Afghanistan Showbiz Latest News and Updates

Fall Out Boy have released a cover of the Billy Joel song “We Didn’t Start the Fire” – updated to namecheck newsworthy items from 1989-2023. In the original, Joel lists significant events and figures from 1949 (his year of birth) to 1989.

Naman Ramachandran The 2023 Glastonbury Festival has broken previous digital audience records for viewing and listening on the BBC, with content streamed a record 50.3 million times across BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds, up 47% on 2022. On BBC iPlayer, viewers streamed Glastonbury programming a record 47.5 million times, up 49% on 2022. On BBC Sounds, listeners played Glastonbury content 2.8 million times, up 26% on 2022. On BBC iPlayer, the Glastonbury live channel was the most popular, with Elton John‘s farewell U.K. performance on Sunday topping the charts after it was streamed 4.3 times. Saturday’s live channel came second, with 3.8 million streams and Friday’s third with 3.2 million streams. Live coverage from the Pyramid and The Other Stage followed with 2.1 million and 1.9 million streams.

This year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) will close with the UK premiere of British Iranian filmmaker Babak Jalali’s well-received Sundance pic Fremont.

David Bohrman, a longtime producer and news executive who was responsible for innovations in live and special events and breaking news, including at CNN and other networks, died on Sunday. He was 69.

For those fleeing war, escaping persecution or simply seeking a better life, Greater Manchester has long been a place of sanctuary for people all over the world. The latest census recently revealed that one in three residents living in Manchester were born outside the UK, with 94 languages spoken in the city.

Selome Hailu “Magnum P.I.” is coming to a close at NBC. The drama series, which was canceled by CBS last year before NBC picked it up, will not continue past the upcoming second part of Season 5. The decision not to order a sixth season comes past the 50-day mark of the WGA strike and a potential strike by SAG-AFTRA after the actors union’s contract with the AMPTP expires on June 30. That date coincides with the end of the “Magnum P.I.” cast’s deals at NBC. Therefore, to avoid cancelling the show, NBC would have had to either order more episodes without knowing when they could enter production or extend the actors’ deals to prolong the decision-making period. Ultimately, opted to release the actors and move forward without “Magnum P.I.” on its slate.

A trans man has to navigate the complexities of gender transition treatment while also chronicling the Afghani Taliban in Monica Villamizar and Jordan Bryon’s intensely personal and political “Transition.” Despite its relatively straightforward title, this documentary, which premiered at Tribeca, is a staggering work that, somehow, manages to contextualize not only Bryon’s personal transition but also juxtapose that life against the deeply segregated Taliban fighters that he is chronicling for The New York Times.

Naman Ramachandran LGBTQ+ activist Moud Goba will be honored with the 2023 BET International Global Good Award. The award is BET International’s recognition of public figures who use their platform for social responsibility and goodness while demonstrating a commitment to the welfare of the global Black community. Past honorees include artist and philanthropist Akon and Kenyan mental health advocate Sitawa Wafula. Zimbabwe-born Goba has spent the past 20 years working with several U.K.-based grassroots organizations focused on fostering LGBTQ+ safe spaces and refugee integration in society. Goba works as national manager for Micro Rainbow, an initiative that provides safe shelters for LGBTQ+ asylum seekers and refugees and her role there earned her a place on the 2022 BBC 100 Women list.

Christopher Vourlias Romanian filmmaker Cosmin Nicolae’s “Pyrrhic,” a feature debut about an army veteran sent into a downward spiral after returning home from Afghanistan, took home the top prize Friday at the Transilvania Pitch Stop, the co-production forum of the Transilvania Film Festival. The Chainsaw Europe Post-Production Award comes with €25,000 ($27,400) in post-production services for the winning project. Nicolae’s war drama follows a veteran returning to her hometown on the Black Sea coast, where a harrowing discovery jeopardizes the process of coming to terms with her traumas and with a drifting society. The film is produced by Velvet Moraru of Bucharest-based Icon Production.

As with any big royal event, especially at the moment in the early days of King Charles' reign, there is much anticipation in the lead up to this weekend's Trooping the Colour. It's the first time the new monarch has marked the occasion since he was crowned, and it's the first time since the late 1980s that the sovereign will carry out the inspections on horseback, after his mum the late Queen chose to travel on a horse and carriage.

Kym Marsh was quick to share her love for her friend and former Coronation Street co-star Antony Cotton as he enjoyed a very special day. The actor, who is known for playing Sean Tully in the ITV soap, took to Instagram with a snap of himself as he told fans: "So this happened today…"

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The International Olympic Committee said on Thursday that Swiss-based, Chinese-owned Infront Sports & Media would handle broadcast right sales in much of Asia for the next series of Summer and Winter games. The deal covers 22 territories including Afghanistan, Brunei, Cambodia, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam – but not China, Japan or South Korea, and runs 2026-2032. That means it will cover the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics and the Los Angeles 2028 and Brisbane 2032 Summer games. The 2030 Winter Olympics, which have yet to be allocated a host, and all Youth Olympic Games during this period will also be covered.

