Hollywood star Melissa McCarthy has responded by saying, “I win the day”, after Barbra Streisand was criticised for asking her if she had taken a weight-loss drug.

Bridesmaids star McCarthy had posted an image of herself on Instagram at a charity gala alongside US director Adam Shankman on Monday.

Streisand, the legendary singer and actress, replied in a comment below: “Give him my regards, did you take Ozempic?”

The drug can only be prescribed for patients with Type 2 diabetes and is not licensed as a weight-loss treatment in the UK or US.

Streisand posted an apology on X for her original comment which was swiftly deleted after it sparked a backlash online.

In a short video shared on Instagram, hours after the apology, McCarthy said: “The takeaway: Barbra Streisand knows I exist, she reached out to me and she thought I looked good. I win the day.”

McCarthy was holding up a magazine with Streisand on the cover in the video, which was filmed at the premiere of the new Netflix movie Unfrosted, in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

The 53-year-old will appear in the film alongside Jerry Seinfield and Hugh Grant when it is released this month.

McCarthy was earlier asked by a photographer in Los Angeles what she thought of Streisand’s comments and replied: “I think Barbra is a treasure, and I love her.”

‘I forgot the world is reading’

Streisand, 82, had said in her apology earlier on Tuesday: “I went on Instagram to see the photos we’d posted of the beautiful flowers I’d received for my birthday.

“Below them was a photo of my friend Melissa McCarthy, who I sang with on my Encore album.

“She looked fantastic! I just wanted to pay her a compliment, I forgot the world is reading!”

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In response to Streisand’s original comment referring to Ozempic, one social media user wrote: “Omg somebody please teach Barbra Streisand how to send a DM.”

Another wrote: “Omg…this comment from Barbra Streisand. Yes, it’s real, but she’s deleted it.”

Ozempic works by suppressing the appetite and lengthens the amount of time food stays in the stomach, leading to weight loss – at least for as long as you carry on taking it.

It has been banned as a treatment for obesity in the UK due to high demand for the drug causing a global shortage.

Numerous Hollywood stars are rumoured to have used Ozempic to lose weight – but just a handful of celebrities have admitted it publicly.

Stephen Fry was prescribed the drug in the US “years ago” and said earlier this year that side effects included vomiting up to five times a day.

Oprah Winfrey has said she has also taken weight-loss drugs, though she’s declined to specify which ones.

FKA Twigs has revealed she has created an AI version of herself to engage with fans and help with promotion.

The British singer-songwriter and dancer gave details of the project as she addressed a US Senate intellectual property hearing regarding the No Fakes Act, which aims to crack down on unauthorised replicas.

FKA Twigs, whose real name is Tahliah Debrett Barnett, confirmed she had been developing her own AI – but condemned unauthorised deepfakes, saying they leave her feeling “raw and vulnerable”.

The hearing was held in Washington on Tuesday, just hours before the release of a UK report which found that most of the public want regulation to prevent deepfakes of big-name artists such as Dua Lipa and Taylor Swift.

Speaking at the US hearing, FKA Twigs said she had been developing a digital clone of herself over the past year, revealing that it can speak multiple languages.

“I’ve done this to be able to reach more of my fans and to be able to speak to them in the nuance of their language,” she said. “I’ve currently explored French, Korean and Japanese, which is really exciting for me. It means that even with my upcoming album I can really explain in depth what it’s about creatively.”

The 36-year-old said having an AI version of herself also allows her to “spend more time making art”.

She continued: “Often being a music artist, or any artist in this day and age, requires a lot of press and a lot of promo, a lot of one-liners.

“So it means if it’s something simple that doesn’t really require my heart, I can do a one-liner and give it to people to promote a piece of work and, you know, it’s harmless but ultimately I can spend more time making something that’s really meaningful for my fans.”

‘I am a human being, and we have to protect that’

Addressing unauthorised deepfakes, she told the hearing about songs and collaborations with other artists that exist online, which she had nothing to do with.

