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“In the Heights, it gets more expensive every day.”

That’s the message from the fictional residents of the real community of Washington Heights in New York – the focus of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s latest release.

Already synonymous with the record-breaking Hamilton (which is about to hit Broadway and West End stages again), Miranda’s first musical, the Tony-winning In The Heights, highlights the struggles – and joys – of living in this mostly Latino community in the Big Apple.

Lin-Manuel Miranda is the brains behind In The Heights. Pic: Warner Bros Studios
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Lin-Manuel Miranda is the brains behind In The Heights. Pic: Warner Bros Studios

It first ran on Broadway in 2008 – but now 13 years on, the unique issues that community faces remain the same – a reflection on society in the real world.

In just two hours and 20 minutes, we hear about undocumented immigrants, ICE (Immigration Compliance and Enforcement) raids, racism, gentrification and poverty in this diverse neighbourhood – as well as the joy and excitement of a community that is talked about so little in mainstream cinema.

And it wouldn’t be a Lin-Manuel Miranda musical without his rap numbers, comic relief, big dance breaks and catchy pop tunes.

“It’s never a bad time to remind people of our humanity,” Miranda, who grew up in the real Washington Heights, told Sky News, when asked why now was a good time to bring this musical to the big screen.

He added: “It’s always going to be relevant.

“There’s such a meagre representation of Latinos in a positive light in mainstream media that it’s always going to feel like now is the perfect time because it’s always overdue.

“We filmed this in the summer of 2019 and the poignancy and power of seeing people in community together, like singing and hugging each other and kissing, dancing in the streets is the power of what we can do together, I think really radiates off the screen, and as the kids say, ‘it hits different’ now than it may have at an earlier time.”

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Miranda is one of the most in-demand people in showbiz – hot off the heels of his record and ground-breaking musical Hamilton, he has penned songs, acted in movies and voice characters for a number of projects.

And it doesn’t stop there – he is making his directorial debut soon with Netflix’s Tick, Tick… Boom and he’s on board for the live-action remake for The Little Mermaid.

In The Heights, which has a cast entirely made up of Latino performers and was co-written with Quiara Alegría Hudes, is centred around Usnavi (named after the time his father spotted a US Navy ship sailing by their home country of the Dominican Republic), who dreams of ditching his bodega (or corner shop to us Britons) and flying back to the Caribbean.

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Anthony Ramos on his role as Usnavi

He’s played by Anthony Ramos, who UK fans might know, again, from Hamilton, where he played John Laurens and Philip Hamilton.

Usnavi is a guy that… cares about his community,” he told Sky News.

“He takes care of his cousin, he takes care of, she’s not really his grandmother, but the matriarch of the block, if you will, and of the community.

“Both his parents passed away, he inherited a business that he didn’t ask for, but he does it with as much grace as possible.”

He adds that the character is relatable to everyone, saying: “Who hasn’t gone through that? Where you have days with some good, some not so good. It’s just it’s just a story about community and people in love, and family and music and culture.”

Ramos describes his character as the “invisible thread” that runs through the film as we meet the residents of Washington Heights trying to get through their lives – whether it’s the gossip girls from the salon, his cousin Sonny dealing with his immigration status or Abuela Claudia, who just wants to look after the block.

Sonny, Usnavi’s cousin and assistant in his bodega, is an undocumented citizen – a story that has grown in prominence over the last decade or so in the US due to fierce debates around border crossings – with an estimated 10 million people living in the country without the paperwork.

However, Gregory Diaz III, who plays Sonny, told Sky News that despite the problems sprouting from his character’s immigration status, he wanted to portray the good in his life.

He said: “Not wanting (his immigration status) to be something that defines him or something that holds him down – it’s something that both Sonny and I together want to elevate and really push forward those positive messages.”

And he gets his chance on screen, delivering a powerful rap during musical number 96,000, saying that if he won the lottery, he’d invest in education and technology, adding: “Politicians be hatin’, racism in this nation’s gone from latent to blatant, I’ll cash my ticket and picket, invest in protest, never lose my focus ’til the city takes notice.”

Abuela Claudia (Olga Merediz) and Sonny (Gregory Diaz III) share differing stories of immigration in the film. Pic: Warner Bros Studios
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Abuela Claudia (Olga Merediz) and Sonny (Gregory Diaz III) share differing stories of immigration in the film. Pic: Warner Bros Studios

Elsewhere in the film, characters Vanessa and Nina also reflect on their experiences of living in Washington Heights – with both having to deal with racism at some point in the film.

