Keaton was best known for her roles in Annie Hall, Reds and The Godfather films.
Published On 11 Oct 202511 Oct 2025
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American actress Diane Keaton, known for her Oscar-winning performance in 1977’s Annie Hall and her role in The Godfather films, has died at the age of 79.
Keaton died in California and her loved ones have asked for privacy, a family spokesperson told People magazine on Saturday.
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Keaton, who appeared in more than 60 films, stood out in Hollywood with a personal style that favoured androgynous looks: suits, turtleneck sweaters and her trademark hats.
The actress shot to fame in the 1970s with her role as Kay Adams, the girlfriend and eventual wife of Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone in The Godfather trilogy as well as her collaborations with director Woody Allen.
Keaton frequently worked with Allen, portraying the titular character in Annie Hall, the charming girlfriend of Allen’s comic Alvy Singer.
“It was an idealised version of me, let’s put it that way,” Keaton said about the film in an interview with the United States TV network CBS News in 2004.
The film also garnered Oscars for best picture, best director and best original screenplay, cementing Keaton’s place as one of the industry’s top actresses and an offbeat style icon as well.
She made a total of eight films with Allen, including 1979’s Manhattan.
Her star-making performances in the 1970s were not a flash in the pan as she would continue to charm new generations for decades, thanks in part to a longstanding collaboration with filmmaker Nancy Meyers, with whom she made four films.
A BAFTA and Golden Globe winner, Keaton scored Oscar nominations three other times for best actress for Reds, Marvin’s Room and Something’s Gotta Give.
Her many beloved films included The First Wives Club, Father of the Bride, The Family Stone and the Book Club movies.
Born Diane Hall in Los Angeles on January 5, 1946, Keaton was romantically involved with Allen, Pacino and Warren Beatty (her Reds costar), but she never married.
“I think I was really afraid of men and also very attracted to extremely talented people that were dazzling,” she told Elle magazine in 2015. “I don’t think that makes for a good marriage with a person like me, someone who just didn’t adjust well.”
Keaton is survived by her two children, Dexter and Duke, whom she adopted in her 50s.
Showgirl breaks Spotify records as Taylor Swift’s most pre-saved album, highlighting her enduring popularity.
Published On 3 Oct 20253 Oct 2025
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Taylor Swift has dropped her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, and already, it is the most pre-saved album ever on the Spotify streaming platform.
Showgirl even broke the record set last year by none other than Swift’s last album, The Tortured Poets Department.
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The 35-year-old artist reunited with Swedish hitmakers Max Martin and Shellback for her hotly anticipated collection of bouncy pop songs.
“Tonight all these lives converge here, the mosaics of laughter and cocktails of tears … I can’t tell you how proud I am to share this with you, an album that just feels so right,” Swift posted on Instagram after the album’s release, along with photos of her in showgirl outfits.
The megastar described the album as a “self-portrait” and thanked Martin and Shellback, adding: “If you thought the big show was wild, perhaps you should come and take a look behind the curtain,” referring to her record-shattering Eras Tour.
The 12 tracks reveal a lighter, happier Swift – in love with her NFL Super Bowl champion fiance, Travis Kelce, and happy to have bought back her music catalogue.
Ahead of release, Swift said the new album “comes from the most infectiously joyful, wild, dramatic place I was in in my life”.
Fans will be combing through the lyrics and liner notes for “Easter eggs” – coded words and phrases that could reveal things about Swift’s life or future projects.
United States television host Jimmy Kimmel’s live show was pulled off the air by Disney-owned ABC after he made comments about conservative influencer Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot last week in what has been deemed by right-wingers in the US a political assassination.
But critics claim Kimmel’s removal is a violation of his free speech rights, which are enshrined under the US Constitution’s First Amendment.
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On Thursday, hundreds of Kimmel fans gathered on the streets in Burbank, New York and Hollywood, protesting the removal of his show.
Here is a closer look at what happened and what the US Constitution says about free speech rights.
What happened to Jimmy Kimmel?
Conservative influencer Charlie Kirk was shot and killed in front of a crowd of about 3,000 people on September 10 while he was speaking at a university event in Utah.
After a 33-hour manhunt, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson was arrested on suspicion of killing Kirk. Robinson has since been charged with aggravated murder.
Some right-wing figures, affiliated with US President Donald Trump’s MAGA (Make America Great Again) wing, have described Robinson as “left-wing”.
On Monday, Kimmel said on his show: “The MAGA gang (is) desperately trying to characterise this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
Kimmel continued, criticising the response by Trump – who described Kirk as being “like a son” – to his death. “This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he calls a friend. This is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish,” Kimmel said.
Following a backlash, broadcasters Nexstar and Sinclair said they would pull Kimmel’s late-night show from their affiliated stations.
Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), also said he had a strong case for taking legal action against Kimmel, Disney and ABC.
Anna Gomez, the only Democrat on the FCC, criticised Carr’s response in an interview with CNN. “This administration is increasingly using the weight of government power to suppress lawful expression,” Gomez said.
The FCC has the authority to grant licences to broadcasters, including ABC and its affiliated stations.
Democratic critics have said that pulling his show off the air is an infringement of Kimmel’s right to free speech, as guaranteed by the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
What does the First Amendment say?
The First Amendment protects free speech from government interference. It states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
In 1963, the US Supreme Court issued a key ruling that the government cannot create a “system of informal censorship” by putting pressure on private companies.
This was issued after a Rhode Island agency had threatened to prosecute book and magazine distributors for selling publications it considered objectionable.
Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that, in such situations, plaintiffs must demonstrate that the government’s actions exceeded allowable persuasion and directly caused them harm.
Was the removal of Kimmel’s show unconstitutional?
Experts say Kimmel’s show being pulled is unconstitutional since it infringes the free speech rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.
Ronnie London, a general counsel with free speech advocacy group Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, told PolitiFact that Carr’s actions are “a classic case of unconstitutional jawboning”, which means improperly using government threats to pursue policy goals.
“The FCC has long held that ‘the public interest is best served by permitting free expression of views,’” the FCC says on its website.
“Rather than suppress speech, communications law and policy seek to encourage responsive ‘counter-speech’ from others. Following this principle ensures that the most diverse and opposing opinions will be expressed, even though some views or expressions may be highly offensive.”
How have people reacted to Kimmel’s removal?
Many Democrats, politicians, Hollywood stars and fellow talk-show hosts have stressed the importance of protecting free speech rights.
Former US President Barack Obama shared a series of articles and commentary on X on Friday, saying: “This commentary offers a clear, powerful statement of why freedom of speech is at the heart of democracy and must be defended, whether the speaker is Charlie Kirk or Jimmy Kimmel, MAGA supporters or MAGA opponents.”
This commentary offers a clear, powerful statement of why freedom of speech is at the heart of democracy and must be defended, whether the speaker is Charlie Kirk or Jimmy Kimmel, MAGA supporters or MAGA opponents.
In another post, Obama wrote: “This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent – and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating to it.”
Former late-night host David Letterman said during an event in New York on Thursday: “I feel bad about this, because we all see where this is going, correct? It’s managed media. It’s no good. It’s silly. It’s ridiculous.”
Ken Martin, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement: “The state under Donald Trump has amassed a chilling record of restricting speech, extorting private companies, and dropping the full weight of the government censorship hammer on First Amendment rights.”
Democratic California Senator Adam Schiff posted on X on Thursday: “This administration is responsible for the most blatant attacks on the free press in American history. What will be left of the First Amendment?”
By contrast, the suspension of Kimmel’s show has drawn celebration from the political right.
“Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible. That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC,” Trump continued, referring to late-night show hosts Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers.
Conservative podcaster Megyn Kelly wrote on X on Thursday: “I’m not sure who needs to hear this but Jimmy Kimmel got on the air and falsely stated as a fact that Charlie Kirk’s killer was MAGA, smearing an entire movement and Trump in particular with a vile disgusting lie.”
United States President Donald Trump appears to be relishing in the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel after the late-night comedian’s popular talk show was taken off air over comments he made about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
“He made a total FOOL of himself,” President Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Thursday evening, reposting a clip from last year’s Academy Awards in which Kimmel spontaneously took aim at the US leader.
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Earlier in the day, Trump said Kimmel was fired because he said a “horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk”.
Trump told reporters on his return from visiting the United Kingdom that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) – which regulates all broadcasts in the US – should consider removing the licences of broadcasters who “hit Trump”.
“I would think maybe their licence should be taken away,” Trump said, though federal law prohibits the FCC from revoking a broadcaster’s licence for negative coverage or speech disliked by the government.
