Easily the worst roast ever done. I love Shane, but he was so bad and unfunny. The Rock was the only one that did okay, everyone else was pretty poor. Just awful.”

Another said: “The cringe was high with this one. The few funny moments still didn’t make the 3 hrs worth it.”

A third penned: “Total waste of time. 3-4 funny jokes in 3hrs. Skip!”

Over on Reddit, one viewer stated: “Overall I enjoyed lots of the jokes but many felt like they were simply seeking to push the discomfort to extremes for the sake of edginess rather than for the sake of smart humour. It felt desperate to shock.

“I understand roast culture but this event had an edge I haven’t seen before and there seemed to be an air of discomfort amongst some people.”

The Roast of Kevin Hart can be streamed on Netflix.

When Meow Wolf’s Los Angeles location opens later this year, one of its biggest residents will be a 20-foot-tall, 1,000-pound amoeba-like creature named WoWoW.

Created by the L.A.-based multimedia collective Everything Is Terrible, WoWoW is alternately described as a “cosmic entity” and a “cartoony, root vegetable floating alien god.” The multi-eyed organism will serve as the centerpiece of “the N.E.S.T.,” an EIT-designed section of Meow Wolf’s new 26,000-square-foot immersive exhibition space.

In-progress detail of Everything Is Terrible’s WoWoW sculpture for the forthcoming Meow Wolf Los Angeles, shown with multi-color eye lighting.

(Photo by Allyson Lupovich / Meow Wolf)

That acronym has yet to be explained, and is cloaked in Meow Wolf’s intentionally mysterious messaging about its latest incarnation, which is set in an old Cinemark movie theater in West L.A. and will tackle the ephemeral joys and hardships of Hollywood’s dream factory. The L.A. location will be the Santa Fe, N.M.-based immersive art and entertainment company’s fifth outpost after Denver, Las Vegas, Houston and the Dallas suburbs.

The L.A. space boasts 45 local collaborating artists including Gabriela Ruiz, David Altmejd and more. Each is building their own unique installation featuring a variety of sculptures, dioramas and new media.

Everything Is Terrible is one of Meow Wolf’s most prolific partners, creating a variety of psychedelic characters for various installations over the years. The collective dreamed up the N.E.S.T. about two years ago as a way of paying tribute to maximalist roadside attractions like Wisconsin’s House on the Rock or New Mexico’s Tinkertown Museum. It also tells the story of the Noothies, a made-up community of former below-the-line film workers who stumbled upon a god — and a hidden truth about the nature of reality.

The installation presents a paradox by being a Hollywood idea that is completely un-Hollywood. It may wink at the industry’s unseen heroes, but who can afford to make art for art’s sake in the entertainment industry anymore? That seeming contradiction makes it a very Everything Is Terrible idea.

Founded nearly 20 years ago by a group of friends who met at Ohio University, Everything Is Terrible was launched as a found-footage website that created wild and singular art pieces using thrifted VHS tapes. It found viral success with videos about cat massage, and a dancing dinosaur who warns kids about the dangers of pedophilia, as well as its lauded quest to amass as many VHS copies of “Jerry Maguire” as humanly possible. (The group has about 45,000 at the moment, all stuffed in boxes and waiting to be unleashed on the world — perhaps as a pyramid in the desert or maybe featured in some sort of coffee table book.)

“I think our outlook on life has become, ‘look at the worlds that these people created,’” says EIT co-founder Dimitri Simakis. “No one asked them to do this. Someone just wanted to do a kids puppet show in some garage in North Carolina and now they’ve created a simulacra.”

That’s also what the collective is doing with its Meow Wolf exhibit, adds Nic Maier, another EIT member. “It’s what we’ve done for the last 20 years, really. We’re just a bunch of kooks who got together to obsessively make things in celebration of life and in appreciation of each other’s time.”

The marriage of Everything Is Terrible and Meow Wolf is a match made in heaven. The groups first met in 2009, bonded by a shared commitment to interactive art experiences that twist reality using an ornate handmade aesthetic.

A few years later, Maier was hired to work on what would become Meow Wolf’s first large-scale installation, Santa Fe’s “House of Eternal Return.” As he spent hours sculpting large, foam trees for the group, he says he fell in love.

A mystical, neon-colored forest in Meow Wolf’s Santa Fe, N.M., exhibition, “The House of Eternal Return.”

(Meow Wolf)

“We always joke that ever since then, EIT has been a barnacle on the side of the Meow Wolf ship, just hanging on but also occasionally hopping in to contribute,” Maier says.

When Meow Wolf announced it was opening two new spaces, in Las Vegas and Denver, it called on EIT for ideas. Simakis and Maier threw out a few pitches for Denver and one landed: a McDonald’s-like retro freak-out known as Pizza Pals Play Zone, which went on to become one of the attraction’s most talked about, photographed and beloved spaces.

“Pizza Pals Play Zone is super character dense,” says Han Sayles, Meow Wolf’s director of artist collaboration. “It’s just one of those spaces that feels like Meow Wolf. There’s hundreds of different pieces of media framed all around, featuring all of these different characters they created. They even made a bible … that had the narrative backstory of every single character and every deliverable they wanted for that room.”

Pizza Pals Playzone, created by Everything Is Terrible, at Meow Wolf’s Convergence Station in Denver.

(Jess Gallo / Meow Wolf)

When Meow Wolf’s Los Angeles project became a possibility, Sayles says Everything Is Terrible was one of the first groups she pitched as a potential contributor. EIT ended up being offered a custom project, in which the group used Meow Wolf’s extensive production facilities and resources to create their vision for the space, weighing in on everything from the shape of their room to the merch it might inspire in the Meow Wolf gift shop.

