Five reasons why you might want to see the Smurfs movie this summer
1) You're fed up with your kids. They're annoying. They're out of control. They need to be punished. The multiplex has the answer, courtesy of this formless branded mind-numbing head-wrecker. It's a garish animation that celebrates everyone's favourite yet entirely interchangeable blue-skinned Belgian berks in a fifth movie outing from Hollywood. This one is notable only for featuring and foregrounding a multi-jobbing Rihanna as Smurfette and also the producer and creator of the film's ear-scrapingly generic Smurf anthem, Friend of Mine. Sample lyric over malfunctioning drum machine? 'Feel like a friend of mine, feel like a friend of mine, like a friend of mine, feel like a friend of mine.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Sun
11 minutes ago
- The Sun
Millionaire Sacha's fat jab jibe is a kick in the abs to normal people struggling with obesity
SACHA Baron Cohen admits he paid a personal trainer 'a lot of money' to get the kind of body that your regular middle-aged man could only dream of. And why wouldn't he? He is already a multi-millionaire and he is even being paid to get fit for his new Marvel role — nice work if you can get it. 7 7 Which is why his comment about skinny jabs seemed so cheap and sneering. Alongside an Instagram post of his new ripped, oiled, hairless torso he wrote: 'Some celebs use Ozempic and some use private chefs, others use personal trainers. I did all three.' Within hours his aides admitted he was joking about the Ozempic. Presumably before the personal trainer sued for reputational damage — and mainly because it is just not funny. By laughing at celebrities who use Ozempic he has also looked down his nose at all those who have turned to the jabs to lose weight. We don't all have the means to enjoy a private chef or personal trainer, Sacha. Fat-shaming jokes hurt, no matter what their form. And skinny jabs are no laughing matter for those who have struggled with obesity for years. Their choice shouldn't be made fun of. Mocking them isn't big or clever. Sacha's smug comments insinuate that they are somehow cheating too. But who cares? If it works, it works. Skinny jabs such as Mounjaro and Ozempic have transformed lives. Yes, some people have cheated the system to buy the medication privately without a prescription but, mostly, people use it as a last resort to tackle health problems associated with obesity. There is now a guessing game of 'who has and hasn't' used it when people lose weight because often they are too embarrassed or ashamed to admit it because of people like Sacha. He was trying to be funny, but his Ozempic comment was unnecessary. There was no guessing game in his transformation — the magazine detailed exactly how he got in shape — and this is a man who has clearly never struggled with his weight either. Sacha is right, though, when he says 'some celebs use Ozempic'. Oprah Winfrey says skinny jabs not only helped transform her weight but her mental health too after years of suffering because comedians would poke fun at her figure. Deliberate dig Now comedian Sacha is poking fun at countless others for how they deal with their weight problems, too. Robbie Williams said that the skinny drugs are like a 'miracle' for him and helped his mental health, while Whoopi Goldberg may have saved her life with them after peaking at a deadly 21st. I admire them all for speaking out and telling the truth. And there is actress Rebel Wilson, who admitted she used Ozempic as part of an overhaul for her health. Her public spat with Sacha is so well documented, and I can't help wondering if his barbed comment was actually a deliberate dig aimed specifically at her. As well as the Ozempic comment, he said of the photo: 'This is not AI. 'I really am egotistical enough to do this.' Yes Sacha, you are egotistical. But also very much out of touch with reality, too. Skechers may need to give Myleene the boot SO Myleene Klass has a juicy deal to promote Skechers trainers. And in this promo shoot she looks amazing, toned, fit and defying her 47 years of age. 7 The problem is her footwear is probably the last thing any of us are looking at. Shame on Jay idiots THE tragic death of Jay Slater was a horrible accident that could have happened to any one of the thousands of teenagers who holiday abroad every year. My heart goes out to his parents. 7 I hope they got some closure on Friday when the inquest into his death finally ruled it had been an accident, that he had died from a fall and, thankfully, would not have been in pain. I also hope this verdict puts a stop to the absolute idiots who were part of the online super-sleuthing surrounding his death and now makes them realise how utterly stupid and insensitive they were to Jay and his traumatised family. The groundless, false theories that circulated on the internet after Jay went missing included him being kidnapped after crossing 'Moroccan drugs gangs', his disappearance being faked to scam money in donations from the public, and the Mafia having somehow played a role. When somebody disappears now, a ghoulish fascination emerges, with unqualified glory hunters turning detective and believing or adding to the ridiculous conspiracies they read online. It has to stop. They are causing more harm than good. And they are making a mockery of themselves while they're at it. PERKY gym bunny Georgia Toomey was fuming at being asked to zip up her top in Wetherspoons to cover up her sports bra because it was a 'family-friendly pub'. What she should have felt is a bit daft for flashing a sports bra in a pub in the first place. 