show biz

Dolly Parton, the singer and songwriter from Locust Ridge, Tenn., who willed herself into being the very symbol of country music stardom, has died in Nashville.

Parton died peacefully Tuesday, her nephew Bryan Seaver announced in a press release shared with The Times. Seaver also announced her death in a video shared to the singer’s Instagram page. She was 80.

The fabled entertainer died after a series of health issues that led her to postpone several performing commitments. In September 2025, she missed the announcement of a Dollywood attraction to recover from a kidney stone. Later that month she delayed her residency at Caesars Palace — her first residency on the Las Vegas Strip in more than 30 years — due to unspecified “health challenges.”

Over the course of a flamboyant 50-plus-year career as a songwriter, recording artist, actor and businesswoman, Parton reinvented the American success story through a combination of grit and wit, faith and sex appeal, virtuosity and plainspokenness, empathy for the human condition and plastic surgery.

She seized on the roles that American culture allowed for women in the spotlight — waif, trollop, fallen woman, country girl in over her head — and played them to the hilt, achieving artistic and financial heights few female performers have ever reached. By the time of her death, she was said to be one of the few things that Americans of most every persuasion could agree on.

One of the most honored musicians in modern history, Parton earned 10 Grammy Awards, two Academy Award nominations, a Primetime Emmy, 10 Country Music Assn. awards, and in 1999 she was enshrined in the Country Music Hall of Fame.

In 2005 President George W. Bush presented Parton with the National Medal of the Arts, and a year later she was given a Kennedy Center for the Arts Award for her lifetime contribution to the arts. Parton logged some 25 gold or platinum records and 25 No. 1 songs on the country chart. Parton also won a Liseberg Applause Award, the biggest prize in the theme park industry, for her fabled tourist attraction Dollywood.

Parton’s rags-to-riches tale reads like a classic country music story-song. But before it became mythical, it was only incredibly hard.

Dolly Rebecca Parton was born in Locust Ridge, Tenn., in the Great Smoky Mountains, on Jan. 19, 1946. Her father was a tobacco sharecropper and she was the fourth of 12 children. In her autobiography, “Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business,” Parton related how her parents were so poor they paid the doctor who delivered her with a sack of cornmeal.

Raised in a one-room cabin with no electricity, she listened to the Grand Ole Opry on a battery-powered radio. When she was 7 she started writing songs; a year later she picked up the guitar. At 10 she was singing on a Knoxville radio and TV program, “Cas Walker Farm & Home Hour.”

The Parton family was musical, and there were always banjos, fiddles, mandolins and guitars around the cabin. Her voice, a birdlike soprano with an animated trill, hadn’t changed much from her youth: “I sound like a little girl singing all these Lord-awful songs,” she told “Fresh Air’s” Terry Gross in 2001.

On a Friday night in 1964, Parton became the first in her family to graduate from high school. The next afternoon she was on a bus heading for Nashville, targeting a career in country music.

Bob Hope gets an adjustment to his reindeer costume as he and Dolly Parton prepare to tape a 1988 Christmas special on a cruise ship docked in Miami.

(Kathy Willens / Associated Press)

Women had little real power in Nashville at the time, and though rural women were a growing part of the country music audience, they were marginalized as artists. Parton signed to the Monument label, but felt that they wanted a pop singer more than they wanted her. An early breakthrough came when singer Bill Phillips heard a demo version of her “Put It Off Until Tomorrow”; not only did he want to record the song, but he recorded it with Parton singing harmony on it. The song went to No. 6 on the country chart in 1966.

In 1967 she recorded Curly Putman’s “Dumb Blonde,” her first charting song as a singer and a savvy choice that spoke to her as both an image and as flesh and blood, as she sang:

Just because I’m blond
Don’t think I’m dumb
‘Cause this dumb blond ain’t nobody’s fool

Nashville noticed. That year, country music star Porter Wagoner was looking for a new “girl singer” for his popular TV show, after Norma Jean left. Parton got the gig, and for weeks, legend has it, was greeted by the studio audience shouting “Norma Jean” when Parton opened her mouth. It was the kind of challenge she lived for. Carefully deferential to the star, Parton carved out a foothold for herself.

They were a complicated team. Tall, gaunt and calculating, Wagoner’s angles had angles, but somehow standing next to her, his pompadour dwarfing her considerable bouffant, it worked. At their peak, they had a weekly TV viewership of over 3.5 million, and recorded numerous hit duets, “Holding on to Nothin” (1968), “If Teardrops Were Pennies” (1973) and “Please Don’t Stop Loving Me” (1974) among them.

On her solo recordings at the time, Parton included a raft of songs about poor children in trouble. These gothic, occasionally autobiographical compositions, including “Coat of Many Colors,” “My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy,” “Evening Shade,” “Daddy Come and Get Me” and “Down From Dover,” would have been more than enough to make her, if not a star, at least a country music legend. But the kind of attention even her lesser work with Wagoner enjoyed continued to elude her own material.

Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers laugh together backstage at an April 2010 show honoring her “Islands in the Stream” singing partner.

(Rick Diamond / Getty Images)

By 1973, Parton realized that if she was going to be her own star she would have to be on her own. Wagoner fought and threatened, and finally, Parton wrote a song as a way to help him understand both her gratitude and her need for independence, “I Will Always Love You.” He liked the song, but it didn’t convince him. Wagoner sued her for $20 million over breach of contract and settled for $1 million.

But Parton had won her freedom, and she made the most of it. Her album from that year, “My Tennessee Mountain Home,” was a reintroduction to her audience, an autobiographical cycle of songs telling the story of a singer leaving home to make it on Music Row. And in 1974, “Jolene” became her chart-topping breakthrough.

The title was the name of a red-haired, green-eyed young fan Parton met signing autographs, and the story of a woman begging a rival to leave her man alone. Parton said she made it up after discovering a bank teller had a crush on her husband. With a beveled chord progression and a haunting repetition of the name, it became perhaps her most requested song, and was covered by many, including the White Stripes, Candi Staton, Reba McEntire and Olivia Newton-John.

“I wanted to be seen, I wanted to be recognized, I wanted to be a star,” she explained. The last part was now coming into focus.

In 1976 she hosted a short-lived variety TV series, “Dolly!” Her name was her brand, and so, too, was her profile: the full bosom and tiny waist, platinum wig and baubles like sprinkles on an ice cream cone, 5 feet tall standing in five-inch heels. She was a disarming contradiction: manufactured and utterly sincere.

“A country girl’s idea of what glamour was,” she explained.

“I didn’t have any money to have stuff and I’ve often joked about it, but it’s the real truth that I patterned myself after what they considered the trash in our hometown.” She took shame and made it a flag, one big enough for all sorts of Americans to settle beneath.

Dolly Parton checks out an exhibit honoring her life and career at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in May 2025.

(Jason Kempin / Getty Images)

Building on her fame, in the mid-’70s Parton decided to reinvent herself by reaching beyond the confines of country music. She signed with L.A.-based talent manager Sandy Gallin, who had made Mac Davis a country crossover star and would soon work with Cher and Michael Jackson.

Parton laid off her longtime Traveling Family Band and sought out musicians and songs that were more purely pop. Hits that followed included “Here You Come Again” (No. 20 on the pop chart, 1977), “Heartbreaker” (No. 37, 1978) and duets with Kenny Rogers like “Islands in the Stream” (No. 1, 1983).