“We had a super trusting relationship with them,” Sayles says. “We recruited them as partners and negotiated a deal without knowing what they were going to put in the room. Both Nic and Dimitri have such a beautiful, strong sense of the exact genre of whimsy that we go for and they always deliver super deeply, so we knew it would be amazing.”

Sayles says she also thought the group’s experience of Los Angeles would lend itself well to the overall theme of the venue. Shakti Howeth, a creative director at Meow Wolf, agrees, saying that while Meow Wolf attractions are typically pretty otherworldly, they’re always built around an overarching story.

At Meow Wolf’s “Omega Mart,” in Las Vegas, guests first enter a satiric take on a grocery store, where portals lead to otherworldly art exhibitions.

(Christopher DeVargas / Meow Wolf)

The N.E.S.T., Howeth teases, will relate to some of the L.A. attraction’s character groups and themes, as well as its overall story. How audiences first encounter WoWoW and the N.E.S.T. will depend on which door they use to enter the room. From there, the points of visual interest will compound upon each other.

“We’re just incorporating all the things we love,” says Maier, noting that includes roadside attractions, folk art and anything “outsider.”

“It involves everything from the importance of dirt and worms to video games to experimental film to worker uprisings to entering literal other dimensions where you can meet what might be God, all within a [553]-square-foot space,” Simakis adds. “There have been times when we’ve been in the N.E.S.T. and thought we crammed in too much … but then you realize it has to be like that, because we’re trying to tell the whole story of the universe in just that room.”

For example, Maier spent much of the last two years building 45 beautifully weird costumes for the attraction, only two of which will be physically in the N.E.S.T. The other 43, he explains, are there for “world-building” and to make the story feel lived in. Everything in the space will have been created by Everything Is Terrible and Meow Wolf, including what seems like real found footage.

Simakis calls the group’s vision for the space “unrelenting joy mixed with benevolent chaos,” as well as “a beautiful folk art museum that’s also a space rave.” He likens what the group is doing to “building a puzzle out of thousands of other puzzles, gluing it together to make a new thing.”

“It’s like we’re making a movie that’s not a movie,” Simakis adds. “It’s a video game. It’s a living space. It’s all of these things, but you get to walk around in it.”

If that’s confusing, it’s because it’s meant to be — at least a little. How each visitor absorbs or receives the space will be entirely up to them. And while that could be a bit terrifying for some artists, to pour everything into a piece only to have the public possibly misinterpret or even ignore it, Maier and Simakis say they’re open to whatever comes.

“Millions of people are going to potentially walk through our space, so it has to be really special,” Simakis says. “We’ve also thought about all the different ways people could enjoy it, whether they’re a baby or a stoner or someone who’s just really into immersive entertainment or escape rooms. Even if you just go to take selfies, great. We’re pro-that. But also, if you want to keep going back or you want to spend hours there, I promise we’ve made it worth your while.”

Meow Wolf L.A. opens later this year. You can catch both Meow Wolf and Everything Is Terrible in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Art Parade on June 20, marching in some of Maier’s 45 costumes from the N.E.S.T.

Renfield, a movie based on characters from Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, is airing tonight and fans have praised hailed the film “funny and deliciously entertaining’

A movie perfect for fans of Dracula is heading to the small screen.

American action comedy horror film Renfield was originally released in 2023 and Film4 is showing the film at 9pm on Wednesday (May 20) evening.

Inspired by characters from Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula and its 1931 feature film adaptation, the film features Nicholas Hoult as the titular character and co-stars Awkwafina, Ben Schwartz, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Brandon Scott Jones, Adrian Martinez and Nicolas Cage.

The story follows Renfield who, after decades as a grueling servant for Dracula, seeks a new purpose in life. Viewers who have already watch the movie have offered their review online.

One fan penned: “I came for Nicolas Cage and was not disappointed. He played an amazing Dracula in the modern world.” Nicolas Cage was born to play and he appropriately chews up the scenery whenever he is on screen. This movie is a lot of fun thematically and visually.”

A third person said: “Renfield hits all the right notes. The humour is dark, witty and at times profound. The film delivers plenty of gore and bloodshed to satisfy fans of the horror genre.”

A fourth agreed: “Funny, well-crafted, and deliciously entertaining, Renfield isn’t short of bite.”

According to reports, Cage prepared for his role as Dracula by observing the distinctive ways the character was portrayed on screen by Bela Lugosi, Frank Langella, and Gary Oldman.

“What can I bring that will be different?”, he said, “I want it to pop in a unique way. We’ve seen it played well, we’ve seen it play not so well, so what can we do?

“So I’m thinking to really focus on the movement of the character … and that perfect tone of comedy and horror.”

Cage mentioned An American Werewolf in London, Ring and Malignant as inspirations for the role.

The film is Cage’s first live-action film by a major studio since Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.

The film’s black-and-white opening scenes recreate the events of Dracula with Cage and Hoult respectively inserted in place of Bela Lugosi and Dwight Frye as Count Dracula and Renfield, with Helen Chandler and Edward Van Sloan appearing as Mina Seward and Abraham Van Helsing via archive footage.

Few would contend that Lerner and Loewe’s “Brigadoon” and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Flower Drum Song” represent the best work of these legendary duos.

Unlike Lerner and Loewe’s eternally popular “My Fair Lady,” “Brigadoon” hasn’t had a Broadway revival since 1980. “Flower Drum Song,” relegated to the shadows of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!” and “South Pacific,” didn’t last long when it received its first and only Broadway revival in 2002.

I assumed nostalgia was fueling the desire to give these Golden Age musicals a makeover. But when I sat in the audience for these shows and fell immediately under the spell of their scores, I had a different answer.

The music makes a case for why “Brigadoon,” now in a soaring revival at Pasadena Playhouse, and “Flower Drum Song,” making a less assured reemergence at the Aratani Theatre in Little Tokyo, should live again. I was particularly skeptical of “Brigadoon,” with its airy-fairy book and heavy dose of romantic hokum, but the Broadway-level production at Pasadena Playhouse may be the best local staging of a musical I’ve seen in my 20 years covering the scene for The Times.