7 It is a bra – designed to be worn under clothes unless you're in your own home, posing in a lap-dancing bar or working out without a top on at the gym. Underwear is not for prancing around your local boozer, or nipping into Tesco. You'd give someone a heart attack. Face it, joke is wrong ON his daughter's last day at school, Chris Napthine decided to put on an ape costume and mask because he says: 'I was just trying to embarrass her'. Which he has now well and truly achieved because the school has kicked off, saying it's a safeguarding issue because they can't see who is picking up kids when the person's face is covered – which is a very valid point. 7 And no parent would like a call from the school office saying that a giant gorilla had nabbed little Johnny and they no longer know his whereabouts. Maybe Chris should try to remember it's the kids who are the ones that are supposed to be monkeying around, not the adults. IF you want some light entertainment, I can highly recommend the car crash interview on Monday's Lorraine show between Christine Lampard and Helen Lederer, who is appearing in the new Fawlty Towers stage show. It was as hilariously chaotic as an old episode of the vintage sitcom. Helen kicked off the chat by asking Christine if she watched the original series when she was 'at school'. Despite the fact Christine was born the same year the final episode aired, she managed to keep her composure. Then actress Helen admitted she wasn't even sure how to pronounce Manuel and hadn't bothered watching the old episodes for research. Basil would have lots to say. Rayn in excess WOMAN of the people Angela Rayner has splashed out on not one but two new beds for her grace-and-favour government flat, costing £7,000. Which, unless they're gold-plated, is sheer madness. While the rest of us are tightening our belts, the Deputy PM actually ordered them not long after a public visit to an Ikea store in Warrington. Surely Ange could have found a minion to assemble a bit of flat pack and save the taxpayer about £6,500. AS I was scrolling through Instagram (again!) and had a nosey at Nicola Peltz Beckham's pictures, my six-year-old had a look over my shoulder and asked: 'Eurgh! Mummy, why is there a photo of her naked in the bath?' The only real explanation I could think of was: 'To get up her in-laws' noses.' 7 Instead, I just shrugged and replied: 'To show off.' He didn't question it – but I did. What was she thinking?
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Elon Musk opened a diner in Hollywood. What could go wrong? I went to find out
It was just before lunchtime on its third day of operation, and the line outside Elon Musk's new Tesla Diner in Hollywood already stretched to nearly 100 people. The restaurant has been billed as a 'retro-futuristic' drive-in where you can grab a high-end burger and watch classic films on giant screens, all while charging your Tesla. After months of buildup and controversy, the diner had suddenly opened on Monday, at 4.20pm, the kind of stoner boy joke that Musk is well-known for. Hundreds of fans lined up to try burgers in Cybertruck-shaped boxes, or take photos of the Optimus robot serving popcorn on the roof deck of the gleaming circular diner. But that was for the grand opening. Less than 48 hours later, when we visited for lunch, the Tesla Diner experience was less a futuristic fantasy than a case study in how to fail with impunity. Many parts of the experience were breaking down, the food was mediocre, yet the fans were still cheerfully lining up to buy merch. The line to get into the diner on Wednesday morning was so long, an employee told us, in part because of technical problems. The app that allowed Tesla drivers to order from their cars was glitching, so the diner was 'prioritizing' Tesla owners who had to come inside to order instead. This meant that non-Tesla owners in the walk-up line might need to wait as long as two to three hours before we got our food. I expected at least a few people to leave the walk-up line immediately, but the only ones who did were two families of Tesla owners who went back to order from within their cars. Even if the app didn't work for them, they would still get their food faster. The hierarchy was clear: things were broken for everyone, but owners of Musk products had to suffer slightly less. The rest of us kept waiting in the hot sun. 'Retro-futurism', in this case, seemed to mean gorgeous, Tesla-inspired, mid-century modern architecture coupled with wait times that would shutter an ordinary McDonald's. An episode of Star Trek was playing on the giant drive-in movie screens, but the best entertainment available was watching tricked-out Cybertrucks arrive and depart. I counted at least six when I arrived, and more kept appearing: a neon orange Cybertruck with Texas plates, another floating on giant custom rims. I did not spot a single anti-Musk protester, though social media posts were advertising protests outside the diner later in the week. Musk's special projects have often unfolded with a degree of chaos. Most recently, his attempt to dismantle the large parts of the US government ended with him feuding with the president he had spent nearly $300m to elect. Serving high-end burgers to Tesla fans while they charge their electric cars should be much easier than launching space rockets, developing brain implants or running a social media platform that is not overrun with hate speech and harassment. And Musk's diner operation partners, the Los Angeles chef Eric Greenspan, who advised Mr Beast Burger, and restaurateur Bill Chait, of République and Tartine Bakery, have impressive food industry credentials. But the billionaire CEO tends to make big promises and not