“It will be up to [FCC Chair] Brendan Carr,” Trump added.
The Disney-owned ABC network removed the Jimmy Kimmel Live show from programming indefinitely on Wednesday after an opening monologue by Kimmel in which he said “the MAGA gang” was trying to “score political points” from Kirk’s death.
Disney made the move after the FCC’s Carr – a Trump appointee – appeared to imply on a right-wing podcast that Kimmel’s remarks had put Disney’s licence in jeopardy.
“This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney,” Carr said.
“They have a licence granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest.”
Brendan Carr, then commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, testifies in a 2020 US Senate oversight hearing [File: Jonathan Newton/Reuters]
Kimmel was due to meet with three Disney network executives to discuss the fate of his show, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.
The comedian is the latest in a growing list of media figures, journalists and news organisations to face Trump’s wrath in the form of lawsuits and personal vendettas.
In July, CBS said The Late Show with Stephen Colbert would go off air in 2026, days after Colbert criticised CBS’s parent company Paramount for a $16m settlement in a case with Trump.
ABC News also agreed to pay $15m over inaccurate on-air comments made by an anchor that Trump had been found “liable for raping” writer E Jean Carroll. Trump had, in fact, been found liable for sexual abuse. More recently, Trump is bringing a multibillion-dollar lawsuit against The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal for their coverage of his relationship with high-flying financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In another Truth Social post on Wednesday, Trump seemed to suggest further suspensions of late-night comedians, namely two popular NBC hosts.
“That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC,” the president said, referring to Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers.
“Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!!”
Democratic Party lawmakers are now pushing to pass a new bill, called the No Political Enemies Act, which they in part credited to Kimmel’s suspension.
The bill aims to deter officials from retaliating against free speech and provides tools for those targeted by the government, according to a legislative summary, though it is unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled Congress.
Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has also called for Carr’s resignation from the FCC in a social media post on Thursday, before railing against the Trump administration in a news conference announcing the bill.
“First, let’s be very clear: Political violence has no place in America,” Schumer said.
“But let’s also be clear: The Trump administration campaign of threats against civil society and free speech … is an assault on everything this country has stood for since the Constitution was signed,” Schumer said.
“There’s an assault on democracy coming out of the White House and their allies, and we see more evidence of it every day,” he said.
Disney-owned ABC has pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live off the air indefinitely after the host caused controversy with remarks about Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer.
“Jimmy Kimmel Live will be preempted indefinitely,” an ABC spokesperson said, declining to share any further details.
Prosecutors have charged 22-year-old Tyler Robinson with Kirk’s murder. Robinson is accused of having shot and killed Kirk while the conservative activist was speaking at Utah Valley University on September 10. Robinson surrendered after a two-day manhunt.
Here’s what Kimmel said that led to outrage among conservatives, and what the ABC and others have said since:
What happened?
In his opening monologue on Monday, Kimmel, a vocal critic of US President Donald Trump, accused “the MAGA gang” of trying to “score political points” from Kirk’s murder, saying they were quick to blame the left before much was known about the shooter’s motives. MAGA, or “Make America Great Again”, is the right-wing political movement that forms Trump’s base.
“The MAGA gang (is) desperately trying to characterise this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said on his show. “In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving,” he added.
He continued to criticise Trump’s reaction to the shooting.
“This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he calls a friend. This is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish,” Kimmel added.
The remarks angered conservatives and triggered pushback from the Trump administration.
Brian Kilmeade can keep his job after saying we should kill the homeless, but Jimmy Kimmel gets suspended for this? pic.twitter.com/now6OJqQ8r
“What he said on Monday was he suggested the suspected shooter of Charlie Kirk was a pro-Trump Republican,” Al Jazeera’s Heidi Zhou-Castro noted, adding that Kimmel spoke before authorities released text messages showing the suspected killer was actually politically opposed to Kirk.
The next day, Robinson appeared in court, charged with aggravated murder. A precise motive remains unclear, but in court documents, prosecutors have cited his relatives telling them that he had veered to the left politically in recent years, and thought Kirk was full of hate.
In text messages to his flatmate and romantic partner after Kirk’s assassination, Robinson said: “I had enough of his hatred.” Then, in a separate message, he added: “Some hate can’t be negotiated out.”
Yet Kimmel returned to the topic on Tuesday night, where he accused Trump of “fanning the flames” by attacking people on the left. The Trump administration has said it will crack down on left-wing groups, whom it accuses of ratcheting up hate against conservatives. On Wednesday, Trump also said that he planned to designate the Antifa left-wing political movement a “terrorist” organisation.
Brendan Carr, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), told right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson on Wednesday that he had a strong case for taking action against Kimmel, ABC and Disney. The FCC is responsible for granting licences to broadcasters such as the ABC and its affiliates.
“This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney,” Carr said. “They have a licence granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest.”
According to a Bloomberg report, quoting sources, Kimmel had planned to address the backlash on his show on Wednesday and rehearsed it that morning.
Carr also urged media companies that own local television stations to “push back”.
Signs read Jimmy Kimmel Live at the El Capitan Entertainment Centre, where the show is recorded for broadcast, on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles [Daniel Cole/Reuters]
What was the fallout?
Nexstar, which owns several ABC affiliates, appeared to follow that call, announcing it would drop Jimmy Kimmel Live from its affiliates even before ABC itself confirmed the suspension.
The company said on Wednesday it would not air the show “for the foreseeable future, beginning with tonight’s show”.
Kimmel’s remarks about Kirk were “offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse,” Nexstar added.
Carr expressed approval for Nexstar’s decision, thanking them “for doing the right thing”.
Nexstar, which describes itself as the country’s largest local television and media company, needs FCC approval for its $6.2bn deal to acquire smaller rival Tegna.
I want to thank Nexstar for doing the right thing.
Local broadcasters have an obligation to serve the public interest. While this may be an unprecedented decision, it is important for broadcasters to push back on Disney programming that they determine falls short of community… https://t.co/Px5boYbqNR
Trump described it as “great news for America” shortly after ABC revealed Kimmel had been suspended.
“The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED. Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done,” Trump said.
He then criticised two other late-night hosts, Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, who he described as “two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible.”
JD Vance, the US vice president, earlier this week urged Americans to turn in fellow citizens who mocked the assassination.
In July, after CBS cancelled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Trump said: “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert!”
CBS said the ‘Late Show’ was dropped for financial reasons but its timing, three days after Colbert blasted a settlement between Trump and CBS parent company Paramount, led two senators to question whether politics were at play.
“Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED. Congratulations to @ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done…” – President Donald J. Trump pic.twitter.com/Vhj6DQSssu
Jimmy Kimmel is among the most recognisable figures in US late-night television. He has hosted Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC since 2003, making him one of the longest-serving talk-show hosts still on air.
Before breaking into television, Kimmel built his career in radio, working as a host in Seattle, Tampa, and Tucson before eventually moving to Los Angeles, where he transitioned into TV.
Over the years, Kimmel has become known for his monologues, celebrity interviews and viral comedy segments. He has also taken on a more political edge in recent years, frequently criticising Trump and weighing in on social debates.
Kimmel has also hosted Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, which won him an Emmy, and big live events like the Oscars.
In recent years, according to reports, Kimmel has scaled back his workload, often taking summers off from the show. His current contract with ABC is set to expire in less than a year, raising questions about whether he will extend his run or step away after two decades on air.
When his contract extension was announced, he joked, “After two decades at ABC, I am now looking forward to three years of what they call ‘quiet quitting.’”
Jimmy Kimmel poses in the press room with the award for host of a game show for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire [File: Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP]
How popular was his show?
Late-night viewership, like much of traditional television, has been declining as audiences migrate to streaming platforms and social media.
According to Nielsen, a United States media audience measurement firm, Jimmy Kimmel Live drew an average of 1.57 million viewers per episode during the broadcast season that ended in May.
During the same period, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert led the field, averaging 1.9 million viewers.
The US Television Database showed Jimmy Kimmel Live attracting about 1.1 million viewers per episode – a 0.35 percent rating, down 11 percent from the previous month – based on audience measurements for the period ending August 31, 2025.
US President Joe Biden speaks with host Jimmy Kimmel during the taping of Jimmy Kimmel Live, as Biden visits the city for the ninth Summit of the Americas, in Los Angeles [File: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters]
Webtoon shares surged after an expanded tie-up with Disney. Here’s what you need to know.
Shares of Webtoon Entertainment(WBTN 39.17%) skyrocketed on Tuesday, peaking with a 42.5% one-day gain just after noon ET. The company just expanded its partnership with Walt Disney(DIS -0.25%), significantly boosting the business value of the Webtoon digital comics platform.