Kylie Victoria Edwards and Daniel Yearwood in “Brigadoon” at Pasadena Playhouse.

(Jeff Lorch)

I knew both musicals principally from their film adaptations. I missed David Henry Hwang‘s original rewrite of “Flower Drum Song,” which was a storied success at the Mark Taper Forum in 2001 but fared less favorably when it moved to New York the following year. I suppose I first saw “Brigadoon” as a kid at my grandmother’s house, amused at the way she goofily sang along. When I recently watched both movies again, it was like falling into a musical comedy time warp.

The enduring love for these Broadway shows isn’t just about the standards they have bequeathed to the American songbook. It’s also about the yearning for a more optimistic era of musical storytelling, when goodness could be counted on to prevail and a happy ending might be delayed but only rarely denied.

“Brigadoon,” a romantic fantasy about two Americans who stumble upon a mystical Scottish village that magically comes to life for a single day once every 100 years, might seem to be irredeemably old-fashioned. The show, which premiered on Broadway in 1947, was Lerner and Loewe’s first hit after a string of flops and fizzles. Without the success of “Brigadoon,” “My Fair Lady,” “Camelot” and the movie musical “Gigi” might never have happened.

Betsy Morgan and Max von Essen in “Brigadoon” at Pasadena Playhouse.

(Jeff Lorch)

But how do you solve a problem like Alan Jay Lerner’s book, written for a sensibility markedly more wholesome than our own? Enter playwright Alexandra Silber, whose fresh adaptation works for the most part remarkably well. There are a few lumpy patches, moments when the revision over-explains itself or belabors a point. But the way Tommy Albright (Max Von Essen) and Jeff Douglas (Happy Anderson), the accidental American intruders, have been modernized is a fizzy delight.

Imagine if Vincente Minnelli’s screen version of “Brigadoon,” starring Gene Kelly and Van Johnson, was remade with Paul Rudd and John Goodman, and you’ll have some idea of the comic chemistry here. But I should preface this thought exercise by first extolling the musical theater prowess of Von Essen, who received a Tony nomination for his work in “An American in Paris” and has a voice that could make the angels swoon. Less is required of Anderson’s jaded, booze-sodden Jeff, but this smart-alecky sidekick is re-imagined with crackling comic vitality.

The production, directed and choreographed by Katie Spelman, saves its most assertive interventions for its female characters. Fiona MacLaren (Betsy Morgan), the unmarried heroine who catches Tommy’s amorous eye, still falls heedlessly in love but not before correcting some of her American suitor’s chauvinistic assumptions. Morgan might overdo Fiona’s fiery streak when she sings “Waitin’ For My Dearie,” but the driving impulse is to bring the musical’s out-of-time female characters into the 21st century.

“Brigadoon” ensemble at Pasadena Playhouse.

(Jeff Lorch)

Meg Brockie (Donna Vivino), no longer the town floozie single-mindedly out to bed Jeff, is now the proprietor of Brockie’s Pub and the keeper of Brigadoon’s traditional language and culture. She’s still a sensual wrecking ball, but she’s too formidable to be treated as comic relief.

Silber has transformed Mr. Lundie, Brigadoon’s schoolmaster and moral guide, into Widow Lundie. The casting of the great Tyne Daly in the role is reason enough to make the gender switch, but it’s all part of a recalibration of the values of this theatrical world.

The dynamism of the singing and dancing smooths out some of the adaptation’s rough edges. Spelman puts her own stamp on Agnes DeMille’s original choreography, which was as integral to the storytelling as the book, lyrics and music.

When Charlie (a phenomenal Daniel Yearwood), a genial groom readying himself for the big wedding day, performs with his buddies “I’ll Go Home With Bonnie Jean,” Pasadena Playhouse erupts in a stomping frenzy of Celtic ecstasy. And Yearwood’s gorgeous rendition of “Come to Me, Bend to Me” is so seductive, it’s no wonder that Jean (Kylie Victoria Edwards), Fiona’s sister, has chosen to marry him.

“Brigadoon” ensemble at Pasadena Playhouse.

(Jeff Lorch)

All, however, is not idyllic in time-forgotten Brigadoon. Casting a pall over the nuptials, Harry Beaton (Spencer Davis Milford), hopelessly in love with Jean, threatens to destroy Brigadoon’s miracle by leaving the town for good.

Silber deepens Harry’s character and gives his story more emotional weight. (Milford manages to be both convincingly menacing and pitiably heartbroken.) The movie tweaked Harry’s fatal ending, but the adaptation does something even more striking with his desperation. The change is absorbed naturally by the musical, even if the funeral dance that Maggie (Jessica Lee Keller) elaborately performs might be more moving on a reduced scale.

The adaptation doesn’t always get the dramatic proportions right. When Jeff bares his soul to Tommy after the two are back on barstools in New York, the revelation that he is a heartsick widower complicates our understanding of a character originally conceived as a cynical bachelor. But Silber tries to extract too much sympathy from the exchange and stops the action when it should be moving rapidly toward its big finish.

Marc Oka, foreground, and Esther Lee, from left, Gemma Pedersen, Ai Toyoshima, Sally Hong, Hillary Tang and Emma Park in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Flower Drum Song,” produced by East West Players and the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center.

(Mike Palma)

But nothing can derail the success of this extraordinary production, the high watermark so far of Pasadena Playhouse producing artistic director Danny Feldman’s ongoing reexamination of the American musical canon. Jason Sherwood’s ravishing scenic design, full of eye-catching texture and lush density, makes it impossible not to dream along with the characters. Even the stage curtain, graced with Brigadoon’s floral insignia, is a work of art.

