Stage Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

The Masked Singer is back for season nine!

The Masked Singer is back for season nine!

Thania Garcia Nadya Tolokonnikova, the founder of the politically charged punk group Pussy Riot, has been named one of Russia’s most wanted criminal suspects. The news first appeared on the outlet Mediazona, an independent news site founded by the band to cover the country’s courts, law enforcement, and prison systems in an effort to combat Russia’s growing press restrictions. According to documents cited in multiple media reports, including Mediazona’s, Tolokonnikova’s name was in the Russian Interior Ministry’s database of wanted individuals for unspecified criminal charges. Variety has reached out to Pussy Riot’s representatives for comment.

The Masked Singer is back for season nine!

Britain’s Royal Shakespeare Company is bringing back its barnstorming stage adaptation of famed Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s hand-drawn 1988 classic My Neighbour Totoro for a second season at London’s Barbican in November.

EXCLUSIVE: Michael C. Hall has signed with CAA for representation. 

Paris Saint-Germain forward and Argentina captain Lionel Messi scored his 100th international goal to enter an exclusive club alongside former Manchester United striker Cristiano Ronaldo on Tuesday night.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Susan Cain’s “Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole” has been optioned for the stage by Bated Breath Theatre Company. The author will help adapt her bestselling book, which weaves together poignant stories of loss and resilience, as well as Cain’s personal experience. It also touches on art, literature, religion and science to explain why longing and loss can be so deeply profound and transformational. Mara Lieberman, the executive director of Bated Breath Theatre Company, will write the adaptation in collaboration with Cain, and direct and produce it. The new production will be produced by Bated Breath and RRR Productions, which was founded by Ryan Ratelle.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Apple announced that this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will take place June 5-9, 2023 — and it could be the virtual launching pad for the tech giant’s long-awaited mixed-reality headset. WWDC23 will be presented in an “online format,” free to all registered Apple developers, although the company also will stage an in-person “special experience” at Apple Park in Cupertino, Calif., on the opening day of June 5. As in past years, the confab will serve as a venue for news and updates about Apple’s latest hardware and software products, including iOS and tvOS. The highlight of WWDC23 could be a new mixed-reality headset, which has been in development since 2015 and is finally scheduled to be unveiled at the June conference, according to a Bloomberg report last month. The mixed-reality headset will carry a $3,000 price tag and feature a “3D-like view of an iPhone interface” with apps for messaging, mail, web browsing, videoconferencing and “immserive video streaming” as well as “realistic avatars,” according to the report. The tech giant showed off the headset, which could be called “Reality Pro” or “Reality One,” for its 100 highest-ranking execs last week, Bloomberg reported. (Apple has declined to comment on the reports.)

set to play Janis in the new version of the movie. The role was originated in “Mean Girls” by Lizzy Caplan, and on Broadway by Barrett Wilbert Weed.

Looking back. Jason Ritter opened up about his struggle with alcoholism and how it affected his relationship with Melanie Lynskey in the early stages of their romance.

Michael Nordine author Few events loom larger in the minds of movie teenagers than prom. Dreams are realized, bullies are put in their place, girls are declared “all that.” Real life is rarely as dramatic, thankfully, but that doesn’t mean we should expect studios (and streamers) to stop trying to make the next “Pretty in Pink” or “10 Things I Hate About You” anytime soon. Disney offer a fresh take on teendom’s big night with “Prom Pact,” in which two platonic best friends who are more comfortable on the outside looking in decide to finally step into the fray of high school life. Mandy Yang (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) first appears in a Ruth Bader Ginsburg T-shirt, obsessively refreshing her Harvard application in the hopes that it’s gone from “pending” to “accepted” while trying to avoid the pep rally where North Seattle High will officially announce its prom theme: the ‘80s. “Real life starts once we get out of here and go to college,” she says to bestie Ben Plunkett (Milo Manheim), who’s slightly more enthused about the prospect of having a traditional high-school experience than she is. She asks him to prom as a gesture of goodwill despite the fact that “the only thing I hate more than slow dancing is the gender wage gap,” setting the stage for what so far feels like yet another familiar teen movie.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large One of my best friends in high school used to say she preferred the music of “post modern” (as the genre was dubbed at the time) groups like Depeche Mode because their sound was timeless, vs. the era’s disposable top 40 radio tracks, which were destined to sound dated in just a few years. And she was right, kind of: A Depeche Mode concert manages to straddle that line between digging deep into its four-decade catalog and not feeling like a legacy act. That was mostly on display Tuesday night at the Kia Forum, where Depeche Mode played the third date of its brand new “Momento Mori” tour. (They’ll be back at the Forum in December for two more shows.)

Swarm, Amazon Prime's buzzy new limited series from executive producer Donald Glover, has an ironically fierce online fanbase for a show about the dark side of obsessive fandoms. But with Chloe Bailey, , and even Malia Obama, who receives a writing credit on the show, that was probably bound to happen. Right?In the genre-bending horror-comedy, Andrea “Dre” Greene (Dominique Fishback) is obsessed with a pop star analogous to Beyoncé.

Raquel Leviss and Scheana Shay are headed to court!

Paul O’Grady famously snapped back at police officers who conducted ‘homophobic’ raids at gay bars in London and Manchester during the AIDS epidemic.

People in Greater Manchester who have been sent a lifesaving home testing kit that can detect early signs of bowel cancer are being encouraged to use it and return it, as part of a new, first of a kind NHS campaign.

