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Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida has died at the age of 95, according to ANSA news agency.

She was one of the highest-profile European actresses of the 1950s and early 1960s, playing opposite Hollywood stars including Humphrey Bogart, Rock Hudson, Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis and Frank Sinatra.

Lollobrigida with Tony Curtis in Trapeze, in 1956. Pic: Snap/Shutterstock
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Lollobrigida with Tony Curtis in Trapeze, in 1956. Pic: Snap/Shutterstock

Starting out from humble beginnings, she became one of the most recognisable faces of Italian post-war cinema.

An international sex symbol – rivalled only by fellow Italian actress Sophia Loren – Lollobrigida was one of the last of the last remaining stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age.

Her former lawyer, Giulia Citani, said she died at a clinic in Rome, but did not give her cause of death.

Affectionately known in her native Italy simply as “La Lollo”, she starred in films including The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, Solomon and Sheba, Beautiful But Dangerous and The World’s Most Beautiful Woman during her five-decade acting career.

Eventually stepping away from the movie world, Lollobrigida found success as a photographer and sculptor in later life, also venturing into the world of politics.

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In 1975, rumours swirled that she had had an affair with Cuban leader Fidel Castro, after she secured exclusive access to him for a documentary she produced.

She later made headlines in 2006, when aged 79, she announced she was marrying a man 34 years her junior. She later called off the wedding, blaming the media for spoiling it.

Lollobrigida with Yul Brynner in Solomon And Sheba, in 1959. Pic: Moviestore/Shutterstock
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Lollobrigida with Yul Brynner in Solomon And Sheba, in 1959. Pic: Moviestore/Shutterstock

Just last September, she failed in a bid to win a seat in the Italian parliament for Sovereign and Popular Italy (ISP), a leftist political party at national elections, after they failed to reach the 3% electoral threshold.

In 1975, rumours swirled that she had had an affair with Cuban leader Fidel Castro, after she secured exclusive access to him for a documentary she produced.

She later made headlines in 2006, when aged 79, she announced she was marrying a man 34 years her junior. She went on to call off the wedding, blaming the media for spoiling it.

Lollobrigida with Anthony Quinn in Hunchback Of Notre Dame in 1957. Pic: Snap/Shutterstock
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Lollobrigida with Anthony Quinn in Hunchback Of Notre Dame in 1957. Pic: Snap/Shutterstock

When she was 80, she said in an interview: “All my life I wanted a real love, an authentic love, but I have never had one. No one has ever truly loved me. I am a cumbersome woman”.

Born to a working-class family in Subiaco, a poor mountainous area east of Rome, Lollobrigida initially studied sculpture, but got her break in the film world after finishing third in the 1947 Miss Italia beauty contest.

One of her earliest screen roles was playing an adulteress in 1953 film The Wayward Wife. Leading roles in two Italian comedies directed by Luigi Comencini, Bread, Love and Dreams, and Bread, Love and Jealousy followed.

Lollobrigida at the Beverly Hills hotel in Los Angeles in 1959. Pic: AP
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Lollobrigida at the Beverly Hills hotel in Los Angeles in 1959. Pic: AP

A role opposite Humphrey Bogart in John Huston’s 1954 film Beat the Devil added to her exposure, but it was the 1955 movie The World’s Most Beautiful Woman – which became one of her signature roles – which sealed her worldwide fame.

Despite making it in Hollywood, she preferred to work closer to home, making films throughout the 1960s with Italian directors such as Mario Bolognini.

Her last big well-known film, the 1968 farce Buona Sera, Mrs Campbell, which also starred American actor Telly Savalas, earned her several award nominations.

Born Luigia Lollobrigida on 4 July, 1927, she studied at Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, before working as a model under the stage name Diana Loris.

Tempestuous and impulsive by nature, her on-screen success was accompanied by intense interest from Italian paparazzi and gossip writers.

At one point, in a bid to guard her private life, she retreated to an isolated villa on Rome’s ancient Appian Way.

In 1950 she married the Yugoslavian doctor Milko Skofic, who later became her manager. The couple had one son, Milko Junior.

They separated after nearly 17 years, with Lollobrigida saying at the time she had no intention of remarrying.