The pop move was muttered over and seen by gatekeepers as a rejection of Southern-based authenticity. It was the era of “Urban Cowboy” and purity was being policed. “I love country music. It’s my first love,” she told the SoHo News. “But it was confining. You can only go so far in a circle.”

The movie “9 to 5” from 1980 settled her broadening stardom; acting alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin in a comedy about three office workers who get even with an abusive boss, Parton charmed viewers. It was her first acting role, and Roger Ebert called her “a natural born movie star.” She wrote and sang the movie’s theme song, which topped Billboard’s pop and country charts.

Dolly Parton and her “9 to 5” castmates Jane Fonda, left, and Lily Tomlin assemble at a 1980 news conference to promote the movie.

(Wally Fong / Associated Press)

Parton would go on to act in “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” (1982), “Rhinestone” (1984), “Steel Magnolias” (1989), the “Hannah Montana” TV series (she was Miley Cyrus’ godmother in real life too), and in many more films and TV shows. But her biggest cinematic moment came with a song she’d written years before; “I Will Always Love You” was sung by Whitney Houston in the 1992 film “The Bodyguard,” turning her air kiss to Porter Wagoner into a No. 1 hit for 14 weeks.

In the mid-1980s, Parton suffered a number of setbacks. She experienced depression. “I was just broken down,” she said later. In 1982, abdominal pain and bleeding forced her to cancel a tour, and in 1984 she had a partial hysterectomy. There were bouts of binge eating, and when she hit bottom she considered suicide. A series of conversations with God were instrumental in her recovery, Parton said.

Underscoring her connection to her origins while also illustrating how far she had gone, in 1986 she bought an old amusement park in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., and reinvented it as Dollywood, a booming theme park, resort and theater. Other businesses included Sandollar Productions, a film and TV company. In the 1990s Parton formed her own label, Blue Eye Records.

Success meant she could settle into being Dolly. A trio of beloved bluegrass albums, “The Grass Is Blue,” “Little Sparrow” and “Halos & Horns,” around the turn of the millennium reestablished her as a performer with extensive roots in rural America. She recorded with everyone from Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris to Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Her 2019 cover of John Hiatt’s “Faith,” made with Swedish duo Galantis, topped the EDM charts.

She embraced her Christian and LGBTQ+ fans, and perhaps no American artist had more of each. Inclusivity mattered to Parton. She was an icon to the LGBTQ+ community. In 2002 at the House of Blues in Los Angeles, Parton replaced the name Jolene with “drag queen” and sang her famous song as a roster of drag performers looked on.

Dolly Parton at the 57th Academy of Country Music Awards in 2022.

(John Locher / Associated Press)

Just two years later, in 2004, the Library of Congress presented Parton with the since-retired “Living Legend Medal,” which sought to recognize those that made significant creative contributions to American life.

Singer and songwriter Brandi Carlile called Parton “an angel on my shoulder and also the devil on my other shoulder.”

“When I was 15 years old I read the back of Dolly Parton’s book when she became the first country artist ever to speak out in support of LGBTQ people. And I can tell you that as a queer kid from a small town, getting love from Dolly is second only to God.”

Parton has been honored in musical tributes by Carrie Underwood, Alison Krauss and Shania Twain. “Jolene” became the subject of the short story “Jolene: A Life,” by E.L. Doctorow. In 2019 WNYC and Jad Abumrad presented “Dolly Parton’s America,” a nine-segment podcast devoted to, and with the cooperation of, Parton; it examined her persona and impact on American life.

That same year Netflix presented “Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings,” an anthology series in which each episode presents a fictional narrative built around a Parton song; the series features appearances by Kathleen Turner, Delta Burke and Melissa Leo.

Dolly Parton and President Carter embrace as First Lady Rosalynn Carter looks on before a White House luncheon in October 1979.

(Georges / Associated Press)

Her influence was so vast she has even been proposed as a field of academic study, and scrutinized in the 2018 academic study from Leigh H. Edwards, “Dolly Parton, Gender, and Country Music.”

She was married to the same man, Carl Thomas Dean, for over 50 years. They met on the day she arrived in Nashville in 1964, as she stood outside a laundromat. Parton and Dean were rarely seen in public together, and renewed vows in 2016. Dean died at age 82 in March 2025.

“Carl and I spent many wonderful years together,” Parton said in a statement at the time. “Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy.”

Parton remained a source of interest and fascination, and though few if anyone could really claim to know her, many thought they did. As she once put it: “I look one way and am another. It makes for a good combination.”

The popular TV show first aired earlier this year with Traitors star Jonathan Ross at the helm.

The series was a huge hit with fans as contestants competed to win £100,000.

It’s been confirmed that Channel 4’s popular show Handcuffed: Last Pair Standing will be back for a second series, with presenter Jonathan Ross returning to front the programme.

Described as an ‘outrageous social experiment’, the series follows a group of strangers who have completely opposite beliefs, opinions, lifestyles and habits as they’re handcuffed in pairs.

Being together 24/7, each duo needs to try and outlast the other competitors as they take part in the ‘ultimate test of survival’, which will see them win a huge cash prize if they become the last pair standing.

In series one, which had moments of high emotion, tension and heated arguments, Channel 4 viewers saw practical homemaker Charlie win the show with adult content creator Rob, and take home a collective £100,000.

Channel 4 Commissioning Editor Tim Hancock said: “Part of Channel 4’s job is to reflect every corner of Britain, and not just the loudest or most comfortable parts.

“Handcuffed does that better than almost anything else on our slate, and its return is a vote of confidence in formats built on genuine difference.”

The first series was a huge streaming success, as over 2 million views were recorded from episode one alone, with it doing particularly well with people aged between 16 and 34.

Tom Clarke, Executive Producer, 72 Films, a Fremantle Company added: “The first series of Handcuffed got the nation talking, especially in demographics we’re often told have left TV behind.

“We’re thrilled viewers enjoyed the high-octane thrills and spills of the competition, along with the oodles of heart our pairs delivered as they really got to know each other.”

People have had nothing but praise when speaking about the programme since it aired, with many calling it ‘brilliant’.

One person said: “Ch4 #handcuffed is brilliant, it needs a big launch next year, it’s basically big brother but handcuffed with no escape. Another wrote: “Well, @Channel4 #handcuffed was absolutely brilliant TV. What a journey!”

Someone else commented: “I really hope handcuffed gets more seasons i’ve been absolutely hooked on it #handcuffed .” While a fourth shared:” #handcuffed What a great show, I’m loving this.”

It’s not yet known when the second series of the Channel 4 show will air.

Handcuffed: Last Pair Standing is available to watch on Channel 4.

The sequel to a beloved 1970s family film also stars Sheridan Smith and Sir Thomas Courtenay

Call the Midwife fans waiting for the show’s World War II prequel are urged to watch this inspiring movie.

Before Jenny Agutter ever appeared in BBC One’s Call the Midwife as much-loved nun, Sister Julienne, she was already famed for her many acting roles, including her part in The Railway Children.

It’s been more than 55 years since Agutter first waved her red petticoat to save a steam train from disaster in the movie adaptation of the classic story.

The original film was based on the novel by Edith Nesbit about three children who are sent to live in the countryside beside a railway line after their father is arrested on mysterious spying charges.