Image source: Getty Images.
Disney is back with a bigger deal
About a month ago, on Aug. 12, Webtoon struck up an agreement with the House of Mouse. That deal involved about 100 hand-picked comics from the worlds of Star Wars, Spider-Man, Avengers, Alien, and the core Disney storytelling brand. Investors were quick to embrace that announcement, which is easy to find on Webtoon’s three-month stock chart.
Today’s Disney deal builds on the earlier contract. Now, the two companies are working up a much broader digital comics presentation with more than 35,000 titles from Disney’s comic-book worlds. Many of these stories have not been available in digital form before, and Disney will develop a few entirely original titles for this platform.
Webtoon’s content catalog just got a Hulk-sized adrenaline shot. At the same time, a ton of rarely seen Disney content should find new fans on this new platform. The Webtoon format is already familiar to millions of younger consumers.
What the stock surge means for investors
Together, the two Disney announcements have more than doubled Webtoon’s stock price in less than five weeks. The total gain adds up to 117% as of this writing.
Many small companies would react to this kind of surge by issuing new shares, essentially shoveling cash from new investors to the company’s coffers. But Webtoon is an independently managed, California-based subsidiary of South Korean internet services giant Naver. A large stock offering would undermine the parent company’s voting power. Therefore, the Naver backing should protect Webtoon shareholders against costly share dilution. It’s no guarantee, but I don’t expect Naver to lessen its power in the Webtoon boardroom.
As for the Disney/Webtoon pairing, it remains to be seen how quickly this business can get going. Webtoon is still developing the mobile app and back-end infrastructure to support this project, with no firm release date in the books yet. At the same time, launching should be easy with Naver’s massive data centers and Disney’s marketing muscle.
So it’s a speculative jump, but backed by a plethora of big-name assets. I’m keeping an eye on this 20-year-old digital media upstart, waiting for Disney’s fireworks to start before putting cash into this stock. There’s so much the two partners aren’t saying about financial agreements and expected profits.
British boxing icon Ricky Hatton has died at 46, sparking tributes from across sport.
Published On 14 Sep 202514 Sep 2025
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Former boxing world champion Ricky Hatton has died aged 46, Greater Manchester Police in the United Kingdom have confirmed.
Hatton, who was known to fans as “the Hitman”, was discovered at his home in Hyde, near Manchester, early on Sunday morning. Police said: “Officers were called by a member of the public to attend Bowlacre Road, Hyde, Tameside, at 6:45am [05:45 GMT] today where they found the body of a 46-year-old man. There are not currently believed to be any suspicious circumstances.”
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The Manchester-born fighter became one of Britain’s most celebrated boxers, winning world titles at light-welterweight and welterweight. During a 15-year professional career, he secured 45 wins from 48 bouts before retiring in 2012.
Hatton’s death prompted an outpouring of tributes from the sporting world.
Former England and Manchester United midfielder David Beckham posted on Instagram: “Ricky was one of a kind. Just heartbreaking.” Heavyweight champion Tyson Fury wrote: “RIP to the legend Ricky Hatton. There will only ever be one Ricky Hatton. Can’t believe this – so young.”
Football figures also paid respect to the lifelong Manchester City supporter. Before City’s Premier League match against Manchester United on Sunday, the Etihad Stadium held a minute’s applause, with fans chanting his name.
City manager Pep Guardiola described him as “a true champion” and “part of the Man City family”. Wayne Rooney, who once carried Hatton’s belts into the ring, said on X that he was “devastated”, calling him “a legend, a warrior and a great person”.
Hatton’s career featured memorable victories over Kostya Tszyu and Jose Luis Castillo, while his only defeats came against boxing greats Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.
In recent years, Hatton remained close to the sport. He attempted a comeback in 2012, fought in an exhibition with Marco Antonio Barrera in 2022, and earlier this year announced plans to face Eisa Al Dah in Dubai. He also spoke openly about his battles with depression and featured in the 2023 documentary Hatton, which explored his personal struggles and mental health.
Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS says it would not take part in next year’s competition given the ‘severe human suffering in Gaza’.
Published On 12 Sep 202512 Sep 2025
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The Netherlands has announced it will boycott the 2026 Eurovision in Vienna if Israel participates, joining other European countries that have threatened to withdraw from the song contest over Israel’s war on Gaza.
Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS, one of dozens of public broadcasters that collectively fund and broadcast the contest, on Friday said it would not take part in next year’s competition in Vienna if Israel participates, “given the ongoing and severe human suffering in Gaza”.
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“The broadcaster also expresses deep concern about the serious erosion of press freedom: the deliberate exclusion of independent international reporting and the many casualties among journalists,” it said in a statement.
Irish broadcaster RTE released a similar statement on Thursday, saying participating would be “unconscionable” as a result of Israel’s war on Gaza. Iceland said it may withdraw from the contest, and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has called for Israel to be booted from the competition.
AVROTROS said it had also taken into account the high number of journalists who have died in Gaza.
The European Broadcasting Union, which runs the contest, said it was consulting its members on how to “manage participation and geopolitical tensions” around the contest and would give them until mid-December to decide if they want to participate.
“We understand the concerns and deeply held views around the ongoing conflict in the Middle East,” said Martin Green, director of Eurovision. “It is up to each member to decide if they want to take part in the contest, and we would respect any decision broadcasters make.”
The organisation said in July it was launching a consultation with all members of the EEBU, which organises the song contest over the issue.
The Dutch broadcaster said it will continue preparing for the contest — which was watched by 166 million people on television this year — until it receives a decision from organisers about whether it will include Israel.
Calls to boycott Israel grow
The boycott threat is part of a campaign by arts organisations and figures to pressure Israel to end its war on Gaza.
Earlier this week, Hollywood stars including Emma Stone, Ayo Edebiri, Ava DuVernay and Olivia Colman joined 3,000 other industry figures in signing a pledge to boycott Israeli film institutions “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people,” according to the group Film Workers for Palestine.
Russia has been banned from Eurovision since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but Israel has continued to compete in the past two years despite disputes over its participation.
Dozens of former participants, including 2024 winner Nemo of Switzerland, have called for Israel to be excluded over its conduct in Gaza. Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel protests took place around this year’s contest in Basel, Switzerland, though on a much smaller scale than the 2024 event in Sweden.
Eurovision’s finale is scheduled for May 16 after semifinals on May 12 and 14, 2026.
Tell someone about “The Cortège,” and it may inspire as much apprehension as it does curiosity.
A theatrical procession running this month at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center, “The Cortège” promises to explore grief, loss, mourning and our collective disconnection from one another. It’s a dramatic interpretation of a funeral, albeit one with jubilant street-inspired dance and a Sasquatch-like creature. And robots and drones.
I arrived at “The Cortège” just weeks removed from attending a very real, deeply personal funeral for my mother. Did I want to revisit that space as part of my weekend’s entertainment, and would the show inspire a new round of tears? The answer to both turned out to be yes.
“The Cortège” is alternately playful and serious as it explores the cycle of life.
(Emil Ravelo / For The Times)
For “The Cortège” approaches a difficult subject matter with an imaginative question: What if we explore grief not with isolation or solemness, but with wonder? It’s a prompt that’s ripe for an era of divisive politics, financial stress and often isolating technology.
Beginning at twilight and extending into the evening, “The Cortège” starts with an overture, a six-piece band performing in the center of the field. We’re seated either on the grass on portable pads with backs or in folding chairs on an elevated platform.
Soon, a mist erupts on a far end of the field; a lone figure emerges who crawls and then walks to the center. He’ll move in place for much of the show, remaining silent as a fantastical life transpires around him — dancers, ornately costumed characters and larger-than-life puppets will surreally reflect the journey of life.
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Inspired as much by Walt Disney’s approach to fairy tales as, say, Carl Jung’s theories of collective consciousness, “The Cortège” is a revival of an ancient art — the procession — that aims to be a modern rite of passage. A ritual, “The Cortège” is a communal experience, one that seeks to erase borders between audience and performer while imagining a more optimistic world.
Think of it as theater as a healing exercise, or simply an abstracted evening with elaborate, vibrant costumes and choreographed drones creating new constellations in the sky. It’s also a bit of a dance party, with original music composed by Tokimonsta, El Búho and Boreta.
““The Cortège” builds to a final that invites audience participation — and maybe a little dancing.