Nina is the first of her family, and everyone she knows, to go to university (at Stanford none the less) with her family sacrificing the business to help her – but she drops out amid fears she is racially profiled by those around her, sharing a story about how she was wrongfully accused of stealing from her roommate on her first day.

Her father, Kevin, who is played by West Wing and Star Wars actor Jimmy Smits, secretly sells his cab company to a wealthy developer (who is slowly taking over the whole block, pricing out the local community) to get her back in – but it is Sonny’s story that gives her the drive to go back to California.

Vanessa dreams of being a fashion designer and has saved a deposit (in cash) for an apartment in Downtown Manhattan where she can work from – however when she goes to hand over the money, she’s told her credit isn’t good enough, despite having cash and rent upfront, before a seemingly middle-class white couple is welcomed into the property instead.

Vanessa (Melissa Barrera) faces a struggle to achieve her dream of being a fashion designer. Pic: Warner Bros Studios
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Vanessa (Melissa Barrera) faces a struggle to achieve her dream of being a fashion designer. Pic: Warner Bros Studios

Melissa Barrera, a Mexican music and TV star, who plays Vanessa, told Sky News: “I think it’s a reflection of how a lot of things have not changed in a really long time and how certain communities continue to feel ostracised, especially in countries where they’re minorities.

“I think it’s about time to see their stories told in a positive light and to honour and acknowledge the contributions that communities like these have.”

Leslie Grace, who plays Nina, added: “I think it does reflect that on lots of things we still have a lot of work to do… but it also is aspirational in the sense that we can do it.”

The salon girls offer some comic relief in the film. Pic: Warner Bros Studios
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The salon girls offer some comic relief in the film. Pic: Warner Bros Studios

Completing the ensemble we have:

• The salon girls, who share gossip about the Heights in their beauty parlour (Brooklyn 99 fans will spot Stephanie Beatriz ditching the no-nonsense, gruff-voiced attitude of cop Rosa, for the excitable and bouncy hairdresser Carla).

• Benny, played by Walking Dead actor Corey Hawkins, the film’s only black character who works for Nina’s dad and is Usnavi’s best friend, dreams of going to business school. He is worried about the Heights becoming too expensive for the long-standing community there.

• Abuela Claudia, the community matriarch played by Olga Merediz, who performs an emotional number on how her family came from Cuba, lived in relative poverty and didn’t stop working until her parents passed away.

Merediz, who also originated the role of Abuela Claudia on Broadway in 2008, told Sky News: “I want everybody to see us and to see that we are just like everyone else.

“We have dreams like everyone else. We are focused on family, and that we have our nannies or our grandmothers, the rocks of the of the family, the community, that we are hardworking, that we’re joyous, that we’re passionate.

The person bringing this unique film together is director Jon M Chu, who is perhaps best known as the man behind Crazy Rich Asians.

He told Sky News that the movie shows how people deal with the issues presented to them, saying that “the world is changing and we cannot fight it”.

Chu added: “I’m not from Washington Heights and I’m not Latino, and yet it spoke to me so personally about what it feels like to be raised by your family – not by just your parents or by your aunts and your uncles – by your grandparents and the expectations they put on you and how that can be hard to deal with and finding your own path.”

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Jon M Chu: We use films to cope

But amid the political and emotional messaging, and the struggles in the community – the film is bursting full of singing, rapping and dancing.

At its heart, it is a movie musical with big ensemble numbers (96,000, shot at a swimming pool, is already a fan favourite, as is the colourful block-carnival scene), exciting dance breaks and impressive visuals – something which is sure to make it one of the summer’s biggest films.

Miranda sums it up, telling Sky News: “There’s a really specific kind of weightless goose-bumps feeling that only musicals give me. I remember feeling it for the first time in the movies when I saw the Under The Sea number in The Little Mermaid… just feeling like, ‘oh my God, this is a musical number under water!’

“I’ll never forget the feeling of being a little lighter than air walking out of that theatre – I hope people leave our movie with that same feeling.”

In The Heights is out in cinemas across the UK on 18 June, and tickets for Hamilton in the West End are on sale now.