Agutter played the eldest child, Bobbie Waterbury, in a 1968 TV adaptation, followed by the film two years later. She also played the mother in an ITV remake in 2000.

In 2022, a sequel, The Railway Children Return, arrived, and Agutter sensationally reprised her iconic role as Bobbie.

The film is set amid the Second World War, with the action taking place in the village of Oakworth in 1944. After the major cities become unsafe to live in, three children are evacuated to the countryside, where they hope to build a new life.

They are greeted by Bobbie, who moved to Oakworth three decades earlier, and her adult daughter Annie, played by Sheridan Smith. The children soon discover an injured American soldier at the nearby railyard and attempt to help him get back home.

Tom Courtenay also stars in the movie as Uncle Walter, and is joined by John Bradley as Richard, KJ Aikens as Abe, Beau Gadsdon as Lily Watts, Eden Hamilton as Pattie Watts, Zac Cudby as Ted Watts, and Austin Haynes as Thomas Waterbury.

Directed by Morgan Matthews from a screenplay by Danny Brocklehurst, the period drama is currently available to stream in the UK on Amazon Prime Video, and fans have dubbed it a “must-watch”.

“Perfect sequel to the original, picking up many social and ethical themes of the time, many still relevant today. Great casting, strong script, and excellent photography,” one viewer wrote on Rotten Tomatoes.

A second stated: “Really good movie with excellent acting and a storyline that pulls you in”, while a third chimed in: “A World War II story that I’ve never heard about. It was very well done.”

“Good wholesome entertainment. Exciting, suspenseful, and inspirational”, explained one fan as another added: “Exceptional movie with real intent and messages given.”

While another said: “It was a beautifully told story with a true meaning of resilience, courage, strength, and making your own family when hard times are around.”

Call the Midwife is streaming on BBC iPlayer, while The Railway Children Return is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

DOWNTON Abbey and Harry Potter star Dame Maggie Smith left a £16million fortune to her two actor sons, probate records published nearly two years after her death reveal.

The double Oscar winner, who died at a London hospital in September 2024 at the age of 89, left a net estate valued at £15,977,325.

Her will divides the bulk of that fortune equally between her sons Christopher Stephens, who works under the stage name Chris Larkin, and Toby Stephens.

She also left her West Sussex farmhouse, Douglas Lake Farm at Fittleworth, to a family trust she had set up with the two brothers in 2019.

The five-bedroom house, where she raised her sons and lived for more than 40 years, sits on a secluded plot with barns, a stable and a vineyard.

Born Margaret Natalie Smith in Ilford, Essex, in 1934, she was brought up in Oxford and made her stage debut at the Oxford Playhouse aged 17.

JUST WED

Inside Emily Atack’s ‘beautifully chaotic’ family wedding held in her GARDEN

shock claims

ITV star slams ‘toxic’ husband who called her family ‘scum’ amid divorce

She won her first Oscar in 1970 for playing the teacher in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and a second in 1979 for California Suite.

She was made a Dame in 1990 and her other films included A Room with a View, Sister Act, Gosford Park and The Lady in the Van.

A generation of children knew her as Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter films, a role she played across a decade from 2001 to 2011.

Her role as the acid-tongued Violet Crawley in six series of ITV’s Downton Abbey from 2010 won her three Emmy awards and a fresh television audience around the world.

In all she won two Oscars, seven Baftas, four Emmys, three Golden Globes and a Tony award, and was appointed a Companion of Honour by the late Queen in 2014.

King Charles and Queen Camilla also paid tribute, saying: “As the curtain comes down on a national treasure, we join all those around the world in remembering with the fondest admiration and affection her many great performances, and her warmth and wit that shone through both off and on the stage.”

Harry Potter co-star Daniel Radcliffe, said: “I will always consider myself amazingly lucky to have been able to work with her, and to spend time around her on set. The word legend is overused but if it applies to anyone in our industry then it applies to her. Thank you Maggie.”

Hugh Bonneville, who played her son in Downton Abbey, said: “Anyone who ever shared a scene with Maggie will attest to her sharp eye, sharp wit and formidable talent.

“She was a true legend of her generation and thankfully will live on in so many magnificent screen performances.”

Her sons announced her death in a statement issued through her publicist, in which they thanked hospital staff for their care during her final days.

They said: “An intensely private person, she was with friends and family at the end.

“She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother.”

She married the actor Robert Stephens in 1967, the father of her two sons, and after their divorce married the playwright Beverley Cross in the mid-1970s.

Mr Cross wrote the musical Half a Sixpence and the screenplays for the fantasy adventure films Jason and the Argonauts and Clash of the Titans.

Her will directs that any copyright, royalties and unpublished works she inherited from him after his death in 1998 should be shared out separately.

The proceeds are split equally between his daughter Philippa Maughan, his son Shaun Cross and her own two sons.

She signed the will in September 1996, when Mr Cross was still alive and named as her main beneficiary, but he died 18 months later.

The full value of everything she owned came to £16,003,613, with debts and expenses of just over £26,000 taken off to reach the final figure.

Speaking in a magazine interview in 2019, she was dismissive of the two roles that had made her famous to a new generation of viewers.

She said: “It wasn’t what you’d call satisfying. I didn’t really feel I was acting.”

She added that she was grateful for both jobs, which between them introduced her to millions of filmgoers who had never seen her on stage.

Dame Maggie once summed her life up by saying: “One went to school, one wanted to act, one started to act and one’s still acting.”

BANGKOK — Chinese artist Gao Zhen was sentenced to three years in prison on Tuesday for “infringing upon the reputation of heroes” over his satirical works of art, including statues of China’s former leader Mao Zedong.

U.S.-based Gao, who was part of an artistic duo known internationally as the Gao Brothers, was arrested while visiting family in China in August 2024. He has been in official custody since then.

He was sentenced by the Sanhei People’s Court court in northern Hebei province, according to his wife, Zhao Yaliang.

The charges against Gao relate to artistic works that China’s authorities claim insulted revolutionary figures, including a 2009 statue called Mao’s Guilt, which shows the former leader and founder of modern China as kneeling in repentance. Others include as series called Miss Mao, which shows a caricatured version of Mao with breasts and an engorged nose.

Shane Yi, a researcher at Chinese Human Rights Defenders, who has been advocating for the case, described the sentence as “a very clear case of a violation of a person’s freedom of expression.”

Yi noted that the artworks in question were created before the law Gao was sentenced with had been passed and said the artist plans to appeal the sentence.

The court did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Amnesty International criticized the court sentence which it described as a deterrent against artistic expression.

“The lengthy pre-trial detention and, ultimately, decision to convict Gao Zhen and sentence him to the maximum three-year prison term under this offense illustrate the authorities’ determination to deter others from engaging in independent artistic expression,” said Amnesty’s China Director Sarah Brooks.

“No artist should face criminal punishment for creating work that challenges official narratives or encourages critical reflection on history,” she said.

Zhao said she hopes to be reunited with her husband and be able to return to the U.S., where the family had immigrated to.

“I felt two years was my limit, and I was really disappointed and sad. I haven’t been able to catch my breath,” she said. She had prepared clothes for her husband hoping that he would be released. Chinese courts often count the time of a sentencing from the date a prisoner is taken.

The Gao Brothers, whose works addressed themes of authoritarianism and censorship, became famous in a time of relative openness in China and were exhibited both inside the country and abroad.

