What links Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Ariana Grande? The Saturday quiz
9 An American Tragedy; Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; Mrs Dalloway; The Great Gatsby; The Trial?10 The Beatles; John Travolta; John Lennon; Frankie Goes to Hollywood; Madonna; Ariana Grande?11 Reeves; Reeve; Cain; Routh; Cavill; Corenswet?12 Iquitos; Leticia; Manaus and Macapá?13 Adam and Eve; Four Horsemen; Praying Hands; Rhinoceros; Young Hare?14 Giuseppe Savoldi (Napoli) and Olivia Smith (Arsenal)?15 1960s TV witch; daughter of Prospero; North Carolina's largest city; Stephen King's first novel?
1 Rihanna.2 Hurricane Katrina.3 A Minecraft Movie.4 Dome of the Rock (Jerusalem).5 The Thick of It.6 Hong Kong and Macau.7 Shooting.8 Communist Party of Great Britain.9 Novels published 100 years ago: Dreiser; Loos; Woolf; Fitzgerald; Kafka.10 Had No 1 and No 2 singles at the same time.11 Played Superman on film and TV.12 Cities on the Amazon river: Peru; Colombia; Brazil.13 Albrecht Dürer works.14 First million-pound male/female footballers (paying club).15 Sex and the City leads: Samantha; Miranda; Charlotte; Carrie.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Madonna, 67, is every inch the doting mum as she enjoys a family day out with her son Rocco, daughter Lourdes and twins Stella and Estere at Palio di Siena in Tuscany
Madonna was every inch the doting mother as she enjoyed a family day out with her children at the famous Palio di Siena in Tuscany on Saturday. The Queen of Pop, 67, couldn't wipe the smile off her face as she watched the Italian horse race. The race has been run in the city of Siena since medieval times, with the first formal race being organised in 1633. Mother-of-six Madonna was beaming as she spent time with Malawi-born twin daughters Stella and Estere, 12, who she adopted in 2017. She was also seen with her DJ son Rocco, 25, who she shares with director Guy Ritchie. Her eldest daughter Lourdes, 28, also joined in on the fun as she larked around with her siblings. Madonna is also mother to 19-year-old daughter Chifundo 'Mercy' James Kambewa Ciccone. Mercy was a four-year-old orphan suffering from Malaria when Michigan-born Madge adopted her in 2007, which led to a three-year legal battle due to her being a two-time divorcée. Her son David Banda, 19, whom she adopted in 2006, when he was just 13 months old, while she funded an orphanage in Malawi, wasn't in attendance at the family outing. Last month, Madonna sent fans into a frenzy as she teased her upcoming new music in new social media snaps. She confirmed earlier this year that her upcoming album will be a sequel to her hit 2005 album Confessions On A Dance Floor. Sharing an update to Instagram, she posted a behind-the-scenes sneak peek of her time recording in the studio in London, alongside producer Stuart Price. Sharing an array of snaps, Madonna was seen in the recording studio, putting on a busty display in a lace cami top while hard at work recording her new tracks. Madonna could also be seen wearing a t-shirt which said 'Mother' as she strolled around the Big Smoke. Sharing photos from the studio in February, Madonna was seen sitting behind a drum kit, in others she sings into a microphone and in still others she vamps for the camera in the way only Madonna can. 'My Valentine's Day gift to all my fans is to let you know I'm putting my heart and soul into my new music and I can't wait to share it with you!' she wrote. The new album will be her first since 2019's Madame X. No release date, or even estimate of when the new music would drop was revealed by the seven time Grammy winner.