(Emil Ravelo / For The Times)
“The Cortège” comes from Jeff Hull, a Bay Area artist best known for devising participatory and mysterious experiences that have used real-world settings as a game board — some may recall the beloved underground experiment “The Jejune Institute.” This, however, is a more personal show. It’s informed as much by the struggles and challenges of adulthood as it is the awe and playfulness that Hull experienced when he was younger, specifically his time working as a teen at Oakland’s Children’s Fairyland, a theme park-like playground for young kids.
“Every day I would follow the yellow brick road and have a magic key and slide down a rabbit hole, and I would wonder why the rest of the world wasn’t like that,” Hull says. “I’ve been trying to make it like that ever since. Why can’t we play? Why does it all have to be barriers? That’s the motivation from a childlike place, but now I also have motivation from a wise elder space.”
In turn, “The Cortège” is part festive renewal and part philosophical recollection. At the start, music is mournful but not quite sorrowful, a lightly contemplative jazz-inspired feel anchored by a steel hang drum. The music shifts through reggae stylings and Eastern rhythms. Performers are robed and instruments are carried on ramshackle wheelbarrows, setting up the transitory mood of the night.
What follows will touch on religious and mystical iconography — we’ll meet three lantern-carrying masked figures, for instance, with exaggerated, regal adornments as they herald a birth. Expect a mixture of old and new technologies. Drones will form to mark a passage of eras, a marching band will conjure New Orleans revelry, and towering, furry creatures may invite youthful spiritedness while militant, robotic canines will represent clashing images of human ingenuity and violence.
Think of “The Cortège” as a ceremonial rite of passage — a show that wants audiences to find healing via community.
(Emil Ravelo / For The Times)
For much of the show, we are asked to wear glowing headphones. Their luminescence highlights the crowd while also creating a more intimate, reflective atmosphere. It’s not quite a sound bath and it’s not quite a play, but as more figures enter the field — some haunting and dreamlike with their bodies shaped like arrowheads, and others sillier bursts of feathered color — “The Cortège” takes on a ceremonial, meditative feel.
While some may indeed come for the outsized costumes and extended dance sequences, Hull says the show is the entertainment equivalent of “shadow work,” that is the therapeutic uncovering of suppressed, forgotten or hidden memories.
“Shadow work is something we need to do as individuals, but it’s also something we need to do as a culture,” Hull says. “Let’s look at ourselves. Let’s look at what we don’t want to admit about ourselves. How can we bring that to life? When you do it as an individual, we’re actually partly doing something for the collective. That’s a big aspect of ‘The Cortège.’ Let’s do shadow work as a cultural moment. It’s not all just meant to be entertainment.”
Audiences are asked to wear headphones during “The Cortège,” creating an intimate relationship with the music.
(Emil Ravelo / For The Times)
Ultimately, however, “The Cortège” is an invitation, a hand extended to the audience asking us to consider and reimagine our own journey through life. Emerging from both the traumatic end of a relationship and the death of my mother, I appreciated the way in which “The Cortège” sought to put our existence in perspective, to reinterpret, essentially, the individual as the communal for a celebratory reminder that we’ve all struggled as much as we’ve dreamed.
Hull says “The Cortège” was born from a time of strife.
“What you mentioned, losing a loved one and going through a separation, my version of that is I had Guillain-Barre Syndrome and was walking with a cane. My wife was diagnosed with cancer and then she lost her father. And this was all during a time when the sun didn’t come out. It was dark out, all day, because of the California wildfires. It was a shift between taking everything personally and realizing that all the things I mentioned were things we all have to go through.”
The show is purposefully abstracted, says Hull, to allow audience members to attach their own narratives. It’s a work of pageantry, inspired in part by Hull’s fascination with medieval morality plays, specifically the story of “Everyman,” an examination of self and of our relationship to a higher power.
“The tale of ‘Everyman’ was one in which a universal protagonist met with all of the challenges of life and a reckoning with himself and with God,” Hull says. “That’s literally what we’re doing here. It is a revival of ancient European pageantry.”
Drones will form constellations in the sky during “The Cortège.”
(Emil Ravelo / For The Times)
Hull’s name is well-known among those who follow what is the still-emerging niche of so-called immersive entertainment, media that, broadly speaking, asks participants to take on an interactive role. Those who went deep into “The Jejune Institute,” which ran in the late 2000s in San Francisco and inspired a documentary as well as the AMC series “Dispatches from Elsewhere,” could discover a narrative that examined the fragility — or the allure — of human belief systems. It was often, for instance, compared to a cult.
“The Cortège” is clearly a departure. And Hull today is skeptical of the word “immersive.” Though “The Cortege” invites audiences onto the field in its final act and then asks participants to join in a reception (the afterlife), Hull finds much of what is classified today as immersive to be lacking, emphasizing spectacle and imagery over human emotion.
“The Cortège,” says Hull, is “not a metafiction.” Or don’t think of it as a show about a rite of passage. It’s intended to be a rite of passage itself. “That’s kind of the thesis of this piece,” Hull, 56, says, before expanding on his evolved take on the immersive field.
“There’s this world of immersive entertainment, but what are we immersing ourselves in?” he says. “Is this just sensory stimulation? Is this gesturing at the numinous? Is this referencing the mystical? There’s no meta-narrative here.”
Hull’s hope is “The Cortège” will erase the line between the performative and the restorative. “We all want to have a pretend metafictional relationship to transformative experiences rather than genuine transformative experiences,” he says.
Not quite a play and not quite a dance show, “The Cortège” incorporates elements of both during its procession.
(Emil Ravelo / For The Times)
We can get there, Hull believes, by engaging with an art form that has largely been discarded by the Western world.
“We are reconnecting a lost lineage to that which is ancient and to that which is eternal,” Hull says. “A procession is people walking together; that is simply what a procession is. Where are they walking from? They’re walking from their past. Where are they walking to? They’re walking toward the future. That’s what we’re doing.”
I won’t spoil the moment that made me tear up other than to say it was not due to the jolting of any memories. For “The Cortège” is also exultant — a procession, yes, but a walk into an imagined world.
The world’s largest sports pirating site, Streameast, is no more.
The illegal streaming giant was terminated in Egypt after a sting operation, according to the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, one of the country’s largest antipiracy coalitions. Egyptian law enforcement and ACE shut down the service Aug. 24 following a yearlong investigation.
Streameast had 80 associated domains and amassed more than 1.6 billion visits during the past year. It offered access to sports’ biggest events, including Europe’s football championships, the NFL, NBA, MLB, pay-per-view boxing and F1 races. It garnered an average of 136 million monthly visitors, primarily based in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., the Philippines and Germany.
“With this landmark action, we have put more points on the board for sports leagues, entertainment companies, and fans worldwide — and our global alliance will stay on the field as long as it takes to identify and target the biggest piracy rings across the globe,” said Charles Rivkin, chairman of ACE and head of the Motion Picture Assn., in a press release.
Two men were arrested about 20 miles outside of Cairo under suspicion of copyright infringement. Authorities confiscated devices, including laptops and smartphones thought to be operating the site, cash and several credit cards. Investigators also identified a shell company possibly used to launder the advertising revenue, which totaled to around $6.2 million, and an investment of $200,000 in cryptocurrency. Several properties in Egypt were also allegedly purchased with these funds.
In addition to working with local Egyptian authorities, ACE’s investigation was aided by Europol, the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Centre, according to the Athletic’s reporting.
All sites previously associated with Streameast will be redirected to ACE’s “watch legally” page, which provides links to authorized streaming video providers. This announcement comes a day before the NFL’s regular season kicks off.
In the waning days of the 1960s, when Don Sutton was starting his Hall of Fame career and Don Drysdale was finishing his, kids all over the Southland could turn on Channel 9 and catch a block of cartoons. “Speed Racer” came on first, followed by “Ultraman”.
In the lore: “A 130-foot tall red and silver giant of light, Ultraman came to Earth from another galaxy to protect humanity from invading aliens and giant monsters.”
Fortunately, the meet-and-greet version of Ultraman that showed up at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday was about 6 feet tall. I dropped by to say hello, although I had been warned he did not converse with humans.
“He’ll look at you quizzically, but also with endearment, knowing you are a little carbon-based unit that would like to become his friend,” said David Kornblum, president of Tsuburaya Fields Media and Pictures Entertainment.
Ultraman turns 60 next year. Kornblum is based in Los Angeles, and his job is to take what his Tokyo-based company calls “Japan’s most beloved superhero” and revive his popularity in the United States. This fall, you’ll be able to stream new and classic episodes of Ultraman.
It’s not just that Shohei Ohtani is more popular than Ultraman in Japan these days. If you’re a Japanese company wanting to get the word out in America about your product, you’re in good company at Dodger Stadium.