Bob Verini Here’s a thought experiment. Imagine Jack Ryan or Jason Bourne as a cranky, retired septuagenarian, body all achin’ and racked with pain after a lifetime of dangerous missions. Now imagine he gets the call that he’s got to get back in the game, or else risk the lives of himself and everyone he loves. This is the intriguing, often heart-stopping premise of “The Old Man,” which examines the art of espionage in our post-Cold War world and its impact on those who conduct it. Based on a novel by thriller master Thomas Perry, the seven-part first season of the FX series leaps back and forth in time, from the Soviet Union’s war on Afghanistan in the 1980s to the deadly legacy of that conflict in the present day.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is running as a Republican candidate in the 2024 presidential race and appeared Wednesday on Fox News, taking aim at the likely Democratic incumbent and current president, Joe Biden.Christie targeted Biden even after “America’s Newsroom” ran graphics and discussed the fact Donald Trump is not only handily polling ahead of Ron DeSantis but leading a pack of also-rans that include Christie, who was shown as polling at a meager 2% in the Republican race.“Record inflation, botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, sending the country into an educational tailspin because we’re excluding parents from their children’s education,” Christie reeled off, taking a page out of the DeSantis playbook before show host Bill Hemmer interrupted. “The border,” Hemmer said, blankly.A light bulb then went off for Christie.“But wait a second Bill,” the former CNN political analyst said, after Hemmer chimed in that Trump had more success with his Mexican border policies.

BBC News at One presenter spoke about how she wanted to conceive naturally whilst juggling her job. Kate struggled in her personal life due to her demanding job as a newsreader where stress became a contributing factor. The former journalist made the unexpected decision to leave her broadcasting career as she addressed the error she made during her pregnancy journey in a new interview.

Roy Trakin The son of Canadian country dance instructors “Sheriff Norm” and “Down the Line Sue,” in a way, MNRK Music Group president-CEO Chris Taylor was destined to become one of the most legendary executives in the country’s music history. He his start in the early ‘90s as lead singer for the reggae-ska-funk band One, which signed with Virgin Records while he was still in law school. Opting for the latter as a career, Taylor opened his Toronto-based law firm in ’97 and went on to represent some of the country’s top acts — from Drake and Avril Lavigne to Nelly Furtado and Sum 41 — and launched the influential Last Gang indie label (Metric, Death from Above 1979, Mother Mother, Crystal Castles and more). When he sold the label to Entertainment One in 2016, he also shuttered his legal practice to head the eOne Music Group, which was rebranded MNRK Music Group after parent company Hasbro sold the company to Blackstone in 2021 for a reported $385 million.

Two brothers, who are part of a notorious criminal group referred to as 'The Family', are fighting to hold on to a luxury house years after they were locked up.

EXCLUSIVE: A documentary maker involved in a car accident in Ukraine with presenter Clive Myrie has commenced legal action against the BBC and warned that the UK broadcaster is not doing enough to protect freelancers in warzones.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Combat veterans, famously, don’t tend to talk much, if at all, about their experiences of war. At least not to civilians, and maybe not even to their closest relatives. Knowing this, those of us who aren’t veterans tend to have ideas about the things they aren’t discussing. Things like violence and fear and the chaos and insanity of battle. That’s surely a part of it, but in a way it’s also the heightened cinematic version, the one we’ve all gotten from war movies. What it leaves out are the torn-up emotions of soldiers, the lifelong imprint left upon them not just by the cataclysm of war but by their relationship with their fellow soldiers — the loyalty and love, the complex code of liberation and guilt at having survived.   

A record number of soldiers and civilians from across the globe came together to take part in the 24-hour Cateran Yomp in Perthshire and raise £300,000 for soldier and veteran support.

Murtada Elfadl How people perceive gender and react to it lies at the heart of “Transition,” Monica Villamizar and Jordan Bryon’s documentary premiering in competition at the Tribeca Film Festival. The film follows Bryon, an Australian journalist, transitioning at the same time that he’s reporting from within Afghanistan as the country falls back under Taliban rule in 2021. His dilemma intensifies as he’s ensconced with a group of hardline Taliban fighters. They only know him as a man, so he’s able to have the access and security he needs to perform his job even as others in the country are losing their rights because of their gender. With that framework, the film feels like a documentation of a timebomb situation. At any moment things might change drastically for Bryon.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Memento International has closed a raft of deals on “Fremont,” the critically acclaimed film by BAFTA-nominated Iranian-born director Babak Jalali. The movie world premiered at Sundance and was acquired by Music Box for North America in a deal negotiated by CAA. The black-and-white film, laced with wry humor, tells the story of Donya, a young woman working at a Chinese fortune cookie factory in the San Francisco bay. Formerly a translator for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, she struggles to put her life back in order. In a moment of sudden revelation, she decides to send out a special message in a cookie. Following its Sundance premiere, the film played at SXSW and is slated to compete at Karlovy Vary. Other festival lined up include Deauville, Melbourne and Athens.

