Royal wedding – well close –
Celebrity couple Marian Rivera and Dingdong Yantes get married at the Immaculate Concepcion Cathedral of Cubao in Quezon City, Philippines. Dingdong Yantes and Marian Rivera
WBA knock out –
Alan Irvine becomes the second managerial casualty of the English Premier League season as West Bromwich Albion fire him after 7 months in charge. Alan Irvine
Bad pirates –
Figures from TorrentFreak.com show that Game of Thrones was the most pirated TV in 2014 with over 8.1 million illegal downloads. See list of the day. Peter Dinklage
Nut incident exec arrested –
Cho Hyun-ah, a former Korean Air executive who delayed a plane over how nuts were served has been detained shortly after a court in South Korea granted a warrant for her arrest. [see original story December 8th 2014]
Picasso’s Women of Algiers smashes auction record –
Picasso’s Women of Algiers has become the most expensive painting to sell at auction, going for $179.3m (£115m) at Christie’s in New York. Eleven minutes of prolonged bidding from telephone buyers preceded the final sale – for much more than its pre-sale estimate of $140m. The evening sale also featured Alberto Giacometti’s life-size sculpture Pointing Man, which set a record as the most expensive sculpture, at $141.3m. The buyers chose to remain anonymous. The Picasso oil painting is a vibrant, cubist depiction of nude courtesans, and is part of a 15-work series the Spanish artist created in 1954-55 designated with the letters A to O. [BBC] See Video of the Day Picasso’s Women of Algiers
Ukip rejects Nigel Farage’s resignation as party leader –
Nigel Farage is to stay on as leader of the UK Independence Party after the party’s ruling board rejected his resignation. Mr Farage quit as Ukip leader last Friday, delivering on a pledge to resign if he failed to be elected as leader of South Thanet. The news risks making Ukip into a laughing stock because Mr Farage had raised the stakes about his future by insisting he would resign. Mr Farage’s decision to stay on also raises questions over whether Douglas Carswell, Ukip’s only MP, will quit the party to become an independent MP after he suggested Mr Farage should not lead Ukip again. Mr Carswell later repeatedly refused to endorse Mr Farage’s return to the Ukip leadership after speaking at an event in central London. [Daily Telegraph] Nigel Farage
James Corden can’t believe the Late Late Show is still on the air –
James Corden’s appearance at the Bafta TV awards was just a flying visit. In fact, his time on home soil (19 hours) was less than the time he spent in the sky travelling to and from Los Angeles for it (23 hours). “I’ve genuinely had some of the best nights of my life at this event,” he told us on the red carpet. Since he took over the Late Late Show in March, America’s latest chat show host has been grabbing headlines with his big name guests and viral videos. But he admitted to Newsbeat that it’s “mostly mystifying” as to why the show is still on the air. “No-one could have predicted the show would be received in such a manner. It’s beyond all of our wildest dreams.” [BBC] James-Corden
David Cameron unveils ‘blue collar’ Cabinet –
David Cameron has unveiled his “blue collar Cabinet” as he promoted the son of a milkman, the daughter of a garage-owner and the Tory Party’s “champion of the people” to senior Government roles. In a bid to put making the Conservatives “the real party for working people” at the centre of the next five years of Government, Mr Cameron promoted Robert Halfon, Sajid Javid, Greg Clark and Priti Patel to senior ministerial roles. It means that 43 per cent of Cabinet ministers were educated in comprehensive schools – a rise from 21 per cent in Mr Cameron’s first Coalition Cabinet in 2010. [Daily Telegraph] See List of the Day for the complete Conservative cabinet.
Video of the Day –
The bidding for the most expensive painting in the world –
Michel Platini: Uefa president to resign after ban appeal fails –
Uefa president Michel Platini will resign from European football’s governing body after failing to have a six-year ban from football overturned. A Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) panel reduced the ban to four years on Monday. Following the judgement, the 60-year-old said he would be stepping down. Platini and former Fifa counterpart Sepp Blatter, were last year found guilty of ethics breaches over a 2m Swiss Franc (£1.3m) “disloyal payment”. The pair, who deny wrongdoing, had their original bans reduced from eight to six years by the Fifa appeals committee. Platini had taken his case to Cas seeking to get the ban overturned, but a three-man panel said it “was not convinced by the legitimacy of the payment”. [BBC] Michel Platini
Japan vagina artist cleared over kayak model but fined for data distribution –
A Japanese court has found an artist not guilty for displaying a kayak based on the shape of her vagina. The judge ruled that Megumi Igarashi‘s brightly-coloured kayak sculpture did not immediately suggest female anatomy. However, she was fined 400,000 yen ($3,700) after a judge ruled that she broke the law by sharing data from 3D scans of her genitalia, which could be used to recreate the shape of a vagina. Japan’s strict obscenity laws prohibit public displays of genitalia. [BBC]
UEFA President Michel Platini, who had been suspended by the FIFA Ethics Committee last fall, announces his resignation following the Court of Arbitration for Sport decision that let stand his ban, shortened to four years which corresponds to the duration of his remaining time in office. The court ruled that Platini was guilty of conflict of interest for taking a $2 million payment from FIFA approved bySepp Blatter in 2011. (USA Today)
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Marvel Phase 4: A new era for diversity in Hollywood?
Comic book fans have been left giddy with anticipation by the bumper crop of superhero offerings unveiled by Marvel Studios at this year’s Comic Con.
Details of Marvel’s so-called “Phase 4” have also raised hopes about a real step forward for diversity in Hollywood.
The next stage of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will feature its first deaf superhero, its first Asian-American superhero and an openly gay superhero.
It will also see more women than ever taking the directorial reins.
The casting of deaf actress Lauren Ridloff as superhero Makkari in 2020 release Eternals has been particularly applauded on social media.
Other social media users praised Marvel for casting the black actress as a character who has always been depicted as a white male in its comic books.
On Saturday, Ridloff herself expressed delight at the prospect of co-starring with Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden and others under Chloe Zhao’s direction.
Meanwhile, Hawaiian director Destin Daniel Cretton revealed that Canadian star Simu Liu will play the MCU’s first Asian-American superhero, in Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings.
Dingdong Yantes and Marian Rivera
Alan Irvine
Peter Dinklage
