List of All Articles with Tag 'celebrities'

Maurice Sendak's books were shaped by his own childhood: one marked by the Lindbergh baby kidnapping, the concentration camp deaths of most of his extended family, and parents consumed by depression and anger.

Love Island is back with ten new singletons putting all their eggs in one basket. Like most Love Island alumni, Megan Barton Hanson sky-rocketed to fame when she strolled out of the villa in 2018. At just 28 years old, Megan has combined her unapologetic attitude with her impressive social media presence to flip dated views of sexuality on their head. Last summer, she voiced her opinions on sex workers' rights and the new age of porn at one of the world's most prestigious universities. "I’ve always felt the same about women’s issues," Megan told indy100, who openly shares her candid thoughts in her sex and relationships column for VICE and podcast You Come First. She added: "I’ve always been keen for women to have a voice and to feel sexually liberated, but no one really listened before or cared about my opinion. Now I’ve gained such a platform. It’s so important to use it for good and for those who aren’t being heard." Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Recalling her Love Island experience, Megan said her model agent put her forward for the show. "I didn’t think I would get very far because I’m quite introverted and shy until I know people better," she shared. "I think they loved my honesty, though." Despite Love Island having viewers gripped over the summer, a certain mystery remains. There are parts of the show that are so elusive, so much so that Megan only found out she was heading to the villa 48 hours before. With Love Island 2023 in full swing, Megan gives indy100 the scoop on all the Love Island secrets. Islanders have to pass a pre-show STI screening “Thank god, or there would have been zero action," Megan revealed. "It’s so important for me to check every partner has been tested before sleeping together.” …Speaking of safe sex, plenty of branded Love Island condoms are said to be scattered around the villa. The hidden smoking area Due to OFCOM's broadcasting guidelines, smoking "must generally be avoided and in any case must not be condoned, encouraged or glamorised.” Love Island is no exception. Megan revealed islanders have to ask for permission for a smoke break and go one at a time to the designated area. “Having to ask for a cigarette after a row wasn’t a vibe,” she joked. “The stress!” The show runners grow to become friends The crew behind the scenes become pretty close to the islanders. Megan noted that while they "don't directly tell you what to do", it's nice that they chat to you after things after a villa spat. Dinner in the villa While we see islanders battling it out at breakfast, we rarely see them eat any other meal. This is because a catering company comes in with a buffet-style selection of chicken, fish and vegetables. It is also a time for contestants to charge up their mics. “There are runners making sure that there are no storyline conversations, so you aren’t meant to sit near who you are coupled up with, and you are only allowed to chit-chat,” Megan revealed. “If you are lucky, the runners will put on some music and play our favourite songs so we can have a little dance after lunch. Then we get ready for the evening!” The rush to get ready Islanders are allocated a time slot to shower, with Megan saying they only had 20 minutes to get ready. “The stress was real,” Megan said. “I’m so bad at getting ready under pressure,” she said. “With the heat and humidity, I had daily sweaty top lips! Not a look I was picturing for my Love Island experience! Time awareness isn't a thing There are no clocks or calendars around the villa, meaning islanders have no clue what time or date it is. However, Megan found a sneaky loophole after discovering the time was hidden behind a sticker on the cooker. “Me and Wes peeled the tape off to sneak a look,” Megan joked. “This was, however, a big mistake as it was 2am, and we still had loads of chats and beach hut interviews to film!” “I'VE GOT A TEXT!” Megan revealed that the mobile phones were rarely used “unless we were told to go and hold them – this way, we knew something spicy was about to happen.” Of course, they have no internet access but can be used to text other islanders and producers. “Thank god, though,” Megan added. “I would have run up that gravel driveway as quick as possible and gone into hiding if I knew how bad the press was about me!” Megan came fourth place in the 2018 series with then-partner Wes Nelson. She described leaving the villa as a whirlwind, becoming overwhelmed by the amount of love. Despite receiving some harsh criticism while in the villa, Megan said: "the nice messages certainly outweighed the negativity." As for what's next? Megan is currently working on her own lingerie line with one of her favourite brands. "I can’t wait to share more with you, but for now, I’ve got to keep it under wraps," she said. "People have been asking for some 'Meg-approved' lingerie, so I’m so pleased to be able to provide it now!" Megan is also keen to have her own documentary series exploring issues such as sex positivity, sex work, and body positivity. She said: "I am really interested in finding out more about how we have gotten to the place we are in today as a society where these topics are so taboo. "I know a lot of brands and production companies have shied away from working with sex workers and OnlyFans girls, so hopefully, as it becomes more normalised, I will get the chance to them!" Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

