Entertainment and Culture 1

O2 Apollo ManchesterThe Messy hitmaker is back after taking time away from live performance, and this charming, relatable set shows why she is such a gen Z iconThe rollercoaster ride towards international pop stardom seldom runs smooth, but few rising stars have been flung through its loops and freefalls as publicly as south London singer-songwriter Lola Young. In 2024, gen Z anthem Messy became her breakthrough moment, but social media scrutiny surrounding her open struggles with addiction and a stage collapse in New York last year brought live performances to a halt.When the 25-year-old musician strolls on stage in a baggy black hoodie, she seems relieved to be here. Casual though the look may be, she is worshipped as a Y2K style guru, as evidenced by the young crowd: a blur of bleached mullets and denim jorts cry every word of her single Sad Sob Story!. Continue reading…

Courtauld, LondonBarbara Hepworth’s elegant works, with their harp-like strings and splashes of blue, evoke the foamy breakers of St Ives. But should we really be surprised she used colour?They say in St Ives that if you put your ear to a Barbara Hepworth sculpture, you can hear the waves breaking on Porthmeor beach. Well, maybe they do say that and maybe they don’t. But the sea definitely roars in the ravishing sculptures at the heart of this small survey of just one aspect of her work: her use of colour.Hepworth’s favourite colours turn out to be – wait for it – blue and white, the colours of the sea: the white foamy breakers and the rippling waters that swaddle the Cornish fishing town where her home and studio are proudly preserved. Continue reading…

Pixar’s new film tells young viewers that technology has stolen their childhood and that parents need to wise up fast. Its stars answer your questions on the series’ radical new messageWhat is the thing you’ve learned most from this new film? SecretmissionTim Allen [the voice of Buzz Lightyear]: It sounds really self-gratifying, but it’s taking about 20% less time to make a better product. I know now how to focus and isolate my voice. I don’t do as many takes. Sometimes they’ll even say to me: “I think we got it. You can stop.”Tom Hanks [Sheriff Woody]: Really? I will sometimes ask: “Please tell me you have it because I’m so done with this.” I find it to be exactly the same as it was at the get-go, except maybe there’s a little more importance put on it. I don’t think anybody picks our takes doing a Toy Story movie lightly. But I found everything else is just one damn thing after another. Continue reading…

The musician opens up about her mental health, government corruption and why conservative backlash won’t stop her speaking her mindMon Laferte has a sore throat. Halfway through our conversation, in a studio with no windows at the Sony offices above New York’s Madison Square Park, singer Norma Monserrat Bustamante Laferte meekly asks her manager for a latte without lactose, or coconut milk, if they have it. It’s the first truly hot day of spring. She’s in between arena dates across Latin America of her Femme Fatale tour. Tonight, she’ll skulk through Manhattan with rhinestone-studded eyelids and a Marilyn Monroe wig to film the Femme Fatale music video. Today, her hair is dyed red, cropped in spiky Marcel waves. She’s wearing a black slip dress and a pair of artful, lace-up tabis.With a career spanning over two decades, Laferte holds more Latin Grammys than any other Chilean singer and is the country’s biggest female streaming star, with over 18m monthly listeners. In October of 2025, Laferte released her tenth record, Femme Fatale, a jazz album that saw her step into a vampy alter ego; this month sees the continuation of the story with companion album Femme Fatale Vol 2. Like the archetype, her vision of pop stardom is biting by design. “The archetype is the dangerous one, no? Dangerous for being free, secure,” she tells me in Spanish. “Femme Fatale is a name the press have given me.” Continue reading…

Film-maker says he approached producer ‘Cubby’ Broccoli after Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind were hits, but was knocked back both timesSteven Spielberg said that he was turned down twice by the producers of the James Bond movies – and now they couldn’t afford him.Spielberg was speaking to The Rest Is Entertainment podcast and was asked if he had any “regrets” about not directing a 007 movie. Spielberg said that he had approached Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, the legendary Bond producer who worked on every “official” Bond film between Dr No in 1962 and License to Kill in 1989, after Spielberg’s 1975 shark thriller Jaws became a major hit, but was turned down. Spielberg said: “I’d always wanted to make a James Bond film from the day I saw Dr No. So I called Cubby Broccoli after Jaws and I volunteered. I said, if you need a director, I would love to direct one. And he said, no. And he moved on.” Continue reading…