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Mountainhead: Succession writer Jesse Armstrong’s new film takes aim at tech billionaires

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Mountainhead: Succession writer Jesse Armstrong's new film takes aim at tech billionaires

Succession writer Jesse Armstrong says he hopes his new film about toxic tech billionaires can be a receptacle for anyone who is “feeling wonky about the world”.

Now making his film directorial debut with Mountainhead, starring Steve Carell and Jason Schwartzman, Armstrong has shifted his focus from cut-throat media moguls to a group of billionaire friends meeting up to compare bank balances against the backdrop of a rolling international crisis they appear to have stoked.

Speaking to Sky News about the project, he said: “For a little while I poured some of my anxieties and feelings into it… and I hope it can be a receptacle for other people if they’re feeling wonky about the world, maybe this can be somewhere they put some of their anxieties for a while.”

Cory Michael Smith (R) plays Venis in Mountainhead. Pic: Mountainhead/HBO
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Cory Michael Smith (R) plays Venis in Mountainhead. Pic: Mountainhead/HBO


Jesse Armstrong with Ramy Youssef. Pic: Mountainhead/HBO
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Jesse Armstrong with Ramy Youssef. Pic: Mountainhead/HBO


Few television writers achieve widespread recognition beyond their work, but Armstrong – the man behind Succession, one of the most critically acclaimed TV shows of the past decade – has become a household name and is today one of the world’s hottest properties in high-end drama.

“If there was more self-reflection and self-knowledge, there probably wouldn’t be such amenable targets for comedy and satire,” he admits.

Long before he gifted viewers with the likes of manipulative Logan Roy and sycophantically ambitious Tom Wambsgans, back in the beginning, there was selfish slacker Jez and the perennially insecure Mark on his breakthrough hit Peep Show.

“I love comedy, you know, it’s my way in,” he explains. “I think I like it because… the mixture that you get of tragedy and absurdity strikes me as a sort of a true portrayal of the world… and I just like jokes, you know, that’s probably the basic reason.”

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After putting his pen down on the finale of Succession, walking away with 19 Emmys and nine Golden Globes, attention was always going to be drawn to what Armstrong did next.

“I had a couple of other things that I thought I would write first and this kind of snuck up on me as an area of interest,” Armstrong says.

“After I’d listened to a bunch of tech podcasts and Ted talks, I sort of needed somewhere to put the tone of voice that was increasingly in my head.”

Tapping into the unease surrounding big tech, he wrote, shot and edited Mountainhead in less than six months.

Jesse Armstrong
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Jesse Armstrong says the film’s theme ‘snuck up on me as an area of interest’

Capturing the audience mood

Explaining why he worked so fast, he said he “wanted to be in the same sort of mood as my audience, if possible”.

While he insists there aren’t “any direct map-ons” to the billionaire tech moguls, which frequently make headlines in real life, he joked he’s “happy… to play a game of ‘where did I steal what from who?'” with viewers.

“You know… Elon Musk… I think at least people would see some Mark Zuckerberg and, I don’t know, some Sam Altman, there is a bunch of those people in all the [film’s] different characters… and we’ve stolen liberally from the world in terms of the stories we’ve given them.”

Steve Carell is tasked with delivering some of the film’s most memorable lines as the satire explores the dynamic between those holding the power and those pulling the strings.

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Lack of self-knowledge ‘good for comedy’

“People who lack a certain degree of self-knowledge are good for comedy….and if there was more self-reflection and self-knowledge, there probably wouldn’t be such amenable targets for comedy and satire.

“You know, living in a gated community and travelling by private jet certainly doesn’t help you to understand what life is like for most people.”

Armstrong’s gift for using humour to savagely dramatic ends is arguably what makes him one of the most sought-after writers working today.

Behind his ability to craft some of the sharpest and scathing dialogue on our screens, he views what he does as more than getting a laugh.

“I do believe in the sort of nobility of the idea, that this is a good way to portray the world because this is how it feels a lot of the time.”

Mountainhead will air on Sky and streaming service NOW on 1 June.

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Taylor Swift buys back rights to all master recordings – but it’s bad news for Reputation fans

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Taylor Swift buys back rights to all master recordings - but it's bad news for Reputation fans

Taylor Swift has bought back all the rights to her master recordings – but has suggested she won’t be re-releasing her Reputation album.

“All the music I’ve ever made now belongs to me,” the star announced on her official website.

