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Richard E Grant’s wife Joan Washington was diagnosed with stage-four lung cancer eight months before her death, the actor has revealed. 

The 64-year-old, known for films including Withnail and I and The Age of Innocence, announced Washington had died last week.

Writing in the Daily Mail about their life together, Grant said: “It’s an extraordinary phenomenon to be truly ‘seen’ and ‘known’ by another human, and in Joan, I found someone who innately did both.

The pair married in 1986. Pic: Jon Furniss/Invision/AP
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They married in 1986 after meeting four years before. Pic: Jon Furniss/Invision/AP

“To have loved one another for almost four decades has been the ride of my lifetime.”

On 3 September he revealed his wife’s death, sharing a video of the pair dancing together to the song Only You.

They married in 1986 and share a daughter, Olivia, and a stepson, Tom, from Washington’s previous relationship.

He said: “Since her stage four lung cancer diagnosis two days before Christmas, she was accepting, clear sighted, sanguine and totally without self pity.”

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He praised the oncology team at the Royal Marsden Hospital, NHS nurses, Price’s Mill Surgery and Longfield palliative carers from their “beyond exemplary” work.

He continued: “It’s been my privilege to be by your side, sharing our last eight months together, enabling us to say everything we possibly wanted and needed to, so that when you asked Olivia and me two weeks ago ‘to let me go’, we unequivocally said ‘yes’.”

He revealed the Prince of Wales had visited Washington, who he affectionately referred to as The Colonel, shortly before she died.

He said: “Prince Charles came to see ‘The Colonel’ last month, sat beside her, took her hand and said, ‘It’s been an absolute honour to have known you, Joan’ to which she instantly quipped, ‘I’m still here.’ Which broke the ice and made all three of us cackle.

“Astonishingly, unlike me, she’s never been star struck and possessed the innate gift of speaking to everyone of any age or status as her equal.”

The couple met when Washington agreed to give Grant private voice lessons in 1982.

The following January, she asked him to dinner in exchange for putting a script on tape for an RSC production she was voice coaching on.

Grant wrote: “Joan and I continued eating and yakking and I somehow managed to miss the midnight Tube back to my bedsit in Notting Hill from Richmond and so began our conversation which continued and lasted 38 years long, finally ending at 7.30 last Thursday evening, holding each other’s hands, telling her how much I loved her.

“Unaware that her next inhalation would be her earthly last.”

He added: “Our loss is incalculable. Your love is immeasurable.

“The depth of our grief is mirrored by the magnitude of our love.

“Goodbye Monkee-mine.

“Do not forget us.”

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Aimee Lou Wood hits out at ‘mean and unfunny’ SNL joke

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Aimee Lou Wood hits out at 'mean and unfunny' SNL joke

The White Lotus star Aimee Lou Wood has called a sketch making fun of her teeth “mean and unfunny”.

The 31-year-old British actress posted an Instagram story about the joke on US TV show Saturday Night Live (SNL), in which comedian Sarah Sherman used exaggerated prosthetic teeth to do an impression of her.

Production shot of actress Aimee Lou Wood from S3 of The White Lotus Credit: HBO
From HBO media pack. Source: https://press.wbd.com/na/property/white-lotus/images
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Pic: HBO

In the skit, titled The White Potus, Donald Trump and his family were reimagined as The White Lotus’s Ratliff family, dealing with the backlash to the US president’s recently introduced tariffs.

The third season of Mike White’s hit hotel drama has just concluded on Sky Atlantic.

While the other characters in the skit were shown in the guise of real-life political figures, Wood, who plays Chelsea in the show, was show in character talking about a monkey.

Wood, who shot to fame on Netflix’s Sex Education, said she was the only character in the piece that was “punched down on”.

She also said a part of the parody that joked about fluoride, following recent debates in the US as to if it should be removed from the tap water, was missing the point as she has “big gap teeth not bad teeth”.

Wood wrote: “Yes, take the piss for sure – that’s what the show is about – but there must be a cleverer, more nuanced, less cheap way?”

The Stockport-born star also flagged Sherman’s poor attempt at a Mancunian accent.

But Wood went on to say that she wasn’t “hating” on Sherman personally, just “on the concept”.

Production shot of actress Aimee Lou Wood from S3 of The White Lotus Credit: HBO
From HBO media pack. Source: https://press.wbd.com/na/property/white-lotus/images
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Pic: HBO

Wood also flagged an online comment that said: “It was a sharp and funny skit until it suddenly took a screeching turn into 1970s misogyny,” adding, “This sums up my view”.

After sharing her opinions, Wood said she had received “thousands of messages in agreement” and so was “glad I said something”.

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The White Lotus is set in ‘actual paradise’

Wood shared comments of support she had received.

One, from an unnamed fan, said she too had “a big gap” in her teeth, as well as “an overbite” and that while she had been previously considering “spending thousands on fixing it,” seeing Wood look “gorgeous” on The White Lotus had made her reconsider.

