Pandemic Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

Martin Scorsese was at the Berlinale this week for the first time in a decade. His presence to collect an honorary Golden Bear was a reminder of the festival’s glories of yesteryear.

Lunar New Year is a key box office period in several Asian territories, but nowhere was it more hotly contested this year than in Vietnam, where several local, Japanese and Hollywood movies were slugging it over the week-long holidays (February 9-15).

EXCLUSIVE: While Microsoft‘s acquisition of Call of Duty maker Acquisition Blizzard delivered a major boost in 2023, overall M&A and investment in the video game sector this year will return to quieter, pre-Covid levels, a new forecast says.

A damning report has ­highlighted the “catastrophic failure” of the Scottish ­Government to remobilise the NHS after the pandemic.

William Earl A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has denied ABC’s bid to dismiss the COVID vaccination wrongful termination case filed by a father and son who ran the construction and special effects department for ABC’s “General Hospital.” James Wahl and his son Timothy Wahl sued ABC in 2021, asserting they were fired from the long-running daytime serial when they refused to get a COVID-19 vaccination on religious grounds. On the heels of Judge Stephen I.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Sony Pictures Entertainment communications chief Robert Lawson has been promoted to head of all corporate communications for its Tokyo-based parent Sony. The choice to move Lawson, who joined Sony amid the infamous cyber attack and email leaks at the entertainment group in 2014, into the top corp comms role is indicative of Sony’s significant focus on its entertainment divisions within the company’s larger portfolio; movies, music and gaming accounts for more than half of Sony’s revenue and profit.

ABC and Disney might be feeling a little under the weather right now.

Joanne Froggatt has returned to TV screens this week, starring in the new ITV drama Breathtaking, focusing on what it was like being on the NHS frontline during the Covid-19 pandemic. The actress plays an NHS doctor who leads her team on a desperate struggle to deal with the first wave of patients, infected by the virus.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Bill Weinstein has exited Verve talent agency after a little more than a year as CEO and 14 years after he helped launch the literary boutique on the heels of Endeavor’s takeover of the William Morris Agency. The parting was confirmed late Monday by Verve in a statement. “We thank Bill as a co-founder and for his 14 years of service and wish him nothing but success in his future,” read a statement attributed to “Verve leadership.” The agency also confirmed that Weinstein’s role as CEO would not be filled but rather “shared by the founders and managing partner.” Weinstein could not immediately be reached for comment.

A new drama revealing the harrowing reality of what it was like for doctors and medical professionals during the first wave of the pandemic is being aired on ITV. The first episode of the three-part series will be shown on TV screens tonight (Monday, February 19) and follows acute medicine consultant Dr Abbey Henderson, played by Joanne Froggatt, as she struggles with her team to deal with the first wave of Covid-19 patients.

The coronavirus pandemic may still be fresh in the minds of some but almost four months on from the first lockdown in March 2020, ITV is releasing its latest drama which follows NHS medics during that period.

"Sometimes, I don't sleep at night", Victor Calo admits as he clutches on to a cup of coffee. The General Manager of Mercado, on Burton Road, he explains how the once bustling café and deli has seen its footfall plummet - with no sign of when things could pick up.

” and about , fans have suspected that Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn's invisible string was fraying well before the end of their in 2023—and latest Era's Tour speech won't change that.During her latest concert in Melbourne, Swift revealed she felt “lonely” while writing Folklore—a pandemic album that included with her . “[I was] imagining that, instead of being a lonely millennial woman covered in cat hair drinking my weight in white wine, I was a ghostly Victorian lady wandering through the woods with a candle in a candlestick holder, and I wrote only on parchment with a feathered quill,” she said, per She continued, “That was in my mind, what I thought I looked like writing Folklore.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Olivier Assayas, the celebrated French director of “Clouds of Sils Maria” and “Irma Vep,” is making his Berlinale competition debut this year with “Suspended Time,” his most personal film to date. Speaking to Variety ahead of the movie’s premiere at the Berlinale, Assayas says the film retells his experience during the lockdown and is based on his personal diary.

Religious people coped much better during the Covid-19 pandemic than non-believers, according to a new study. Researchers found those with faith experienced much less unhappiness and stress during the pandemic, with mental health decline being 60 per cent worse for non-religious people.