Lisa Ling has joined CBS News as a contributor across the network broadcasts and platforms.

Music Box studios, performing acoustic versions of three of her hit songs. Baser performed "2020s", "X&Y" and "Pretty Boys", songs showcasing her witty lyrics detailing love and loss as well as her wide range of musical influences and styles.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Germany’s Beta has licensed Spanish special ops thriller “La Unidad – Kabul,” to Max for the U.S., the third instalment in one of Movistar Plus+’s longest running franchises, “La Unidad,” whose six episodes deliver an engrossing and sometimes shocking take on the 2021 Fall of Kabul. With the purchase, all 18 episodes of Spanish series “La Unidad” are now available to stream on Max in the U.S.   Beta has previously sold the thriller, spangled by action scenes and haunting in its sudden deaths, to 50 territories including France, Latin America, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Australia.  

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic A year after collecting his second Palme d‘Or for “The Triangle of Sadness,” Ruben Östlund finds himself on the other end of the equation at the Cannes Film Festival, overseeing the official competition jury awarding this year’s prizes. Östlund is co-presenting the awards with fellow jurors Paul Dano and Brie Larson, Moroccan director Maryam Touzani, French actor Denis Ménochet, British-Zambian writer-director Rungano Nyoni, Afghan author Atiq Rahimi, Argentinian writer-director Damián Szifrón and “Titane” director Julia Ducournau (another Palme d’Or winner). Full list of prizes below.

A question comes up part of the way through Ric Roman Waugh’s “Kandahar” that the film can’t find an answer for: Is this a Sad Dad Gerard Butler action picture or a Gritty Dad Gerard Butler action picture? Either way, he’s a dad, but in Sad Dad Butler films, that’s a feature; in Gritty Dad Butler films, it’s window dressing. “Kandahar” isn’t quite one or the other.

Director Ric Roman Waugh’s drab film fumbles and grumbles through Iran, the United Arab Emirates and eventually Afghanistan as the hunt for CIA Agent Tom Harris (Butler) intensifies. “Kandahar,” to its credit, aspires to be deep. Geopolitics come up, as does the Taliban’s mangled interpretation of the Quran, along with ISIS and other aftershocks of American wars in the Middle East.Really, though, it is just another tiresome and impenetrably brooding Gerard Butler movie in which no event seems to matter any more than the next one — and grimaces are mistaken for drama. Before ho-hum Harris goes on the run, he is posing as a utility worker in Iran while attempting to destroy a nuclear plant.

A war veteran was caught drug dealing AGAIN after police got a whiff of weed and 'literally used their noses' to get to his house.

Kandahar is the latest from director Rick Roman Waugh (Angel Has Fallen, Greenland), starring frequent collaborator Gerard Butler, along with Travis Fimmel, Navid Negahban, Ali Fazal, and Bahador Foladi in an action drama that lacks imagination. With the script penned by Mitchell LaFortune, these particular types of stories often suffer from narrative sameness: westerner travels to the Middle East, things go boom, westerner saves the day, the end. 

, and I don't know if I've ever screenshotted a hair color faster. Although, it's hard to say, especially with how impressive the Cannes beauty looks have been thus far.

Prince Harry’s bid to hire police security when he is in Britain has been denied.

Jennifer Lawrence steps out in a woven dress with a detailed back for the Bread and Roses photocall during the 2023 Cannes Film Festival over the weekend.

Comfort is key! Jennifer Lawrence pulled off a red carpet fashion faux pas.   

Jennifer Lawrence made sure to keep things comfortable on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday.The 32-year-old Oscar winner attended a special screening of the film and walked the carpet in Cannes, France, while wearing a stunning Christian Dior couture cherry red gown.But when Lawrence lifted her gown to walk down the steps, she revealed that she was rocking some black flip flops underneath the elegant look.Lawrence attended the screening with Sahra Mani, the director of the new documentary she produced,, and fellow producer Justine Ciarrocchi.Earlier on Sunday, Lawrence attended the photocall for while wearing a silver mesh look and heels. is a documentary following Afghan women under the control of the Taliban.

A Thousand Girls Like Me looked at a sexually abused woman’s quest for justice, the film aimed to show how the lives of women changed overnight under Taliban rule. “This film has a message from women in Afghanistan, a soft message: please be their voice who are voiceless under Taliban dictatorship,” said Mani at the premiere.