However, in recent years, the state’s increased its controlling grip on certain aspects of expression, especially in regards to political figures with the passage of law in 2018 that bans criticism of the nation’s heroes.

Wu writes for the Associated Press.

A FURIOUS Scarlett Moffatt today hit back after a complete stranger told her that she looks “humongous”, as she reaches the final stages of her pregnancy,

The I’m A Celeb star, 35, is currently expecting another baby boy with her fiance Scott Dobinson, but her pregnancy has been far from smooth sailing so far.

Scarlett, who is also a mum to Jude, two, today revealed she had been told she was “huge” by someone she didn’t even know, while at a party – and that it had happened before.

Venting on her Instagram Stories, the heavily pregnant Gogglebox star, who is due to give birth next month, said: “I’ve had women come up to me and tell me I look huge.

“I’m not even joking. Like people are actually just coming up to us.

“I was at my nanny’s party and a woman came up to me and this is where it started and then it’s carried on.

CONFESSION

Watch Katie Price say she’s ‘ugly’ in old pics as she discusses body dysmorphia

coming up roses

Bradley Dack’s ex Emily shows off bouquet of roses after reunion

“She didn’t even say hello, she went, ‘Oh my goodness, you look humongous!’

“What am I meant to say to that? I know they’re not saying it to be mean, but let’s not, let’s just not, let’s just not.

“Let’s just not comment on anyone’s bodies, whether they’re pregnant or not.

“Because I don’t know how to respond to someone telling me that I look huge.

“Cause I’ve still got a little while left of my pregnancy as well. It’s not like. I’m like literally about to drop.”

This latest revelation comes after Scarlett opened up to The Sun about the tough time she has had so far with her second pregnancy.

“The first trimester was horrific,” she told us earlier this month.

“With Jude, I was lured into a false sense of security – I kept thinking that all my friends who were pregnant were dead whingey because I had no morning sickness or any symptoms other than the fact I could feel him moving about.

“But this time, the first trimester I was still working and filming and I was getting bad travel sickness – I’ve never had that in my life before. I was also running off to throw up at work.”

Scarlett welcomed Jude in November 2023, and just a few weeks later Scott proposed to her.

Jack Tucker descends from the rafters inside L.A.’s Montalbán Theatre like a kamikaze crash landing into his big moment. He’s flanked by fountain fireworks while a buff guitarist with a blond mullet and glittery spandex shorts wails on guitar to the tune of Lenny Kravitz’s cover of “American Woman.” With the garish gusto of a WWE wrestler, Tucker’s entrance as the ringleader of the show “Stamptown” electrifies the stage.

But the show truly starts when it falls apart with technical mishaps. Everything breaks, guns go off, an illusionist loses his clothes and jumps fully nude into the crowd — all within the first five minutes.

It’s a chaotic comedy world created by classically trained performers, including clowns, who’ve studied the art of physical humor and shredded the rule book. For more than 10 years the Stamptown troupe led by Tucker, the alter ego of comedian Zach Zucker, has created an insane asylum on stage — from Elysian Theater in Echo Park to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. The show’s comedy thrives on failure, interruption and never actually getting to the “script.” This week the madness leaps from the stage to the screen as Stamptown premieres its first Netflix special Tuesday.

“This is a lot of people’s first time being exposed to this,” Zucker said, cracking a mischievous smile while sitting in a red velvet chair inside the empty Elysian Theater where his crew has performed “Stamptown” for years. “I have seen a man light his penis on fire 45 times in my show. I forget that when it comes to comedy, most people are used to seeing a person with one microphone stand still and talk.”

Filmed over the course of three performances during Netflix Is a Joke Fest in May, the spliced together “Stamptown” special directed by Rachel Lee Goldenberg and edited by show co-creator Dylan Woodley captures the chaos of clowning mixed with a cerebral roast of traditional comedy and plenty of playful danger. The result isn’t a piece of art but rather “a pile of art,” Zucker said.

“Our strength is being a ‘you gotta see it to believe it’ type of performance, but if I really had to boil it down, it’s a modern day vaudevillian variety show that features any and all alternative performances … our ethos is, ‘against all odds, this show works,’ ” Zucker said.

Zach Zucker tosses props in the air inside the Elysian Theater.

(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)

On a recent afternoon, the lanky, mustachioed Zucker, wearing a T-shirt, ballcap and small hoop earrings, bears little resemblance to his comic alter ego who sports a tattered suit with gag props stuffed in every pocket. In real life, the New York native is a former baseball and basketball star athlete who went down an extremely different path to become “a bisexual traveling clown.” After enrolling in what he assumed would be an easy acting class during his senior year of high school, Zucker became obsessed with improv and comedy. His teacher advised him to check out the renowned improv troupe Second City. So he flew to Chicago to see the show “Spoiler Alert: Everybody Dies” featuring Tim Robinson, Sam Richardson, Timothy Edward Mason and more. “It changed my life,” he said.

After taking up comedy classes and street performances on the East Coast, Zucker quickly transitioned to working in theater and eventually moved to L.A. at 18 to pursue comedy, interning at Upright Citizens Brigade. He scrubbed toilets in exchange for free improv classes. It was at UCB where he first crossed paths with celebrated clown teacher Philippe Gaulier, whose former students include Sacha Baron Cohen, Rachel Weisz and Geoffrey Rush. The wily, frizzy-haired Frenchman with red-framed spectacles taught Zucker everything he knows about clowning.

“Our strength is being a ‘you gotta see it to believe it’ type of performance, but if I really had to boil it down, it’s a modern day vaudevillian variety show that features any and all alternative performances … our ethos is, ‘against all odds, this show works,’” Zach Zucker said.

(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)

“Philippe is by far my greatest influence,” Zucker said. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about him or that I’m not actively implementing all the lessons he taught me as a man and as an artist.”

One of those lessons became the ethos of “Stamptown”: “If you’re having fun, maybe we like you. If you’re not having fun, for sure we hate you.”

Inspired by his wisdom, Zucker moved to France for two years to study with Gaulier. It was there that he met his future “Stamptown” collaborator Jonny Woolley, a Canadian performer who became the show’s sound tech, adding to the menagerie of aural mayhem through sound effects that punctuate the show’s every move.

“There’s a lot of different ways of approaching clowning, but ultimately, for us, it’s more of a philosophical approach to making art than it is like a rigorous set of rules or styles. It’s just being a lovable idiot,” Woolley said.

The name “Stamptown” is a tribute to the place where they learned their artform: the town of Estampes (which loosely translates to “Stamp”) in France where they studied with Gaulier, who died this year before the special was filmed.

Though he‘s known for his offbeat humor, Zucker’s brain is firing on a perpetual metronome. He’s snapping his fingers incessantly during our interview while describing the comedic timing of each show, which grooves like a jazz band on stage.

”Sometimes there’s a few different rhythms that I’m balancing at once. I can really zone in on what is the most fruitful at the moment while still keeping these other balls in the air,” he said. “Thankfully we’re not always pushing a message. Sometimes it is just about entertaining the crowd at all costs.”

Before “Stamptown,” Zucker was performing with Norwegian friend and fellow clown Viggo Venn as “Zach & Viggo,” a side act in the original variety show Zucker started with his friends in 2017 in Melbourne called “Midnight Madness” that eventually turned into “Stamptown.”