“With the Dodgers, you’ve got a 50,000-seat stadium basically sold out for 80 games a year,” Kornblum said. “It’s a natural in terms of having exposure for this character in this market, the second-largest market in the country.
“You have the opportunity to showcase your character with the most popular team.”
The “Shohei economy,” as one team official dubbed it last year, has taken on a new dimension.
Japanese fans flock to Dodger Stadium, of course, taking stadium tours conducted in Japanese, enjoying a variety of national delicacies at concession stands and clutching shopping bags packed with hundreds — and sometimes thousands — of dollars’ worth of Ohtani merchandise.
And, of the 24 corporations with advertising space between the foul poles at Dodger Stadium as of Tuesday, eight are based in Asia.
What’s new: With Ohtani as a global attraction, Japanese entertainment companies have used Dodger Stadium as a platform to popularize their star attractions.
“There is not a business sector that hasn’t weighed in with us,” Dodgers president Stan Kasten said, noting the Dodgers’ league-leading attendance and global viewership. “We are an entertainment venue. We’re a place to go to get attention.
“If you’re a brand looking for attention, where else would you go?”
With each deal, Ohtani’s contract becomes even more magical for the Dodgers. Never mind, for the moment, the sponsorships with Asian airlines, retailers, beverage companies, and so on.
With four Japanese character appearances at Dodger Stadium this season, the Dodgers have made more than the $2 million they pay Ohtani in salary this year. (The other $68 million is deferred.)
And, as the entertainment companies reach customers in the United States, the Dodgers reach fans in Japan, where they have leveraged Ohtani to become the dominant major league team.
The Dodgers launched a fan club there this year. Kasten said they hope to expand their marketing presence there as Major League Baseball considers relaxing rules under which the league itself — rather than individual teams — typically controls international business ventures.
“FC Barcelona told me they have 300 million fans around the world,” Kasten said. “That’s a good role model.”
When Tokyo’s Cover Corp. opened a Los Angeles office last year, they brought their star animated character — Gawr Gura — to Dodger Stadium.
“The fact that we could say we had a collaboration with the Dodgers, that is helpful to show we are that level of a brand,” said Motoaki Tanigo, the chief executive of Cover. “That was helpful to us, to introduce ourselves.”
The Dodgers sold 8,000 tickets as part of the Cover promotion, the company said and the team confirmed, with 80% of those fans visiting Dodger Stadium for the first time, and with many showing up super early to snap up commemorative merchandise. Cover staged a larger ballpark promotion this year.
Ultraman takes down Alien Baltan before before the ceremonial first pitch on Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
Ultraman brought no merchandise with him, but he did bring an evil nemesis, who tried to steal the show during the ceremonial first pitch. If the point was to identify the evil nemesis called a kaiju for an unfamiliar audience, I suggested the company dress him in a Padres uniform.
“Or in a Giants uniform,” Kornblum said. “I would love if they would allow us to have a full smackdown, with a kaiju in a Giants jersey vs. Ultraman in a Dodgers jersey.
“A beatdown at home plate would be fun. But the corporate guys won’t let me do that.”
The streaming video giant on Monday announced when it will open its first shopping, dining and entertainment complexes to the public.
The Los Gatos, Calif.-based company will open its first Netflix House in the Philadelphia area on Nov. 12. The company’s Philadelphia area location is located at King of Prussia shopping center, while its second Netflix House at Galleria Dallas will open on Dec. 11. A third location in Las Vegas will open in 2027.
The more than 100,000 square-foot space will offer fan experiences, merchandise and food inspired by Netflix content, in an effort to capitalize on its popular shows, movies and franchises.
For example, fans will be able to take selfies with Queen Charlotte, see screenings of “KPop Demon Hunters” and enjoy Netflix-themed food and cocktails, the company said in a statement.
The Netflix House complexes will be free for people to enter. Some fan experiences, such as Top 9 Mini Golf and immersive VR games in the Philadelphia location, will cost money.
Netflix House is part of the company’s push to expand further into in-person entertainment. The firm hosted balls similar to those featured on Regency era romance “Bridgerton” and worked with retailers and brands to sell clothing and other merchandise inspired by “Squid Game” and “Stranger Things.”
Such experiences also serve as marketing for the shows and movies.
The streamer could eventually have 50 or 60 Netflix House locations globally, said Netflix Co-Chief Executive Ted Sarandos last year at the WSJ Tech Live conference.
The trailer has had well over a million views in a matter of hours
10:55, 20 Aug 2025Updated 10:55, 20 Aug 2025
The anime is an adaptation of FromSoftware game Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice(Image: KA/SNDP/Crunchyroll)
An official adaptation of a ‘masterpiece’ FromSoftware game will soon be available to stream and fans have just been given their first glimpse at it.
The first trailer for upcoming anime miniseries, Sekiro: No Defeat, dropped on Crunchyroll’s YouTube channel last night and amassed well over a million views in a matter of hours. It is an adaptation of FromSoft’s revered video game, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
Set to release sometime in 2026 (an official release date is yet to be announced), the anime will be fully hand-drawn, with streaming service Crunchyroll teasing a “tale of loyalty and blood, set in a fantastical reimagining of Sengoku-era Japan.”
The synopsis reads: “Japan is fractured into many independent nations entangled in ceaseless war. At the center lies Ashina, a land of sacred earth and ancient mystery. Two decades after Sword Saint Isshin Ashina reclaimed the region in a brutal coup, a new threat emerges from within: The Interior Ministry.
The mini series will release in 2026(Image: KA/SNDP/Crunchyroll)
“Desperate to protect his homeland, Isshin’s grandson Genichiro turns to forbidden powers. The only hope lies in a kidnapped boy — the Divine Heir — and his silent protector: a loyal shinobi known only as Sekiro. This is the story of a lord and his retainer — and their quest to restore balance to a nation on the edge.”
One Punch Man animator Kenichi Kutsuna is at the helm as director, while the voice cast includes Daisuke Namikawa as Wolf, Miyuki Satou as Kuro/The Divine Heir and Kenjiro Tsuda as Genichiro Ashina.
“We are taking on the monumental task of animating the breathtakingly beautiful Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. In doing so, we are pouring every ounce of our artistic vision and passion for beauty into its production,” director Kenichi said.
Sekiro: No Defeat trailer
“The final product is being crafted to be a truly memorable experience, one that will leave a lasting impression on both dedicated fans of the game and those who are discovering the world of Sekiro for the very first time. Please look forward to it.”
The upcoming show was announced during Gamescom 2025, and fans flocked to the trailer to offer-up their first thoughts.
“The giant ape episode is gonna be one for the books,” one FromSoft fan predicted, as a second shared: “A million views in a day is a sign for the game makers that a sequel Sekiro 2 is badly wanted.”
Meanwhile a third penned: “There isn’t enough budget in this world to animate the mist noble fight and do it justice,” while a fourth shared: “I just hope that the Mist Noble battle gets a whole episode dedicated to it. Such an insane fight.”
Sekiro: No Defeat is coming exclusively to Crunchyroll in 2026
Netflix has just dropped a fresh trailer for One Piece season two, teasing new characters featured in the forthcoming instalment. The live-action anime is set to return for its second series in 2026 and has already been renewed for season three.
A new teaser, released on August 9, introduces fans to major characters, including one played by Bridgerton favourite Charithra Chandran. The action-packed trailer kicks off with Luffy (Iñaki Godoy) narrating: “Everything I’ve done, everywhere I go, is for the One Piece,” before viewers catch a glimpse at the villains the crew will face.
According to the synopsis, this season will feature “fiercer adversaries and the most perilous quests yet.”
One Piece season two premieres in 2026(Image: Netflix )
It adds: “Luffy and the Straw Hats set sail for the extraordinary Grand Line — a legendary stretch of sea where danger and wonder await at every turn.
“As they journey through this unpredictable realm in search of the world’s greatest treasure, they’ll encounter bizarre islands and a host of formidable new enemies.”
Chandran is among the show’s newcomers, stepping into the role of Nefertari Vivi, also known as Miss Wednesday. She dons a blue ponytail in the trailer and looks worlds away from her Regency attire as Bridgeton’s Edwina Sharma.
Fans will also spot Brendan Murray (Devil’s Peak) towering over the Straw Hats as Brogy, while Callum Kerr (Hollyoaks) appears as Smoker, and Lera Abova (Honey, Don’t!) steps into the role of Nico Robin, also known as Miss All-Sunday.
Charithra Chandran plays Miss Wednesday in the new season(Image: Netflix )
The YouTube teaser has racked up over two million views in less than 24 hours, with fans expressing their excitement in the comments section.
