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Actor Kevin Bacon has returned to the US high school where his movie Footloose was filmed more than 40 years ago.

The 65-year-old visited Payson High School in the state of Utah to greet students following a years-long campaign which started on social media under the hashtag #BaconToPayson.

According to news reports last month, the school had gone Footloose-crazy – holding a Footloose movie night, staging a Footloose musical, renaming the annual Mr Payson pageant after the actor, and even holding a competition for essays persuading Bacon to visit.

The mission turned into a community-wide campaign to partner with the actor’s charity, with students helping to put together 5,000 care packages for SixDegrees.

Kevin Bacon visits Payson High School, where Footloose was filmed. Pic: NBC
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Students welcome Kevin Bacon. Pic: NBC

Actor Kevin Bacon, centre, helps fill care packages for his charity in Payson, Utah, while visiting the Utah high school where Footloose was filmed. Pic: Jesse Sorenson via AP
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Kevin Bacon helps fill care packages for his charity. Pic: Jesse Sorenson/AP

And on Saturday, the actor came to help about 700 students and 300 community members fill the care packages.

“You talked me into it,” he said to the students.

“It’s great to see that kind of commitment to anything.

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“I also think that it’s amazing to see the power that this movie has had to bring people together.”

In March, when he accepted the invitation to visit, he said: “I have been so impressed with everything that has been going on there with this crazy idea to get me back, so thank you, thank you, and I’m gonna come. I gotta come.”

Kevin Bacon visits Payson High School, where Footloose was filmed. Pic: NBC
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Pic: NBC

In Footloose, Bacon played a teenager from Chicago who moved to a small town and fought its ban on dancing.

The town of Payson, about 60 miles south of Salt Lake City, was the film’s setting.

Some of its 21,000 residents remember being extras and can point out parts of the town used in the film.

At the end of the day, Payson High School students held their prom.

It is likely to be the last prom at the school before its outdated buildings are torn down next year.

The theme of the prom? Footloose, of course.

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Dancing On Ice dedicated to The Vivienne as vigil held in Liverpool to remember drag queen

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Dancing On Ice dedicated to The Vivienne as vigil held in Liverpool to remember drag queen

RuPaul’s Drag Race star The Vivienne was remembered at a vigil in their home city of Liverpool on Sunday night.

James Lee Williams, originally from Colwyn Bay in North Wales, died on 5 January aged 32.

Hundreds of fans and friends of The Vivienne gathered at Liverpool‘s St George’s Hall.

Buildings across the city were lit up in green to commemorate the drag queen and their role as the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard Of Oz musical.

Fellow drag queen Danny Beard said the vigil was “a celebration of someone who touched the lives of so many”.

“The Vivienne was one of the world’s most recognisable drag queens, a proper world class entertainer,” they added.

“And above all a shining beacon in all of our lives and especially for the LGBT community.”

James Lee Williams - better known as The Vivienne
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James Lee Williams – better known as The Vivienne. Pic: PA

Since The Vivienne first rose to prominence in 2019, they appeared on a number of TV programmes, including Blankety Blank over the Christmas period.

The first episode in the series of Dancing On Ice on Sunday night also featured a tribute to The Vivienne, who competed on the 2023 series.

Presenter Holly Willoughby said many would have been “saddened by the tragic news”.

“They were a huge part of our show, making it all the way to the final in 2023,” she added.

“They will be very sorely missed and our thoughts are with The Vivienne’s loved ones at this time. So sad.”

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In a tribute released after Mr Williams’s death, a Dancing On Ice spokesperson said they were “deeply saddened” by the news.

They said Mr Williams had made “TV history through their groundbreaking and spellbinding skating partnership”, becoming the first drag act to reach the Dancing On Ice final.

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The Wanted star Max George recalls moment he wrote will from hospital bed before heart surgery

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The Wanted star Max George recalls moment he wrote will from hospital bed before heart surgery

The Wanted star Max George has told of the moment he wrote his will from a hospital bed, as he was convinced he “was going to die”.

In December, George revealed he had to undergo urgent heart surgery after being diagnosed with a block.

In an interview with The Sun, his first since he underwent the lifesaving surgery, the 36-year-old described the moment when he thought he would die.

He said: “If I could go from being absolutely on top of the world to being told ‘the bottom part of your heart isn’t working’, I kept thinking in my head, ‘Well, what if the top half stops working overnight?'”

“That first night I wrote a will, I thought I was going to die,” the 36-year-old musician added.

On the night of 13 December, George said his heart rate and blood pressure dropped, “I felt like I was dying,” he said.

He had a pacemaker fitted by doctors during the surgery, but the former Strictly Come Dancing star said he made a will on his phone fearing the worst.

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Before the surgery, George said his thoughts turned to his partner, British actress Maisie Smith, and his family who he feared he’d leave behind.

He shared updates on social media throughout the process.

While the procedure was complicated by collapsed veins caused by the condition, the surgery was successful and he returned home before Christmas.

He described his pacemaker as “the best Christmas present”.

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Tom Parker, who also rose to fame in the 2010s with the boy band along with George, died at the age of 33 after being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour.

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Former Little Mix star Jesy Nelson announces pregnancy – and it’s twins

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Former Little Mix star Jesy Nelson announces pregnancy - and it's twins

Former Little Mix star Jesy Nelson has announced she is pregnant with twins.

The singer, 33, said she was “eating for three now” on her Instagram alongside a polaroid picture of her with Zion Foster, with whom she was reported to have split up last year.

Nelson shared the touching post on Sunday, letting the world know she is set to become a mum for the first time – including two baby emojis next to her message.

The cosy picture shows the pair smiling in a kitchen.

Nelson rose to fame with the girl band Little Mix, which formed on The X Factor in 2011 and earned a string of UK number-one singles.

However, she left in December 2020 after nine years, saying the pressures of being in the group had taken a toll on her mental health.

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Nelson has since performed as a solo artist but still had praise for her former bandmates, telling The Graham Norton Show in 2021: “To me they are still the sickest girl band in the world.”

Little Mix continued as a trio after Nelson’s departure in December 2020 before going on hiatus in 2022.

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