
Hugh Jackman looks every inch the action star as he flaunts his bulging biceps while arriving at a New York theatre
He might be tackling some heavy emotional material on stage, but Hugh Jackman looked anything but burdened as he stepped out in New York this week.
The 56-year-old Aussie heartthrob was spotted arriving at the Minetta Lane Theatre in a casual but eye-catching ensemble, to rehearse for his new play.
The Wolverine actor showcased his gym-toned figure in a fitted navy polo that clung to his muscular frame, black athletic shorts and matching sneakers.
Hugh looked every bit the fitness enthusiast in the snug navy polo that accentuated his well-defined physique, along with black athletic shorts and matching sneakers.
He carried a bicycle helmet tucked under one arm and flashed a beaming smile as he greeted a fan waiting outside, pausing to chat warmly before heading inside for another day of rehearsals.
From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop.
It was a relaxed and cheerful sighting amid an intense period for the actor, who is currently starring in the off-Broadway production Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes opposite 25-year-old rising star Ella Beatty.
Hugh is currently starring in a play with Ella and the pair were recently seen larking it up during rehearsals.
The Aussie actor shared some photos to social media which captured him and Ella hamming it up during a break.
Hugh had his arm wrapped around the budding actress, who is the daughter of Hollywood legend Warren Beatty, and beamed from ear to ear as he gave the camera a thumbs up.
Meanwhile, Ella was all smiles as she pointed to the logo on her shirt, which read: 'New York's Real Aussie Embassy.'
Hugh captioned the photos with some amusing words: 'Ella agrees!'
It follows reports that Hugh is turning up the heat on stage - as he continues to date his new girlfriend, Broadway actress Sutton Foster.
In the intense play, Jackman plays Jon, a three-time divorced, middle-aged college professor and novelist who dives into a forbidden relationship with his 19-year-old student Annie, played by Ella Beatty.
The Wolverine star doesn't hold back in the provocative off-Broadway show — swearing up a storm, getting graphic about sex, and locking lips in multiple steamy make-out scenes with Ella.
Foster, 50, even made a backstage appearance this week, trying to quiet whispers that their new relationship has been on shaky ground since going public in January.
But the show's raunchy moments can't be easy to watch for Foster, as Hugh and Ella frequently kiss — at one point making out on a desk as a scantily clad Ella wraps her legs around him.
Adding more fuel to the gossip mill, fresh photos of the pair holding hands during the curtain call have sent tongues wagging.
The two beamed with pride, looking completely at ease with the intimate gesture.
It's not just the steamy make-out scenes turning up the heat — Hugh also unleashes a barrage of expletives, including blunt, graphic lines about a college cheerleader 'sucking his c***'
The play digs into messy questions of consent and power, with Annie, a smitten student hooked on Jon's steamy novels, chasing his attention, while Jon battles temptation, a failing marriage, and the fallout of getting involved with a student.
Offstage, Hugh's own split from Deborra-Lee Furness seems to mirror the emotional storm.
The actor, who has only been married once, announced his split from Deborra-Lee Furness, 69, in September 2023 after 27 years of marriage.
