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Ever since pictures of Rivals’ all-star cast started circulating online, fans of Dame Jilly Cooper’s Rutshire Chronicles series have been getting excited about its TV adaptation.

The Disney+ show features one of the most starry ensembles viewers will have seen in a long time.

The likes of Aidan Turner, David Tennant and Danny Dyer have undergone some brilliant ’80s makeovers in order to bring to life all the scandal and sex of Dame Jilly’s best-selling book, which is set around life at a fictionalised TV channel.

For Turner, cast as the show’s lead news anchor, the “really cool” part was seeing the “sharp as a tack” author on set.

Pic: Rivals/Disney+/Havas
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Pic:Rivals/Disney+/Havas

Turner said: “I think one of the first questions she asked was ‘who’s popping into whose trailer around here?'”. He admitted he “fed her a bunch of lies, but she seemed happy with it!”

While some literary snobs have in the past dismissed Cooper’s novels, there is a lot more to her writing than a bare bottom or two – her social commentary for starters.

Aidan Turner (with Nafessa Williams) said Jilly Cooper was 'sharp as a tack'
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Aidan Turner (with Nafessa Williams) said Jilly Cooper was ‘sharp as a tack’

As Turner explained: “Our show does feel like there’s a refreshing sense about it. It’s fun, it’s bold, it doesn’t feel safe, it feels different and, you know, it is this kind of perspective on the ’80s told through a 21st-century lens, I suppose.”

As to be expected, it doesn’t shy away from showing sex.

David Tennant, who plays the ethically questionable TV company chairman Lord Tony Baddingham, said for actors the industry has “gone on a bit of a journey” when it comes to approaching raunchier scenes.

“MeToo happened and corrected things a bit,” he said. “We’re now in a world where… everyone feels they’re in charge of that telling rather than having it done to them, so I think it feels quite empowering actually.”

Alex Hassell (L) and David Tennant
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Alex Hassell (L) and David Tennant

Emily Atack said she is still laughing about how “liberating” she found the experience of being asked on day one to strip off for a naked game of lawn tennis (not a euphemism).

She said: “I’m on a closed set, we have intimacy coordinators… and I’m very comfortable and happy… it’s other peoples’ behaviours that need to be looked at if they’re going to twist that into some grotesque negativity.”

Emily Atack filmed a naked tennis scene
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Emily Atack filmed a naked tennis scene on her first day

For Alex Hassell, there is a weight of expectation on his shoulders. He was cast as the infamous Rupert Campbell-Black, who, those au fait with the books will know, is “the handsomest man in England”.

He said he “knew of the books being high up on my mum and dad’s shelf when I was young, next to The Joy Of Sex, but no, I didn’t quite know what I was letting myself in for”.

When he read the scripts, he said he “made the decision to be okay with [all of] it”.

A typically passionate scene from Rivals. Pic: Rivals/Disney?Havas
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A passionate scene from Rivals. Pic: Rivals/Disney

He added: “I wouldn’t have done anything that I didn’t want to do, but I thought ‘if I go into this feeling really nervous and awkward, then it’s going to be nervous and awkward’.

“A lot of the sex scenes are supposed to be fun, joyous, a reciprocal pleasure-giving experience. We tried to just have a laugh as much as possible.”

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One of the most remarked-upon transformations is that of Eastenders’ Danny Dyer who said he had a lot of fun playing “a teddy bear with a bite”.

Katherine Parkinson and Danny Dyer, who grew his own moustache for the show
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Katherine Parkinson and Danny Dyer, who grew his own moustache for the show

He teased: “Growing a moustache, and it’s my own moustache, shows that I’m a very versatile actor.”

Rivals is released on Disney+ on 18 October.

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Kanye West accused of sexual assault on set of music video in new lawsuit

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Kanye West accused of sexual assault on set of music video in new lawsuit

Rapper Ye – formerly known as Kanye West – has been accused of sexual assault in a civil lawsuit that alleges he strangled a model on the set of a music video.

Warning: This story contains details that readers may find distressing

The lawsuit alleges the musician shoved his fingers in the claimant’s mouth at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City in 2010, in what it refers to as “pornographic gagging”, Sky News’ US partner network NBC News reported.

The model who brought the case – which was filed on Friday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York – was a background actor for another musician’s music video that Ye was guest-starring in, NBC said, citing the lawsuit.

She is seeking compensatory and punitive damages against the 47-year-old.

A representative for Ye was approached for comment by NBC News on Saturday.

The New York City Police Department said it took “sexual assault and rape cases extremely seriously, and urges anyone who has been a victim to file a police report so we can perform a comprehensive investigation, and offer support and services to survivors”.

The lawsuit alleges that a few hours into the shoot, the rapper arrived on set, took over control and ordered “female background actors/models, including the claimant, to line up in the hallway”.

The rapper is then believed to have “evaluated their appearances, pointed to two of the women, and then commanded them to follow him”.

The lawsuit adds the claimant, who was said to be wearing “revealing lingerie”, was uncomfortable but went with Ye to a suite which had a sofa and a camera.

When in the room, Ye is said to have ordered the production team to start playing the music, to which he did not know his lyrics and instead rambled, “rawr, rawr, rawr”.

The lawsuit claims: “Defendant West then pulled two chairs near the camera, positioned them across from each other, and instructed the claimant to sit in the chair in front of the camera.”

While stood over the model, the lawsuit clams Ye strangled her with both hands, according to NBC.

It claims he went on to “emulate forced oral sex” with his hands, with the rapper allegedly screaming: “This is art. This is f****** art. I am like Picasso.”

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Universal Music Group is also named in the lawsuit as a defendant and is accused of failing to investigate the incident.