A 22-piece orchestra, under the music supervision of Darryl Archibald, draws out the all the sublime color of Frederick Loewe’s music. Most spectacularly, the blend of Von Essen’s lyric baritone and Morgan’s assertive soprano gives eternal life to Tommy and Fiona’s numbers. Hearing “The Heather on the Hill,” “Almost Like Being in Love” and “From This Day On” in the majestic intimacy of Pasadena Playhouse is a memory that will last at least a lifetime.

It’s a bit harder to judge this update of “Flower Drum Song,” which is Hwang’s second crack at revising the book, originally written by Oscar Hammerstein II and Joseph Fields. A co-production between East West Players and the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, the revival doesn’t have the resources of Pasadena Playhouse’s “Brigadoon” and likely doesn’t have the same goals.

Ai Toyoshima, from left, Brian Shimasaki Liebson, Grace Yoo and Scott Keiji Takeda in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Flower Drum Song,” produced by East West Players and the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center.

(Mike Palma)

The musical, which premiered on Broadway in 1958, was groundbreaking for the way it provided a showcase for Asian American performers. Henry Koster’s 1961 studio film adaptation followed suit with an even greater reach. The intention was to create musical theater entertainment built around generational conflict — a longstanding device of romantic comedy. But here the clash involves immigrants in San Francisco trying to reconcile traditional Chinese culture and modern American life.

Stereotypes, however, prevailed, leaving a community at once grateful for representation and uncomfortable with the reinforcement of old tropes. Hwang (author of the Tony Award-winning “M. Butterfly”) set out to re-imagine the characters from the perspective of a contemporary Asian American dramatist nearly 25 years ago. But times continue to change along with cultural sensitivities, and he wanted to revisit his work for East West Players’ 60th anniversary season.

Directed by EWP artistic director Lily Tung Crystal, who is of Chinese heritage, the production is on a quest for a deeper authenticity. This mission is to provide a more genuine reflection of Asian American experience — community members speaking directly to fellow community members.

Grace Yoo, left, and Scott Keiji Takeda in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Flower Drum Song,” produced by East West Players and the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center.

(Mike Palma)

The production is most effective when the actors are singing, especially Grace Yoo, who plays Mei-Li and had me entranced the moment she started singing “A Hundred Million Miracles.” Don’t let the traditional flower drum she totes around fool you. She’s no longer the quietly obedient daughter of authority. Having fled communism, she has arrived in the U.S. without papers and (unlike the original) her father, and isn’t too keen on anyone dictating to her what she can and cannot do.

Scott Keiji Takeda, who plays Ta, Mei-Li’s reluctant inamorato, has a sumptuous voice that captures the hues of Richard Rodgers’ music. But unfortunately his wooden characterization raises questions about what exactly Mei-Li sees in him.

There’s a tension between the update’s good intentions and the tendency of musical comedy to traffic in amusing caricatures. (Exaggeration and simplification are par for the course.) In trying to root out offensive Asian American stereotypes, Hwang imports swishing stereotypes for laughs in his creation of a new character, Harvard (Kenton Chen), who works at the theater owned by Ta’s father and seems a throwback to the campy, wisecracking gay characters that were a staple of 1980s big-budget movie comedies. Harvard may get a more empowering storyline than his florist-hairdresser-retail-clerk predecessors, but the humor is redolent of the same punishing cliches.

Krista Marie Yu in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Flower Drum Song,” produced by East West Players and the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center.

(Mike Palma)

Emily Kuroda as take-charge producer Madame Liang and Marc Oka as Wang, Ta’s old-school father, throw themselves into the revival with full farcical force. Crystal’s fluid staging, full of agile and vibrant design choices, smoothly maneuvers the action. But earnestness is the enemy of hilarity. Hwang can be very witty, but how can the production let itself go when it’s so often being called upon to make an important point?

Linda Low (Krista Marie Yu), no longer Mei-Li’s rival for Ta’s hand in marriage, is now her ally. When she sings a middling version of “I Enjoy Being a Girl,” the joke isn’t on her but a society that leaves women so few options. The problem is that for Hwang to rebuild Mei-Li and Linda into characters of credible modern-day complexity, he would have to start from scratch, not just retooling the book but commissioning a new score to flesh out his more complicated vision. In other words, leaving Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical behind.

“Brigadoon” manages to transcend time, but this take on “Flower Drum Song” falters between eras.

SUSPICIOUS Katy Price fans claim to have spotted her missing hubby “active” on social media, despite him being AWOL for nearly a week.

Lee Andrews lost contact with his distraught wife last week, after sending her a late night text claiming he’d been arrested and taken to a hostile “black site”.

But minutes later, he backtracked, alleging he’d in fact been “kidnapped”, bundled into the back of a van and taken to an ominous detention facility.

Katie shared the couple’s bewildering WhatsApp exchange with The Sun in a frantic bid to track down the Dubai-based businessman.

The Criminal Investigation Department confirmed that no one by Lee’s name had been detained.

The sketchy self-proclaimed millionaire is reportedly banned from leaving the country, after serving time at Dubai’s Al-Awir Prison for alleged financial fraud last October. 

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A visitor has filed a $5-million lawsuit against Disneyland for allegedly failing to properly disclose the use of facial-recognition technology at park and collecting sensitive data on guests.

Summer Christine Duffield of Riverside County filed the lawsuit after a May 10 visit to Disneyland and sister park California Adventure, alleging that the resort violates privacy and consumer protection laws collecting biometric data of visitors, without adequate consent.

“Disney does not adequately disclose the use of their biometric collection, so consumers — which almost always include children — have no idea that Disney is collecting this highly sensitive data,” the plaintiff noted in the lawsuit. “Guests should be able to expressly opt in to this type of sensitive facial recognition technology with written consent — the onus of privacy rights should not be on the victim.”