“The fact that somebody could take my voice, change lyrics, change messaging, maybe work with an artist that I didn’t want to work with, or maybe work with an artist that I wanted to work with and now the surprise is ruined, it really leaves me very raw and very vulnerable,” she said.

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The star called for legislation to protect artists and added: “My spirit, my artist and my brand is my brand, and I’ve spent years developing it.

“And it’s mine, it doesn’t belong to anybody else to be used in a commercial sense, or cultural sense, or even just for a laugh. I am me, I am a human being, and we have to protect that.”

Unacknowledged AI music: Is it theft?

Meanwhile, a poll by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Music has found that 83% of UK adults agree that a music artist’s creative “personality” should be protected in law against AI copies.

The research involving more than 2,000 adults also found that 83% agree with the statement that if AI has been used to generate a song it must be clearly labelled, and 77% believe it amounts to theft when generated music fails to acknowledge the creator of the original.

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APPG recommendations include the government introducing a UK AI Act, generated music being clearly labelled, the creation of a personality right to protect creators and artists from deepfakes, misappropriation and false endorsement, and setting up an international taskforce.

A government spokesperson said: “We are committed to helping artists and the creative industries work with the AI sector to harness the opportunities this technology provides, and ensure our music can continue to be enjoyed around the world.”

In April, more than 200 artists signed an open letter objecting to the “predatory” use of AI to “steal professional artists’ voices and likenesses”.

Daniel Radcliffe has responded to the fallout with Harry Potter author JK Rowling over her views on the transgender community for the first time since 2020, saying: “It makes me really sad”.

Rowling, who has always denied being transphobic, has been widely condemned in recent years for her views on transgender rights, having claimed that she would rather go to jail than refer to a trans person by their preferred pronouns.

Radcliffe, who became a worldwide star after playing schoolboy wizard Harry in the blockbuster adaptations of the novels, said in an interview with US magazine The Atlantic he has had no direct contact with the writer throughout the controversy.

“It makes me really sad, ultimately,” he said, “because I do look at the person that I met, the times that we met, and the books that she wrote, and the world that she created, and all of that is to me so deeply empathic.”

The 34-year-old actor first expressed his support for the trans community in response to Rowling’s stance back in June 2020 when she took issue with the phrasing of a headline for an opinion article about healthcare equality, titled Opinion: Creating a more equal post-COVID-19 world for people who menstruate.

Her response to it on social media – “‘People who menstruate’. I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?” – sparked a debate and ongoing criticism of her views.

Radcliffe waded into the controversy at the time in a blog post for the LGBT suicide prevention charity The Trevor Project, writing that while Rowling “is unquestionably responsible for the course my life has taken… as a human being, I feel compelled to say something at this moment”.

He added: “Transgender women are women. Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people and goes against all advice given by professional health care associations who have far more expertise on this subject matter than either Jo or I.”

Radcliffe told The Atlantic: “Obviously Harry Potter would not have happened without her, so nothing in my life would have probably happened the way it is without that person. But that doesn’t mean that you owe the things you truly believe to someone else for your entire life.”

Last month, Rowling reignited the row with the Harry Potter stars, hitting out at “celebs” who she said have “used their platforms to cheer on the transitioning of minors” – after the Cass Review found there is “remarkably weak evidence” to support gender treatments for children.

One person replied to her post on X, writing: “Just waiting for Dan and Emma to give you a very public apology… safe in the knowledge that you will forgive them…”

Rowling responded: “Not safe, I’m afraid. Celebs who cosied up to a movement intent on eroding women’s hard-won rights and who used their platforms to cheer on the transitioning of minors can save their apologies for traumatised detransitioners and vulnerable women reliant on single sex spaces.”

In response, Radcliffe told The Atlantic: “I will continue to support the rights of all LGBTQ people, and have no further comment than that.”

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Emma Watson, who played Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films, and Rupert Grint, known for his portrayal of Ron Weasley in the series, have also been outspoken in support of transgender people.