BBC Unveils Action Plan To Help Women “In Severe Financial Hardship” Pay Their License Fees

Britain’s Got Talent viewers were surprised on Tuesday night when they spotted a Loose Woman star performing on stage and labelled her "outstanding".The live semi-final shows for this year's BGT returned this week with acts performing in front of the judges and audience for a second time in the hope of securing a place in the final at the weekend. As each show begins with a show-stopping special performance, Monday night saw Diversity take the stage while Tuesday welcomed the cast of We Will Rock You who sang the hit Queen ballad Don't Stop Me Now.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The Karlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival, Eastern and Central Europe’s leading cinema event, has unveiled its lineup, which includes new works by Pascal Plante, Stephan Komandarev, Tinatin Kajrishvili and Babak Jalali in the Crystal Globes Competition. They will vie against films by up-and-comers Ernst De Geer, Itsaso Arana and Cyril Aris. The section has nine world and two international premieres. Oscar nominated actor Patricia Clarkson is one of the jury members. The Proxima Competition, which made its debut at last year’s KVIFF, presents what the festival defines as “bold works,” directed by young filmmakers and renowned auteurs alike. The section comprises of 10 world and two international premieres. The festival says “playfulness, courage and freshness can be found” in the new films by Swiss auteur Thomas Imbach, Poland’s Olga Chajdas, Cyprus-born Kyros Papavassiliou, French filmmaker Émilie Brisavoine and Romanian documentarist Alexandru Solomon, among others.

A number of panellists on ITV's Loose Women are reportedly furious after being dragged into the fallout of Phillip Schofield's affair with a young former colleague. Phillip, 61, was still married when he was involved with the unnamed staff member, confirming the affair in a statement on Friday just a week after stepping back from ITV's flagship breakfast show, This Morning.The presenter has been dropped by his talent agency, YMU, following his admission, and has stepped down from working with ITV altogether - meaning he will no longer host the British Soap Awards next week.The statement, shared on Friday evening, said: "I did have a consensual on-off relationship with a younger male colleague at This Morning.

Loose Women star Gloria Hunniford opened up about her husband's recent medical drama while visiting the Chelsea Flower Show and revealed he had been left blind in his right eye. Gloria, 83, attended the flower show with her husband Stephen Wray just four weeks after he suffered from a stroke which left him partially blind in his right eye. Stephen, who has previously suffered from a stroke, told The Mirror: “I woke up in the morning and there was blood in the eye and that was it.

Loose Women's Linda Robson has opened up about the TV show she was warned not to do over fears it would ruin her career. Linda, who has worked in showbiz for 50 years, says she was told by her agent that after the controversial show would be 'probably never work again.' The 65-year-old, who became well known for playing Tracey Stubbs in the sitcom Birds of a Feather, now appears as a weekly pannist on the ITV daytime show alongside other TV favourites including Stacey Solomon, Ruth Langsford, Coleen Nolan and Denise Welch. Opening up to The Sun on one of her lesser known TV ventures she filmed in 2018, Gone to Pot, Linda said she was told: "You'll probably never work again".

Have you ever wanted to know more about the lives of your great great grandparents, or wondered who lived in your house long before you did?

Piers Morgan reignited his feud with Denise Welch as he hit out at his former employer ITV.The controversial broadcaster, 58, sensationally quit Good Morning Britain back in 2021 following an on-air row with Alex Beresford about Meghan Markle. And with Phillip Schofield's drama hitting headlines, Piers hasn't missed the chance to speak out about his former employer and one-time ITV stablemates.

Lizzy Caplan isn’t interested in fame. Actually, she’s a little turned off by it. “I don’t know how people do that and don’t go completely insane,” she says. “The pressure is wild — pressure to look a certain way, or that every single thing you’re saying is being dissected. I just want to pretend to be other people for a living.”That’s not to say that the actress, whose career began in 1999 with a role on “Freaks and Geeks,” hasn’t enjoyed critical and commercial success — she earned an Emmy nomination for “Masters of Sex” in 2014, and still gets recognized daily as Janis Ian, her grungy outsider from 2004’s “Mean Girls.”When we meet over oat milk lattes and Earl Grey tea in West Hollywood, Caplan is effortlessly cool in a slouchy sweatshirt, boyfriend jeans and her hair in a neat bun, the outfit elevated by several pieces of dainty gold jewelry.Despite her aversion to notoriety, she’s found herself in somewhat of a career renaissance, with two major TV projects in the past year. In FX’s “Fleishman Is in Trouble,” she plays Libby, an ex-Manhattanite struggling to come to terms with her new identity as a suburban stay-at-home mom, and in Paramount+’s “Fatal Attraction,” she takes on the iconic role of femme fatale Alex Forrest, originated by Glenn Close in the 1987 film of the same name.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent While the lineup of Cannes Film Market’s newly launched initiative Cannes Investors Circle has remained under wraps, Variety has learned about four of the nine projects which were pitched during the invitation-only event. The initiative was created by the film market’s new executive director Guillaume Esmiol to connect VIP private investors with select filmmakers and producers boasting a stellar track records. Curated by experts such as Medici’s Tamara Tatishvili, Arte Cinema’s Rémi Burah and financier Serge Hayat, the nine projects are budgeted between €2 million and €12 million. Among these are “Dracula. The Second Coming” directed by Radu Jude, the Romanian helmer of Berlinale prizewinning “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn,” directed by Ada Solomon at microFILM; “Rivo Alto,” directed by Clément Cogitore (“The Wakhan Front”) and produced by Jean-Christophe Reymond at Kazak Productions (“Titane”); “The Girl” directed by Marina Ziolkowski (“But You Look So Good”) and produced by Philippe Gompel (“Cherry”) at Manny Films, and “The Birthday Party” directed by Miguel Angel Jimenez (“Chaika”) and produced by Giorgos Karnavas (“Triangle of Sadness”) at Heretic.

