Actor Jeremy Renner was met with a standing ovation at an awards ceremony in LA at the weekend, just over a year on from a serious snowploughing accident that left him with more than 30 broken bones.
On stage at the People’s Choice Awards, the Marvel star reflected on a “heck of a journey” since the incident on New Year’s Day in 2023.
Renner, 52, presented the first award of the night, and was met by rapturous applause and a standing ovation from the audience.
Image: Renner attended the premiere of his docuseries Rennervations in April 2023, his first public appearance following the accident
“I’ve got to say, it feels good to be back,” he said. “This year’s been a heck of a journey and I’m happy I get to be here with you, the fans – you guys are the best.”
The actor was left with significant injuries after he was accidentally run over by the plough while helping his nephew in Reno, Nevada.
A police report said they were trying to free a car from the snow when the plough began to roll down a hill.
Renner was airlifted to hospital and spent time in intensive care before continuing his recovery at home.
Who won what?
Image: The star presented a prize to Billie Eilish. Pic: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
At the People’s Choice Awards, he presented the TV Performance of the Year prize to singer Billie Eilish for her appearance in the horror series Swarm.
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Eilish told the crowd as she collected the prize: “This is fan-voted and I just wanted to say how grateful and lucky and privileged I am. This was the first time I ever acted and it was awesome.”
She thanked actor and series co-creator Donald Glover for being “a lifelong inspiration” and dedicated the award to her Swarm co-star Dominique Fishback.
Adam Sandler was named people’s icon at the event, with the gong presented to him by his frequent co-star Jennifer Aniston.
She described “The Sandman” as “my very good friend and my brother from another mother”.
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce were also winners, just a week after their star turn at the Super Bowl and following Swift’s history-making win at the Grammys, although they did not attend the ceremony.
Kelce was named Athlete of the Year, while Swift won the Female Artist of the Year, Pop Artist of the Year, and Social Celebrity of the Year awards. Her Eras tour was also named Concert of the year.
British Airways (BA) has paused its sponsorship of The Louis Theroux Podcast following an interview with Bob Vylan’s frontman.
Pascal Robinson-Foster, one half of the controversial punk duo, told Theroux in an episode which aired earlier this week that he was “not regretful” of chanting “death, death to the IDF [Israel Defence Forces]” at this year’s Glastonbury.
British Airways said on Saturday that the content “breaches” its sponsorship policy and has since paused its advertising on the podcast, the Jewish News first reported.
An airline spokesperson said: “Our sponsorship of the series has now been paused and the advert has been removed.
“We’re grateful that this was brought to our attention, as the content clearly breaches our sponsorship policy in relation to politically sensitive or controversial subject matters.
“We and our third-party media agency have processes in place to ensure these issues don’t occur and we’re investigating how this happened.”
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Image: Bobby Vylan crowd surfs during his performance at Glastonbury Festival. Pic: PA
Following Bob Vylan’s Glastonbury performance, the band were dropped by a number of festivals and performances including Radar festival, a show at a German music venue and their US tour after their visas were revoked.
The comments were condemned by the US as a “hateful tirade” and “appalling hate speech” by British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
The band have also had to reschedule dates of its upcoming We Won’t Go Quietly UK tour in Manchesterand Leeds after Jewish leaders and politicians called for the show to be postponed.
Image: Theroux has not commented on BA pausing its sponsorship of his podcast. Pic: AP
In a statement on Facebook, the group said: “Due to political pressure from the likes of Bridget Phillipson and groups in the Northwest of England we have had to reschedule our Leeds and Manchester shows.
“All tickets remain valid and all other shows are continuing as planned.”
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Calls for Bob Vylan concert to be cancelled
When asked by Theroux, Vylan said he was taken aback by the uproar the chant has caused, saying: “It wasn’t like we came off stage, and everybody was like [gasps]. It’s just normal.”
He added that he wanted an end to “the oppression that Palestinian people are facing”.
Despite the criticism, the group have seen support from fans, with their album Humble As The Sun re-entering the charts and climbing to number one in the UK Hip Hop and R&B album category.
A spokesperson at Mindhouse Productions – which was founded by Theroux and produces The Louis Theroux Podcast – has not commented on the BA sponsorship, but told Sky News: “Louis is a journalist with a long history of speaking to controversial figures who may divide opinion.
“We would suggest people watch or listen to the interview in its entirety to get the full context of the conversation.”
It is “pretty surreal”, Academy Award winner Reese Witherspoon admits, finding herself at the top of The New York Times bestsellers list.
When I meet the actress alongside her co-writer, best-selling author Harlan Coben, overnight the pair have learned that their thriller is now at number one.
He jokes: “I was texting her last night and saying you’ll now have to call yourself number one bestselling novelist, forget about Oscar winner!”
Image: Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben told Katie Spencer about their novel Gone Before Goodbye
As one of the most successful authors in the world, Coben has sold over 80 million books to date, while for Witherspoon this is new ground.
Not content with running a hugely successful production company responsible for a string of hits, as well as one of the most successful book clubs in the world, she explains she felt compelled to give writing a try.
“People want you to stay in your lane… as a creative person I think it’s impossible to just choose one kind of life.
“Creativity is infinite and who I was as a creative person when I was 20 is very different from the person I am now at 49.”
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Gone Before Goodbye, a thriller about a talented surgeon who finds herself caught up in a deadly conspiracy, is the result of Witherspoon daring to put her head above the parapet.
Image: Witherspoon says she felt compelled to give writing a try
Coben admits he was “a little wary” at first.
“I don’t co-write novels but when she made the pitch and started talking about it, I was like ‘dang that’s good, we can do something with that’.”
While countless celebrities work with ghostwriters, Coben says: “I said to her from day one ‘it’s only going to be you and me in here… no third person in here, I don’t do that’. So every word you [read] comes from Reese and me.”
Image: Coben has sold over 80 million books to date, while for Witherspoon this is new ground
Witherspoon explains: “He was like ‘if we’re going to do this, it’s going to have to be at a really high level because people going to expect a lot, so our bar was really high.”
“I said to her, in the beginning, novels are like a sausage,” Coben laughs. “You might like the final taste, but you don’t want to see how it was made and Reese got to see the full sausage getting made here.”
When it came to writing, Coben says they “fell into a rhythm right away”, working together in three-hour stints, “back and forth with a yellow legal pad – what about this? What about that?”
Image: Coben says they ‘fell into a rhythm right away’
Witherspoon says it “feels really deeply personal” to have their work now in print.
“Usually, as an actor, I walk into other people’s worlds and it’s already set up… but this was creating the whole world with Harlan and just from beginning to end feels very personal.”
While the story seems an obvious fit for being adapted to the screen, perhaps with a certain blonde actress in the leading role, Coben says that was never their intention.
“The biggest, biggest mistake novelists make when you write a book is to say ‘this would make a really great movie’. A book is a book, a movie is a movie, and we both focused on wanting this to be just a great reading experience.”
Given that their collaboration is already selling in big numbers, will the pair team up again to write a second?
Witherspoon says: “Let’s just see what people think of this one first.”