5 h. ago ‘I don’t make it easy for myself’: divorce and desire power Lily Allen’s autofictional comeback

The singer has brought her seven-year music hiatus to an end with a new album, West End GirlWhen Lily Allen released her fifth album on Friday morning, there were as many headlines breaking down the contents of the record as there were actual reviews of the music.West End Girl, surprise-announced on Monday, appears to concern the 40-year-old British pop star’s divorce from the US actor David Harbour, who stars in the Netflix sci-fi series Stranger Things. Continue reading...

Politics

7 h. ago ‘I hate that they show my bum in the first scene!’ David Duchovny on poems, podcasts – and his TV comeback

Playing Fox Mulder made him a global phenomenon then he walked away to save himself. As he stars in killer-nanny thriller Malice, David Duchovny talks art, his beef with Gillian Anderson – and being murdered by Jack WhitehallHalfway through our hour-long conversation, David Duchovny slumps in his seat a little then gently chastises me. “I got tired while you were talking,” he groans. In fairness, I had been talking a lot, but only because I was trying to list everything he’s managed to do in the past year.There’s his podcast, Fail Better, in which he’s wrung incredibly candid interviews from notoriously reticent stars like Alec Baldwin and Robert Downey Jr, more on which later. There’s his book of poetry, About Time, which came out last month. There’s his History Channel show Secrets Declassified With David Duchovny. As we speak, he’s just finished an eight-date tour, where he performed songs from the three folk-rock albums he’s released over the last decade. We are ostensibly here ...

Culture

29 h. ago Journey Home, David Gulpilil: the ‘extraordinary’ 4,000km, 10

After his death in 2021, Gulpilil’s family and mob used planes, boats, vans and helicopters to transport his casket, with a documentary crew in tow. As his son reflects: ‘We have to fulfil his wishes – by any means’Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains images and names of Indigenous Australians who have diedHe was a man who danced between two worlds, carried stories across continents and, on his final journey, returned to the land that made him.Before his death in November 2021, actor David Gulpilil made one final request: to be laid to rest in his ancestral home, deep in remote East Arnhem Land. Honouring that wish became a monumental undertaking and the subject of a documentary releasing across Australia next week called Journey Home, David Gulpilil. Continue reading...

Politics

45 h. ago Sopranos creator David Chase to write HBO limited series on CIA drug program

Return marks his first TV series since groundbreaking mob drama, and will examine covert mind-control programDavid Chase is returning to television. The Sopranos creator will write MKUltra, a limited series on the CIA’s secret cold war-era mind control program, for HBO.The project, first reported by Deadline, will be Chase’s first series since the era-defining HBO mob drama. The dramatic thriller, based on John Lisle’s book Project Mind Control: Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA, and the Tragedy of MKUltra, focuses on Gottlieb, a notorious scientist known as the “black sorcerer” who led Project MKUltra, the CIA’s covert psychedelic program that tested hallucinogenic drugs, hypnosis, and torture on willing and unwilling subjects from 1953 until it was halted in 1973. Continue reading...

Events

56 h. ago ‘Incredible’ squad depth can fire Arsenal toward multiple trophies, says Raya

Goalkeeper says ‘it’s looking very, very good’ for ArsenalGunners have won 10 of their first 12 games of the seasonDavid Raya has said competition for starting spots is driving Arsenal’s blistering form and the goalkeeper believes the “incredible” depth of Mikel Arteta’s squad means they are capable of challenging on multiple fronts.The 4-0 thrashing of Atlético Madrid on Tuesday was Arsenal’s sixth successive victory and their 10th win from their first 12 matches. Arsenal have conceded only three goals – the fewest at this stage in the club’s history – to help establish a one-point lead at the top of the Premier League and a perfect record in the Champions League after three matches. Continue reading...

Events

4 d. ago Pride of Britain Awards 2025 red carpet in pictures as Amy Dowden and Helen Flanagan among stars

This year's awards are taking place at the Grosvenor House on London with a number of celebrties and famous faces in attendance

Events

4 d. ago Awkward flirting, 4am breakdowns and a last kiss: David Eldridge on a decade of writing about love

Beginning, Middle and End form a trilogy charting the ups and downs of different relationships. Audiences have taken them to their heart – one couple saw the first play on a date, got married and had its title engraved on their ringsIt’s October 2017 and I’m sitting at the National Theatre, notebook open and pen poised, waiting for the third preview of my play Beginning to begin. The first previews had flown and I felt relaxed, enjoying the preshow music and its house party vibes. But instead of the play’s two characters, Laura and Danny, awkwardly flirting in her north London flat, I found myself imagining a couple 10 years older, in a big house in Essex. A relationship at breaking point. Middle. Fuck, I thought, and pushed the thought away as the show started.Eight years on and the final play of my trilogy, End, is in rehearsal at the National Theatre, with Saskia Reeves and Clive Owen playing a couple knocking 60. The three plays aren’t linked narratively as I wanted audiences to...

Events

5 d. ago David Harewood returns to Othello: ‘I don’t just want to open the door but kick it down for the people behind me’

He first played Othello in 1997, when the role was still synonymous with white thespians ‘blacking up’. Now, nearly three decades on, he, Chiwetel Ejiofor and other Black actors discuss how best to tackle Shakespeare’s formidable tragedy“I had no intention of playing this character again. But as soon as the light went on, the house caught fire – and it’s been burning ever since.” David Harewood is talking about Othello, ahead of a new production from the Tony award-winning director Tom Morris that opens in London’s West End on 23 October. The production, which also features Toby Jones as Iago and Caitlin Fitzgerald as Desdemona, sees Harewood return to the role almost 30 years after his landmark performance at the National Theatre.When he took on Othello in 1997, it was the second time he’d done so in his then-short career. The first was at the Swan theatre in Worcester six years earlier – an opportunity for him to familiarise himself with a text he’d certainly revisit in the future...