Rosie Perez slides into a booth at an upscale Italian restaurant in Manhattan. She pushes up the sleeves on her wool sweater dress and settles in to talk about the state of Hollywood. And women in Hollywood. And Latinos in Hollywood. Or maybe that lack of cultural specificity in the homogeneous blob of film content that is created to appeal to the widest possible global audience. On this afternoon in early March, the Academy Awards are still dominating the conversation, and Perez, a supporting actress nominee for the 1993 drama “Fearless,” has some thoughts. “I think Brendan deserved the Oscar,” she says. “But I wouldn’t be mad if Colin had got it for ‘Banshees of Inisherin.’ He did something specific to his culture, right? How many other movies has he done that were specific to his culture?”

Wet Leg have died following illnesses.Miniature donkey Angelica, who has the same name as the fifth single released from their self-titled 2022 debut album, died on Saturday (March 25). And older donkey called Jill died on the same day.Last year, Wet Leg became the first celebrity ambassadors to the Isle of Wight Donkey Sanctuary.The charity told BBC News that both animals had been “closely monitored for a while and both had various health issues that were causing concern”.Wet Leg, who are from the Isle of Wight, first adopted a donkey named Archie Baby from the sanctuary.

Adele found one way to entertain herself during lockdown.

It was recently revealed that Tyra Banks is officially leaving Dancing with the Stars as the show’s co-host. The day after this news was revealed, Julianne Hough was announced as Tyra‘s replacement.

Lana Del Rey is back, and she’s heading for her sixth Number 1 album in the UK.  

The Manchester United takeover process continues in the background as Premier League football prepares to return.

Jurors in the trial of Thomas Cashman have been told they will bear a 'heavy responsibility' when they are sent to deliberate on the murder charge tomorrow.

EXCLUSIVE: Gravitas Ventures has nabbed North American rights to the Shia LaBeouf-led drama Padre Pio from filmmaker Abel Ferrara, slating it for a day-and-date release on June 2nd.

Not getting to perform in Brazil wasn’t stopping Drake from having a good time.

Danni Menzies was scared she wouldn't work on TV again after her horror crash left her with serious facial injuries.

Gerard Piqué was supported by his kids and his girlfriend, Clara Chia, at the King’s League final. The match was hosted in Camp Nou, which saw the return of Pique following his retirement from professional football. Meet Marc Piqué, Gerard Piqué’s younger brotherDid Shakira & Piqué’s mom have a confrontation after Clara Chía’s affair was uncovered? - ReportHOLA! Spain reports that Piqué arrived at the stadium in a private helicopter, alongside his kids, Sasha and Milan.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The all-star trio Boygenius has set 14 headlining dates for this summer, on top of festival gigs that include Coachella appearances and concerts under the Re:SET banner that’d previously been announced for the group. Opening acts for the 14 newly set dates include Carly Rae Jepsen, Broken Social Scene, Illuminati Hotties, Bartees Strange and Claud. The shows include gigs at two of the nation’s most iconic outdoor venues — Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado, on Aug. 5, and the Gorge in Washington state, on July 29 — along with al fresco appearances in Phoenix, Houston, Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City, Toronto, Vancouver, Asheville, Wilmington, Bend, Bonner and Boise.

Anthony Joshua will face Jermaine Franklin in London on Saturday night, with his first fight at the O2 Arena since 2016 as he hopes to bounce back from successive defeats to Oleksandr Usyk.

Walking into any supermarket at this time of year, you won’t have much difficulty finding stacks upon stacks of Easter eggs lining up the aisles. But, if you’re after something that's much more unique and special than what the supermarkets have to offer, you won’t have to look much further than in Bury.

Lana Del Rey is back, and she’s heading for her sixth Number 1 album in the UK.  

Marta Balaga London-based sales outfit Taskovski Films has boarded Spanish documentary “Fauna,” soon to premiere at Visions du Réel and Hot Docs.  Pau Faus directs, while Sergi Camerón produces for Nanouk Films. Faus, Cameron and Julia R. Aymar are also credited as writers.   In the film, set on the outskirts of Barcelona, two realities collide as an old shepherd constantly finds himself in front of a high-tech laboratory for animal experimentation. Afflicted with a bone disease, he witnesses his profession disappearing, while the scientists are busier than ever researching a COVID vaccine. 

Naman Ramachandran Lionsgate’s “John Wick: Chapter 4” shot its way to the top of the U.K. and Ireland box office with a £5.3 million ($6.5 million) opening weekend, according to numbers released by Comscore. In its second weekend, Warner Bros.’ “Shazam! Fury Of The Gods” collected £1.09 million in second place for a total of £4.09 million. In third place, Warner Bros.’ “Creed III” earned £731,273 and now has a total of £12.8 million after four weekends. Paramount’s “Scream VI” grossed £597,937 in fourth place in its third weekend for a total of £6.2 million. Rounding off the top five was Warner Bros.’ “Allelujah” that took £463,973 in its second weekend for a total of £2.02 million.

Afghan refugees living in hotels across the UK could be forced out of hotels and pushed into homelessness under new government plans, campaigners have warned.

A former Conservative minister has said that lowering the age threshold for automatic pension enrolment could make young workers £30,000 better off in retirement. Tory MP Jonathan Gullis said his plans to reduce the age of Auto-Enrolment to 18 would be “transformative” for future pensioners.