Working with Venn, Woolley and Woodley, Zucker devised the show to include a rotating cast of clowns, and comedic performers from around the world, including L.A. Staples in the local clown community include the slapstick of clown kingpin Chad Damiani playing a janitor, comedic actor Natalie Palamides as a comedy nepo fetus birthed by Riki Lindhome of “Garfunkel and Oates” and the riotously robotic gyrations of Courtney Pauroso as fembot temptress Vanessa 5000.

“‘Stamptown’ is extraordinary; it’s finely calculated nonsense,” said actor Neil Patrick Harris, a longtime friend and supporter of Zucker who appears on the Netflix special, in a statement to The Times. “Each performance is unique — stand-ups colliding with circus artists, and improvisers swapping talents and fluids, even the stagehands’ utter chaos and running gags, a ridiculous fever dream … it’s absurdly genius.”

The international performers who have become part of the “Stamptown” universe run the gamut from jugglers to steel drum players to acrobats to pianists. Trans comedian Jordan Gray is extremely unafraid to bare it all, including her soul, when behind the piano. The physicality of the performances goes beyond regional references and punchlines that might get some laughs in one country but not in others. Venn says it’s clear that at their core people tend to share the same sense of humor.

“It was fascinating to us to see that in Australia and France and England and the U.S., they really laugh at the same things if it’s like a deeply human kind of failure,” Venn said. “That’s the beauty of this show.”

Zach Zucker sits inside the Elysian Theater in Los Angeles.

(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)

A tangled web of masterfully timed sound effects has unintentionally become the heartbeat of “Stamptown” . With Woolley now living full time in London, the duties for the U.S. shows were recently passed down to fellow performer Jeremy Elder, who did the sounds for the Netflix special tapings. He says the show is at its best when they throw out the game plan for the night, even while filming for Netflix.

“I think it’s as soon as we went off script, the audience could feel that. In the final product, we planned so much, but once you’re in the room with people it’s a very clown-like sentiment to just roll with what the audience is feeling,” Elder said.

While traditional stand-up is Netflix’s bread and butter for comedy programming, this form of comedy is mostly a target for mockery in “Stamptown” to show how limiting it is compared with the physical comedy of clowning. The one caveat, Zucker says — a clown is by far the most embarrassing brand of comedian you can be.

“It’s not cool, you don’t do this to be cool,” he said, laughing. “The whole point is that with all the love and fantasy and pleasure of your life, you have to step in a bucket of s— over and over and over and enjoy it. ‘Isn’t it awesome how I humiliate myself for you?’ And you embrace it.”

A GARDENER’S World fan-favourite has passed away suddenly, with BBC anchor Monty Don admitting he is “heartbroken”.

The 71-year-old revealed the sad news on his Instagram page and admitted they suffered a “very short illness”.

Monty‘s Yorkshire Terrier pooch Patti, who made her Gardener’s World debut in 2020, has passed aged seven.

He uploaded a series of snaps showing his adorable pet exploring the great outdoors, and one image showing her cuddled to his chest, with the caption: “I have sad news.

“Our lovely Patti died suddenly this morning after a very short illness.

“She was much loved, and lit up our lives.

read more gardener’s world

TRAGIC END

BBC star, 67, dies after rare diagnosis as Monty Don leads tributes

rule breaker

Monty Don ‘warned over breaking BBC rules’ with his on-screen outfit

“We are all heartbroken”.

One fan was quick to send condolences and wrote: “Such a shock for you, Patti was a lovely little dog we always enjoyed seeing her on GW. X”

A second put: “So very sorry for your loss”.

A third then posted: “Monty, I’m so sorry to hear this very sad news, today! Thinking of you all at this difficult time.

“Patti was adored not only by you but the nation too! RIP dear Patti”.

She is the smallest of Monty’s dogs, with the gardening icon also owning Golden Retriever Ned, who also appears on screen.

In 2023, Monty told how an accident in lockdown led to Patti retreating from camera life.

Replying to one concerned fan online, he penned: “She hates the tripods because one fell on her during lockdown.

“That is why you always see me holding her. When the cameras are not here she is out with me all the time.”

His fellow Golden Retrievers Nigel sadly passed in 2020, while pooch Nell died three years later.

In the video game world, it’s one of the biggest releases of 2026.

For years, fans have been eagerly awaiting the sixth installment to the “Grand Theft Auto” franchise.

But the much-anticipated release of the game has been disrupted by a flurry of leaked scenes — such as a plane flying over a metropolis and the interior of a strip club — that has flooded the internet in the last week without the consent of its publisher, Rockstar Games.

Rockstar has not confirmed the videos’ authenticity, but its parent company, Take-Two Interactive, is taking action. The New York-based company late last week issued subpoenas to Microsoft, Discord, X and Google to track down the alleged hackers.

The requests were filed in the Southern District Court in New York under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

The filings involve the unauthorized use of copyrighted material such as “audiovisual content, artwork, images, dialogue, or other creative elements” from proprietary software owned by Take-Two, according to the documents.

Take Two is asking for identifying information associated with the online profiles and activity tied to the leaks, which have generated considerable buzz in the gaming world.

Take-Two Interactive and Rockstar did not respond to a request for comment. Here’s what to know:

Who’s behind this hack?

The online persona Cyberleek appears to be closely associated with the ongoing leaks, according to court documents. The hackers claim to be leaking these gameplays as an act of protest and have a list of demands, which include a physical disc of the game, which Rockstar previously said it would not release. The other demands include no paywalled solo player content and full offline access.

“Publishers sell licenses and call them purchases. They ship unfinished games and call them living services,” Cyberleek wrote on its website. “They lock content on discs and call it DLC. They kill games and keep the money. Every year anti-consumerism tightens its grip, and every year gamers get less for what they pay.”

The group also claims to have obtained a playable build of the game and asks users for cryptocurrency donations.

What does this mean for ‘Grand Theft Auto’?

The first “Grand Theft Auto” was released in 1997 by BMG Interactive. Before it was even released, the action-adventure game was met with a wave of controversy, as the game was centered around illegal activities such as stealing cars and running people over.

The game started to gain real traction in the early 2000s, when Rockstar took over its development. Rockstar is based in New York and maintains California offices in Santa Monica and San Diego. The “Grand Theft Auto” franchise remains its hallmark title and continues to grow a loyal fan base.

The new release of “Grand Theft Auto VI” is slated for Nov. 19 for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. It marks the first major release in the franchise since 2013. The standard version will cost $79.99, while the ultimate version will cost $99.99.

These leaks, which include several maps, video from a gas station and a car wash, come just days before the game is set to have an exclusive preview on Netflix. On Thursday, Rockstar and the media giant are set to share an exclusive extended look at the game on the streaming platform.

So will the leaks hurt sales of the game?

That’s hard to say. Investors appear to be nervous about the potential effect on the company’s business. Since the leaks first started to pop up last week, Take-Two’s stock has continued to plummet. On Monday, the stock closed at $233, down 10% over the last five days.

Although investors appear to be uneasy about the leak, some analysts don’t think it will dampen sales of the game.

“This game is gonna crush every record ever,” said Michael Pachter, a video game industry analyst. “This game could sell 10 million units in the first minute. I think it could do 20 million in the first day and a half.”

Are leaks in the gaming industry common?

