FIFA has added Tom Cruise, IShowSpeed, Post Malone, Robbie Williams, Laura Pausini and Nicole Scherzinger to the World Cup 2026 closing ceremony, Sunday at MetLife Stadium, 90 minutes before the final. Jennifer Hudson sings the US anthem.

By Lucy Bennett

Image: erintheredmc / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Mary Jo 'MJ' Shannon, mother of Kris Jenner and grandmother of Kim, Kourtney and Khloé Kardashian, died on July 16 aged 91. Kris Jenner confirmed the news on Instagram.

America's most televised family has lost its original matriarch. Mary Jo Shannon, known to millions of viewers simply as MJ, died on Thursday at 91. She was Kris Jenner's mother and grandmother to Kim, Kourtney, Khloé and Rob Kardashian, and to Kendall and Kylie Jenner. Kris herself confirmed the news in an Instagram post, saying goodbye to her mother with a heart — in her words — broken into a million pieces. No cause of death was announced.

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In its Q2 2026 results, Netflix revealed that around 300 titles used generative AI this year, mostly in post-production, with revenue of 12.56 billion dollars, up 13% year on year.

Netflix has put numbers on the debate Hollywood has been having for two years: around 300 of the platform's titles used generative AI this year, mostly in post-production. The figure landed in Thursday's second-quarter results, alongside a phrase that says everything about intent — usage is "scaling quickly". Mostly behind the camera: effects, clean-up and image finishing. Co-CEO Ted Sarandos offered a concrete example: the documentary series The American…

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Portuguese fashion designer Miguel Vieira revealed he faced a third cancer, now removed in surgery. He says he is well, focused on recovery, and thanked everyone for their support.

Miguel Vieira, one of the most respected names in Portuguese fashion, has revealed he fought — and by all indications won — a third battle with cancer. The designer from São João da Madeira underwent surgery at Porto's IPO cancer hospital, where a tumour was removed from his left lung, and he is already talking like a man on his way back: he says he is well, focused on a full recovery, and promises to return to work "very soon". The essentials come from…

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Julian Schnabel's In the Hand of Dante stars Oscar Isaac, Al Pacino, Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, Gerard Butler and Martin Scorsese — and flopped, missing Netflix's weekly Top 10 with a 29% critics' score.

On paper it looked flop-proof: Oscar Isaac in a dual role, Al Pacino, Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, Gerard Butler, John Malkovich — and Martin Scorsese, acting. In practice, In the Hand of Dante has become one of the year's most talked-about streaming failures: it landed on Netflix on 24 June and never even cracked the platform's weekly Top 10. Missing the Top 10 means the film opened with fewer than 2.7 million views — a pittance for a production with this…

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FIFA wants roughly a 20-minute halftime at the 2026 World Cup final to fit the Madonna, Shakira and BTS show. The laws of the game say the interval should not exceed 15 minutes.

Halftime in football lasts 15 minutes. It has done for decades, it is written down, and on Sunday FIFA is going to drive straight past it. The 2026 World Cup final carries the first halftime show in the tournament's history, and a show that size does not fit into a quarter of an hour. The number doing the rounds is closer to 20 minutes — the usual 15 plus whatever the production needs to build and strike a stage in the middle of the pitch. The laws of the…

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Pophouse, co-founded by ABBA's Björn Ulvaeus, has bought 50% of Iron Maiden's publishing and master rights — plus the band's name, image and their mascot Eddie.

Iron Maiden have just done the deal that most bands their age have already done, except with a clause nobody had quite seen before: they sold half the rights, and Eddie went in the box. The buyer is Pophouse Entertainment, the Swedish investment firm co-founded by ABBA's Björn Ulvaeus. It has taken 50% of the band's publishing and master recording rights, plus name, image and likeness rights — which, in Maiden's case, includes the skeletal creature that…

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Twelve attorneys general, California out front, are trying to block Paramount Skydance's takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery — a month after the Justice Department had already waved it through.