In a joint statement at the time, they said they were 'shifting' and had decided to 'separate to pursue our individual growth.' The couple share two adopted children, Oscar, 24, and Ava, 19.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Key moments from the fifth week of Sean 'Diddy' Combs' sex trafficking trial
The fifth week of Sean 'Diddy' Combs ' sex trafficking trial featured four days of testimony from a former Combs' girlfriend who testified under the pseudonym Jane and a surprise appearance at the courthouse on the fifth day by Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West. Ye said he came to show his support for his good friend but couldn't get into the courtroom and watched for a few minutes on an overflow courtroom monitor. Combs, the founder of Bad Boy Records, has pleaded not guilty in the trial, which resumes Monday. Here are key moments from the past week: Jane says she still loves Combs Jane testified for six days about her over three-year relationship with Combs, saying her plans to meet him at a New York hotel last September were interrupted by his arrest. Her testimony consumed four of the week's five trial days as she told about her conflicted feelings toward Combs. She told a prosecutor: 'I just pray for his continued healing, and I pray for peace for him.' And when a defense lawyer asked if she still loved him, she responded: 'I do.' When she completed her testimony and with the jury still in the room, she went to the prosecutor and gave her a warm embrace before proceeding to the defense attorney and hugging her too. She said she resents she felt forced to have sex with strangers in multiday sex marathons as the man she longed most to cuddle with filmed and fed her drugs to give her energy to satisfy his sexual fantasies. Her testimony echoed what the jury heard in the trial's first week when Casandra 'Cassie' Ventura testified for four days that she engaged in hundreds of multiday 'freak-offs' while they dated from 2007 to 2018, having sex with male sex workers in front of Combs, who masturbated, filmed the encounters, and verbalized what he wanted to see sexually. Another famous rapper wanted multiple partners in his love life, Jane says Jane said she and Combs split up from Halloween 2023 until February 2024. During the break, she said, she flew on another famous rapper's private jet to Las Vegas, joining the celebrity to celebrate his romantic partner's birthday for a night that included dinner, a stripper's club visit and a hotel room party. In the hotel room, Jane testified, the rapper who was close friends with Combs made a pass at her amid flirtatious banter, saying he had always wanted to have sex with her. She said she danced in the hotel room, where a male sex worker was having sex with a woman, and at some point Jane flashed her breasts. Jane agreed with a lawyer's assessment that the famous rapper was 'an individual at the top of the music industry as well ... an icon in the music industry.' Jane also revealed that the unidentified famous rapper and his partner were looking for someone they could add to their sexual experiences who was 'in the lifestyle.' 'I believe they were asking me because maybe they just picked up the energy from me or I just maybe assumed that maybe they had already got an inclination that me and Sean had been doing kind of similar things,' she said, noting that she referred a male sex worker she knew. Rapper Ye, once known as Kanye West, surprises a courthouse A day after Jane finished testifying, Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, made a surprise appearance at the courthouse and quickly learned what a tough ticket it is to get into the courtroom where his good friend Combs is on trial. Ye, wearing all white, was ushered by courthouse security to an overflow courtroom to watch the trial on a video monitor along with others who were unable to get into the courtroom. He lasted only a few minutes there before he made his courthouse exit, saying nothing during his trip except that he was there to support Combs. Testimony reveals Combs has a favorite TV show and is a bit of a crime buff It turns out that Combs, the subject of several true-crime TV documentaries, is a bit of a true-crime fan himself. Jane revealed this week that his favorite show is 'Dateline,' the magazine-style NBC stalwart that is heavy on murders and mysteries. She told jurors that, in their alone time together, she and Combs would watch 'Dateline' for hours 'till we fell asleep.' Other activities when it was just the two of them included hugging, cuddling and bathing Combs, and giving him foot rubs, Jane testified. Jane planned to meet Combs at the New York hotel where he was arrested Jane testified that she last saw Combs in August, when they were in their 'same routine having sex and everything' when Combs suggested that she invite over the very first male sex worker she had sex with in front of Combs. She said that afterward, she and Combs continued texting each other and were planning to meet in New York at a hotel in September. 'Did you end up going to New York to see him?' she was asked. 'No,' she answered. 