“I’M SO HYPED,” exclaimed one fan, with another stating: “I’ve never smiled non-stop as I did for this trailer with any other trailer before.”
A third penned: “As a One Piece fan, who is caught up with the anime, this makes me proud and excited for this season.”
Meanwhile, a fourth said: “Teasing season 3 is in production during a season 2 first look is diabolically wonderful.”
Based on Eiichiro Oda’s beloved manga, One Piece first landed on Netflix in 2023. The series follows Monkey D. Luffy (played by Godoy) and his Straw Hat Pirates crew, as they journey across the seas in search of a legendary treasure known as the One Piece.
New Delhi, India – What if Michael had died instead of Sonny in The Godfather? Or if Rose had shared the debris plank, and Jack hadn’t been left to freeze in the Atlantic in Titanic*?
Eros International, one of India’s largest production houses, with more than 4,000 films in its catalogue, has decided to explore this sort of what-if scenario. It has re-released one of its major hits, Raanjhanaa, a 2013 romantic drama, in cinemas – but has used artificial intelligence (AI) to change its tragic end, in which the male lead dies.
In the AI-altered version, Kundan (played by popular actor Dhanush), a Hindu man who has a doomed romance with a Muslim woman, lives. But the film’s director, Aanand L Rai, is furious.
“The idea that our work can be taken and modified by a machine, then dressed up as innovation, is deeply disrespectful,” Rai said, adding that the entire film crew had been kept in the dark about the re-release.
“What makes it worse is the complete ease and casualness with which it’s been done,” said Rai. “It is a reckless takeover that strips the work of its intent, its context, and its soul.”
This is the first time a film studio has re-released a movie with AI alterations, anywhere in the world, and it has also caused an uproar among critics, filmmakers and film lovers.
Here is what we know so far about why this move has been so controversial, and what the legal and ethical issues are.
How has the film been altered?
Eros International, a prominent film studio, has re-released a Tamil-dubbed version of the film, Raanjhanaa, titled Ambikapathy, with an alternate, AI-generated ending.
This altered version, which significantly deviates from the original film’s climax, screened at cinemas in Tamil Nadu, a southern Indian state, on August 1.
At the end of the original movie, the lead male character, Kundan, lies dead, covered in bruises from his injuries, in a hospital with his lover sitting by his side, crying. In the AI-altered ending, however, Kundan does not die. Instead, he opens his eyes and starts to stand up.
How have people reacted to the re-release?
The release of the AI-altered version prompted immediate objections from the film’s original creators. Dhanush, a Tamil actor, issued a statement noting that “this alternate ending stripped the film of its soul” and that the re-release had “completely disturbed” him.
With its changed ending, Ranjhaanna is “not the film I committed to 12 years ago”, he said. The actor added that the use of AI to alter films “is a deeply concerning precedent for both art and artists [that] threatens the integrity of storytelling and the legacy of cinema”.
Rai, the director, shared a detailed note on Instagram condemning the move. “Let me say this as clearly as I can: I do not support or endorse the AI-altered version … It is unauthorised. And whatever it claims to be, it is not the film we intended, or made.”
“This was never just a film to us. It was shaped by human hands, human flaws, and human feeling,” Rai added. “To cloak a film’s emotional legacy in a synthetic cape without consent is not a creative act. It’s an abject betrayal of everything we built.”
Richard Allen, professor of film and media art at City University of Hong Kong, said it seems inevitable that AI-altering will become a mainstream method of filmmaking in global film industries.
“If producers think they can make more money out of old content by using AI, they will do so,” Allen told Al Jazeera.
Indian Bollywood actor Dhanush attends a party for the Hindi film, Raanjhanaa, in Mumbai on July 24, 2013 [File: STRDEL/AFP via Getty Images]
Is AI-altering legal?
Rai has said that he is investigating legal options to challenge the re-release of this movie.
Eros International insists that its actions are perfectly legal, however, and has refused to retract the re-release.
“This re-release is not a replacement – it is a creative reinterpretation, clearly labelled and transparently positioned,” said Pradeep Dwivedi, chief executive of Eros International Media.
Dwivedi noted that under Indian copyright law, the producer of a film (in this case, Eros International) is deemed its author and primary rights-holder, meaning that the production house is the first owner of copyright for the film.
He said the film studio is “the exclusive producer and copyright holder, holds full legal and moral rights” under Indian laws. He described the alternate ending to the movie as “a new emotional lens to today’s audiences”.
The studio, which has released more than 4,000 movies globally, will “embrace generative AI as the next frontier in responsible storytelling”, Dwivedi said, adding that Eros International is “uniquely positioned to bridge cinematic legacy with future-ready formats”.
What about the ethics of this?
Mayank Shekhar, an Indian film critic, said the real issue with AI-altering is one of ethics: doing it without the expressed consent of the creators – writer, director and actors – involved.
“What’s left then is simply the legalese of who owns the copyright, or who paid for the product, and is hence the sole producer, and therefore the owner of the work,” Shekhar said. “Technically, I suppose, or so it seems, what Eros has done isn’t illegal – it’s certainly unethical.”
In his statement, Eros International’s Dwivedi said that every era of cinema has faced the clash between “Luddites and Progressives”. He added: “When sound replaced silence, when colour replaced black-and-white, when digital challenged celluloid, and now, when AI meets narrative.”
Dwivedi insisted that reimagining the movie’s ending was not “artificial storytelling,” but “augmented storytelling, a wave of the future”.
Has AI been used to alter films before?
AI has not been used to alter the storyline of an existing movie by its own producers or crew for re-release before this.
However, it has been used for post-production purposes in movies – such as voice dubbing or computer-generated imagery (CGI) enhancements. Its use was a flashpoint in Hollywood during the labour protests of 2023, which resulted in new guidelines for the use of the technology.
In an interview, The Brutalist’s Oscar-nominated editor, David Jancso, said that the production had used a Ukrainian software company, Respeecher, to make the lead actors, Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones, sound more “authentic” when they spoke Hungarian in the film.
Similarly, filmmaker David Fincher supervised a 4K restoration of his celebrated crime-thriller, “Se7en” for its 30th anniversary this year, using AI to correct technical flaws in focus and colour.
Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s co-CEO, said last month that the company had used generative AI to produce visual effects for the first time on screen in its original series, El Eternauta, or The Eternaut. Netflix has also been exploring the use of trailers personalised for subscribers’ user profiles.
Reuters reported that Netflix had also tested AI to synchronise actors’ lip movements with dubbed dialogue to “improve the viewing experience”, quoting company sources.
Director James Cameron with Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio on the Titanic door during filming [20th Century Fox]
Will AI alterations become the norm in cinema?
Allen said the alteration to Raanjhanaa felt different from the way AI has been used to enhance movies in the past. “There are so many things that AI doctoring might do to a movie,” he said.
However, he added: “We won’t necessarily lose sight of the definitive version, unless newly released versions are mislabelled as restorations or original versions of the movies themselves, which goes back to the ethical frameworks.”
Shekhar said: “The larger issue is simply of regulation. AI is too new for laws to catch up yet.
“The fact is, a work of art ought to be protected from predators. And respected for its own worth, whether or not somebody likes the ending of a film!”
An alternative ending to a film also needs to be plausible.
In 2022, Titanic director James Cameron said he commissioned a forensic analysis, involving a hypothermia expert, that proved there would have been no way for both Jack and Rose to survive on that infamous floating door. Jack “had to die”, Cameron said then.
Warner Bros. Discovery on Monday unveiled the names of the proposed separate entities, post-breakup: Warner Bros. and Discovery Global.
When the corporate spin-off is complete some time next year, the venerable Burbank film and television studio properties, HBO, HBO Max streaming service and gaming properties will be part of a slimmed-down iteration called Warner Bros.
The cable networks, including TNT, CNN, HGTV and Animal Planet, and sports app Bleacher Report, will make up Discovery Global.
“We will proudly continue the more than century-long legacy of Warner Bros. through our commitment to bringing culture-defining stories, characters and entertainment to audiences around the world,” Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav said in a statement.
Zaslav, the longtime Discovery executive, is jumping to the Warner Bros. side, while his lieutenant, Chief Financial Officer Gunnar Wiedenfels, will lead Discovery Global.
The proposed corporate split is a recognition that the merger that created Warner Bros. Discovery three years ago was a misfire that eroded the value of some of the industry’s most premium brands. Zaslav championed the merger as a way to roll up several companies into one.
At the time, WarnerMedia — with its studios, HBO and Turner networks — was owned by AT&T, which was desperate to exit Hollywood after losing billions of dollars on acquisitions.