Unauthorized leaks aren’t as commons as they are in the music and movie industries, but they do occur. In the last few years, several games and sensitive information have been leaked. One of the largest instances was in 2023 when developer Insomniac Games was targeted for data surrounding the upcoming “Marvel Wolverine” game.

But it’s rare for hackers to get a hold of a playable version of the game, which might have happened in the “Grand Theft Auto” incident, said Sanjay Madhav, a technology professor at USC.

“If you compare it to something like a movie being leaked, that’s a little bit different because presumably if you watch the whole movie, you’re not really compelled to watch it again,” Madhav said. “But I think in this case, unless they release the playable build for other people to download, I don’t think that it’s going to have a noticeable impact on their sales.”

THE world’s most famous nepo-baby North West has revealed she is planning to land a job at Starbucks next year.

The 13-year-old star is arguably the most famous child-star and nepo-baby thanks to her parents being Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.

She has already carved out an impressive career having released her own music, appeared in stage productions and taken part in fashion editorials all before becoming a teenager.

But despite already living the life of luxury in the fame world, North has now admitted that she wants to give it all up and bag a “regular job”.

In a brand new interview with Dazed magazine, North confessed that as well as her music career, her dream role is to be work as a barista at Starbucks.

Speaking to the publication, North said: “I still wanna work.

‘DOESN’T SIT RIGHT’

North West, 13, worries fans with chilling music vid & haunting lyrics

TOO FAR?

North West, 13, sparks concern as she debuts THIGH piercings on night out

“I wanna work at, like, Starbucks next year.

“I think I can next year ’cause I’m gonna be 14, so… I think I can.

“I want to have a regular job, I guess.”

It marks a major U-turn for the young star to pivot away from the mega Kardashian brand.

In her first magazine interview, North also opened up on her well-discussed look.

Despite her tender age, conversation has swirled around her dyed blue hair and multiple body piercings.

Clapping back, she said: “Everyone’s in love with boys, vaping and doing all kinds of bad stuff.

“All I want is blue hair and piercings.”

But North did reveal that she had been disallowed from getting her “bridge pierced” – a piercing that goes through the top of your nose and under your eyebrow.

KATIE Price has spoken out on her 26-year feud with Victoria Beckham as a throwback clip goes viral on social media.

The media personality, 48, has famously been long-rumoured to be at loggerheads with Posh Spice since the early 2000s when Victoria admitted they’ll never be “best friends”.

But Katie has now re-shared Victoria’s interview clip to her Instagram story as it continues to go viral.

Putting an end to any speculation, Katie shared her love for Victoria with a simple message.

Katie wrote online: “I have no problem with @victoriabeckham either [red love heart emoji].

“She is [an] amazing business woman.”

TOUGH TIMES

Katie Price posts cryptic ‘I survived’ comment amid Lee Andrews marriage drama

PRICE’S FIGHTS

Inside Katie Price’s biggest feuds from rival model to Kerry Katona bust up 

In the clip from T4 in 2000, Victoria was asked about Katie, then known as Jordan, amid reports the pair were feuding.

Victoria clarified that they “used to” know each other as Katie’s boyfriend at the time, Another Level singer Dane Bowers, worked closely with Victoria to create her debut solo album after leaving the Spice Girls.

When Victoria was asked if she would ever form a friendship with Katie, she appeared to politely decline and explained her reasons as to why.

She said on the old Channel 4 morning show: “I actually used to know her.

“She was going out with Dane and I was working with Dane and she was very sweet.”

Victoria then added: “Now, I don’t really know her anymore.”

That comment was used as fuel in the fire as to their apparent rowing.

Posh Spice went on to add: “I very much doubt we would ever become best friends.”

EastEnders newcomer Jamie Bamber, who plays Ned Hawkins on the BBC soap, has teased all about what’s ahead with Nicola Mitchell, and his thoughts on joining the show

EastEnders fans will recognise new recruit Jamie Bamber from huge shows, including BBC ’s Beyond Paradise and US hit Battlestar Galactica.

But as he joins the soap as newcomer Ned Hawkins, Jamie says Walford is one of the most iconic sets he’s ever stepped on in his whole career, which spans nearly 30 years. “Seeing it in person for the first time was a real thrill,” says Jamie, 53.

“What struck me most is how real it feels. It doesn’t feel like a television set at all. It genuinely feels like a place. Because it’s so lived in and familiar, it does a lot of the work for you as an actor.” One part of the famous set in particular has already won his heart.

Jamie tells us: “I love filming in The Queen Vic because it’s where so many characters and storylines collide. As Ned is new to Walford, a lot of his early scenes involve him observing people and taking everything in. The Vic is perfect for that because you get to watch the entire community interact around you.”

With Jamie’s wealth of experience in TV and film, he was surprised to be given a mentor when he started filming. When new cast members join the show, a current cast member is assigned to them as a chaperone, to look out for them while they settle in.

Jamie’s mentor is Ian Beale actor Adam Woodyatt, something Jamie says was incredibly exciting. He tells us: “I’d never experienced getting a mentor before on a job and wondered whether, at my age, it might be a bit late in life to suddenly get a mentor!

“I was genuinely touched because Adam came in on my very first day, despite it being his day off, just to introduce himself. He even stayed to watch my first take to make sure I was okay.” Jamie is joined by other new cast members including Holby City star Patricia Potter, Marian McLoughlin, Anna Constable and Felix Uff, who make up the Hawkins family.

This isn’t Jamie’s first time working with Patricia, who plays his character Ned’s wife Gemma, who is also the sister of existing character Nicola Mitchell. Jamie tells us: “We first crossed paths around 30 years ago when we briefly overlapped at drama school, and then we worked together on my second professional job, The Scarlet Pimpernel.

“I’ve always admired Patricia’s work and energy, so knowing I was coming into the show with someone whose company I already enjoyed made the whole experience much less daunting.” There are plenty of his new co-stars that Jamie has not worked with before though. Starstruck Jamie says filming alongside some of the soap’s biggest icons has left him pinching himself.

“My first scene featured several EastEnders legends, including Letitia Dean, Michelle Collins and Gillian Taylforth,” Jamie reveals. “I was mostly sitting there watching these incredible actors do what they do best. At one point, I genuinely had an out-of-body experience and thought, ‘What am I doing here?’

“These are characters and actors that have been part of British television history for decades. It felt surreal, but also incredibly special.” Ned makes his debut next week, while some of the family have already been onscreen briefly.

Next week, Ned and his wife Gemma head to Walford, followed by Gemma’s mother Rose, her sister Jodie, and Gemma and Ned’s son, Ryder. Ned’s caught in the middle of his sister-in-law Nicola’s feud with her mother Rose, leaving the Hawkins desperate to heal their rift.

We’ll also see Ned reconnect with his old friend Alfie Moon, who owns The Queen Vic with his wife Kat Slater. But while Ned initially appears as the perfect man, Jamie warns upcoming scenes could change this perception for viewers.

“Ned is somebody who appears very put together. He’s enjoyed a great deal of success in life, but when we meet him, everything has fallen apart and he’s having to start again.

“Ned certainly presents himself as the image of the perfect man, and he’s somebody who places a great deal of importance on maintaining appearances. Often, when someone works that hard to keep up appearances, it’s because there’s more going on beneath the surface.

“There’s a real depth to him, and as the weeks go on, we’ll start to peel back those layers and discover that Ned is a far more complex character than he first appears.” Jamie also hints that there is a secret Ned and Nicola are keeping to themselves, that viewers will not be let in on for the time being.

