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Culture

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Entertainment

Citizen Kim by Jonathan Van Meter review – Kardashian under the microscope

The author gets a backstage pass to the personal life of the world’s most famous woman – but what do we really learn? The magazine writer Jonathan Van Meter profiles very famous people for extremely glossy publications. He was responsible for the notorious 1990 interview in which supermodel Linda Evangelista said she wouldn’t wake up for less than $10,000 a day, and in recent years, he has interviewed Taylor Swift, Michelle Obama and Lady Gaga for American Vogue. In 2019, he wrote a cover story, also for Vogue, on Kim Kardashian, the reality TV star turned business­woman turned criminal justic

The Guardian
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Entertainment

Lords of Serendipity by Randy Boyagoda review – a campus satire for this moment of crisis

This propulsive, globe-trotting tale brilliantly skewers the corruption and corporatisation of higher education It’s no secret that academia is on the blink; Canadian author Randy Boyagoda’s new novel, which is equal parts satire, dystopia and exposé, tells the story of all that’s wrong, glitchy and broken. Set across Sri Lanka, the United States and Italy, it centres on a cast of students, parents and professors, and their dealings with a common antagonist: the university. The first character we meet is Sri Lankan teen Devi, who is set on obtaining offers from “Ochpys” – her acronym for Oxfor

The Guardian
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Entertainment

‘It brings soul into this sterile world’: the Birmingham clubbers fighting to save their patch – and Britain’s nightlife

Digbeth is the city’s most thriving party district, but railway upgrades could tear it apart. Here, clubbers explain why they are doing everything to stop that happening House beats ring out through the open air while a heaving crowd of young partygoers dance. Suddenly, they begin to chant: “Richard Parker, Richard Parker!” You might think he is the next DJ on the set list, but in fact he is the mayor of the West Midlands and this block party has been assembled to send him a message: leave Digbeth alone. It’s Sunday night and I’m in Birmingham’s trendy party district. It’s filled with bars, wa

The Guardian
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Entertainment

‘At my age, I can rant!’ Bernie Taupin on Elton John, hellraising vampires and competing in full-blown rodeos

He is the outstanding lyricist who propelled the Rocket Man to 300m sales. As Taupin releases a wistfully grouchy solo album, he talks about the joy of anonymity, his LA drinking gang – and owning a prize-winning bucking bull Bernie Taupin has an interesting take on the strange brand of fame he enjoys. “I am,” he says, “what I call the credit card guy.” I’m sorry? You’re the what? “The credit card guy. I go somewhere, like a shop or a restaurant, and it’s fine. I can be me, no one notices. Then I pay with my credit card and they see the name and go” – he lets out a mock gasp – “‘You’re that gu

The Guardian
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Entertainment

Dustin Hoffman says filming The Graduate was ‘a terrible experience’ due to Mike Nichols’ ‘sadism’

In his new memoir, the actor reveals he was slapped 27 times until he was dizzy for a scene director Nichols ‘didn’t even use’ Almost 60 years after The Graduate was released, Dustin Hoffman has revealed that making the 1967 film that launched his career was “a terrible experience” and he felt “immediately uncomfortable, unworthy” as a Jewish actor playing “the ultimate Wasp”, Ben Braddock. In an essay for the New Yorker, drawn from his upcoming memoir Look at Me, which was co-written with New Yorker staff writer Ariel Levy, the 89-year-old actor wrote: “The Graduate exacerbated all my insecur

The Guardian
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Entertainment

The Gilded Age review – what did we do to deserve such a terrible stinker?

Julian Fellowes’ high-society period drama has, somehow, picked up Emmys and reached its fourth series. Poor Meryl Streep must feel so awkward watching her daughter Louisa Jacobson in such a uniformly awful show A doctor with a fully qualified moustache races up a carriageway towards an immaculate stately home. “I fear we should have sent for you sooner!” says the lady who greets him on the doorstep as the screams of a woman in drug-free labour rattle the windows in their frames. Oh, ya think? is not Dr Moustache’s reply. When this many cliches assemble so quickly, it can only mean one thing:

The Guardian
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Entertainment

Ashanti: ‘I’ve had a bodysuit snap off on stage. That was not my coolest moment’

Before her Australian tour, the Grammy-winner talks about her marriage to Nelly, fans rushing the stage and her secret skill Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email Your debut album, Ashanti, turns 25 next year and you’re in the process of re-recording it. How do you feel about that album now? We are re-recording it so I will own my masters. Sonically, it will be a lot clearer. It was 25 years ago so it’ll sound a little more new, obviously, but with the same classic vibe. I’m very excited. What I’ve learned is that I’m just really grateful to have written records that stand the test of ti

The Guardian
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Entertainment

Beaches, Beatles and a broken marriage: how Wilhelmina Barns-Graham became a radical art icon

The artist who was inspired by Swiss glaciers, the Vietnam war and her own divorce was sidelined from St Ives’ art history – but finally has a major retrospective at Tate At the centre of Tate St Ives’ newly opened retrospective of the British modernist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, her monumental altar-piece Glacier (Blue Cave) pulls viewers into its frozen tendons of turquoise and white. Its mouth is agape and the blue slit of its eye casts downwards to the rest of its body. The glacier feels human: a vivisection of rock, ice and snow that brings to mind the fragmented facial features of Picasso’

The Guardian
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Entertainment

‘Sad lost souls’: Taika Waititi lambasts critics after Klara and the Sun box-office disaster

The Jojo Rabbit director blamed the dismal numbers for his film of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel on ‘obsolete’ reviewers’ notices, adding that he works ‘for the people’ – whose Rotten Tomatoes ratings are much higher Taika Waititi has launched a furious broadside at “critics” following the disastrous commercial performance of Klara and the Sun, his new film adapted from a Kazuo Ishiguro novel. In a post on social media, Waititi wrote: “This Halloween, let’s spare a thought for those sad lost souls who couldn’t achieve their dreams of becoming artists, and thus settled, and became critics.” Continue r

The Guardian
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Entertainment

Steve Ellis, frontman of Everlasting Love hitmakers Love Affair, dies aged 76

Singer hit No 1 with pop-rock band in 1968 and scored three more Top 10 hits with them, before solo career featuring collaborations with Paul Weller Steve Ellis, the singer who found fame as the frontman of 60s pop-rockers Love Affair, has died aged 76. A message on social media announced that Ellis died “peacefully” on 30 October, after “complications from a chronic illness”. With his stirring, heartfelt croon, Ellis gave voice to one of the most enduring hits of the 1960s: Everlasting Love, which topped the UK chart in 1968. Continue reading...

The Guardian
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Entertainment

‘It still preys on my mind’: readers on their scariest non-horror movies

After Guardian writers picked their choices for Halloween, readers have responded with films that send chills down their spines – from Never Let Me Go to The Truman Show The murder of the taxi driver is utterly excruciating and the hanging at the end equally so. Both are shown in full, in close up and in real time. The condemned man’s last cigarette is smoked in full. The unease (to put it mildly) of the audience was palpable. Wiscot Continue reading...

The Guardian
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Entertainment

John Leeson, voice behind Doctor Who’s K9, dies at 83

Actor, who appeared in Dad’s Army and Rainbow, remembered as ‘true gent’ by TV producer Russell T Davies John Leeson, the actor best known as the voice of K9, the robot dog in Doctor Who, has died at 83. Leeson’s son, Guy Ducker, shared the news on Facebook. He wrote: “I regret to announce the death of my father … after a summer of illness. The end was peaceful.” Continue reading...

The Guardian
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