Lynn Ban, star of Netflix reality show Bling Empire: New York, has died after having brain surgery due to a skiing accident.

The 51-year-old jewellery designer from Singapore died on Monday, her son Sebastian announced on social media – weeks after she underwent emergency brain surgery due to a skiing accident.

Last month, Ban, who lived in New York, shared with her Instagram followers that she “had a ski accident that would change my life” while on holiday in Aspen on Christmas Eve.

She revealed a CAT scan showed she had a severe head injury, including a brain bleed, meaning she needed an emergency craniotomy.

She said she woke up in hospital with her husband Jett Kain nearby, and hoped to recover this year.

In an update on her Instagram account on Wednesday, her son Sebastian wrote: “My mum passed away on Monday. I know she wanted to share her journey after her accident and brain surgery, so I thought she would appreciate one last post sharing the news to people who supported her.

“Many of you followed my mum but never got the chance to know her or meet her in person,” he added.

“I would like to take the chance to share who my mum really was. She was and always will be my best friend, the best mother to me, and someone who cared for all.

“She always had a smile on her face even when times were tough during her recovery process.

“She was a fighter until the end and is the strongest woman I know. She was the funniest and coolest mum I could ever ask for. She took care of me, my dad, and our entire family throughout her whole life.

“Although she may be gone now, I will do everything I can to make sure she is never forgotten and for her life to be celebrated as it deserves to be.

“As a final message to my mum, I would just like to say that I will miss you forever and to end in something she always told me ‘I love you more than life itself’ mum.”

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Ban starred in Bling Empire: New York, a spinoff of the popular Netflix reality series Bling Empire, which followed a group of wealthy Asian American socialites living in Los Angeles.

She also had a private jewellery label which catered to a host of celebrities, including thRihanna, Beyonce, Cardi B, Billie Eilish, Madonna, Lady Gaga, Kendrick Lamar and Post Malone.

Pop star Rihanna was among those who paid tribute on social media, writing: “2025 is rocking me at this point! This is too much!!! Lynn you will always be our fairy godmother!”

Designers Bea Akerlund and Phillip Bloch, Younger star Debi Mazar, and A Star Is Born actress Drena De Niro also paid tribute.

Emilia Perez leads the nominations for this year’s Oscars – and has broken the record for the most nominated non-English language film in the history of the awards.

The Spanish-language musical, which tells the story of a Mexican cartel boss who undergoes gender affirmation surgery, stars Zoe Saldana, Selena Gomez and Karla Sofia Gascon – who is the first transgender woman to be nominated in an acting category.

It has 13 Oscar nominations in total, including best picture – breaking the record of 10 nods for a foreign language film set by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2001, and equalled by Roma in 2019.

Post-war epic The Brutalist and the blockbuster musical adaptation Wicked follow with 10 nominations each, while papal thriller Conclave and Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown have eight.

All are up for best picture, alongside Anora, Dune: Part Two, I’m Still Here, Nickel Boys and The Substance.

In the acting categories, Gascon is up for best actress against Wicked star Cynthia Erivo, Anora newcomer Mikey Madison, and Golden Globe winners Demi Moore and Fernanda Torres, for their performances in The Substance and I’m Still Here respectively.

Timothee Chalamet’s portrayal of Dylan in A Complete Unknown has earned him a nomination for best actor, alongside Sebastian Stan, who is shortlisted for his performance as a younger Donald Trump in The Apprentice.

Adrien Brody, who plays a Hungarian architect attempting to build a life in the US after the Second World War in The Brutalist, is also in the running, alongside British star Ralph Fiennes, for Conclave, and Colman Domingo, for the true story prison drama Sing Sing.

In the supporting actor category, Golden Globe winner Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain) is up against his former Succession co-star Jeremy Strong (The Apprentice), along with Yura Borisov (Anora), Edward Norton, (A Complete Unknown) and Guy Pearce (The Brutalist).

US pop singer Ariana Grande gets her first Oscar nomination in the best supporting actress category, for her performance as Glinda the good witch alongside British star Erivo’s green-skinned Elphaba in the box-office smash Wicked. She is up against British star Felicity Jones (The Brutalist), Monica Barbaro (A Complete Unknown), Isabella Rossellini (Conclave), and Saldana for Emilia Perez.

The shortlist for best director includes Sean Baker (Anora), Brady Corbet (The Brutalist), Coralie Fargeat (The Substance), Jacques Audiard (Emilia Perez) and James Mangold (A Complete Unknown).

This year’s nominations announcement was originally scheduled to take place on 17 January, but was pushed back twice due to the wildfires which have devastated Los Angeles since the start of the year.

Winners will be announced at the star-studded Academy Awards ceremony, which is due to be held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on Sunday 2 March.

Comedian and TV personality Conan O’Brien is this year’s host.

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Ricky Gervais has paid tribute to his “beautiful” on-screen dog who featured in his TV show After Life.

The British comedian and actor said Vislor Antilly, also known as Anti, was a “beautiful soul” and they “hit it off straight away”.

Gervais said the German shepherd helped make After Life his “favourite filming experience of all time” and he was glad he told her “a hundred times a day that she was a very good girl”.

Antilly was Brandy the Dog in all 18 episodes of the Netflix comedy about local newspaper reporter Tony, played by Gervais, who is dealing with his wife’s death.

In the show, which ran for three seasons from 2019 to 2022, Tony is often seen walking Brandy, who stops him from taking his own life.

A statement on the Instagram account of Antilly the Wonder Hound read: “Vislor Antilly, After Life’s Brandy, has sadly passed away. We already miss her terribly. Sleep well xxx.”

She died peacefully at her home in Oxfordshire at the age of 13.

‘Such sad news’

Reacting to the death, Gervais said: “This is such sad news. Anti was a beautiful soul.”

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The canine also featured in Hollywood movies including Tom Cruise’s Edge Of Tomorrow, Michael Fassbender’s Trespass Against Us and George Clooney’s The Midnight Sky.

And she was in TV shows such as The Capture, Doc Martin, Britain’s Got More Talent, and 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown.

Her final stunt on camera was released in July last year in the Midsomer Murders episode The Debt Of Lies, where she played a retired police dog who detains the murderer before retiring.

After that, Antilly retired from film and television.

‘Animal actor and stunt performer’

Born in April 2011 in Herefordshire, at the home of West Bromwich-based Vislor Dog Training Centre, Antilly was raised by trainers Travis and Ashley Foster, who appeared in Sir Christopher Nolan’s Batman: The Dark Knight. She visited them on set when she was 10 weeks old.

The biography on her Instagram account read: “Vislor Antilly is an animal actor, stunt performer and charity advocate. She played Brandy in After Life by Ricky Gervais and has a very silly tummy.”