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Entertainment

‘Mogging’ crowned Collins English dictionary word of the year

Bodybuilding slang referring to making someone else look inferior beat entries concerning AI and climate crisis Mogging – meaning to outperform or outshine someone or something – has been named Collins’s word of the year 2026. Announcing the winner in an article for Collins, the copywriter Rachel Quin said the term describes making someone or something look inferior in terms of appearance, confidence or status. Friendslop A term adopted by gamers to describe low-budget, multiplayer indie titles focused on social fun over high-end graphics. Fricy A portmanteau of “fruity” and “spicy”, reflectin

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Entertainment

The 2026 John Lewis Christmas advert is here – and it’s Kristin Scott Thomas v Pickles the evil AI overlord puppy!

This year’s festive special looks forward to the time when chatbots reign supreme and humans prepare to be stamped out for ever. What a treat! John Lewis Christmas ad stars Kristin Scott Thomas as glamorous granny on a gift hunt The John Lewis Christmas advert no longer lands with the same thud as old. Once it prompted full media saturation and performative crying contests on social media. Now, more often than not, it’s the thing you skip before watching cat videos on YouTube. Nevertheless, its release is still an event, and so here we are again. This year, either by fluke or by design, John L

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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

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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

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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

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‘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

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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

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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:

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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

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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’

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‘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

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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...

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