Jennifer Aniston shares text from Matthew Perry as co-stars pay tribute to actor
Friends stars Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow and David Schwimmer have paid tribute to Matthew Perry.
Aniston, who played Rachel Green in the show, wrote in an Instagram post: “Oh boy this one has cut deep… Having to say goodbye to our Matty has been an insane wave of emotions that I’ve never experienced before.
“Being able to really SIT in this grief allows you to feel the moments of joy and gratitude for having loved someone that deep. And we loved him deeply. He was such a part of our DNA. We were always the six of us.”
Perry, 54, died last month after an apparent drowning at his Los Angeles home. His death is being investigated by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office after a post-mortem examination with toxicology tests.
He played the quick-witted Chandler Bing in the beloved sitcom which ran between 1994 and 2004.
Aniston said her “chosen family” had “forever changed the course of who we were and what our path was going to be”.
She said she had been poring over their text exchanges in the days since Perry’s death, “laughing and crying then laughing again”.
Aniston posted a picture of a text exchange with Perry that she said “says it all”, where he had told her: “Making you laugh just made my day.”
She added: “Matty, I love you so much and I know you are now completely at peace and out of any pain. I talk to you every day… sometimes I can almost hear you saying ‘could you BE any crazier?’ Rest little brother. You always made my day.”
Aniston also posted a picture of a text exchange with Perry, where he said: “Making you laugh just made my day.”
All of the main Friends cast have now shared personal tributes to Perry.
Lisa Kudrow, who played Phoebe Buffay, thanked him for a multitude of things in an emotional Instagram post.
“Thank you for making me laugh so hard at something you said, that my muscles ached, and tears poured down my face EVERY DAY,” she said.
“Thank you for your open heart in a six way relationship that required compromise. And a lot of ‘talking.’
“Thank you for showing up at work when you weren’t well and then, being completely brilliant.
“Thank you for the best 10 years a person gets to have.”
Finally, she added: “Thank you for the time I got to have with you, Matthew.”
Meanwhile, Schwimmer, who played Ross Geller in the sitcom, said: “Matty, thank you for 10 incredible years of laughter and creativity.
“I will never forget your impeccable comic timing and delivery. You could take a straight line of dialogue and bend it to your will, resulting in something so entirely original and unexpectedly funny it still astonishes.
“And you had heart. Which you were generous with, and shared with us, so we could create a family out of six strangers.
“This photo is from one of my favourite moments with you. Now it makes me smile and grieve at the same time.
Matthew Perry, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer in Friends. Pic: Everett/Shutterstock
“I imagine you up there, somewhere, in the same white suit, hands in your pockets, looking around – ‘could there BE any more clouds?'”
Matt LeBlanc, who played Chandler’s best friend Joey Tribbiani in the show, said in an Instagram post on Tuesday that “the times we had together are honestly among the favourite times of my life”.
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LeBlanc wrote: “I am so grateful for every moment I had with you Matty and I miss you every day.
“It is with a heavy heart I say goodbye.
“It was an honour to share the stage with you and to call you my friend. I will always smile when I think of you and I’ll never forget you. Never.
“Spread your wings and fly brother you’re finally free. Much love.
“And I guess you’re keeping the 20 bucks you owe me.”
(L-R) Matthew Perry, Matt LeBlanc, Courteney Cox in Friends. Pic: NBC/Everett/Shutterstock
Courteney Cox, who played Chandler’s wife Monica Geller on Friends, said on Tuesday: “I am so grateful for every moment I had with you Matty and I miss you every day”.
On Instagram, she shared what she described as one of her favourite moments.
She wrote: “To give a little backstory, Chandler and Monica were supposed to have a one night fling in London. But because of the audience’s reaction, it became the beginning of their love story.
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“In this scene, before we started rolling, he whispered a funny line for me to say. He often did things like that. He was funny and he was kind.”
Tributes poured in following Perry’s death, including messages from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau – who attended the same school as the actor – and Sarah, Duchess of York, who had a cameo appearance in Friends.
The six stars at the 2021 Friends reunion special
In a joint statement released after his death on 28 October, his Friends co-stars – LeBlanc, Cox, Aniston, Schwimmer, and Kudrow – said: “We are all so utterly devastated by the loss of Matthew. We were more than just cast mates. We are a family.
The cast of Friends
“There is so much to say, but right now we’re going to take a moment to grieve and process this unfathomable loss.”
They were also among 20 mourners at Perry’s funeral in the Hollywood Hills earlier this month.
Perry was open about his battle with substance abuse and addiction, and set up a sober living facility for men with similar issues.
A foundation has now been set up to help others struggling with the disease.
Entertainment
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.
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.”
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.”
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
(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.
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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