Jamie says: “It’s clear that Ned and Nicola know each other extremely well, but there’s also something unspoken between them. There’s a fascinating push-and-pull dynamic at play. You get the sense that there’s something that binds them together just as strongly as something keeps them apart.

“There are secrets and a history that neither of them is willing to talk about openly. Over time, viewers will discover exactly what lies behind that complicated relationship.”

EastEnders airs Mondays to Thursdays at 7:30pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok, Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads.

Fred Sirieix has revealed the terrifying moment he feared for his life filming his new Channel 4 show

TV star Fred Sirieix has opened up on a near-death experience.

The First Dates star revealed the terrifying moment a tour guide saved his life after he found himself caught between an elephant and two rhinos during a bushwalk in South Africa.

He opened up about the frightening encounter while explaining why he chose Ernie for his Hospitality Hero Award in his brand new travel documentary series Fred’s Ultimate Hotels, which airs on Monday (August 31) at 8pm on Channel 4.

Fred had been staying at The Royal Madikwe Lodge, a luxury safari retreat on the border between South Africa and Botswana, where he experienced a host of activities including game drives, a walking safari and rhino conservation but it was during the walking safari that the trip took a potentially deadly turn.

Recalling the moment, Fred explained the moment Ernie received his award: “Ernie in South Africa – the guy who saved my life in the bushwalk, where we had the near miss.

“He was crying like a baby. He’s a mountain of a man, strong like an elephant, the heart of an elephant, he was crying, big tears, it was beautiful.”

Fred then explained how the group became caught in an extremely dangerous position in the bush.“Well, we went on a bush walk, and basically what happened is we got sandwiched between one elephant and two rhinos, it’s not a good place to be, let me tell you that,” he said.

The television star praised Ernie for remaining calm and relying on his extensive knowledge of wildlife to protect the group. :Anyway, Ernie came into his own, the guide because it’s all about their training and knowing how to read an animal,” Fred explained.

“They don’t want you there, the animals, they don’t think that you should be there and they are very territorial. So if you’re in front of the water or there or whatever, they just charge.”

According to Fred, Ernie managed to drive the animals away without resorting to a firearm. “So he managed to scare them. Without using a gun or anything, just his arms and whatever he was doing, and they left,” he said.

During his stay, Fred was based in the Naledi Suite at The Royal Madikwe Lodge, which offers three luxury suites and two luxury villas, all with private pools. Its top accommodation, The Sovereign House, costs around £6,000 per night.

The retreat also boasts an infinity pool beside its main clubhouse and offers gastronomic dining experiences led by head chef Zuki, who trained at the Mount Nelson Hotel.

Fred’s trip began with an arrival in the middle of the bush on a small plane from Johannesburg before he embarked on a packed itinerary of safari experiences.

As well as morning and sunset game drives and the walking safari, he took part in rhino conservation, with the experience costing £3,500 and funds going towards the Madikwe Wildlife Foundation.

He also enjoyed a South African wine tasting featuring Chenin Blanc with sommelier Ingrid, who was flown in from Cape Town for guests, as well as yoga with instructor Jess, flown in from Johannesburg. The trip also featured a Marimba band and a bush dinner.

Fred’s Ultimate Hotels airs on Monday, August 31 at 8pm on Channel 4

Emmerdale spoilers for next week reveal DS Ramsden is up to something shocking, while Charity Dingle could face a sad exit, plus there’s an arrival with ‘devastating’ consequences

Spoilers for next week’s Emmerdale reveal big twists, an arrival and a shocking plan.

Serena Sugden’s [Casey Al-Shaqsy] taken aback by DS Thea Ramsden’s [Chelsea Edge] plan. In the police interview room, Ramsden relishes in the emotional pain she’s inflicting on a villager. A flashback soon reveals there is more going on.

An arrival in the village brings accusations with devastating consequences. Elsewhere, Sarah Sugden [Katie Hill] and Charity Dingle [Emma Atkins] keep up their lie about Dr. Todd’s murder, but Sarah spirals as she feels guilty about her crime.

As the day of Dr. Todd’s [Caroline Harker] funeral arrives, Sarah’s guilt spikes, especially when Ds Ramsden arrives to speak with Charity about some anomalies in her statement about Dr. Todd’s death.

As Charity is escorted to the police station, Sarah is wracked with guilt. At the station, Charity panics when her account of fighting off Todd is questioned.

Sarah decides it’s time to confess, and Serena fears this will lead to them both being locked up. Also next week, Vinny Dingle [Bradley Johnson] tells Kev Townsend [Chris Coghill] he’s decided to postpone proposing to Lewis Barton [Bradley Riches].

Vinny is soon worried when he’s left thinking Kev may have overheard his private conversation with Gabby Thomas [Rosie Bentham]. Kev swears secrecy, leading to Vinny opening up to him.

But when Kev reacts angrily about Vinny’s confession, Vinny thinks he’s made a big mistake in speaking to Kev. Finally, something is clearly weighing heavily on Gabby’s mind.

It comes as soap producer Laura Shaw teased a big autumn for the soap in a chat with the Mirror. She hinted at “gothic” and “dark” scenes in the coming weeks, especially for the Tates.

While she also hinted at some comedy moments, with Lewis and Kev involved. She said: “We’ve got some quite dark, gothic storylines coming up.

“There’s some comedy as well, I think it’s a whole mix, that’s what soap is about, isn’t it? Drama, and gothic stuff at Home Farm.

“That feels like the right kind of precinct for those sort of stories.” Laura also told us a little teaser about the mystery new Tate character. While she did not give away who it was or why they were in the village, or even if it’s an old face or a recast, she did tease we should be keeping our eyes peeled.

Laura said: “I think the new Tate will probably appear before you realise it’s a Tate.” So who could it be?

Emmerdale airs weeknights at 8pm on ITV1 and ITVX. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .

Secret Lives of Gypsy Wives star Trewley-Precious was left facing a huge dilemma in the series finale after being offered a six-figure deal

Trewley-Precious was forced to turn down a six-figure deal after facing a huge dilemma.

The Channel 4 star was faced with an agonising decision after being offered a huge amount of money to work with a weight-loss brand.

She was left torn between a potentially life-changing sum of money and staying true to the values she has built her public image around.

The emotional dilemma unfolded during the final episode of her reality series Secret Lives of Gypsy Wives as Trewley was approached with the opportunity to work with a major weight-loss company associated with injectable weight-loss treatments.

However, despite the huge financial incentive, Trewley admitted she was uncomfortable with the idea of promoting something she did not personally believe in.

Her manager Andrea explained that the company was a “big brand” which was already working with well-known celebrity names and said the proposed partnership could involve a “transformation process” for anyone considering weight-loss injections.

“There is potentially a lot of money involved in this kind of partnership,” her manager told her. Trewley immediately questioned whether the deal fitted with the image she had created for herself.

“First of all, I just don’t think it’d fit my brand. That’s not who I am,” she said. “If I lose weight, I’ll go to the gym. I wouldn’t get on there for my other drugs, so why would I feel like that? You’re talking about payment, what’s the payment?”

The answer left her stunned. Her manager revealed that the deal could be worth six figures over the course of a year. “What the f***? That’s real?” Trewley exclaimed. Her manager confirmed that it was.