Politics

7 d. ago Brendon McCullum brings David Saker back into England camp for Ashes series

Australian named special skills consultant for seriesCoach has been part of setup in three previous AshesBrendon McCullum has finalised his coaching team for the Ashes, with the Australian David Saker returning to help England in a fourth Test series against his homeland, having been involved during the 2010-11 and 2013 series, both of which England won, and again in the drawn series of 2023.Saker, whose official title is special skills consultant, will be in Australia from the arrival of the England Lions squad at the start of November and will remain with the senior team through all five Tests. Tim Southee, who has had the same title since May and is with the white-ball squad in his native New Zealand, will continue to work with the team until the end of the first Test in Perth, after which he will depart to fulfil playing obligations at the International League T20 in the United Arab Emirates. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago David Squires on  plane sailing for Tuchel’s England amid off

Our cartoonist on a smooth journey towards the World Cup for England against a backdrop of flags and uproarBuy copies of David’s cartoon in our Print ShopDavid’s latest book, Chaos in the Box: get it now Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago That’s me in the £45m Hockney! The man in the masterpiece relives sitting for David back in the heady LA party days

It was a landmark moment in queer art, painted when homosexuality was illegal in California. As this famous painting of Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy goes under the hammer, the surviving sitter looks back‘Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh!” Laughter explodes down the line from California. “It was a very long time ago!” says the painter Don Bachardy. His voice is high and rasping. Listening to him, you could be forgiven for thinking that the late Truman Capote was still with us. As for what happened “a very long time ago”, Bachardy is referring to the parties he threw with his partner, the British novelist Christopher Isherwood. Their home in Adelaide Drive, Santa Monica, was a salon thronged by movie stars and writers as well as Bachardy’s fellow artists.“Yes, we had a good time back then, but you can’t expect me to remember exactly who was here!” he says. It’s a fair point. Isherwood has been dead for almost 40 years and Bachardy, who is 91, suffers from some of the conditions that ...

Society

2 w. ago Supernovas, satellites and solar sprites: 2025 David Malin astrophotography awards – in pictures

Amateur astronomers and photographers from around Australia were invited to submit their out of this world photos for Central West Astronomical Society’s annual astrophotography competition, the David Malin awards. The winning images are now showing at the CSIRO’s Parkes Observatory visitors centreGalaxies, auroras and a cosmic bat: Southern Sky astrophotography exhibition 2024 Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Picture of The 1975’s Matty Healy making music wins photography award

Photographer Jordan Curtis Hughes captured the candid shot and won the making music category at the Abbey Road Music Photography Awards.

Culture

3 w. ago Failure, misery and revenge: what can we learn from the Curb Your Enthusiasm book?

A new tell-all book looks back at Larry David’s singularly sour comedy series and recounts stories of its productionFor all the plaudits that Curb Your Enthusiasm received over its lifespan, for how funny and daring and groundbreaking it was, people seem to have missed the fact that it provided Larry David with the perfect opportunity to conceal his true self.The main character in the show (wealthy former Seinfeld showrunner Larry David) was so superficially similar to its creator (wealthy former Seinfeld showrunner Larry David) that people started to assume they were one and the same. And David seemed to welcome this, shying from most opportunities to reveal himself. On talkshows, he likes to retreat behind the same clutch of anecdotes. When former Seinfeld writer Larry Charles made a two-part documentary about David for HBO in 2022, David had it pulled from schedules the day before broadcast. When I interviewed him for a book I wrote about baldness last year, he only agreed on the...

Events

3 w. ago Tapir, toad tadpoles and Trump’s bodyguards: the 2025 Siena awards festival – in pictures

A selection of some of the work on display in Siena for the 11th edition of the Siena awards festival in Italy. From internationally renowned photographers Elliot Ross, Adrees Latif, Kiana Hayeri, Katie Orlinsky and Muhammed Muheisen, who have solo shows, to the Siena international photo awards themselves, the programme interweaves languages, and global sensitivities and perspectives Continue reading...

Politics

4 w. ago Everyone on the FROW at Milan Fashion Week 2025 — from Ice Spice to David Beckham

Milan Fashion Week 2025 is underway. Here’s who has been spotted on the front rows so far

Politics

4 w. ago Everyone on the FROW at Milan Fashion Week 2025 — from David Beckham to Gwyneth Paltrow

Milan Fashion Week 2025 is underway. Here’s who has been spotted on the front rows so far

Politics

last month Lionesses captain Leah Williamson and Miss USA girlfriend stun at Ballon d’Or as fans hail ‘new Posh and Becks’

LEAH WILLIAMSON and her Miss USA girlfriend stunned at the Ballon d'Or ceremony. The Lionesses captain was pictured alongside beau Elle Smith ahead of the awards being dished out. Williamson, 28, shared several snaps of the two of them on her Instagram account. The Arsenal ace and Elle looked loved up as they smiled for...

Politics

last month Kiran Desai among top contenders for 2025 Booker Prize with first novel in 2 decades

Desai last won the Booker in 2006 with her novel ‘The Inheritance of Loss’

Culture