Pic: Lollobrigida pictured in the 1980s. Baril Pascal/ABACA/Shutterstock
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Pic: Lollobrigida pictured in the 1980s. Baril Pascal/ABACA/Shutterstock

However, in 2006, she announced her she would be marring close friend Javier Rigau, a Spanish man 34 years her junior.

Months later, she called off the wedding, saying that the media coverage had ruined her life with “endless attacks, slander and violence”.

She later said in an interview with Reuters that she felt responsible for Rigau’s suffering, after the Spanish media labelled him an opportunist. In contrast, she said she was “more used to having falsehoods written about me”.

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Stalker who believed Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas was his aunt avoids jail

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Stalker who believed Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas was his aunt avoids jail

A man who stalked Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas for six years has avoided jail.

Kyle Shaw, 37, got a 20-month suspended sentence and a lifetime restraining order on contacting Ballas, her mother, niece, and former partner.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that he thought Ballas was his aunt and “began a persistent campaign of contact”.

“He believed, and it’s evident from what he was told by his mother, that her late brother was his father,” said prosecutor Nicola Daley.

The court heard there was no evidence he was wrong, and “limited evidence” he was correct.

Ms Daley said Shaw’s messages had accused Ballas of being to blame for the death of her brother, who took his own life in 2003 aged 44.

He also set up social media accounts in his name.

Shaw had pleaded guilty to stalking the former dancer between August 2017 and November 2023 at a hearing in February.

Incidents included following Ballas’s 86-year-old mother, Audrey Rich, while she was shopping and telling her she was his grandmother.

The court heard in messages to Mrs Rich, Shaw had asked: “Where’s my dad?”

Ballas was so worried for her mother’s safety that she moved her from Merseyside to London.

Shaw outside court on the day of his sentencing. Pic: PA
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Kyle Shaw outside court on the day of his sentencing. Pic: PA

In October 2020, Ballas called police after Shaw messaged her and said: “Do you want me to kill myself, Shirley?”

Posts on X included one alongside an image of her home address that warned: “You ruined my life, I’ll ruin yours and everyone’s around you.”

Another referenced a book signing and said: “I can’t wait to meet you for the first time Aunty Shirley. Hopefully I can get an autograph.”

The court was told Ballas’s niece Mary Assall, former partner Daniel Taylor and colleagues from Strictly Come Dancing and ITV’s Loose Women were also sent messages.

‘I know where you live’

On one occasion in late 2023, Shaw called Mr Taylor and told him he knew where the couple lived and described Ballas’s movements.

The court heard the 64-year-old TV star become wary of socialising and stopped using public transport.

Prosecutor Ms Daley said: “She described having sleepless nights worrying about herself and her family’s safety and being particularly distressed when suggestions were made to her that she and her mother were responsible for her brother taking his own life.”

Man accused of stalking Shirley Ballas
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Ballas has been head judge on Strictly Come Dancing since 2017. Pic: PA

Shaw cried and wiped away tears as he was sentenced on Tuesday.

The judge said the stalking stemmed from his mother telling him Ballas’s brother, David Rich, was his biological father.

“I’m satisfied that your motive for this offending was a desire to seek contact with people you genuinely believed were your family,” he said.

“Whether in fact there’s any truth in that belief is difficult, if not impossible, to determine.”

Kyle Shaw leaves Liverpool Crown Court, where he is charged with stalking Strictly judge Shirley Ballas.
Pic: PA
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Shaw pictured at court in February. Pic: PA

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Defence lawyer John Weate said Shaw had been told the story by his mother “in his mid to late teens” and had suffered “complex mental health issues” since he was a child.

He added: “He now accepts that Miss Ballas and her family don’t wish to have any contact with him and, importantly, he volunteered the information that he has no intention of contacting them again.”

Shaw, of Whetstone Lane in Birkenhead, also admitted possessing cannabis and was ordered to undertake a rehab programme.

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Gary Glitter made bankrupt after failing to pay £500k compensation to victim

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Gary Glitter made bankrupt after failing to pay £500k compensation to victim

Gary Glitter has been made bankrupt after failing to pay more than £500,000 in damages to a woman he abused when she was 12 years old.