But Wall Street quickly soured on the consolidation that married nearly two dozen basic cable channels, including HGTV and Food Network, with the prestige properties of HBO and the Warner Bros. studios in Burbank.
AT&T’s sale to Discovery left Zaslav’s company struggling to tame more than $40 billion in debt. Investors also have a dim view of cable channels as the shift to streaming prompted a huge migration of viewers.
Senior executives joining Zaslav at Warner Bros. include: HBO Chairman Casey Bloys; Warner Bros. TV Group Chairman Channing Dungey; the film co-chairs Pam Abdy and Mike De Luca; DC Studios leaders James Gunn and Peter Safran, Streaming and Gaming Chief Executive JB Perrette; Chief Operating Officer Bruce Campbell and Chief Communications Officer Robert Gibbs.
Discovery Global will include CNN Chairman Mark Thompson; TNT Sports Chairman Luis Silberwasser; international operations head Gerhard Zeiler; U.S. Ad Sales President Ryan Gould; and Chief Development Officer Anil Jhingan.
“As we prepare for the launch of Discovery Global, our enthusiasm for the opportunities ahead only grows thanks to our leading portfolio of beloved brands and programming, our worldwide footprint for adults, kids, and families, and now the experienced and talented leadership team,” Wiedenfels said.
Warner Bros. has started a search for a CFO as well as a chief people officer. Wiedenfels plans to hire a top communications and public affairs officer.
Born Terry Gene Bollea, Hogan was a WWF superstar in the 1980s and early 1990s, then experienced a career resurgence in the late ’90s with his Hollywood Hogan persona in the WCW’s New World Order stable.
“I Am Absolutely Shocked To Hear About The Passing Of My Close Friend @HulkHogan!” WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Hulk Has Been By My Side Since We Started In The Wrestling Business. An Incredible Athlete, Talent, Friend, And Father! Our Friendship Has Meant The World To Me. He Was Always There For Me Even When I Didn’t Ask For Him To Be. … Hulkster, No One Will Ever Compare To You! Rest In Peace My Friend!”
WWE Hall of Fame wrestler and current Chief Content Officer Triple H wrote on X that the organization “would not be where it is today without the larger-than-life characters that compete in the ring … and few, if any, loomed larger than Terry ‘Hulk Hogan’ Bollea.”
“Hulk Hogan, clad in red and yellow or [New World Order] black and white, was simply put, iconic,” Triple H wrote. “As a Real American or the leader of one of the industry’s biggest factions, he transcended and elevated the entire business to heights never before seen — in every country and on every continent. There was no one like The Hulkster and there very well may never be another.”
WWE is saddened to learn WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan has passed away.
One of pop culture’s most recognizable figures, Hogan helped WWE achieve global recognition in the 1980s.
WWE extends its condolences to Hogan’s family, friends, and fans.
Fellow Hall of Fame wrestler Kane, also known as Knox County, Tenn., Mayor Glenn Jacobs, said in a statement: “The Hulkster was integral in making professional wrestling, and specifically WWE, what it is today. While I join fans all across the world in mourning his loss, I am also grateful for the opportunities that he created for people like me and so many others in professional wrestling and entertainment.”
“We lost a great friend today, the ‘Hulkster,’” wrote President Trump, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame’s celebrity wing in 2013. “Hulk Hogan was MAGA all the way — Strong, tough, smart, but with the biggest heart. He gave an absolutely electric speech at the Republican National Convention, that was one of the highlights of the entire week.
“He entertained fans from all over the World, and the cultural impact he had was massive. To his wife, Sky, and family, we give our warmest best wishes and love. Hulk Hogan will be greatly missed!”
Secretary of Education and former WWE President and Chief Executive Linda McMahon wrote on X: “I had the privilege of knowing and working with [Hogan] for over 40 years. Hulk was a dear friend and member of our WWE family. His legacy in and out of the ring will always be remembered. He was one of a kind! My thoughts and prayers are with his family, his friends, and all of his fans.”
Here’s how others from the world of professional wrestling are remembering Hogan on X:
— Jake “the Snake” Roberts: “It’s hard to put into words what Terry ‘Hulk Hogan’ Bollea meant to professional wrestling and entertainment. He may be gone, but his memory and legacy will live forever.”
— Sting: “HULK HOGAN – THE GREATEST OF ALL Can’t thank you enough for all that you did for me and for wrestling fans all over the world. I loved you and I will miss you. My friend, Terry Bollea, RIP.”
— The Miz: “When I was a kid I ate my vitamins, said my prayers because Hulk Hogan told me to. He was someone I looked up to; a larger-than-life presence I copied constantly growing up. The voice, flexing, charisma, he made you want to be bold, loud, confident. RIP, Hulk Hogan.”
— Charlotte Flair: “When I nearly lost my dad 8 years ago, one of the few people who was there for all of it was Hulk Hogan. My heart breaks for Nick and Brooke. Rest in peace, brother.”
— The Undertaker: “The wrestling world has lost a true legend. His contributions to our business are immeasurable and for that I am appreciative. Thank you, Hulk Hogan.”
— Sgt. Slaughter: “Saddened To Hear About The Passing of Hulk Hogan … I Guess God Needed An Incredible Angel. R.I.P. My Friend.”
— Kurt Angle: “R.I.P Hulkster, thank you for opening up doors for so many people in the business including myself. There would not be a Kurt Angle, without the American Made, Hulk Hogan. My heart and prayers go out to his family. We lost a real icon today.”
— Bubba Ray Dudley: “As a young fan, I’ll never forget the day Bob Backlund brought you out to help him. As an old pro, I will never forget how much you meant to my career. I appreciate every thing you did for me. And was happy to call you a friend…and Brother.”
TV presenter Andy Crane rose to fame when he first appeared on CBBC children’s show The Broom Cupboard in 1986. Despite leaving TV, he is still enjoying a sucessful career in the public eye
14:51, 20 Jul 2025Updated 14:57, 20 Jul 2025
Andy Crane was a big hit on BBC’s the Broom Cupboard (Image: BBC)
Popular presenter Andy Crane is best known for his debut on children’s TV programme The Broom Cupboard which is 39 years old – but what is the TV personality doing now?
Andy, now 61, has been brightening up people’s days on Greatest Hits Radio since 2019 and he looks very different from his Broom Cupboard days.
He first appeared on TV in 1986, taking over from Phillip Schofield on BBC’s Broom. The show, which helped launch the careers of Andi Peters, Toby Anstis and Zoe Ball, featured stars in a control desk room as the presenters introduced the programs.
The 61-year-old, who was one of the most memorable presenters on show, was just 29 at the time and worked alongside puppet Gordon, who went on to join him on Going Live! the next year.
He continued with Broom until 1990 and then featured on major music show Top of the Pops. He was also the face of Bad Influence! and Violet Berlin in the 90s.
Andy Crane pictured with Lionel Blair and the Jive Bunny (Image: Mirrorpix)
But his impressive career didn’t stop there. Andy also presented children’s show, Motormouth, for ITV on Saturdays. He also featured on What’s Up Doc? and Challenge TV.
The star was also a news presenter for Channel M in Manchester. He is now residing in the picturesque location of Lake District, reports Rayo.
Before joining Greatest Hits Radio in 2019, Andy presented for Radio Manchester where he started off as a tea boy.
Andy now works for Greatest Hits Radio(Image: Getty Images)
Speaking about how he got the role, he said: “I wrote to Piccadilly Radio in Manchester when I was living in the USA – they wrote back! Started there as a tea boy in 1981 and did my first show in 1983 which means I’ve now been doing this for 35 years.”
Andy, who was born in the seaside town of Morecambe, Lancashire, presents three hours of the best songs from the 70s, 80s and 90s on Greatest Hits Radio, including The Top 10 at 10 and Midnight Music Marathon.
Andy can be heard weekly presenting the best of music from the 70s (Image: Supplied)
Luckily for his fans, he also appears on radiowaves on weekday afternoons – featuring the most groovy disco tunes for Greatest Hits Radio 70s. He says his listeners will hear: “Great music naturally and plenty of laughing.”
Earlier this year, the presenter revealed what he loves about his job the most: “Being invited into people’s homes, cars, bedrooms and bathrooms.”
New Delhi, India – In a career marked by chart-topping music and highly acclaimed performances, Punjabi actor Diljit Dosanjh is cruising towards yet another milestone on his list: Delivering the highest-grossing Punjabi film.
“Sardaar Ji 3”, the latest horror-comedy by Dosanjh, one of Asia’s most bankable artists, has been shattering records abroad. But, in his own home country, India, the film has not been released and remains out of bounds for more than one billion people.