The suit was filed on May 15 in U.S. District Court in New York. The lawsuit cites an article from The Times on consumer reaction to Disney’s use of facial recognition.

The Walt Disney Company didn’t respond to a request for comment.

“People are getting fed up with being force-fed new tech, new AI, new tracking tools,” said Ari Waldman, Professor of Law at the UC Irvine.

Walt Disney Co. rolled out its facial recognition technology in late April across Disneyland Resort to verify tickets. The way it works is guests’ faces are scanned, converted into a numerical identifier and matched with ticket data.

Disney’s privacy policy notes that the identifiers created for identification are deleted within 30 days unless they need to be kept for legal or fraud prevention purposes.

Guests who don’t want to use the technology can enter through a separate entrance marked with a silhouette of a head and shoulders with a slash through it. However, of the dozens of lines to enter Disneyland and California Adventure, there were only four that didn’t use facial recognition, during an April visit.

The sign saying “Use of this technology is optional,” adorn the security checkpoint entrances.

“This technology facilitates ease of reentry into our parks and helps prevent fraud,” the company noted in its website.

Use of facial recognition technology for crowd management and ticketing has become increasingly commonplace.

Dodger Stadium deploys facial recognition for guests using the “Go Ahead Entry” at certain gates without producing a physical or digital ticket to enter the stadium. At Intuit Dome in Inglewood, visitors can use “GameFaceID” to quickly move through a separate lane with their face as their ID.

The lawsuit comes at a time when there is increasing concern of surveillance in public places, and privacy advocates have rallied against the normalization of surveillance. More recently, concerns of the potentially abusive use of artificial intelligence by government to analyze large quantities of data — from texts to facial scans — to surveil U.S citizens resulted in a high-profile showdown between the Pentagon and Anthropic.

Fans claim the brutal thriller from MobLand writer is as good as Homeland

New episodes of a ‘ gripping’ spy thriller fans say is just as good as Homeland are coming soon.

The Agency made its debut near the end of 2024 and is finally returning with new episodes. According to its synopsis, the series follows Martian, a covert CIA agent ordered to abandon his undercover life and return to London Station.

When the love he left behind reappears, romance reignites. He soon finds that she is in trouble and he will do anything to try to save her, even past the point of treachery. The only way out is deeper in. A knife-edge Martian must walk if he is to save love, life, and his mission.

Boasting a stellar cast, the line-up includes X-Men actor Michael Fassbender as Martian. He is joined by The Last of Us actor Jeffrey Wright, Richard Gere, The Crown’s Dominic West, and Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville to name a few.

Billed as a fresh take on the critically acclaimed hit French drama Le Bureau des Légendes (The Bureau), it was co-created by award winning writer Jez Butterworth who also penned all episodes of crime drama MobLand.

It is now confirmed that Season 2 will arrive on June 21. Its first season is streaming now for viewers to catch up on Paramount+. The service can be accessed either via its own dedicated app, or via an add-on subscription through the Prime Video platform.

An explosive new trailer was also released by the streamer ahead of the second season’s release. It looks to crank up both the tension and action on offer as Fassbender’s character embarks on a dangerous and desperate mission.

The Agency comes approved from notable audiences. In an interview a few months after it was made available, Lauren Cohan who plays Maggie in The Walking Dead and its spin-off, gave it her backing.

Asked for her own streaming recommendations at the time she admitted: “I’m also watching The Agency with Michael Fassbender and it’s on Paramount Plus. It’s great, it’s, it’s a really good show.”

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Plenty of viewers agree with the actor as one fan dubbed The Agency “bold, intense and gripping.” While another went so far as to claim that it is “as good as Homeland”.

Someone else posted online: The Agency is a must watch for anyone a fan of spy thrillers. First of all, the cast is absolutely amazing. It stars Michael Fassbender, Jeffery Wright, Richard Gere and Katherine Waterston. That cast right there is reason enough to give this a try and on top of that it’s a really good show too.”

One advised that it is perhaps not one for a casual viewing and would need some concentration. They said: “This is one of the better new shows so far this year. The Agency is a show where you can’t be playing on your phone, cooking dinner or doing something else, it requires your undivided attention. It’s a show that never gets stale. I can’t remember ever being bored, even for one episode. I loved every second of every episode.”

Another fan agreed by adding: “The writing is spectacular and brought to life by several A-listers. This is not a series you can watch while playing games on your phone. The series develops multiple, complex plots, many of which come together in later episodes and some that are well developed (and brutal at times).”

While some noted there is a slow build-up of tension as it begins, that doesn’t mean people make way through all episodes at record pace. One person said: “This is a great series – amazing performances from all the cast The special effects are great and the dialogue is spot on, hopefully there will be a second season. I binged it in one day.”

The Agency is streaming on Paramount+.

DAME Joan Plowright left nearly £3million to her children after she died last year.

The award-winning actress, who was married to Lord Laurence Olivier, left the sum to her three children.

She was known for her Golden Globe award-winning performances in TV biopic Stalin and Enchanted April, for which she was also nominated for an Academy Award.

The British actress died in January last year surrounded by her family at Denville Hall in Northwood.

Documents have now revealed that she had £2,814,901 in her estate at the time of her death – £2,711,847 after expenses.

Dame Joan’s fortune is to be divided between her three children Julie, Richard and Tamsin.

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Some of her personal items have been left to her friends, including singer Tracey Ullman.

Other gifts were left for fellow actress Dame Maggie Smith, who died four months prior, and Norma Heyman.

 Gawn Grainger, Anne Bell and Nicholas Grace were also recipients.

The star left £5,000 each to Clive McColl, Jean Wilson, Janet Macklam and Helen Johnson.

She requested that a sword used by Edmund Kean in Shakespeare’s Richard III which was given to her husband by Sir John Gielgud should be lent to the British Library or another appropriate British charity.