Daily Mail
6 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Sydney Sweeney faces fresh blow as new movie bombs at box office after American Eagle controversy
Sydney Sweeney 's latest film is tanking at the box office — and the fallout from her American Eagle ad controversy may be partly to blame. The denim campaign, which played on the words 'Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans/Genes,' sparked backlash after some critics labeled it 'Nazi propaganda. ' Her new movie Americana, starring Sweeney, 27, along with Halsey, 30, and Paul Walter Hauser, 38, premiered at South by Southwest in 2023 but only hit theaters nationwide on Friday. Written and directed by Tony Tost, the crime drama follows a group of outsiders whose lives violently collide after a rare Lakota Ghost Shirt surfaces on the black market in a small South Dakota town. Despite some festival buzz, reviews have been lukewarm, with the film sitting at 68 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Americana is projected to gross just $850,000 from 1,100 theaters in its opening weekend — ranking 16th place at the box office. On Saturday, the movie had not broken the top 20 on Box Office Mojo or The Numbers. Sweeney promoted the movie on social media on Wednesday writing, 'a few years ago I filmed this little movie with some friends and now you get to meet penny jo ♥️,' referring to her character, a wanna-be country singer. Reaction was swift and Sweeney, who registered as a Republican in Florida prior to the 2024 Presidential election, learned just how her politics may affect her career in the future. 'I lost you at registered republican,' wrote one angry person. 'So you voted for trump? The man in the Epstein files??' penned another, referring to Trump's long association with the convicted felon who died while in prison awaiting trial on federal charges of sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors in Florida and New York. 'You suck. Don't care. Lost my respect,' was another strong opinion. Many of Sweeney's fans were quick to push back. 'I love how she pisses so many people off by just existing,' wrote one. Another praised her as 'The woman who made the woke community cry ❤️' Paul Walter Hauser, 38, and Halsey, 30, star in the thriller about a group of outcasts whose lives violently intersect when a rare Lakota Ghost shirt falls onto the black market in South Dakota The reaction has created a rift between her fans, many who have abandoned Sweeney after learning she registered as a Republican in Florida ahead of the 2024 Presidential election 'I lost you at registered republican,' wrote one angry person on social media. A supporter praised her as 'The woman who made the woke community cry ❤️' 'America loves Sydney ❤️,' claimed one supporter. Sweeney's next project, Christy, a biopic about professional boxer Christy Martin, will debut September 5 at the Toronto International Film Festival. The drama does not have a distributor yet, and how quickly it gets one may depend on how potential buyers feel it might be received by audiences with the Emmy nominee in the lead. Sweeney's star power will undergo another test when the psychological thriller, The Housemaid, opens in theaters December 25.
The Guardian
10 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘Now it's about personal happiness': popular Granny Wang dating show belies China's plummeting marriage rate
The crowd is sweltering under a red and gold awning, but Granny Wang has them rapt. Packed into the space in front of the 62-year-old's small stage, and spilling out on to the wooden bleachers above, hundreds of people have gathered to hear Granny Wang – real name Zhao Mei – play matchmaker to young men and women at a daily show in a theme park in Kaifeng, an ancient city in central China's Henan province. One man who volunteers to be set up comes on stage and tells Zhao that a previous relationship broke down due to a lack of time. 'Well, now that you've met your ideal partner here, you'll have the time,' she assures him, and the crowd cheers. Zhao has played the character of Granny Wang for eight years and introduced the matchmaking element of her show in 2023 – which brought her viral fame. Last year she went from having a few hundred thousand followers on Douyin, a Chinese social media app similar to TikTok, to more than 7 million, and has been called 'China's Cilla Black', a reference to the late host of the British TV show Blind Date. But with some audience members arriving several hours early and enduring the mid-August heat to grab a front-row spot for the raucous and somewhat camp performance, Zhao could just as well be Henan's Madonna. Most of the people in the audience are families looking for a way to entertain their children during the school holidays. But it seems that about one in five of them are looking for love. 