But even with the staggering figure on the table, Trewley knew accepting the deal could come at a cost. “I can’t sell my soul out,” she said.

Her manager reminded her that she was trying to build a long-term career and that she needed to think carefully about the brands she associated herself with.

“I think in this industry, you have to be so mindful of who your audience is,” her manager told her. “And your audience are young women.”

For Trewley, however, the decision was not simply about money. She admitted that part of her was thinking about what the money could do for her family, particularly her mum. “There’s part of me, family wise, that’s like, I can support, I can provide,” she explained.

But she also knew that accepting the deal could mean compromising the message she had been putting out to her followers.

Speaking directly to the camera, Trewley admitted she felt trapped whichever decision she made. “If I take it, I always represent these curvy women and this and that, so it’s just going against what I stand for,” she said. “But then I also have… I’ve got to think about my mum and my family. I’ve got to provide.”

She added: “It’s just disheartening. I feel stupid either way. I feel stupid if I take it, and I feel stupid if I don’t.”

Unable to make the decision alone, Trewley decided to call her mum, Tina, for advice. She explained that she had been offered a controversial brand deal and revealed just how much money was involved. But Tina’s response was immediate. She told her daughter not to take it.

Even when Trewley explained that the deal was worth a huge amount of money, her mum remained firm. Tina questioned whether any amount of money was worth putting her health at risk.

The conversation became an emotional moment for Trewley, who broke down as she considered what turning down the opportunity could mean. The money could have changed their lives. But ultimately, her mum’s advice helped Trewley make her decision.

Trewley revealed that she would turn down the deal, making it clear that no amount of money was going to make her compromise her beliefs.

“My goal in life is to provide for my family and earn money off what I’m doing,” she explained. “But I’m not compromising. I’m not being bought for something I don’t believe in. I don’t care how much it is, I’m not doing it.”

The decision comes as Trewley continues to navigate life in the public eye. Her growing presence on social media and the way she presents herself has not always been welcomed by everyone within the Traveller community, with Trewley facing backlash over her move into the world of influencing and television.

For Trewley, that criticism has highlighted a much bigger question about her future. She has grown up with a traditional Traveller lifestyle, but is now building a public career that brings opportunities far beyond the life she knew growing up.

You can stream Secret Lives of Gypsy Wives on Channel 4

HAYDEN Panettiere’s boyfriend Brian Hickerson reportedly pawned the actress’ prized possessions before her sudden death.

All eyes have been on Brian, who had a tumultuous on-off relationship with Hayden since 2018, after her shocking passing last week from a suspected drug overdose.

Brian was reportedly on the scene with his brother, Zach, who called police after finding Hayden unresponsive in the Greenville, South Carolina Airbnb they shared.

Paramedics were unable to revive the Heroes star, who was in cardiac arrest, and she was pronounced dead.

An investigation is now underway into what exactly caused the 36-year-old’s death, despite nothing at the scene indicating foul play.

However, mourning fans and Hayden’s mother, Lesley Vogel, 70, have since placed blame on Brian for contributing to the Remember the Titans star’s downward spiral with drugs, alcohol, grief, and depression.

SAFETY FEARS

Hayden Panettiere ‘hired security to keep Brian away from her’ in last months

More details have also been unveiled, further painting Brian, 37, in a bad light, such as his suspicious behavior in the months before Hayden’s death.

In a sit-down with The New York Times, Lesley claimed Brian pawned several of Hayden’s belongings, including a vintage guitar.

Lesley said she was “alarmed” upon learning what Brian did, and Hayden was “shocked” when she discovered some of the items in his storage unit.

An anonymous source confirmed to the outlet that Brian, who faced money troubles and filed for bankruptcy in 2022, pawned some of Hayden’s personal items.

The U.S. Sun exclusively revealed that he had been staying with Hayden in her Los Angeles condo over the past two years.

Hayden’s neighbors were increasingly concerned for the former child star and were reportedly warned last year by the Homeowner’s Association to call 911 if they spotted Brian on the property.

Apparently, Hayden’s inner circle was just as worried and went through great lengths to keep Brian away from her.

The NY Times article also revealed that Hayden reportedly hired a private security team during her book tour this past spring to keep her distance from Brian.

Sources claimed to the outlet that staffers at a Barnes & Noble in New York City, where Hayden stopped on her tour, were instructed not to let Brian into the store while the actress was there.

Hayden also reportedly said that same month that she required “an incredible amount of support and backup in order to make sure that there was no way for [Brian] to find his way back in.”

Police reportedly claimed that Brian wasn’t initially emotional when they first arrived on scene to find her slumped over in a chair on the afternoon of August 16.

Hayden’s mother, Lesley, has repeatedly slammed him to the press and said that he was the reason for her estrangement from her daughter.

Brian spoke out through his attorney, four days after Hayden’s death, in a statement, which read, “Hayden’s death remains under investigation, and it is important to allow that investigation to proceed.

“As has been publicly reported, police confirmed there were no signs of foul play.

“Out of respect for Hayden’s loved ones and the ongoing investigation, there will be no further comment at this time.”

The ITV show followed Natasha Carr and her sister Lee-Ann four years after their initial reunion

Two siblings were given tragic news about their biological father during the latest episode of ITV’s Long Lost Family: Born Without a Trace.

Natasha Carr was just one week old when she was abandoned in a toilet at St Thomas’s Hospital, Lambeth, in 1989. She turned to the ITV show for assistance in tracing her biological family in 2018, having no knowledge of her life prior to being fostered and ultimately adopted at the age of two.

While the show was unable to locate her biological parents, it uncovered, after three years of searching, that Natasha has a full sister named Lee-Ann, who is just 18 months older than she is.

Sharing 51 percent of Natasha’s DNA, Lee-Ann was also a foundling, having been left in the staff toilets at St James’s Hospital in Balham when she was just a few days old.

At the time of their reunion in 2022, Natasha told host Davina McCall: “It’s so lovely to have someone who has the same experience. No one will ever understand unless you’re in the exact same situation, and she literally was in the same situation,” reports MyLondon.

On Monday evening (August 24), the ITV show broadcast an update to Natasha and Lee-Ann’s story in Long Lost Family: What Happened Next, eight years after their initial search began.

While the team searched for further relatives of the sisters, they learned that their father had passed away only a few years earlier, following a battle with cancer. Natasha and Lee-Ann received the heartbreaking news away from the cameras.

“I’m on my way to give Natasha and Lee-Ann major information; sadly, their birth father has died, which we’ve told them away from the cameras,” Davina revealed.

Yet the sisters faced another stunning development as Davina confirmed their birth mother had been traced. “She’s still alive, and she would really like the chance to meet them and to start building a relationship,” she added.

Throughout Davina’s conversation with Natasha and Lee-Ann, she disclosed that their father was born and brought up in Jamaica until he was 14 years old.

“It’s really interesting to know our background and where we come from and who we are”, Lee-Ann shared, “That’s what started my journey, I wanted to know what flag.”

The siblings also learned their biological mother was alive and had additional children, leaving them both astounded.

Lee-Ann became visibly emotional and received support from Natasha as Davina confirmed their mum’s desire to reconnect with her two daughters.

Subsequently, in the episode, Natasha confirmed she had encountered her birth mum while Lee-Ann was still coming to terms with the revelation.

Long Lost Family: What Happened Next is available to stream on ITVX