Dame Joan added that this was unless her children found it could be “properly be permanently preserved for exhibition or inherited by an actor generally thought to be as great as its previous owners”.

The actress had a 60-year career on stage and screen. She starred in the 2018 British documentary film Nothing Like a Dame alongside Maggie Smith and Judi Dench, as well as 101 Dalmatians with Glenn Close in the ’90s.

Dame Joan was also know for her role in Love You To Death with River Phoenix, and was a star of the West End and Broadway before her international movie success.

A family statement said: “It is with great sadness that the family of Dame Joan Plowright, the Lady Olivier, inform you that she passed away peacefully on January 16 2025 surrounded by her family at Denville Hall aged 95.

She enjoyed a long and illustrious career across theatre, film and TV over seven decades until blindness made her retire.

“She cherished her last 10 years in Sussex with constant visits from friends and family, filled with much laughter and fond memories.

“The family are deeply grateful to Jean Wilson and all those involved in her personal care over many years.

“Joan is survived by her loving family: Tamsin and Wilf, Julie-Kate and Dan, Richard, Shelley, Troy, Ali, Jeremy, step-granddaughter and great granddaughter Kaya and Sophia, and great grand-daughter soon to arrive.

“The family ask you to please respect their request for privacy at this time.

“We are so proud of all Joan did and who she was as a loving and deeply inclusive human being.

“She survived her many challenges with Plowright grit and courageous determination to make the best of them, and that she certainly did.

“Rest in peace, Joan…”

Dame Joan’s wedding to Lord Olivier in 1961 was the sensation of the year.

Their marriage was an enduring one until the theatre great’s death in 2007 at the age of 86. She became his carer through a series of chronic illnesses, including cancer.

From the 1950s to the 1980s, Plowright racked up dozens of stage roles in everything from Chekhov’s The Seagull to Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.

Dame Joan stunned in Eugene Ionesco’s The Chairs and George Bernard Shaw’s totemic two female roles Major Barbara and Saint Joan.

“I’ve been very privileged to have such a life,” Plowright said in a 2010 interview with The Actors Work.

“I mean it’s magic and I still feel, when a curtain goes up or the lights come on if there’s no curtain, the magic of a beginning of what is going to unfold in front of me.”

She was awarded the title of dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 2004.

First look images have been released for Channel 4’s new drama Number 10, written by Doctor Who and Sherlock creator Steven Moffat and starring Rafe Spall as the Prime Minister

Channel 4 has unveiled first look images from its upcoming drama Number 10, featuring Rafe Spall in the role of Prime Minister.

The newly-released photographs also showcase Coronation Street’s Katherine Kelly as Chief of Staff and Emmerdale’s Jenna Coleman as Deputy Chief of Staff, appearing alongside the Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office.

Jenna, Katherine and Rafe lead an impressive ensemble cast that includes Akshay Khanna, Abigail Lawrie, Laura Haddock, Jing Lusi, Pierro Niel-Mee, Rick Warden, Joe Wilkinson, Robyn Cara, Richard Rankin and Rhiannon Clements, amongst others.

The official synopsis for the programme states: “Set in the only terrace house in history with mice and a nuclear deterrent, it’s the only knock-through in the world where a hangover can start a war.

There’s a Prime Minister in the attic, a coffee bar in the basement and a wallpapered labyrinth of romance, crisis and heartbreak in-between, reports Wales Online.

“The government will be fictional and unspecific, but the problems will be real. We’ll never know which party is in power, because once the whole world hits the fan it barely matters.”

“This is a show about the building and everyone inside. Not just the Prime Minister upstairs, but the conspiracy theorist who runs the cafe three floors below, the man who repairs the lift that never works, the madly ambitious ‘advisors’ fighting for office space in cupboards. Oh, and of course, the cat.

“A drama about one of the most famous addresses in the world, Number 10 is all of Britain in a house: it’s British history under one roof. It’s how we all got into the mess we’re in. It’s also our only hope of getting out of it.”

Former Doctor Who showrunner Steven, who also co-created Sherlock and Dracula, said of his new project: “For me, it’s all about famous doors! The doors to the TARDIS, the door to 221B Baker Street, and now the most famous door in the world – Number 10.”

“I’ve been wanting to write about the mad house that runs the madhouse for years, and I’ve never had so much fun doing the research. If you want to do a workplace comedy drama, this one is the boss of them all.”

Discussing his latest role, Rafe said: “Number 10 is a sensational piece of writing, equal to its peerless author, Steven Moffat. I’m delighted to be playing the Prime Minister, in a funny, real and thrilling piece of TV.”

Jenna added: “I thought it was about time I visited another British institution with Steven Moffat. I’m very much looking forward to moving into Number 10 with Steven’s cracking scripts.”

Number 10 is expect to air on Channel 4 this year

Vinnie Jones says one career moment is way above all others

Vinnie Jones believes winning the FA Cup will be written on his gravestone. Footballer and actor Jones, 61, was part of the Wimbledon team that stunned Liverpool in 1987 with their victory at Wembley. A new Netflix documentary looks at his extraordinary career working as a hod carrier and playing semi-pro football to becoming a Premier League star and then a Hollywood actor.

Looking back, Vinnie said: “I think the biggest achievement is the FA Cup. The odds, you know? Leeds was magnificent, but we built a good team and that was “shit or bust”—we had to get up that season. But Jack and the Beanstalk was a great story of mine as a kid, and that’s what we did at Wimbledon when we beat Liverpool.

“I remember the first round being 1-0 down against Mansfield away. Fast forward a few months, and you’ve beaten one of the greatest teams in the last 50 years. 1-0 in front of a hundred thousand people. It was some achievement. It will probably be on my gravestone, I should think.”