“I’ve been bursting tears of joy… ever since I found out this is really happening.”

The pop star had originally lost the rights to her first six albums in 2019 when her first record label, Big Machine, sold them to music executive Scooter Braun.

After she learned Braun had acquired her musical catalogue, she opened up about it in a lengthy Tumblr post, blaming him for being complicit in Kanye West’s “incessant, manipulative bullying” of her.

Swift said she was not given the opportunity to buy her work outright, and so, in a bid to diminish the value of the master tapes, she set about re-recording them.

Taylor Swift's back catalogue has been sold on by Scooter Braun
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Taylor Swift’s back catalogue was eventually sold on by Scooter Braun

She had re-released four “Taylor’s Version” albums to date. Just her self-titled debut album and Reputation remained.

Braun later sold his stake in her albums to Shamrock Holdings, a Los Angeles investment fund, in a deal reported to be worth £222 million.

It is not known how much Swift paid Shamrock to re-acquire the rights to her songs.

Swift said she was “forever grateful” to Shamrock for allowing her to buy the rights to her music back.

“This was a business deal to them, but I really felt like they saw it for what it was to me: My memories and my sweat and my handwriting and my decades of dreams,” Swift wrote on her website.

“I am endlessly thankful. My first tattoo might just be a huge shamrock in the middle of my forehead.”

What it means for Reputation fans

Just two albums remained to be re-released by Swift – her self-titled debut album and Reputation. The latter was a particularly strong source of speculation among fans, who would look for clues in her outfits during her record-breaking Era’s tour.

But this announcement could spell the end of that.

“Full transparency: I haven’t even re-recorded a quarter of it,” Swift said.

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Prince William spotted ‘dad dancing’ at Taylor Swift’s Wembley concert in 2024.

She said Reputation was “so specific” to a certain time in her life, that she kept hitting a block when she tried to re-record it. She also said she felt it was the first album she could not improve by re-recording it.

Debut has been re-recorded, with Swift saying she “loves how it sounds now”.

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But both albums could still “re-emerge when the time is right”, particularly the unreleased tracks.

“If it happens, it won’t be from a place of sadness and longing for what I wish I could have,” Swift said.

How Swift’s stance changed the music industry

In the music industry, the owner of a master controls all rights to their artists’ recordings. This is usually agreed in contracts with artists, and allows them to recoup the financial investment they make in stars, including funding production, marketing and promotion.

It also means they can distribute it to new streaming services or license the songs to be used in movies.

Wow. Quite literally the lady in red - and the big winner of last year - Taylor Swift. Pic: AP
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Pic: AP

Swift, as co-writer of her music, had always maintained publishing rights.

“I do want my music to live on. I do want it to be in movies. I do want it to be in commercials. But I only want that if I own it,” she told Billboard in 2019.

Swift said today she had been “heartened by the conversations this saga had reignited within my industry among artists and fans”.

“Every time a new artist tells me they negotiated to own their master recordings in their record contract because of this right, I’m reminded of how important it was for all of this to happen.”

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Russell Brand: Comedian and actor pleads not guilty to rape and sexual assault charges

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Russell Brand: Comedian and actor pleads not guilty to rape and sexual assault charges

Russell Brand has pleaded not guilty to rape and sexual assault charges as he appeared in court in London.

The British comedian and actor, from Hambleden in Buckinghamshire, was charged by post last month with one count each of rape, indecent assault and oral rape as well as two counts of sexual assault.

The charges relate to alleged incidents involving four separate women between 1999 and 2005.

The 49-year-old, who has been living in the US, was flanked by two officers as he pleaded not guilty to all the charges at Southwark Crown Court today.

Russell Brand appears at Southwark Crown Court.
Pic: Reuters
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Russell Brand appears at Southwark Crown Court. Pic: Reuters

Brand stood completely still and looked straight ahead as he delivered his pleas.

The comedian, who has consistently denied having non-consensual sex since allegations were first aired two years ago, is due to stand trial in June 2026.

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Russell Brand arrives in court
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Russell Brand arrives at Southwark Crown Court on Friday

He previously told his 11.2 million followers on X that he welcomed the opportunity to prove his innocence.

The allegations were first made in a joint investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4 Dispatches in September 2023.

As Friday’s hearing finished, Brand replaced his sunglasses before exiting the dock and calmly walking past reporters.

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