Guy Lodge Film Critic If any part of you has been curious as to how French filmmaker Olivier Assayas spent the early days of the global pandemic, along comes “Suspended Time” to answer your question, with very much the answer you might expect: pretty comfortably, thanks for asking. Alternating a thinly fictionalised portrait of the artist isolating at his family’s country home with fully autobiographical narration by the director himself, this mildly amusing but vastly indulgent bagatelle feels a tardy entry in the first wave of lockdown cinema — too late to feel fresh, but still too soon to have accumulated much meaningful perspective on an experience we all remember too well.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Focus Features has bought international rights to Brady Corbet‘s “The Brutalist,” starring Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce and Joe Alwyn, Variety has learned. Corbet, who sits on the Berlinale jury, penned the film with Mona Fastvold (“The World to Come”), a Swedish filmmaker who is also his wife. The film charts 30 years in the lives of visionary architect László Toth and his wife, Erzsébet, who flee post-war Europe in 1947 and witness the birth of modern America.

Shayeza Walid MacArthur Fellow Annie Baker is an acclaimed playwright and theater director, winning the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for drama for “The Flick,” among other accolades. Now, with the release of the delicate mother-daughter drama “Janet Planet,” both written and directed by Baker, the esteemed theater veteran makes her directorial film debut. Baker began writing “Janet Planet” in the early days of the pandemic, completing it in December 2020.

Cillian Murphy has revealed the one movie in his filmography that he rewatches.Speaking to Variety recently to promote his new film Small Things Like These, the Oppenheimer star was asked about the upcoming third entry in the 28 Days Later franchise, 28 Years Later.Announced earlier this year, 28 Years Later will serve as a direct sequel to 28 Days Later, and will see Danny Boyle and Alex Garland returning to direct and write respectively. While Murphy starred in the 2002 original, it is currently unclear if he will return for 28 Years Later.When asked if his character will return for the upcoming sequel, Murphy told Variety: “I can’t give much more at this point.

Meadow Rain Walker is officially filing for divorce.

Nicola Sturgeon has been urged to explain why "zero" of her WhatsApp messages sent during the coronavirus pandemic were transcribed to the official record.

Brits are being warned about a new disease that could potentially "cause 20 times more deaths than Covid-19".

Former BBC Radio 2 presenter Steve Wright has died at the age of 69, his family has confirmed. Wright presented his afternoon show on BBC Radio 2 for 23 years before leaving the station in December 2023.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Neil Young & Crazy Horse will make a national road trip for the first time in a decade this spring, making good on plans that were being laid for the band to hit the road before the pandemic interrupted the reunion. The 16-date tour begins with two nights in San Diego April 24-25 and wraps up May 23 in Chicago. The tour will come on the heels of the release of a new Neil Young & Crazy Horse album, “Fu##in’ Up,” which will get a limited release on vinyl for Record Store Day April 20 before getting an all-format release April 26.

David Cameron has said he handed Michelle Mone a peerage as she was a "proud Scot" and a "proud Conservative".

Ethan Shanfeld SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for “Out of Darkness,” now playing in theaters. About an hour into “Out of Darkness,” an Old Stone Age monster movie from first-time feature director Andrew Cumming, comes a shocking reveal: It’s not a monster movie at all. The film, released in theaters Feb. 9, follows a tribe of people living on a desolate Scottish island 45,000 years ago who find themselves prey to a mysterious enemy that picks them off one by one.

Andy Burnham has backed calls for a VAT cut for pubs, restaurants and clubs. The Greater Manchester mayor told an audience at the Night Time Economy Summit on Thursday (February 8) that he wants VAT to be reduced to 10 per cent for the hospitality industry.

TV presenter Kate Garraway has said she 'got a bit of flak on social media' for laughing on air during her first day back presenting Good Morning Britain following the death of her husband.

winter? I decided to find out.We are getting closer to spring, but winter continues to hold us in its nasty clutches. On the train, in the playground, and at work, people are blowing their noses, clearing their throats, and coughing. Hypochondriacs like me spend the season immediately bracing for the next infection.

Riverdale star wrote over a short clip of herself lip-syncing to a line about stress ("I'm being pushed beyond the limits of what a person should be pushed to endure”) while receiving red light therapy on her scalp on TikTok. did not say whether her alopecia was directly caused by her mental health issue, but the two are sometimes related.

A property expert has issued an important warning to anyone who is thinking of selling their house this year. It comes as the latest UK house price data was released by Zoopla on Monday (January 29), showing how the housing market has kicked off in 2024.

Gabby was two years old when the Covid pandemic forced the country into a national lockdown. Being an only child, she didn't see any other kids for months.

It may not seem like the weather for ice cream, but one family business delivering desserts to people's doors is in huge demand.

Nicola Sturgeon and Jeane Freeman have been urged to come clean about "one of the worst atrocities of the pandemic".

Emma Watson‘s last big acting project was back in 2019, meaning that it’s been five years since we’ve seen her on the big screen. However, that doesn’t mean that she’s retired.

It started with eggs, sugar, flour and a dream. When Candice Bannister started her cake company from her kitchen 14 years ago, she had no idea it would go on to make almost £1m.