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Vinnie is still making movies and also now has his own reality TV show In The Country, detailing his life after taking on 2,000 acres of West Sussex countryside, but it hasn’t all been plain sailing. His wife Tanya died in 2019 with cancer, having beaten the disease several times in the past.

Asked if his attitude in life was all about proving people wrong, he said: “Not prove people wrong, but to keep trying to get to the summit. When you get to the ledge, there’s another ledge and another ledge. I don’t really know where the summit is, to be honest. So I’ll go to the next ledge and the next ledge. Hopefully one day I’ll get there and go, “There’s no more ledges.

“We’re happy in life right now. I’ve got a couple of great movies and TV shows. It’s been a long road; the last six years has been a long road for me. You can’t stay on the same ledge. You’ve got to look up.”

Vinnie admits in the doc he has a “big ego” but also that he had periods in his life when he struggled due to trouble he got into but also heavy drinking, with no one to talk to about his problems. He recalls how he considered suicide when he took a shotgun into the woods near his home and was struggling with his mental health.

He says in the film: “I was on the bed and I was just curled up like the baby position and I was like, enough. I can’t keep doing this to people, can’t do it to the family. So far, I thought I could go for a walk up the wood…. I took the gun, walked up the wood, and then all stupid things go through your head. And the easiest thing to do was just to stop it right there and then, that would be it.

“And then I sort of came round, like being knocked out I suppose like in boxing, when you come around and miss all the scream and the shouting and everything is slow motion and you’re kind of back, you go right f*** this.”

Later in the film he adds: “I’ve taken as many knocks as I’ve given, but I’ve grabbed every opportunity that’s come my way. Be someone, make your mark. I’ve made my mark.”

Asked what people should take away from his story in the documentary, Vinnie says: “I can remember back when I was cutting the grass at the Masonic School in Bushey, just looking up and thinking: give me one chance, one chance, wherever it is, third division, fourth division, please, I want to be a professional footballer. You’re saying that every day. And then all of a sudden, a bolt of lightning or a flash or a spark gives you that chance.

“Talk to the universe and be straight with the universe. Ask for what you want and don’t let it down when it gives you that chance. That’s what it is. There’s a reason why the chance to win the lottery is a billion to one. To build on your dreams is up to us. I think we’re the bricklayers and the carpenters of our own dreams.”

Asked about mistakes in his life, he said: “The biggest regret is not giving up drinking probably 20 years beforehand. I tried it but never stuck at it. I think I’d have achieved a lot more without the booze. When I first went to Wimbledon on that trial, I never had a drink for a year. I wanted to be the fittest I could be. And then I fell into the culture.”

He added: “I wasn’t a drinker or a smoker growing up; it was just football. It was all part of being part of the Crazy Gang. I think I’d have been a lot better player if I hadn’t drunk through my career. But when you’re a young lad from a building site and the next minute you’re playing in front of 50,000 people, you never think it’s going to end.

“Older people say, ‘I hope you’re putting money away because this won’t last forever,’ but they’re talking to a brick wall. You think it’s going to last forever.” Thankfully for Vinnie he found a new career and big paydays in films including Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

* Untold UK: Vinnie Jones is on Netflix from Tuesday May 26.

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Shakira’s long tax-fraud nightmare has ended with the government of Spain on the hook to refund nearly $70 million to the Colombian-born singer after prosecutors failed to prove she spent enough time in that country to owe it a chunk of her earnings.

Since 2018, the singer has been accused of defrauding the Spanish government in three cases, for the tax years 2011, 2012-2014 and 2018. Over the years, deals were offered, rejected and accepted; charges were dropped, other charges were filed; and an eight-year prison sentence was threatened.

Shakira maintained her innocence, saying in 2022 that “Spanish tax authorities saw that I was dating a Spanish citizen and started to salivate,” referring to her relationship with Barcelona-born footballer Gerard Piqué, the father of their sons Milan and Sasha. Piqué and the singer, who met in 2010 when she did “Waka Waka,” the official song of that year’s FIFA World Cup, separated in 2022.

A representative for the singer, whose full name is Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, did not respond immediately to The Times’ request for comment on the court decision.

However, despite there being no fraud, Shakira told People on Monday in a statement that “for nearly a decade, I was treated as guilty. Every step of the process was leaked, distorted, and amplified, using my name and public image to send a threatening message to the rest of the taxpayers.”

She added, “Today, that narrative crumbles, and it does so with the full force of a court ruling.”

Everything revolved around how many days Shakira spent in Spain in the years in question. With her legal residence in the Bahamas before she declared Spain her fiscal home in 2014, she had to spend more than half the year outside of her beau’s home country to avoid paying taxes there.

“They knew I wasn’t in Spain the required time, that Spain wasn’t my place of work or my source of income, but they still came after me, with their eyes on the prize,” Shakira told Elle in 2022, adding that she was confident that justice would prevail in her favor at trial. “I have enough proof.”

The amount the Spanish government owes her includes fines and interest in addition to the money she handed over, despite having no legal obligation to pay it.

In other Shakira news, she and Burna Boy just released the 2026 FIFA World Cup song, titled “Dai Dai.”

VENEZUELA Fury’s new husband Noah Price has worn his wedding ring around his neck while on their lavish £30k honeymoon.

The 16-year-old daughter of ‘Gypsy King’ Tyson Fury and Paris Fury said “I do” to amateur boxer Noah Price over the weekend.

The youngsters, who got engaged at Venezuela’s 16th birthday party last September, got married in a lavish ceremony on Saturday at the Victorian Royal Chapel of St John’s in the Isle of Man.

The newlyweds are now living their best lives in Marbella, with them both showing off their lavish £30k honeymoon online with their many fans.

Boxer Noah, 19, proudly wore his wedding band on a chain around his neck in a new video as he strolled on the beach with his new wife.

The couple were dressed head-to-toe in designer looks.

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Venezuela rocked a chic Versace outfit while Noah rocked a Loewe T-shirt.