The corporation did not immediately respond to a request for comment by NBC.

Jesse S Weinstein, a lawyer representing the claimant, said the woman “displayed great courage to speak out against some of the most powerful men and entities within the entertainment industry”.

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Joy star James Norton on the ‘postcode lottery’ of IVF – and playing the scientist who was part of creating the first ‘test-tube baby’

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Joy star James Norton on the 'postcode lottery' of IVF - and playing the scientist who was part of creating the first 'test-tube baby'

Actor James Norton, who stars in a new film telling the story of the world’s first “test-tube baby”, has criticised how “prohibitively expensive” IVF can be in the UK.

In Joy, the star portrays the real-life scientist Bob Edwards, who – along with obstetrician Patrick Steptoe and embryologist Jean Purdy – spent a decade tirelessly working on medical ways to help infertility.

The film charts the 10 years leading up to the birth of Louise Joy Brown, who was dubbed the world’s first test-tube baby, in 1978.

James Norton stars in Joy. Pic: Kerry Brown/ Netflix
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In the UK, statistics show the proportion of IVF cycles paid for by the NHS has dropped from 40% to 27% in the last decade

Norton, who is best known for playing Tommy Lee Royce in the BAFTA-winning series Happy Valley, told Sky News he has friends who were IVF babies and other friends who have had their own children thanks to the fertility treatment.

“But I didn’t know about these three scientists and their sacrifice, tenacity and skill,” he said. The star hopes the film will be “a catalyst for conversation” about the treatment and its availability.

“We know for a fact that Jean, Bob and Patrick would not have liked the fact that IVF is now so means based,” he said. “It’s prohibitively expensive for some… and there is a postcode lottery which means that some people are precluded from that opportunity.”

Bill Nighy, Thomasin McKenzie and James Norton star in Joy. Pic: Netflix/ Kerry Brown
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Bill Nighy, Thomasin McKenzie and James Norton star in Joy. All pics: Netflix/ Kerry Brown

Now, IVF is considered a wonder of modern medicine. More than 12 million people owe their existence today to the treatment Edwards, Steptoe and Purdy worked so hard to devise.

But Joy shows how public backlash in the years leading up to Louise’s birth saw the team vilified – accused of playing God and creating “Frankenstein babies”.

Bill Nighy and Thomasin McKenzie star alongside Norton, with the script written by acclaimed screenwriter Jack Thorne and his wife Rachel Mason.

The couple went through seven rounds of IVF themselves to conceive their son.

James Norton and Thomasin McKenzie star in Joy. Pic: Kerry Brown/ Netflix
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Norton portrays scientist Bob Edwards, while McKenzie plays embryologist Jean Purdy

While the film is set in the 1970s, the reality is that societal pressures haven’t changed all that much for many going through IVF today – with the costs now both emotional and financial.

“IVF is still seen as a luxury product, as something that some people get access to and others don’t,” said Thorne, speaking about their experiences in the UK.

“Louise was a working-class girl with working-class parents. Working class IVF babies are very, very rare now.”

In the run-up to the US election, Donald Trump saw IVF as a campaigning point – promising his government, or insurance companies, would pay for the treatment for all women should he be elected. He called himself the “father of IVF” at a campaign event – a remark described as “quite bizarre” by Kamala Harris.

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Bill Nighy ‘proud’ of new film on IVF breakthrough

“I don’t think Trump is a blueprint for this,” Norton said. “I don’t know how that fits alongside his questions around pro-choice.”

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In the UK, statistics from fertility regulator HEFA show the proportion of IVF cycles paid for by the NHS has dropped from 40% to 27% in the last decade.

“It’s so expensive,” Norton said. “Those who want a child should have that choice… and some people’s lack of access to this incredibly important science actually means that people don’t have the choice.”

Joy is in UK cinemas from 15 November, and on Netflix from 22 November

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Cillian Murphy and wife Yvonne McGuinness buy cinema Oscar winner visited as a child

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Cillian Murphy and wife Yvonne McGuinness buy cinema Oscar winner visited as a child

Cillian Murphy and his wife Yvonne McGuinness have bought a cinema the Oscar-winning actor used to visit as a child.

The couple will refurbish The Phoenix Cinema in Dingle, County Kerry, south-west Ireland, next year.

The venue, which had previously been used as a dance hall, had been in operation for more than 100 years, and on the market for three before Murphy and McGuinness bought the building.

Oppenheimer and Peaky Blinders star Murphy, from Cork, said: “I’ve been going to see films at The Phoenix since I was a young boy on summer holidays.

“My dad saw movies there when he was a young man before me, and we’ve watched many films at The Phoenix with our own kids. We recognise what the cinema means to Dingle.”

McGuinness added: “We want to open the doors again, expand the creative potential of the site, re-establishing its place in the cultural fabric of this unique town.”

FILE - Cillian Murphy poses in the press room with the award for best performance by an actor in a leading role for "Oppenheimer" at the Oscars in Los Angeles on March 10, 2024. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
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Murphy won big this awards season. Pic: AP

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The Phoenix is the only cinema in the tourist area of the Dingle Peninsula, and without it, the closest other movie theatre for residents of the town is in Tralee, almost 30 miles away.

It opened in 1919 and was reconstructed twice in the decades that followed, after fires damaged the building.

Its previous owners struggled to keep The Phoenix going amid the COVID-19 pandemic and shut the cinema’s doors in November 2021, citing rising costs, falling attendance and challenging exhibition terms.

Murphy took awards season by storm this year, winning a Golden Globe, a Bafta and an Oscar for his performance as the titular character in Oppenheimer.

Next year, he will reprise one of his most well-known roles by playing Tommy Shelby in a movie version of Peaky Blinders.

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