'Why not?' she was asked before she responded: 'Because he got arrested.' To protect Jane's identity, a judge leans on secrecy over public access The courtroom rules surrounding Jane's testimony were the strictest yet in a bid to protect her identity from becoming common knowledge. But the rules imposed by the judge became too much for defense attorney Marc Agnifilo, who protested that Jane was blocked from telling more about the hotel party in January 2024 with the famous, though unidentified, rapper. Agnifilo said the defense had consented to the 'pseudonymity' of Jane. 'What we didn't consent to, and we don't, most respectfully, is that these events which play important parts in the background of some of the most critical events in the trial, should be in any way not fully public,' he said. He said names should have been released. 'Part of the reason that trials are fully public is so if other people realize they know something about an event that's discussed in a public courtroom, they could come forward and they could share whatever their recollection is about it,' he said. Defense lawyers say prosecutors are targeting Black jurors The fate of one anonymous juror was in limbo after the judge said Friday he will reconsider his decision to oust the juror even though he suspects he might have an "agenda. Judge Arun Subramanian said he had decided that conflicting answers from the juror about where he primarily lived — in New Jersey or New York — raised questions about his credibility and whether he was answering questions in a bid to stay on the jury. If the juror does primarily live with a girlfriend in New Jersey, he would be outside the court district and disqualified. Prosecutors said the juror's dismissal is required because of his conflicting answers. Defense lawyers argued that prosecutors were only trying to disqualify a Black juror and that his dismissal could spoil an otherwise diverse panel of jurors. The judge bristled at the suggestion that race was a factor, saying there was no support for claims that prosecutors did not use race-neutral arguments to exclude jurors during jury selection and now.


The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
The home of one of the largest catalogs of Black history turns 100 in New York
It's one of the largest repositories of Black history in the country — and its most devoted supporters say not enough people know about it. The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture hopes to change that Saturday, as it celebrates its centennial with a festival combining two of its marquee annual events. The Black Comic Book Festival and the Schomburg Literary Festival will run across a full day and will feature readings, panel discussions, workshops, children's story times, and cosplay, as well as a vendor marketplace. Saturday's celebration takes over 135th Street in Manhattan between Malcom X and Adam Clayton Powell boulevards. Founded in New York City during the height of the Harlem Renaissance, the Schomburg Center will spend the next year exhibiting signature objects curated from its massive catalog of Black literature, art, recordings and films. Artists, writers and community leaders have gone the center to be inspired, root their work in a deep understanding of the vastness of the African diaspora, and spread word of the global accomplishments of Black people. It's also the kind of place that, in an era of backlash against race-conscious education and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, exists as a free and accessible branch of the New York Public Library system. It's open to the public during regular business hours, but its acclaimed research division requires an appointment. 'The longevity the Schomburg has invested in preserving the traditions of the Black literary arts is worth celebrating, especially in how it sits in the canon of all the great writers that came beforehand,' said Mahogany Brown, an author and poet-in-residence at the Lincoln Center, who will participate in Saturday's literary festival. For the centennial, the Schomburg's leaders have curated more than 100 items for an exhibition that tells the center's story through the objects, people, and the place — the historically Black neighborhood of Harlem — that shaped it. Those objects include a visitor register log from 1925-1940 featuring the signatures of Black literary icons and thought leaders, such as Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes; materials from the Fab 5 Freddy collection, documenting the earliest days of hip hop; and actor and director Ossie Davis's copy of the 'Purlie Victorious' stage play script. An audio guide to the exhibition has been narrated by actor and literacy advocate LeVar Burton, the former host of the long-running TV show 'Reading Rainbow.' Whether they are new to the center or devoted supporters, visitors to the centennial exhibition will get a broader understanding of the Schomburg's history, the communities it has served, and the people who made it possible, said Joy Bivins, the Director of the Schomburg Center, who curated the centennial collection. 'Visitors will understand how the purposeful preservation of the cultural heritage of people of African descent has generated and fueled creativity across time and disciplines,' Bivins said. Novella Ford, associate director of public programs and exhibitions, said the Schomburg Center approaches its work through a Black lens, focusing on Black being and Black aliveness as it addresses current events, theories, or issues. 