The couple enjoyed lunch at the Sexy Pasta restaurant and documented their sweet date.

Venezuela’s parents Tyson and Paris paid for their £30,000 honeymoon trip as a wedding present.

It comes after Venezuela’s parents Tyson and Paris gifted the newlyweds a £5million and a traditional gypsy caravan as a wedding gift.

A source revealed to us this week: “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.

“The wedding was magical and they spent £40,000 on Venezuela’s dress alone. That’s the gypsy way – go big.”

This comes after new wife Venezuela showed off her and her husband’s new home – a stunning and very modern caravan.

The young TV star is trading her family’s £8million mansion on the Isle of Man for the plush static caravan in East Riding of Yorkshire.

Taking to TikTok before jetting to Marbella this week, Venezuela shared a video montage of her new marital home, writing underneath it: “R first ever home so proud of my Noah.”

The luxury caravan home boasted of a stunning marble bathroom with a free-standing bath with gold hardware, a cream kitchen overlooking trees and greenery, and plenty of space throughout.

The living room has a huge built-in TV cabinet with a fireplace beneath.

And the bedroom has large wardrobes and plush grey carpet throughout.

On the exterior of the property, there is a sign that says: “The Manor House”.

“I love caravans and this is like the ultimate one of luxury! Beautiful. Wish u many happy years together and hope you enjoy your new home,” said one person.

“Class. beautiful wee home to start your new life,” penned a second.

“Looks really elegant wish you every happiness in.your first home,” wrote a third.

Mandy Moore shared her take on the drama swirling around her celebrity mommy group, months after fellow child actor Ashley Tisdale shaded the bunch in scathing essay last winter.

The “This Is Us” star and mother of three, during a recent appearance on Andy Cohen’s Sirius XM show “Radio Andy,” said she found the former “Suite Life of Zack & Cody” star’s article “very upsetting” and that it shocked both herself and fellow mommy group member Hilary Duff. “We have both grown up in this business and had people dissect who we are and the choices we make and all of that,” Moore, 42, told the Bravo host, “but this was something altogether different and decidedly way more upsetting … because it just cuts to the core.”

In December, New York magazine published “High School Musical” star Tisdale French’s essay for its “It’s Been a Year” series. The actor’s piece, titled “Breaking Up With My Toxic Mom Group,” accused other group members of snubbing Tisdale French from various gatherings and group chats. “‘This is too high school for me and I don’t want to take part in it anymore,’” Tisdale French, who shares two children with composer Christopher French, recalled texting the group.

As Tisdale French’s essay sparked speculation online about the identity of the group members, Duff’s husband Matthew Koma appeared to confirm his wife’s membership in a since-expired Instagram story post throwing the shade right back at Tisdale French.

For Moore, married to musician Taylor Goldsmith, kindness is “the most important thing” in her life, as is creating a legacy of kindness, she told Cohen. She said that she finds “anyone even insinuating that might not be the case” to be “very upsetting.” Moore said she is a “huge proponent” of addressing conflict head-on via face-to-face communication.

“‘I wouldn’t have handled the situation this way,’” she recalled feeling about the essay. Moore did not mention Tisdale French by name.

Moore said she also felt the scandalous essay “perpetuates this silly trope that women can’t be supportive of one another” and that women, specifically mothers, are “inherently petty” and committed to “one-up each other.”

“I have not felt that one iota since becoming a parent,” Moore said, adding she has formed “meaningful relationships” with other parents. She further stressed the importance of parents finding their community wherever they can.

Duff, 38, addressed the mommy group drama with The Times in February, telling pop music critic Mikael Wood that “this is not new for me” and she felt the situation was “escalated by the talking heads on TikTok that need clickbait.” Amid the social media chatter, Duff said her family is her focus.

”Knowing that I get to open up the back doors and play soccer as a family and take a hot tub and go get our chicken eggs — that’s the purpose of life,” she said. “On the days when crazy s— happens, I go home and quiet the noise.”

POP singer Kylie Minogue tried to have children via IVF and secretly battled breast cancer for a second time in 2021, she has revealed.

She uses her self-titled three-part Netflix docuseries to speak candidly about struggling to conceive after a fight with cancer in 2005.

Kylie, 57, says in the show, which is out today: “It was always with such a thread of hope but I couldn’t not try.

“I did try IVF a number of times. If it had happened it would have been just shy of a miracle. But it didn’t work out that way.”

Poignantly, she adds: “One can’t help but wonder what it would have been like.”

Kylie’s singer sister Dannii, 54, has one son, as does her brother Brendan, 55.

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Dannii said of Kylie: “She is amazing with kids. Just naturally incredible. She is amazing with her nephews.

“I never saw myself being a parent and she always did. And that is heartbreaking.”

The lyrics of Kylie’s 2012 song Flower dealt with the pain of not having children.

It includes the line: “Distant child my flower, are you blowing in the breeze?”

In another revelation, Kylie said she secretly battled cancer for a second time after being diagnosed with primary breast cancer in early 2021.

Kylie said: “I was able to keep it to myself and go through that year.

“I didn’t feel obliged to tell the world and actually I just couldn’t at the time as I was just a shell of a person.

“I didn’t want to leave the house again at one point.

“Thankfully I got through it again, and all is well.”

Kylie now has the all-clear and hopes that speaking out will encourage women to go for early screenings.

She said: “I know there will be someone out there who will benefit from a gentle reminder to do their check-ups.”

FIRST REVIEW

By Jack Hardwick

★★★★★

THIS went far beyond anything I thought she’d say.

Revelations on struggling to find love, cancer battles and heartbreaking attempts to conceive via IVF are here.

For someone who’s hardly spoken of life away from the stage they are jaw-dropping.

It is one of the most genuine and honest celebrity documentaries I’ve seen.