Dosanjh and his latest film – released globally on June 27 – have been marred by a political and cultural controversy over the nationality of his film’s co-star, Hania Amir, a Pakistani actor.
Last year, Dosanjh sold out arenas in the US, Canada, and across Europe during his Dil-Luminati world tour. He became the first Indian artist to perform at the Coachella festival in California and, more recently, walked down the Met Gala carpet in an iconic turban. Dosanjh has also carved out a unique space for himself in Bollywood as both a crowd-puller and a critical favourite.
But at home, he is now facing calls for a boycott and the impounding of his passport. Film critics and political analysts, however, say this is part of a growing pattern of censorship and an attempt to restrict artistic freedom in India, to heed the nationalists’ demands.
So, why is India blocking the work of one of its most successful artists?
Diljit Dosanjh performs at the Sahara tent during the 2023 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 15, 2023, in Indio, California [Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Coachella via AFP]
Why is Dosanjh’s latest film controversial?
Sardaar Ji 3, the third instalment of the popular horror-comedy franchise directed by Amar Hundal, stars a popular Punjabi pair – Dosanjh and Neeru Bajwa – in lead roles, alongside Pakistan’s Hania Aamir.
Shortly after the film’s production was wrapped in April this year, suspected rebels in Indian-administered Kashmir’s resort town of Pahalgam killed 26 people, all but one of them tourists.
New Delhi immediately blamed Pakistan, which it said had supported the deadly “terrorist attack”, but Islamabad denied involvement. In the coming days, the two countries engaged in a four-day conflict, the most expansive between the nuclear-armed neighbours in decades.
When Dosanjh released the trailer for his upcoming film last month, the casting of Aamir took many by surprise – and prompted outrage.
Why has the Indian government blocked Sadaar Ji 3?
The film has not received certification from India’s Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) and has not been released in Indian cinemas.
The Indian government also “geoblocked” (restricted online access to) the film’s trailer in India; however, the teaser and film’s album, which do not include shots of Aamir, remain accessible.
Following the Kashmir attack in April, the Indian government swiftly brought in a series of digital crackdowns. This included blocking thousands of Pakistani social media handles on platforms like Instagram and X (formerly Twitter), including the accounts of celebrities such as Aamir, Fawad Khan and Mahira Khan.
The government, which is led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also blocked access to the social media accounts of Pakistani journalists and news outlets in India.
The government then issued an advisory on May 8, directing all video platforms, streaming services and digital intermediaries to immediately remove Pakistani-origin entertainment content, including web series, films, songs, podcasts and other media.
In addition, the government banned 16 prominent Pakistani YouTube channels, including those of Geo News, ARY News, and Samaa TV, which collectively had more than 63 million subscribers, for allegedly spreading misinformation, provocative narratives, and content targeting India’s armed forces and sovereignty.
Rahul Desai, a Mumbai-based film and TV critic, said blocking access to films over casting choices has become “an excuse to antagonise Pakistan” under the current government.
“It’s a vicious cycle because a lot of the cinema is informed by pro-establishment choices in India,” he told Al Jazeera.
“This has become a very neat medium for people to vent against Pakistan, just like cricket sometimes does.”
Today, the reality-based creative boundaries in India are neat, Desai said: “Do not cast artists from the other side of the border, and a lot of filmmakers self-censor themselves.”
Diljit Dosanjh attends ‘Superfine: Tailoring Black Style’, the 2025 Costume Institute Benefit, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 5, 2025, in New York City, US [Taylor Hill/Getty Images]
Are cross-border artistic collaborations common?
Yes, they are. Pakistani actors are not allowed to work in India, so shoots involving them have to be carried out abroad.
“Music departments of [Pakistan’s] films used to contribute a lot to Indian cinema at least a decade or two ago in the 2000s,” said Desai. The release of the curated music show franchise, Coke Studio Pakistan, which had 15 seasons from 2008 to 2024, was almost “like a cultural moment in India”, he added.
But over the past two decades, there have been multiple instances of cross-border collaborations of artists, but they have faced boycotts and anger on both sides of the border due to political tensions between the South Asian neighbours.
For the Punjabi film and music industries, the situation is even more complex.
The partition of British India, which resulted in the creation of Pakistan with borders drawn overnight, cuts through Punjab, and millions on each side share culture and linguistic ties.
Successful Punjabi franchises like Chal Mera Putt, known for its Pakistani cast, face uncertainty, especially the upcoming Chal Mera Putt 4, amid growing demands to avoid Pakistani involvement.
“There’s obviously a lot of bullying involved by the establishment over casting Pakistani actors,” said Desai. “There’s a lot of banning and trolling involved. There’s a lot of anxiety and tension associated with such choices.”
What do Indian film bodies say about Sadaar Ji 3?
Indian film associations, particularly the Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) and the All Indian Cine Workers Association (AICWA), have voiced strong objections to the casting of Aamir in Dosanjh’s Sardaar Ji 3.
FWICE, headed by President BN Tiwari, labelled the collaboration a “betrayal of the nation” and accused Dosanjh of “disrespecting national sentiments and the sacrifices of Indian soldiers”. It demanded a complete ban on the film in India.
The body also issued appeals to India’s CBFC to withhold certification for Sardaar Ji 3 and emphasised noncooperation with Pakistani artists.
AICWA echoed these sentiments, condemning the film’s producers for prioritising Pakistani talent over Indian artists and calling for a widespread boycott of Dosanjh across the industry, including by music companies and event organisers.
Ashoke Pandit, the president of the Indian Film and Television Directors’ Association, told a local newspaper: “We are going to take action and tell the producers not to work with [Dosanjh].
“He should be fully boycotted in the country by music labels and the Punjabi film industry. Diljit is a compulsive Pakistani lover.”
However, Ira Bhaskar, a former CBFC Board member and retired professor of film studies at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, said this episode is a reflection of the establishments of India and Pakistan, rather than pointing to a deeper divide between the people of the two countries.
“The Indian government [since Modi came to power] has not only understood the power of mass media, especially cinema, but is invested in taking control of the narratives that circulate in the public domain,” Bhaskar said.
Diljit Dosanjh performs at the Sahara tent during the 2023 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 22, 2023, in Indio, California [Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Coachella via AFP]
What has Dosanjh said about the furore over Sadaar Ji 3?
Dosanjh told BBC Asian Network earlier this month: “When this film was made, everything was fine.
“We shot it in February, and things were OK back then. After that, a lot of big things happened that were beyond our control,” the singer-actor said, referring to the Kashmir attack and the ensuing conflict.
“So the producers decided that the film obviously won’t be released in India now, so they’ll release it overseas. The producers have invested a lot of money, and when the film was being made, nothing like this was happening,” Dosanjh said.
How well has Sardaar Ji 3 done globally?
Dosanjh told the BBC that the film’s producers were aware of the potential financial loss from pulling out of a territory like India, the world’s most populous country. The previous film in the franchise – Sadaar Ji 2 – made nearly $3m at the box office in India.
Dosanjh has continued promoting his film on his social media handles, including sharing images from sold-out shows in Pakistan, where the movie has shattered records for Indian releases. Globally, the film has taken $7m at the box office, against a budget of $4m. In Pakistan, it is the highest-grossing Indian-made film in history, pulling in $1.4m so far.
In India, Desai, the critic, said “censorship goes way beyond casting … It extends to the themes of the stories that people are allowed to tell now in India.”
Spectators watch Diljit Dosanjh perform onstage at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, California, US, April 22, 2023 [Aude Guerrucci/Reuters]
Are any other of Dosanjh’s works facing problems?
Yes. The release of Dosanjh’s film, Panjab ’95, directed by Honey Trehan in 2022, has stalled, primarily because of stringent demands from India’s Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), which has delayed its clearance since the project was submitted in December 2022.
The biographical drama about the life of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, who exposed 25,0000 extrajudicial killings and disappearances of Sikhs in Punjab during the 1980s and 1990s, was given 120 suggested cuts, including removing references to political figures, documented human rights abuses, and even the protagonist’s name.
Trehan told Al Jazeera: “The CBFC was established as an independent body, which could protect artists, so that the government should not influence the art … [but] the government is arm-twisting filmmakers and their films.”
Desai, the critic who watched Panjab ’95 in a private screening, told Al Jazeera: “It’s such a well-made film that it might incite a sense of revolution among people today, especially people who are not happy with the establishment. So, we can see where a lot of the insecurity is coming from.”
Dosanjh and Trehan have publicly refused to accept the suggested cuts. And the film remains in limbo. Its scheduled premiere was pulled from the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in 2023, and subsequent invitations from other international festivals were declined.
