Pandemic Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

More than 500 pupils have been excluded from schools across Dumfries and Galloway in the last two years.

Renowned chef Gary Usher has tweeted a candid and impassioned video addressing the recent closures of long-standing restaurants.

Nick Clement Following years of delays and pandemic restrictions, and now celebrating a post-strike awards season, what better way to kick off the 35th annual Palm Springs Intl. Film Festival than with a “fun and naughty film,” says festival director Lili Rodriguez. Thea Sharrock’s “Wicked Little Letters” will enjoy its U.S.

A town hall leader says a proposal to permanently pedestrianise a street in a town now 'no longer seems viable' following backlash from residents and businesses.

A man who calls himself "The Living Nostradamus" has unveiled his predictions for the new year - and it's apparently going to be eventful.

Ryan Seacrest got President Biden to talk about all the chicken parmesan he ate over the holidays while Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper revealed whether they ever need to pee during the show, as both ABC and CNN rang in the new year with their annual specials.

LGBT activist Paul Fairweather has been awarded an MBE in the King’s New Year Honours List 2023.

House prices have been rising considerably ever since the pandemic first started due to a high level of demand outweighing supply. Although the property market is now showing signs of slowing down, it's unlikely that you'll be able to buy a house for as little as you once could.

Jamie Dornan has revealed that he had an unsettling experience with a stalker.

The UK has lost a number of popular shops this year, as our high streets continue to shrink.

The busiest rental markets in 2023 have been revealed - with six areas in Greater Manchester featuring on the list as being in high demand. The UK's biggest property site Rightmove has compiled a list of the most popular places to rent in the UK over the last year, based on the amount of enquiries made per rented home available.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director If you don’t know the actor Milana Vayntrub by name, then chances are high that you would recognize her face. Since 2013, Vayntrub has been the on-and-off again star of many AT&T commercials as the character Lily, a jolly AT&T employee who has comedic interactions with customers at a store. Vayntrub’s Lily was the face of a national AT&T campaign for three years before she took a hiatus and revived the character in 2020 for a series of pandemic-themed commercials.

box office. But in the last year, many of the movie business’ Tiffany franchises had all the appeal of an Old Navy clearance bin, with the likes of Indiana Jones and Ethan Hunt swinging back into action for more high-flying adventures only to be greeted with grosses that were decidedly Earthbound. And cinema’s mightiest heroes, from Ant-Man to Aquaman, were told to hang up their tights and tridents as comic book movies suffered a historic collapse at the box office.

South of Scotland Enterprise is set to have its budget slashed by more than £7 million next year.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large When the 30th annual SAG Awards take place on Feb. 24, we’ll already know how “Succession” and “Ted Lasso” did at the Golden Globes, Critics Choice Awards, Primetime Emmys and DGA Awards. It’s quite possible those series stars’ tuxedos and dresses are going to be pretty wrinkly by the time we get to the SAG Awards.

Naman Ramachandran The teams behind upcoming sci-fi epic “Kalki 2898 AD,” hit Disney+ Hotstar series “Aarya” and prolific producer Siddharth Roy Kapur spoke with Variety on what has been an eventful 2023 for the Indian entertainment landscape. 2023, the first full year of business since the pandemic, saw Indian audiences return in droves to cinemas.

Hospital patients and visitors forked out £146 million for car parking last year – up by 50 per cent from the previous year, new figures showed today.

With the new year in plain sight, many homeowners may be wondering whether 2024 is the year that they should sell up and buy a new house, or if it's the right time for first-time buyers to get a foot on the property ladder. Understanding what is going on with house prices can often be a key factor in making your decision.

From the outside, Georgie Shears appeared to have it all – popular at school, a loving family and a nice home in Altrincham.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” opened to $80 million at the international box office, which isn’t all that super considering those ticket sales are on par with eventual big-budget superhero disappointments like “The Flash,” “The Marvels” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.” The comic book sequel, starring Jason Momoa as the king of Atlantis and directed by James Wan, has generated $120 million globally to start, including a weak $40 million in North America. The Warner Bros.