'I just do not want to stay single,' said Wang Mengjia, 18, after an unsuccessful spin on Zhao's stage. Zhao has revived the character of the village matchmaker, a role that is going out of fashion now that many people meet online, through friends – or, increasingly, not at all. While there is a growing 'love industry' of matchmaking services from local governments and commercial enterprises alike, would-be cupids face an uphill battle in China's cities where the marriage market is increasingly being shunned altogether. Despite Zhao's packed shows, China's marriage rates have plummeted to record lows, a trend that is increasingly treated as a national crisis. Last year, the number of registered marriages dropped by a record 20%, falling to just over 6m, down from 7.7m in 2023. Compared with a decade earlier, the number of couples tying the knot each year has halved. The trend is particularly apparent among urban, educated women. More than 40% of urban 25- to 29-year-olds have never married, up from 9% in 2000, according to analysis from Wang Feng, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Irvine. Some of this is because of China's ageing population. Decades of the one-child policy, which was scrapped in 2016, forced the population into decline, meaning that the pool of people of marrying age has been shrinking. But, analysts say, demographics alone don't explain the trend. 'The deeper change is in attitudes,' said Lijia Zhang, a writer who is working on a book about marriage in China. 'In the past, when the country was poor, marriage was an economic necessity … Now it's about personal happiness, more than anything else, not filial duty or social obligation. Many urban, educated women no longer see marriage or motherhood as essential to a fulfilling life.' Hao Jingyi, 19, agrees. 'If I don't meet someone suitable, I would enjoy more freedom and comfort living alone … women are increasingly disappointed with men these days,' she said, as she waited for Zhao's show to start. The Chinese government hopes to change her mind. China's leader, Xi Jinping, has called on women to 'actively cultivate a new culture of marriage and childbearing' and has promoted a more traditional, patriarchal type of politics. China's leadership is ideologically opposed to singledom and officials have a practical concern: falling birthrates. Even people who do couple up are increasingly rejecting parenthood, as young people – women in particular – worry that childrearing is too expensive and competitive. Last year China's birthrate was just 6.77 births per 1,000 people, a slight increase on 2023's record low of 6.39 but still dramatically lower than the figure from a decade ago. The Chinese authorities have introduced a slew of policies at national and local levels to encourage marriage and childbirth. This year the government rolled out an annual childcare subsidy of 3,600 yuan (£370) until the age of three and several provinces offer bonuses or extra holiday days for newlyweds. But many women feel it is not enough. Practicalities aside, there are other factors driving these trends. In July, the Chinese internet was briefly abuzz with the news of chat groups on the encrypted messaging app Telegram which, according to Chinese media reports, contained tens of thousands of Chinese men who shared pornographic pictures and videos of women, often taken without their consent, in the 'MaskPark tree hole forum'. Women were outraged, with many feeling that the authorities did not do enough to protect them from sexual harassment. Violet Du Feng, a Chinese film-maker whose latest documentary, The Dating Game, follows men enrolled in a dating camp, said there was an increasing ideological gap between the sexes. She said the imbalance created by the one-child policy – there are now more than 30 million more men than women in China – had led to 'dissatisfaction about gender equality'. But while feminist activism used to be quietly tolerated, in the past decade the Chinese Communist party has cracked down on civil society, and the space to protest against issues such as sexual harassment has virtually disappeared. 'Typically, in a more democratic society, you can point your finger at power,' Feng said, 'but in China, you cannot.' So, 'people are just pointing their fingers at each other. That creates even more extreme hostility between men and women.' Feng noted that when she was born in 1979, her mother had access to full-time, free childcare before she was two months old. When Feng had her own daughter in 2014, 'there was nothing'. It's not just women who are tired of the pressure to marry. Zhang Hongguang, 21, from Shandong province, attended Zhao's event with his sister, who had persuaded him to join her in renting fancy-dress costumes for the outing. But the next day he had to return to his home town to grudgingly attend a blind date arranged by their parents, who had paid a matchmaker to set him up with someone. 'I don't like it, but it was the only way my parents had,' he said, adding that he preferred to just stay at home with his cat. His sister, Zhang Hongqian, a 24-year-old pilates teacher, had also been forced on several unsuccessful blind dates by their parents. 'I'm not in a rush to find a partner,' she said. 'If I can avoid getting married, I'll choose not to get married.' Additional research by Lillian Yang
