8 h. ago The Twits: Natalie Portman ‘excited’ to be part of a film her children can enjoy

The Oscar-winning actress voices a magical creature in the Netflix adaptation of the Roald Dahl classic.

Politics

45 h. ago Lanarkshire paedo asked online contacts to film children being sexually abused

He transferred money for images to bank accounts in the Philippines and Kenya, and also had dozens of pics depicting extreme content involving adults and animals.

Events

5 d. ago Parents who film their children crying for clicks should take a good look at themselves | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

Toddlers have big feelings. But sharing their tantrums and pain on social media is not a ‘teachable moment’. It’s cruelThere’s a song that’s been in my head all week, and no, it’s not from Taylor Swift’s new album. It’s by a far more sophisticated songwriter than Swift: Ms Rachel. The song is called Big Feelings and it goes: “Big feelings are OK / I’m here to stay with your big feelings.”Thanks to the trend for gentle parenting, the concept of “big feelings” has become big money online, and for the most part I welcome that (Big Feelings isn’t the only song that reflects this cultural shift; the animation Small Potatoes on CBeebies has a song that goes “Feelings / I’ve got so many feelings”, which my husband likes to sing to me when I’m premenstrual). As a parent, strong emotions are hard to escape: you’re feeling them, the small child in your home is feeling them and, in one of the biggest departures for us as a species, so are myriad other children on your social media feed.Rhianno...

Society

5 d. ago A Place In The Sun's Laura Hamilton admits she has 'no regrets' about spending time away from her kids while filming show

A Place in the Sun star Laura Hamilton has said she has no regrets about spending time away from her two children to film the hit Channel 4 series, despite being trolled for it online.

Culture

9 d. ago George Clooney says his children have a ‘much better life’ being raised in France than LA

The actor said that their French farm will be free of paparazzi, teach them self-sufficiency and let them see his handyman skills, such as fixing the coffee machineGeorge Clooney has said that his decision to base himself in France was informed by the desire to give his children a better start in life than if they had remained in the US.The actor, 64, who has eight-year-old twins, Ella and Alexander, with his wife, the human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, gave a lengthy interview to US Esquire magazine while staying at his Italian villa on Lake Como. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago My cultural awakening: Ratatouille helped me overcome my insomnia

My difficulties with sleep stretched back to childhood, when I would put on a movie to pass the time – until I watched the children’s animated film and it made me drop off straight awayI have never been good at silence. When it’s quiet, my brain fills the gap with racing thoughts. It wasn’t until lockdown, when I was 27, that I was diagnosed with ADHD and autism, but looking back it made sense: the fidgety teenage nights, the late-night TV marathons, the constant need for background noise.As a kid, my insomnia was brutal. When I couldn’t sleep, all I wanted to do was get up and do something, but I shared a room with my sister so I just had to lie there, still and frustrated. I found our workaround: TV. My sister and I would put films on at night to soften the atmosphere and fill the silence. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Please Don’t Feed the Children review – Destry Spielberg debut splices 1970s exploitation with YA fairytale

A band of roving, feral orphans – asymptomatic carriers of a plague that turns adults into cannibals – regret accepting a stranger’s act of apparent kindnessThis low-budget horror thriller comes with an almighty directorial last name, but Steven’s daughter Destry serves up precious little that is classically Spielbergian in her debut feature. Forget Dad’s signature childlike wonder; the youngsters in this post-apocalyptic outing – ostracised because minors are asymptomatic carriers of a plague that turns adults into cannibals – are completely feral, opportunistic and worryingly keen to kill. Spielberg’s film is a surprisingly nihilistic, if uneven, splicing of 21st-century young-adult and 1970s exploitation flicks.After making a break for the border, roving juvenile Mary (Zoe Colletti) takes up with a band of orphans squatting a nearby community centre. Leader Ben (Andrew Liner) is wounded during a botched armed robbery on a service station, so they take refuge in an isolated house....

Society

3 w. ago The Munchkins' sordid legacy: As one of the last surviving Wizard of Oz cast dies aged 94... how the Hollywood film was marred with drunken orgies and 'little people' pimping

The child star (right) from Colorado had turned eight years old when she filmed the beloved 1939 film, making her one of eight children who danced and sang as part of the Munchkin ensemble.

Events