Hollywood was about to have one fewer studio. Twelve US states have just said maybe not. A coalition of attorneys general — California, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Washington — filed suit to block Paramount Skydance's $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. Leading it is California's Rob Bonta, which figures: that's where the movies live. That the deal crushes…

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New Zealand actor Sam Neill, Dr Alan Grant in Jurassic Park and the lead in The Piano, has died aged 78 in Sydney, surrounded by his family.

Sam Neill, the New Zealand actor who gave a face to some of cinema's most memorable characters over four decades, has died aged 78. His family confirmed he passed away on Monday, 13 July, in Sydney, surrounded by loved ones. According to the family's statement, the death was sudden and unexpected, but came at a time when the actor was free of cancer. Neill was diagnosed in 2022 with a rare lymphoma, shortly after filming Jurassic World: Dominion, and…

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Jay-Z opened a three-night Yankee Stadium run celebrating 30 years of Reasonable Doubt — with Beyoncé on the very first song, Blue Ivy on piano and Alicia Keys closing.

Thirty years after Reasonable Doubt, Jay-Z went home. The Brooklyn rapper opened the first of three nights at Yankee Stadium in New York on Saturday, revisiting his 1996 debut album with a live band — and turned the anniversary into a family reunion that left the stadium in raptures. The surprise came on the very first song: Beyoncé walked out in a pinstripe suit to sing the hook on Can't Knock the Hustle, the part Mary J. Blige owned on the original…

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The 2026 World Cup final gets the first halftime show in history, with Madonna, Shakira and Burna Boy, BTS, Justin Bieber and Coldplay, curated by Chris Martin.

For the first time in nearly a century of World Cups, the final will have a halftime show — and the debut is not a modest one. Madonna, Shakira with Burna Boy, BTS, Justin Bieber, conductor Gustavo Dudamel and Coldplay themselves with the PS22 children's choir share the MetLife Stadium stage on 19 July, in a lineup curated by Chris Martin. Even the Muppets are in on it. The bill confirmed by FIFA brings together Madonna, Shakira and Burna Boy, BTS, Justin…

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A hack of Madison Square Garden revealed a database of nearly 40,000 public figures, with labels on sexual orientation and risk ratings tied to criticism of owner James Dolan.

Madison Square Garden, New York's most famous arena, was keeping an unflattering secret: an internal database of nearly 40,000 names from entertainment, politics, sport and business, now exposed by a hack. Among the recorded fields were labels on sexual orientation and risk ratings that, with suspicious frequency, lined up with public criticism of the venue's owner, James Dolan. According to the US press investigation that reviewed the files, the talent…

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Disney's live-action Moana opened to an estimated 40-45 million dollars in the US, well below hopes for a 250-million-dollar production. Critics gave it 35% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The flesh-and-blood Moana isn't sailing the way Disney dreamed. The live-action remake, which hit cinemas on Friday, is tracking towards a 40-45 million dollar opening weekend in the United States — well short of the 60-plus million the studio hoped for, and an uncomfortable number for a film that cost 250 million before a cent of marketing. Weekend estimates point to 40-45 million dollars in the US, after 4.5 million from Thursday previews. For context:…

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Anthony Hopkins has signed with Decca Classics and released 'Bracken Road', the first single from 'Life Is a Dream', recorded with Gustavo Dudamel and the Philharmonia.

Anthony Hopkins has two Oscars, 88 years on the clock and, as of Friday, a brand-new career: classical composer with a record deal. The Welsh actor has signed with Decca Classics and released his first single, "Bracken Road", ahead of his debut album, "Life Is a Dream", due on 21 August. The story behind the piece is the stuff of cinema. Hopkins wrote "Bracken Road" in 1963, when he was a young actor at the Liverpool Playhouse, improvising at the piano…

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TVI's Big Brother Verão is on air with 18 anonymous contestants, host Maria Botelho Moniz and a prize that can reach 100,000 euros. Here is the guide.

Portugal's most talked-about summer reality show is up and running — and this year it went back to basics. TVI's Big Brother Verão kicked off on 28 June with a house full of unknown faces: 18 anonymous contestants, nine men and nine women, competing for a prize that can reach 100,000 euros. Maria Botelho Moniz is back at the controls, fronting the Sunday galas and the special weeknight shows. Around her spins a permanent-tribunal panel of commentators —…

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