Wood said SNL has since apologised to her.

Wood previously said, during an appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show, that the positive reception to her performance was “a real full-circle moment after being bullied for my teeth forever”.

NBC, which airs SNL, has been contacted for comment.

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Upstairs, Downstairs actress Jean Marsh dies

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Upstairs, Downstairs actress Jean Marsh dies

Jean Marsh, star of Upstairs, Downstairs, has died aged 90, a friend has confirmed.

Marsh’s friend, director Sir Michael Lindsay-Hogg, said in a statement to the PA news agency that the actress “died peacefully in bed looked after by one of her very loving carers”.

“You could say we were very close for 60 years,” he added. “She was as wise and funny as anyone I ever met, as well as being very pretty and kind, and talented as both an actress and writer.

“An instinctively empathetic person who was loved by everyone who met her. We spoke on the phone almost every day for the past 40 years.”

Robert Blake and Jean Marsh with their Emmy Awards in 1975. Pic: AP
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Robert Blake and Jean Marsh with their Emmy Awards in 1975. Pic: AP

Marsh was best known for her role as Rose in Upstairs, Downstairs, for which she won an Emmy for outstanding lead actress in a limited series in 1976.

She co-created the series – about life in Edwardian England – with Dame Eileen Atkins.

Jean Marsh in 1975. Pic: PA
Image:
Jean Marsh in 1975. Pic: PA

Born on 1 July 1934 in Stoke Newington, north London, Jean Lyndsey Torren Marsh’s mother worked in a bar and as a theatre dresser, while her father was a handyman and printer’s assistant.

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Marsh took dance and mime classes as therapy for an illness at a young age, and began acting on stage with a stint at Huddersfield Rep in the 1950s.

She then transferred to London, and at just 12 years old made her West End debut in The Land Of The Christmas Stockings at The Duke of York’s Theatre.

Gordon Jackson, as butler Hudson and Jean Marsh, as parlour maid Rose Buck. Pic: PA
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Gordon Jackson, as butler Hudson and Jean Marsh, as parlour maid Rose Buck. Pic: PA

A success in the US, Marsh appeared in iconic shows such as The Twilight Zone, Danger Man, Hawaii Five-O and Murder, She Wrote.

She also made appearances in classic British shows, including Doctor Who – where she played William Hartnell’s short-lived companion Sara Kingdom – and Detective.

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Menendez brothers’ resentencing hearing can go ahead next week, says judge

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Menendez brothers' resentencing hearing can go ahead next week, says judge

The Menendez brothers’ bid for freedom through resentencing can continue with the hearing scheduled for Thursday, a judge has ruled.

Lyle, 57, and Erik, 54, received life sentences without the possibility of parole after being convicted of murdering their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, at their Beverly Hills home in 1989.

Lyle was 21 at the time, Erik was 18.

Last year, Los Angeles district attorney George Gascon asked a judge to change the brothers’ sentence from life without the possibility of parole to 50 years to life. That would make them immediately eligible for parole because they committed the crime when they were younger than 26.

But Mr Gascon’s successor Nathan Hochman submitted a motion last month to withdraw the resentencing request, saying the brothers must fully acknowledge lies they told about the murder of their parents before he would support their release from prison.

Separately, Governor Gavin Newsom, who has the power to commute their sentences, has asked the parole board to consider whether the brothers would represent a public safety risk if released.

Anamaria Baralt, cousin of Erik and Lyle Menendez, hugs attorney Mark Geragos after a hearing in the brothers' case Friday, April 11, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
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Anamaria Baralt, cousin of Erik and Lyle Menendez, hugs attorney Mark Geragos. Pic: AP

In light of Mr Hochman’s opposition, Los Angeles County Superior Court judge Michael Jesic ruled on Friday that the court can move forward with the hearing.

“Everything you argued today is absolutely fair game for the resentencing hearing next Thursday,” he said.

From prison, the brothers watched through a video link and could be seen in court seated next to each other in blue.

Speaking after the hearing, the brothers’ lawyer said: “Today is a good day. Justice won over politics.”

Prosecutors accused the brothers of killing their parents for a multimillion-dollar inheritance, although their defence team argued they acted out of self-defence after years of sexual abuse by their father.

A preliminary hearing held in Beverly Hills, Calif., for Lyle, left, and Erik Menendez, was postponed Friday as their lawyers fought to keep potentially incriminating evidence out of the case, April 12, 1991. Lyle, 23, and Eric, 20, are charged in the August 1989 shotgun murders of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez. (APP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)
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The brothers were convicted in 1996 of first-degree murder. Pic: AP

The brothers have maintained their parents abused them since they were first charged with the murders.

A Netflix drama series and subsequent documentary about the brothers thrust them back into the spotlight last year, and led to renewed calls for their release – including from some members of their family.

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