After being linked to Zayn Malik and Andrew Taggart in recent weeks, Selena Gomez confirmed she is in fact single with a hilarious new TikTok. The singer sat on the sidelines of a football game with her friends, when she shouted at the players: "I'm single!", before quipping: "I’m just a little high-maintenance. But I’ll love you soooo much." 'The struggle man lol', she wrote on TikTok alongside the hilarious clip. Fans were quick to heap her with praise for her brutal honesty. Click here to sign up for our newsletters

Hugh Grant is no stranger to making his feelings known when it comes to politics, and this time, he's having the last laugh on Brexit. The actor appeared on The View, where he was quizzed over whether he thinks the UK leaving the EU had 'ruined' his home country. "Well I do...said with a smile", he joked. "Actually now the majority of Brits do, I think." "The Europeans may not want us back!", he added. Click here to sign up for our newsletters

Elon Musk has left his Twitter followers stumped with a bizarre comparison of Taylor Swift and Napoleon Dynamite. You'd think the tech mogul would have bigger things on his mind, but on Friday, it seemingly wandered elsewhere. Musk tweeted a picture of Swift and the awkward teen character, asking: "How do we know for sure they’re different people?" The caption above the photo collage of the two read: "When you realise Taylor Swift is actually Napoleon Dynamite." The tweet soon went viral across Twitter, with many flocking to the responses. "As both a Musk fan and a Taylor Swift fan, this is not the crossover I wanted," one person hit back, while another added: "Someone come get the owner of Twitter's phone, please. Now I can’t unsee it." Meanwhile, one person had enough and brutally wrote: "Elon pls go tend to ur baby DU-139X# before even coming on this shi**y app you wasted money on." Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Now, this isn't the first time Musk has turned his attention to the 'Shake It Off' singer. In March, the Tesla founder complimented the star by saying her "limbic resonance skill is exceptional." Everyone was just as confused as each other, but it apparently means "a state of deep emotional and physiological connection between two people. The limbic system in the brain is the seat of emotions." He didn't stop there either. Under a series of photos from Swift's hotly-anticipated Eras Tour, Musk responded with a cigarette emoji which most people interpreted as him calling the singer smoking. When one Twitter user asked whether Musk and Swift would make a cute couple, he simply responded with a crying laughing face. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Arnold Schwarzenegger has perhaps one of the most iconic lines in movie history - but it could have been different if the veteran actor had his way. We all know the line "I'll be back" from his memorable role in The Terminator (1984), but the 75-year-old revealed in a new Netflix documentary series Arnold that he tried to get the line changed. But it also turns out that "I'll be back," was not the original line in the script written by director James Cameron along with Gale Anne Hurd. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The line that Schwarzenegger was supposed to say initially was "I'll come back." "Sometime in the middle of the shoot, we're doing this police station scene. The line is, 'I'll come back.' It wasn't meant to be like a big moment at all," Cameron said. "It was literally meant to be, on its face, 'No problem, I'll come back.' For some reason, Arnold didn't say, 'I'll come back.' I said, 'Well, just say "I'll be back." Keep it simple.'" Every "I'll be back" from Terminator 1 to 6 (Compilation) www.youtube.com However, Schwarzenegger wasn't exactly a fan and believed "I'll be back" sounded "funny," so instead he wanted the line to sound more "machine-like" and lobbied for "I will be back." Though Cameron wasn't exactly impressed with Schwarzenegger's suggestion. "'And he says, 'Are you the writer?'" Schwarzenegger recalled Cameron saying. "And I said, 'No,' and he said, 'Well, don't tell me how to f****** write.'" In the end, Schwarzenegger admitted that Cameron's line was "absolutely right." "It became the most quoted movie line, I think, in the history of motion pictures. So this just shows to you who was right and who was wrong," the actor added. Given that “I’ll be back" comes in at number 37 on the American Film Institute’s list of “100 Greatest Movie Quotes Of All Time" safe to say it was the right call. Arnold, the three-part documentary series is now available to stream on Netflix. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Kim Kardashian is proving even the richest and most famous people on the planet struggle with body confidence - by confessing she has to have the lights off in the bedroom. The reality star made the confession during a new episode of The Kardashians, where she opened up on where her confidence comes from. "I can like walk out of a photoshoot with a hundred people working on set", she began. "I can walk out in like a thong, but if it's like you're there with me, I'm like, wait don't look at me! Turn the lights off!” Click here to sign up for our newsletters