'We're constantly connecting the present to the past, always looking back to move forward, and vice versa,' Ford said. Still, many people outside the Schomburg community remain unaware of the center's existence — a concerning reality at a time when the Harlem neighborhood continues to gentrify around it and when the Trump administration is actively working to restrict the kind of race-conscious education and initiatives embedded in the center's mission. 'We amplify scholars of color,' Ford said. 'It's about reawakening. It gives us the tools and the voice to push back by affirming the beauty, complexity, and presence of Black identity.' Founder's donation seeds center's legacy The Schomburg Center has 11 million items in one of the oldest and largest collections of materials documenting the history and culture of people of African descent. That's a credit to founder Arturo Schomburg, an Afro-Latino historian born to a German father and African mother in Santurce, Puerto Rico. He was inspired to collect materials on Afro-Latin Americans and African American culture after a teacher told him that Black people lacked major figures and a noteworthy history. Schomburg moved to New York in 1891 and, during the height of the Harlem Renaissance in 1926, sold his collection of approximately 4,000 books and pamphlets to the New York Public Library. Selections from Schomburg's personal holdings, known as the seed library, are part of the centennial exhibition. Ernestine Rose, who was the head librarian at the 135th Street branch, and Catherine Latimer, the New York Public Library's first Black librarian, built on Schomburg's donation by documenting Black culture to reflect the neighborhoods around the library. Today, the library serves as a research archive of art, artifacts, manuscripts, rare books, photos, moving images, and recorded sound. Over the years, it has grown in size, from a reading room on the third floor to three buildings that include a small theater and an auditorium for public programs, performances and movie screenings. Tammi Lawson, who has been visiting the Schomburg Center for over 40 years, recently noticed the absence of Black women artists in the center's permanent collection. Now, as the curator of the arts and artifacts division, she is focused on acquiring works by Black women artists from around the world, adding to an already impressive catalog at the center. 'Preserving Black art and artifacts affirms our creativity and our cultural contributions to the world,' Lawson said. 'What makes the Schomburg Center's arts and artifacts division so unique and rare is that we started collecting 50 years before anyone else thought to do it. Therefore, we have the most comprehensive collection of Black art in a public institution.' Youth scholars seen as key to center's future For years, the Schomburg aimed to uplift New York's Black community through its Junior Scholars Program, a tuition-free program that awards dozens of youth from 6th through 12th grade. The scholars gain access to the center's repository and use it to create a multimedia showcase reflecting the richness, achievements, and struggles of today's Black experience. It's a lesser-known aspect of the Schomburg Center's legacy. That's in part because some in the Harlem community felt a divide between the institution and the neighborhood it purports to serve, said Damond Haynes, a former coordinator of interpretive programs at the center, who also worked with the Junior Scholars Program. But Harlem has changed since Haynes started working for the program about two decades ago. 'The Schomburg was like a castle,' Haynes said. "It was like a church, you know what I mean? Only the members go in. You admire the building.' For those who are exposed to the center's collections, the impact on their sense of self is undeniable, Haynes said. Kids are learning about themselves like Black history scholars, and it's like many families are passing the torch in a right of passage, he said. 'A lot of the teens, the avenues that they pick during the program, media, dance, poetry, visual art, they end up going into those programs,' Haynes said. 'A lot the teens actually find their identity within the program.'


Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Diddy fumes as black juror is set to be TOSSED from trial for 'inconsistent statements'
Kanye West, wearing an all-white outfit and sunglasses, was seen walking into Manhattan's federal court on Friday. The controversial rapper was received warmly by Diddy's son Christian 'King' Combs, 27. He was also greeted by defense attorney Xavier Donaldson. When asked if he was in court to support Diddy, Kanye nodded 'yes.' People in the courthouse erupted in cheers as Kanye entered and went through security checks. Kanye apparently went into an overflow room for a few moments with three security guards - before leaving less than an hour after arriving in the courthouse. It comes after CNN reported the rapper wanted to support Diddy in person on Thursday. Kanye has loudly supported Diddy throughout the case, describing him as an exemplar father.