Lift, the forthcoming action comedy teaming Kevin Hart with director F. Gary Gray (Straight Outta Compton), has pushed its Netflix premiere date to January 12, 2024, the streamer revealed on Monday. Also unveiled was a first look photo for the film, at one point set to open on August 25, 2023, which you can view above.

Ruth Langsford didn't mention Phillip Schofield's shock This Morning departure on today's instalment of Loose Women. The popular presenter, 63, opened today's show by introducing the various topics up for discussion on the programme, but remained tight-lipped about Phil. After completing the rundown, fellow panellist Colleen "interjected" and said: "Can we just acknowledge Dame Kelly Holmes?" Colleen went on to reference Kelly's recent award win, but also didn't say anything about Phil's This Morning tenure coming to a close.

A forever type of love! Claire Holt has found her perfect match in husband Andrew Joblon.

Bethenny Frankel is the latest star to question Prince Harry and Meghan Markle after their “near catastrophic car chase” earlier this week.

Loose Women’s Carol McGiffin has spoken out amid This Morning’s Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield’s ongoing feud as she described Phillip as “so rude”. Speaking on GB News, Carol acknowledged the relationship between the two presenters and said it was “clear” that Holly and Phil do not get on anymore and that they should leave the show.The 63-year-old recalled her experience from when she appeared as a guest on This Morning and said she “couldn’t believe” how Phil treated her. Speaking to host Dan Wootton, Carol said: “Phillip was there but he wasn’t very nice to be honest.

pic.twitter.com/Mfs7wpS0lTThe Skims founder and reality TV star has taken up several prison reform issues before and in 2020 successfully interceded with President Trump to grant clemency to Alice Marie Johnson, a 63-year-old grandmother and prison reform advocate. In a media release, Kardashian, who is working her way toward a law degree, stated, “It’s hard to fathom what these mothers have to go through.

Loose Women star Janet Street-Porter has made a savage dig at the UK's Eurovision Song Contest entrant Mae Muller, who sadly came second to last after a nail-biting vote on Saturday 13 May. The 76 year old panellist and former journalist weighed in on the UK's low position in the song contest, following Sam Ryder's rare second place in 2022, and she didn't hold back.The competition, which was held in the UK for the first time in 25 years, ended up giving the trophy to Loreen of Sweden and her powerhouse ballad Tattoo, who had won once before. Finland came second, Noa Kirel of Israel then came in third, and Italy was fourth.

The BBC has confirmed plans to help those who are struggling to pay their TV licence. With 86 per cent of TV licence revenue going to the British broadcaster, the Beeb will offer people who can't afford the £159 fee a two-month break before chasing of payments begins.

Loose Women viewers were left horrified after a debate on the popular ITV daytime talk show centred around eating strangers' food in public. Kaye Adams explained on Friday's episode that she and co-presenter Sophie Morgan were "on the same side" of the debate, with the pair going on to admit they have previously indulged in strangers' leftovers on the train while also eating bread off the hotel floor.

Carol McGiffin has explosively slammed Loose Women and insisted "I never watch it" just days after quitting the show.The star only announced her shock exit from the popular daytime programme last week, 23 years after joining the show way back in 2000.The 63-year-old has now blasted "woke" show bosses after initially saying she had "stepped back" due to "unjust" contract disputes. When Carol appeared on GB News on Tuesday she didn't hold back when host Dan Wootton asked her about the "general wokery" at Loose Women. Carol replied: "Well put it this way, reading all the comments from the article at the weekend there are a lot of people who think the programme has gone very, very woke." Dan said: "I feel that as a viewer.

Reports have emerged today that suggest Carol McGiffin quit her role as a panellist on Loose Women after she made comments in public about the Covid-19 pandemic.The 63-year-old presenter is understood to have become embroiled in a spat with ITV bosses over the question of free speech and expression. In an interview she gave with TNT talk radio, Carol allegedly prompted the disagreement due to comments she made to suggest that news organisations had been "brainwashing" the public over the risks of Covid in order to spark widespread mental health breakdowns across the nation.The lunch-time talk-show panellist - who has appeared on the programme since the early 2000s - also suggested the then health secretary Matt Hancock attempted to bring Covid patients from France to the UK to fill empty hospital beds during the height of the pandemic.