Kate Garraway is said to be 'heartbroken' as she prepares to spend Christmas Day at the hospital bedside of her husband Derek Draper.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Choreographer Fatima Robinson fused hip-hop, dance, African history, tap, jazz and even Jamaican moves as she crafted the musical numbers in “The Color Purple,” but there was one person in particular whose energy she wanted to capture: Beyoncé. Specifically, the energy of Beyoncé’s “Renaissance.” Director Blitz Bazawule blends Alice Walker’s text and the Broadway musical to reimagine the classic as a vibrant movie musical. “American Idol’s” Fantasia Barrino plays Celie, a woman who slowly finds her voice with Shug Avery’s (Taraji P.

New York’s attorney general has sued SiriusXM, accusing the satellite radio and streaming service of making it intentionally difficult for customers to cancel their subscriptions.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Canceling a SiriusXM subscription isn’t just annoying — it’s illegal, according to a lawsuit filed by New York’s attorney general. New York Attorney General Letitia James this week filed a lawsuit against SiriusXM, accusing the satellite radio and streaming audio company of “trapping consumers” in subscriptions and “maintaining deliberately long and burdensome cancellation processes.” An investigation by James’ office found that SiriusXM “forces its subscribers to call or chat online with an agent to cancel a subscription, then deliberately draws out those interactions as part of its strategy to prevent subscribers from canceling.” The lawsuit alleges that SiriusXM violated state and federal laws concerning subscriptions that renew automatically by failing to provide subscribers with a cancelation mechanism that is “simple, timely and easy to use.” In addition, the suit alleges that SiriusXM engaged in fraud and deception by misleading subscribers seeking to cancel their accounts.

One of the best things about Christmas is not all the food you can stuff yourself silly with, or even all the gifts, but the Boxing Day sales the day after.

A member of an organised crime group (OCG) has been jailed for his part in selling almost £2million worth of Class A and B drugs.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief It seems Hollywood’s “sequel-itis” has reached China’s box office too. Despite the country’s dramatic overnight removal of COVID restrictions in December 2022 and film imports quickly restarting with the triumphant debut of “Avatar: The Way of Water,” Hollywood’s new normal in the Middle Kingdom bears little resemblance to its pre-pandemic status. During the three-year disruption of 2020-22, caused by the pandemic and soured U.S.-China diplomatic relations, few Hollywood films — and no Marvel titles — made their way onto Chinese screens. But if Hollywood studios read the $240 million-grossing “Avatar 2” feeding frenzy as a sign that pent-up Chinese demand for their sequels and superheroes slate might continue throughout 2023, they were sorely disappointed. In the world’s second-largest box office territory, with a cume to date of $7.3 billion, the market share for all imported films in China has crashed, standing at less than 15% at the beginning of December. Hollywood films’ share is just 12%, consultancy Artisan Gateway calculates. This month, “Napoleon” and “Wonka” have continued the trend of dismal flops, with $5 million and $3 million opening weekends, respectively. The slump is particularly disappointing given that the Chinese authorities that carefully control the film industry have this year made several moves designed to put Hollywood releasing back on the rails.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Content Americas, the fast-rising trade event in Miami, has unveiled the finalists for its 2024 Content Americas CoPro Pitch and Content Americas Hispanic Kids Programming Pitch. According to event organizer C21, more than 80 submissions rolled in for the CoPro Pitch and over 50 for the Kids Pitch from seasoned producers across Latin America, Spain and Portugal. Among the CoPro Pitch finalists are scripted series “Hot Sur,” an adaptation of the Laura Restrepo bestseller about an undocumented Mexican immigrant looking after her bipolar sister in the U.S.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Berlin Film Festival artistic director Carlo Chatrian is in an upbeat mood as he puts the finishing touches on assembling his fourth and final edition. It appears to be shaping up nicely with a rich mix comprising prestige star-driven titles, such as the world premiere of Netflix’s “Spaceman” in which Adam Sandler plays an imperiled astronaut, and films with “political elements” that are intrinsic to the fest’s DNA. The day before revealing his Berlin Special lineup that includes several star-studded galas – the main lineup will be announced on Jan.

The government ministers and officials who spoke of a 'punishment beating' for Greater Manchester during the pandemic when local leaders resisted tougher Covid restrictions without adequate funding have been named. Andy Burnham's behaviour during his stand-off with the government in autumn 2020 was described as 'appalling' at the meeting attended by the UK's top politicians and advisers.