When news of Christine Jorgensen’s gender-affirming surgery made headlines, she decided to use the exposure to help people.

Fan enthusiasm can be a wonderful thing—but sometimes it can go a bit too far. Here are 10 of the biggest casting backlashes in modern film history.

The Earth will be torn apart by a nuclear disaster before the year is out, according to a legendary mystic credited with predicting many of the biggest events in history. Baba Vanga, a blind Bulgarian woman is said to have foreseen 9/11, the Covid pandemic and the death of Princess Diana, among other era-defining moments. And despite the fact she’s been dead for some 27 years, her loyal disciples still follow her prophesies with great devotion. They claim that many of her predictions came true long after her death, and there are still more to come. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Indeed, the rest of 2023 is set to be busy on the catastrophe front, according to Vanga’s followers as reported by The New York Post. Not only will a major nuclear power plant explosion take place at some point over the coming months – causing toxic clouds to settle over Asia – by the Earth will be hit by a devastating solar storm and suffer a potentially apocalyptic shift in its orbit around the sun. Other forecasts for the year allegedly include a bioweapons attack launched by an unnamed superpower, the emergence of a new religion based on artificial intelligence, and the end of natural pregnancies. According to her fans, she foretold that all babies would be grown in laboratories and parents would be able to select their physical traits. To be fair, that sounds eerily plausible when you consider one biotechnologist has already begun planning a “human factory” – though, admittedly, not before the end of the year. The issue with all of this is that Vanga’s predictions are cryptic and impossible to verify, as Sky History notes. And yet, there is a reason why a poor, blind woman from rural Bulgaria has been branded the “Nostradamus of the Balkans” and become a global icon. Legend has it that she was blinded in a dust storm at the age of 12 after which she announced that she had been endowed with the gifts of prophesy and healing. Her reputation soon spread beyond the local area and soon everyone from tsars to peasants would make the pilgrimage to her home in the Kozhuh mountains to seek her counsel. She was unable to write, however, so everything she said was documented by those around her, meaning there are no first-hand accounts of her visions on paper. Still, she is understood to have proclaimed in 1989 that “American brethren will fall after being attacked by steel birds […] innocent blood will be gushing” – which many people have taken to be an omen for the September 11 attacks. She also said that America’s 44th President would be Black, which was fulfilled by Barack Obama in 2009. And whilst her claim that Europe would “cease to exist” by 2017 hasn’t come to pass geographically, some have read this as a reference to the 2016 Brexit vote. She also predicted that the US’s 45th president would be faced with a crisis which would “bring the country down.” Given that the 45th president was Donald Trump, we’ll let you be the judge of whether or not there’s any truth to that one. Countless Bulgarian and Soviet scientists studied and tested Vanga throughout her life, ultimately concluding that she had an 85 per cent success rate with her predictions, Sky History reports. She even allegedly foresaw her own death on 11 August 1996 at the age of 85. All we can do now is hope that her doomsday visions for the rest of this year fall into that 15 per cent margin of error... Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Actress Elle Fanning revealed in a new Hollywood Reporter roundtable that she got turned down for a movie role at 16 for being "unf**kable". The Great star joined other female comedy actresses including Jenna Ortega, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Ayo Edebiri, and more. All are nominated for this year's Emmys. One of the topics the actresses discussed explored dealing with sexism in the industry, in which Fanning spoke about an experience she said she had as a minor whilst auditioning for a movie. "I've never told this story," the former child star said. "But I was trying out for a movie. I didn't get it. I don't even think they ever made it. But it was a father-daughter road trip comedy. I didn't hear from my agents because they wouldn't tell me things like this. That filtration system is really important because there's probably a lot more damaging comments that they filtered." Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter "I was 16 years old, and a person said, 'Oh, she didn't get the father-daughter road trip comedy because she's unf**kable.'" She added. "Woah. at 16?" Lee Ralph responded in shock. "Of course, there are so many stories like this," Fanning said. "I've talked to people about this. And I can laugh at it now, like 'What a disgusting pig!'" Comedy Actress Roundtable: Jenna Ortega, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Elle Fanning, Ayo Edebiri & More youtu.be Fanning also took a moment to thank the adults around her for protecting her. She said "I have an amazing manager and agent who've been with me since I was 8 or 9." Around the age that comment was made, Fanning had featured in films such as Disney's Maleficent, as well as having a supporting role in Oscar-nominated film Trumbo. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Not long after being embroiled in controversy himself over a video in which he helped 1,000 people “hear for the first time”, MrBeast - real name Jimmy Donaldson – has waded into the outcry over the latest divisive policy decision from the streaming platform Twitch. On Tuesday, the company updated its policy around branded and sponsored content, in which it set the incredibly specific limit of no more than three per cent of a screen size featuring a brand’s logo or overlay. A ban on ‘burned-in’ adverts embedded into streams is another rule which will come into effect on 1 July. Twitch was already facing a significant backlash over how it splits payments for channel subscriptions, which is currently 50/50, as well as its decision to charge a $25 maintenance fee to terminate an affiliate contract. Given just how limiting three per cent is as a percentage, and in terms of screen size, many Twitch streamers voiced their frustration with the planned change, mocking how the site would even enforce such a policy and how they would avoid going over the threshold: Eventually, Twitch issued a statement on Twitter, in which the organisation admitted the updated policy was “overly broad” and “created confusion and frustration”. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter It reads: “We do not intend to limit streamers’ ability to enter into direct relationships with sponsors, and we understand that this is an important part of how streamers earn revenue. “We wanted to clarify our existing ads policy that was intended to prohibit third party ad networks from selling burned in video and display ads on Twitch, which is consistent with other services. “We missed the mark with the policy language and will rewrite the guidelines to be clearer. Thank you for sharing your concerns, and we appreciate the feedback. We’ll notify the community once we have updated the language.” YouTuber and streamer Sean “Jacksepticeye” McLoughlin and rival streaming service Kick were among those who criticised the climbdown: And speaking of Kick – the platform on which Drake streamed himself getting a card declined – this is where MrBeast comes in, as a Twitter account promoting streams on Kick noticed the 158m subscriber strong YouTuber had followed them. Donaldson replied: “Might do a stream for fun just to protest Twitch lol.” Even Elon Musk, of all people, was on board with the idea, simply tweeting Donaldson to say “great!” In a separate tweet – since deleted – MrBeast wrote: “This is the funniest thing I’ve seen all year. I’m not even a Twitch streamer and now I want to stream on a competitor now [sic] just to spite them for you guys lol. “If YouTube pulled this s*** I’d lose my mind.” Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.