She sued the disgraced singer, whose real name is Paul Gadd, after he was found guilty of attacking her and two other schoolgirls between 1975 and 1980.

Glitter, 80, was jailed for 16 years in 2015 and released in 2023 but was recalled to prison less than six weeks later after breaching his parole conditions.

A judge awarded the woman £508,800, including £381,000 in lost earnings and £7,800 for future therapy and treatment, saying she was subjected to abuse “of the most serious kind”.

The court heard she had not worked for decades due to the trauma of being repeatedly raped and “humiliated” by the singer.

Gary Glitter has lost a parole board bid to be freed from jail.
Pic:Met Police/PA
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Glitter was jailed for 16 years in 2015. Pic: Met Police/PA

Glitter was made bankrupt last month at the County Court at Torquay and Newton Abbot, in Devon – the county where he is reportedly serving his sentence in Channings Wood prison, in Newton Abbot.

Richard Scorer, head of abuse law at Slater and Gordon, the law firm representing the woman, said: “We confirm that Gadd has been made bankrupt following our client’s application.

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“As he has done throughout, Gadd has refused to cooperate with the process and continues to treat his victims with contempt.

“We hope and trust that the parole board will take his behaviour into account in any future parole applications, as it clearly demonstrates that he has never changed, shows no remorse and remains a serious risk to the public.”

Glitter was first jailed for four months in 1999 after he admitted possessing around 4,000 indecent images of children.

He was expelled from Cambodia in 2002, and in March 2006 was convicted of sexually abusing two girls, aged 10 and 11, in Vietnam where he spent two-and-a-half years in prison.

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His sentence for the 2016 convictions expires in February 2031.

Glitter was automatically released from HMP The Verne, a low-security prison in Portland, Dorset, in February 2023 after serving half of his fixed-term determinate sentence.

But he was back behind bars weeks later after reportedly trying to access the dark web and images of children.

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Paul Mescal and Barry Keoghan revealed in line-up for Sam Mendes’ four Beatles films

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Paul Mescal and Barry Keoghan revealed in line-up for Sam Mendes' four Beatles films

Paul Mescal and Barry Keoghan will play Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr in the upcoming Beatles films – with a Stranger Things star also portraying one of the Fab Four.

The two Irish actors will be joined by London-born performers Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, and Joseph Quinn as George Harrison.

The cast for the Sam Mendes project was revealed at the CinemaCon event in Las Vegas, with all four appearing on stage and taking a bow together in Beatles style.

Paul Mescal, Joseph Quinn, Barry Keoghan and Harris Dickinson stand onstage to promote the upcoming "The Beatles" movies during a Sony Pictures presentation.
Pic: Reuters
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(L-R) Mescal, Quinn, Keoghan and Dickinson appeared together at the announcement. Pic: Reuters

Mendes is making four interconnected films – one from the perspective of each of the band members – and they are all set to be released “in proximity” to each other in April 2028.

It marks the first time The Beatles and the families of John Lennon and George Harrison have granted full life story and music rights for a scripted film.

Playing McCartney is another big role for 29-year-old Mescal, who recently starred in the Gladiator sequel and was nominated for an Oscar in 2023 for Aftersun.

Barry Keoghan – who also got an Oscar nod for The Banshees of Inisherin – will portray the other surviving Beatles member, Ringo Starr.

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The Beatles
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Pic: PA

Meanwhile, Stranger Things star Joseph Quinn, who appeared with long hair as Eddie Munson in the fourth series, takes up the role of George Harrison.

Harris Dickinson has the challenge of stepping into the shoes of perhaps the most famous Beatle, John Lennon.

The 28-year-old recently starred in erotic thriller Babygirl with Nicole Kidman and also appeared in satire Triangle of Sadness.

Mendes told the industry audience at CinemaCon there is “still plenty to explore” despite the Beatles’ rise having being well chronicled.

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The Oscar-winning British director is known for films including American Beauty, First World War movie 1917, and Bond outings Skyfall and Spectre.

Sony Pictures boss Tom Rothman said the close release of all four films in three years’ time will be “the first bingeable theatrical experience”.

“We are going to dominate the culture that month,” he added.

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