Culture

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Jimmy Carr has revealed how his childhood battle with meningitis led him to make his mother laugh for the first time. The stand-up comedian, 51, contracted the disease when he was three years old. Appearing on today’s (16 April) episode of the podcast Where There’s A Will, There’s A Wake with Kathy Burke, Carr said: “‘You’ve got to be cruel to be kind’… I think that is the first thing I ever said that my mother thought was funny.” He explained: “I had meningitis when I was a child. So my first memoryContinue Reading

A leading literary institution has been accused of promoting an “anti-intellectual conspiracy theory” with an event exploring claims that Shakespeare may have been a woman. A debate has “long raged” over whether Britain’s greatest playwright wrote all 38 plays attributed to him, with comedy troupe Monty Python once joking that “a 1970s suburban husband and wife team authored several of them”, said The Times.   But the London Library, “one of the country’s bastions of intellectualism”, has triggered a fresh row by giving a platform to a US writer who argues the Bard may have been female, said the paper.  Subscribe to The Week Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives. SUBSCRIBEContinue Reading

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Hannah Waddingham dressed down a photographer at the Olivier Awards who asked her to “show me leg”. The Ted Lasso star, who recently opened up about a harrowing experience on the set of Game of Thrones, hosted the London ceremony, which took place on Sunday (14 April) and saw Sunset Boulevard take home seven trophies. Before the event began, Waddingham posed for photographs outside the Royal Albert Hall, but was left visibly frustrated by a comment made by a member of the press, whom she proceeded to call out. After a photographer appearedContinue Reading

Kerala is a microcosm of India itself. The 360-mile-long sliver abutting the Arabian Sea is a bewildering jumble of people, places and cultures. Impossible to get a handle on with one lone visit — or six visits even. The startling breadth of Kerala is almost preternatural. Well, better to say it is extra natural, because the mountainous Western Ghats and the topographical marvel of the coastal backwaters are acute embodiments of the natural world. Discover how Kerala does what it does with these four guides to four very different parts of the state.  Do nothing on the coast The sprawling beauty of Marari Beach (Image credit: Robert Francis / Getty Images) Beach nuts and laze-abouts will relish the tranquility ofContinue Reading

Sign up to Roisin O’Connor’s free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things music Get our Now Hear This email for free Bon Jovi has said that he will be “done” with music if his voice continues to struggle following vocal injury. The Bon Jovi frontman, 62, underwent surgery for an atrophied vocal cord two years ago and is currently doing vocal rehabilitation sessions every day. In a new interview with The Sunday Times, Bon Jovi said that if his vocal capabilities decline and affect his performance, he will be “done”. “If the singing is not great, if I can’t be the guy I once was … then I’m done,” he said. “And I’m goodContinue Reading

Gwen Stefani teases No Doubt’s Coachella appearance with behind-the-scenes rehearsal Sign up to Roisin O’Connor’s free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things music Get our Now Hear This email for free Lana Del Rey was joined by Billie Eilish and Jon Batiste during her rapturously received and beautifully staged headline performance on the Friday night of Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2024. Today (13 April) will see Tyler, the Creator top the bill, with Doja Cat set to close the festival on Sunday. The second weekend takes place from Friday 19 April to Sunday 21 April, with the same artists performing at both shows. Earlier on Friday there were performances from rising MexicanContinue Reading

Sign up to Roisin O’Connor’s free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things music Get our Now Hear This email for free For music lovers who weren’t able to secure tickets to the 2024 edition of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, don’t fret because, for the second year in a row, you can catch a majority of the concerts via the Coachella livestream. The first weekend of the popular desert music event, which kicked off today (12 April), will run through Sunday (14 April), before returning for the second weekend from 19 to 21 April at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. This year’s festival features headliners Lana Del Rey, Tyler theContinue Reading

What happened Orenthal James “O.J.” Simpson died Wednesday at age 76 after a “battle with cancer,” his family said Thursday. Simpson was one of football’s most celebrated players and a popular movie actor until he was credibly charged with the 1994 murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. A jury acquitted him, but he was later found liable for the deaths and ordered to pay millions in damages. Who said what Simpson died “surrounded by his children and grandchildren,” who asked that the public “respect their wishes for privacy and grace,” the family said. Simpson’s death is “no great loss to the world,” Goldman’s father, Fred, told NBC News. Simpson’s many accomplishments were eclipsed byContinue Reading

This month, “Problemista” hit movie theaters. Maybe you have heard of it; maybe you have not. It is the story of Alejandro, a Salvadoran immigrant to the United States who dreams of being a toy designer for Hasbro. If only the pesky U.S. immigration system and the travails of New York City were not constantly getting in his way.  The success of “Problemista” is inconsequential. Okay, yes, its star and creator, Julio Torres, deserves a smash hit. But only so that he can keep putting his singular comedic vision out into the world. As Torres told The Cut about “Problemista,” “I hope people like it, but I don’t make work with [other people’s] perception in mind.”  Who is Julio Torres?Continue Reading

Alpine ski resorts were set for a bumper season late last autumn when snow arrived nice and early. Yet the Four Seasons Megève hotel is ideal at any time of year, so you don’t have to hope for a covering of the white stuff when booking your stay.  I was there in the heart of the French Alps at the end of September. Then, only the very top of nearby Mont Blanc was dusted with snow, the slopes were still green with the last of the summer flowers and the distinctive Abondance cattle were happily grazing on the lush grass with their traditional bells ringing out across the valleys. Why stay here French property developer Noémie de Rothschild turned theContinue Reading