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RuPaul has said his “heart is broken” following the death of former Drag Race winner, The Vivienne.

The drag queen and TV presenter said on Instagram on Monday he joined the entire Drag Race universe in mourning the loss of The Vivienne, whom he called “an incredibly talented queen and a lovely human being”.

The Vivienne, whose real name was James Lee Williams, won the first series of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK in 2019.

Read more: The Vivienne’s rise as a drag ‘trailblazer’

The 32-year-old’s death was confirmed by their publicist Simon Jones on Sunday evening.

Danny Beard, who won the reality show in 2022, called The Vivienne “a proper entertainer” and “one of the most passionate, talented, geeky, girls I’ve ever known” and their death meant “there’s a piece missing now”.

Cheddar Gorgeous, that year’s runner-up, said on Instagram they had lost “a peer, a friend and an icon”, adding that “the entire world of entertainment grieves” and it was “impossible to make sense of such sadness”.

RuPaul joined the entire Drag Race universe in mourning the loss of The Vivienne
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RuPaul joined the entire Drag Race universe in mourning the loss of The Vivienne

Bagachipz said on social media they would “talk to you before I go onstage for every single show I do”, calling The Vivienne a “powerhouse when you hit that stage”.

The Vivienne’s ex-husband, David Ludford, said the performer “made me feel love and shown me what it was really like to love someone”.

The Vivienne at the UK premiere of Wicked in November. Pic: AP
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The Vivienne at the UK premiere of Wicked in November. Pic: AP

The Vivienne, 32, rose to prominence in 2015 after becoming the UK Drag Ambassador for the American series of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

The show sees drag queens competing in front of a panel of judges to become the next drag superstar.

The Vivienne, whose drag name came from their love of designer Vivienne Westwood, later competed in the first UK series of the show in 2019, going on to win it after lip-syncing in the final to the Wham! hit I’m Your Man.

Williams, who was born in Wales, also came third on the 2023 series of Dancing On Ice.

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A spokesman for Cheshire Police said officers were called to a house in Chorlton-by-Backford, near Chester, at 12.22pm on Sunday following reports of a sudden death.

The force said there were “no suspicious circumstances”.

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Star of The Hills and Made In Chelsea says family’s homes have burnt down in LA wildfires

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Star of The Hills and Made In Chelsea says family's homes have burnt down in LA wildfires

A reality TV personality known for appearing on shows like The Hills and Made In Chelsea has told Sky News her family have lost their homes in the California wildfires.

Stephanie Pratt, a model and the sister of fellow reality TV celebrity Spencer Pratt, lives in the Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles, where more than 30,000 people have fled their homes due to the fast-moving blaze.

Los Angeles fire chief Anthony Marrone said on Wednesday that the Palisades fire is still growing and that “well over 5,000 acres” have been burnt.

At least two people have been killed so far, with around 1,000 buildings destroyed.

Follow latest: Two killed in LA wildfires

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House surrounded by flames during wildfire

A firefighter shields their face as the Palisades Fire burns down a home in Los Angeles. Pic: AP
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The flames burning down a home in Los Angeles. Pic: AP

The Palisades Fire burns a residence in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
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Some of the damage after the wildfire. Pic: AP

California governor Gavin Newsom earlier declared a state of emergency over the four wildfires in the south of the state.

Speaking to Sky News from London, an emotional Ms Pratt said: “It’s just so crazy, I had no idea what was happening.

“I talked to my dad yesterday and he said ‘The Palisades is burning’. He said that he was at my brother’s house on Chautauqua [Boulevard] and they were just watching the flames come.

“The firefighters came and said you got to leave.”

Former Made in Chelsea star Stephanie Pratt on her brother who has lost his home in the wildfires.
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Former Made In Chelsea star Stephanie Pratt speaking to Sky News

Map showing wildfires in California.
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Map showing wildfires in California.

‘I don’t know if my house is there’

Ms Pratt said her parents and brother Spencer, who like her starred in the reality series The Hills, were safely evacuated from the area.

However, the 38-year-old added that “all of the phones are disconnected” and that she doesn’t know what had happened to her home.

“I talked to my neighbour last night and she told me that [Palisades Charter High School] had burnt down, and that’s directly behind me, and so had Gelson’s Supermarket which is adjacent,” she said.

“I just can’t reach anyone to see if my house is okay. I just Googled it and it said that it’s destroyed and terrible… I don’t know if my house is there.”

Read more:
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Why are there wildfires in January?

Reality TV personality Stephanie Pratt in 2010. Pic: Reuters
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Reality TV personality Stephanie Pratt in 2010. Pic: Reuters

‘This is where they raised their kids’

When she asked her dad about Spencer, 41, who is married to 38-year-old Heidi Montag – another co-star of The Hills – Ms Pratt said he told her “I’ve never seen him like this”.

“I’m assuming he’s just completely catatonic,” she added. “We don’t care about the material things or anything like that, but this was their family home.

“This is where they raised their two little kids.”

Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2008. Pic: Reuters
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Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2008. Pic: Reuters

The Palisades fire is one of five blazes currently burning in southern California – evacuation orders were in place on Tuesday in Altadena after another fire, called the Eaton fire, started near a nature preserve.

A third blaze, called the Hurst fire, also ripped through Sylmar in the north of the city.

And according to the state department Cal Fire, two more blazes – the Woodley fire in Los Angeles and Tyler fire in Riverside – broke out on Wednesday.

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School Of Rock wedding: Co-stars marry decades after first meeting on set of film

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School Of Rock wedding: Co-stars marry decades after first meeting on set of film

Two School Of Rock co-stars, who met at the age of 10, have got married.

Caitlin Hale and Angelo Massagli, who played Marta and Frankie respectively in the 2003 classic alongside Jack Black, tied the knot in New York on Saturday.

The couple brought some of the original cast of the film, which centres on a pretend substitute teacher turning a group of musically gifted school children into a rock band, together to celebrate their nuptials.

Posting on Instagram, Hale, 33, shared various images of the day, including a photobooth picture with a handful of their former cast mates.

The former actress, who now works as a sonographer, wrote under the post: “Special thank you to everyone who contributed to an unforgettable day!”

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School Of Rock - 2003
Maryam Hussan, Cuitlin Hale, Jack Black

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Caitlin Hale (middle) with Maryam Hussan and Jack Black. Pic: Andrew Schwartz/Paramount/Scott Rudin Prods/Mfp/New Century/Sor Prods/Kobal/Shutterstock

Rivkah Reyes, who played bass player Katie in the film, also posted about the wedding, sharing a video on TikTok.

The clip, set to Stevie Nicks’s Edge Of Seventeen, included cameos from Brian Falduto, who played Billy, Joey Gaydos Jr, who played Zack, and Aleisha Allen, who played Alicia, among others.

The use of the song was a nod to one of the scenes from the film where Black and Joan Cusack, who plays headteacher Rosalie Mullins, sing the song in a bar.

“Celebrating the marriage of Caitlin & Angelo with my forever fam #schoolofrock #wedding,” Reyes wrote alongside the video, which showed them all dancing together.

After appearing together in the film the only contact Hale and Massagli had was through a WhatsApp chat set up with the entire cast, according to The New York Times.

The pair then both left show business and coincidentally reconnected while studying in schools in Florida.

Massagli, 32, who now works as a lawyer for TikTok, according to The Times, told the paper the familiarity they both had due to working together when they were younger “cut through some of those early relationship hurdles”.

The couple got engaged in June 2023.

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‘Music is back’ as Taylor Swift helps drive record UK sales

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'Music is back' as Taylor Swift helps drive record UK sales

UK music sales hit a 20-year high of £2.4bn in 2024, helped by pop megastar Taylor Swift’s latest album, and driven by streaming and the vinyl revival, figures show.

Revenues from recorded music reached an all-time high, more even than at the peak of the CD era, according to annual figures from the digital entertainment and retail association ERA.

Total consumer spending on recorded music – both subscriptions and purchases – topped the previous record of £2.2bn in 2001, ERA said.

Noah Kahan performs during Soundside Music Festival on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, in Bridgeport, Conn. (Photo by Scott Roth/Invision/AP)
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Noah Kahan performing during the Soundside Music Festival in September. Pic: AP

Takings from streaming services including Spotify, YouTube Music, and Amazon rose by 7.8% to a little over £2bn.

Almost £200m was spent on vinyl albums, an annual uplift of 10.5%, while CD album revenues were flat at just over £126m.

Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department was the biggest-selling album of the year, aided by her record-smashing worldwide Eras tour.

More than 783,000 copies were bought, nearly 112,000 of them on vinyl – making it 2024’s biggest-selling vinyl album.

More on Taylor Swift

The biggest single of the year was Noah Kahan’s Stick Season, generating the equivalent of 1.99 million sales.

ERA chief executive Kim Bayley said 2024 was “a banner year for music, with streaming and vinyl taking the sector to all-time-high records in both value and volume.

Ms Bayley called it the “stunning culmination of music’s comeback which has seen sales more than double since their low point in 2013. We can now say definitively – music is back.”

Despite the increasingly strong performance by the British music industry, artists are said to be receiving less money.

Experts have said the musicians make less than people would think because of the role of streaming – platforms do not normally pay artists directly and divide any owed payments among the rights holders of songs.

Music revenues grew by 7.4% in 2024, while video rose by 6.9%, and games fell by 4.4%, according to preliminary figures.

Subscriptions to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV grew by 8.3% to £4.5bn – almost 90% of the sector’s revenues.

Deadpool & Wolverine was the biggest-selling title of the year, with sales of 561,917 – more than 80% of them sold digitally.

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Despite the games sector’s 4.4% decline last year, it remains nearly twice as large as the recorded music business.

Full game sales saw a drop-off with PC download-to-own down 5%, digital console games down 15% and boxed physical games down 35%, in favour of subscription models which grew by 12%.

EA Sports FC 25 – formerly known as Fifa was once again the biggest-selling game of the year, generating 2.9 million unit sales, 80% of them as digital formats.

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