quite fulfill them. That appeared to be true even for a tiny burger joint. You don't have to own a Tesla to order a meal at the diner, and its appeal clearly reached far beyond Tesla drivers. There were many people in the walk-up line on Wednesday with babies and small children, some of whom were particularly excited to be visiting the Tesla Diner after seeing videos about it online. While we all waited and waited, employees in branded T-shirts brought us glasses of water and paper menus. Jake Hook, who runs a Los Angeles-focused 'Diner Theory' social media account, had described the Tesla Diner menu to me as 'all over the place', with a combination of 'very fast food shlocky' items combined with sandwiches made with 'bread from Tartine', the luxury California bakery. The diner also offers a mix of 'own the libs' and 'we are the libs' options: on the one hand, 'Epic Bacon', four strips of bacon are served with sauces as a meatfluencer alternative to french fries, and on the other, avocado toast and matcha lattes. There was a kale salad served in a cardboard Cybertruck: welcome to southern California. 'Diners are kind of a reflection of the community, and it doesn't seem to really be that,' Hook told me over the phone. 'It's like a diner-themed restaurant.' An employee gave the Wednesday walk-up line another update: they didn't have chicken, waffles or milkshakes, or any of the 'charged sodas', which came with boba and maraschino cherries and extra caffeine. 'It gets better and better,' sighed a man behind me. Josh Bates and his son Phoenix were in town for the day from Orange county, where they lived. 'We are big Musk fans,' he said. Phoenix, age 10, had been excited to visit the diner. 'I never seen Elon Musk open a restaurant, so I just wanted to come here and see how the food is,' he explained. But after waiting in line for 20 minutes and not getting much closer to ordering, Bates decided it was time to find somewhere else for lunch. 'It's the grand opening – things happen,' the father said. 'It is what it is. They're doing the best they can.' Bates wasn't the only Musk fan with this attitude. Ivan Daza, 36, who lived in Los Angeles, later told me that he had waited two hours the day before, only to be told around 6 or 7pm that the Tesla Diner's kitchen was closed. He had brought his eight-year-old daughter back the next day to try again. She had seen the Tesla Diner on YouTube and was especially excited to see the Optimus robot. But it turned out that Optimus was not in operation. Daza said he was surprised by the various problems the kitchen seemed to be having – he thought they would have a 'plan B'. But he was pleased the diner offered an 'experience'. The prices, though expensive, weren't that bad for Los Angeles. The burger was $13.50, without french fries. Later, as Daza ate the meal that had taken him two days to get, he grinned: 'Delicious.' The interior design was certainly closer to Disneyland than In-N-Out: all sleek and shining chrome, futuristic 1950s white chairs and tables, and beautifully designed lighting. The curved staircase up to the Skypad was decorated with robots in display cases on the wall. Inside a curved chrome window was what looked like a pretty ordinary, low-tech restaurant kitchen. I had waited in line for a full hour before I could place my order. When I finally got to the register, I asked an employee to remind me what on the menu was actually available. She said I needed to check the screen in front of me – they had whatever was there. It turned out, contrary to what I had been told, that I could order both chicken and waffles. After the long wait outside, my food arrived in about 10 minutes – much less than the three-hour wait I feared, but absurdly long for any fast-casual restaurant. A waffle, branded with the Tesla lightning bolt, was cold. The fried chicken had a tasty coating but was also cold. The heap of kale and tomatoes was only partially dressed with an odd dill-flavored dressing. The generic-brand cola tasted cheap and was served with a woke bamboo straw. But the food did come in elaborate Cybertruck boxes – and they were, to be honest, delightful. While locals seemed to be forgiving of the new diner's glitches, some tourists were less impressed. Rick Yin, 32, who was visiting Los Angeles from China with his mother, had stopped by the diner on their way to the airport to 'grab a quick lunch' that had turned out not to be quick at all. Yin had also been excited to see the Optimus robot in action, and had hoped the diner would be 'more hi-tech'. What he had found was 'a regular restaurant'. 'It's all right,' he said, while still waiting for his food. After eating, he said he liked the Cybertruck boxes: 'That's the only thing that's worth it.' I took my meal upstairs , to the Skypad, an open-air balcony with a view of the charging Teslas. The Twilight Zone was now playing on two giant screens. I sat down next to a steady line of people buying Tesla Diner merch: a $95 retro diner hoodie, $65 Tesla salt and pepper shakers, a $175 'levitating Cybertruck' figurine. There was a large popcorn machine in front of me, which seemed to be where Optimus had been serving snacks on opening night. Musk had been posting on X earlier in the morning that 'Optimus will bring the food to your car next year' and suggesting the robot might be dressed in a 'cute' retro outfit. In reality, Optimus was nowhere in sight. The robot was 'out today', an employee told me later, as if the pricey piece of machinery were a human celebrity with a busy schedule. 'Maybe tomorrow.' 'Is it possible to get some popcorn regardless of the robot?' a woman asked. 'It's probably old popcorn,' an employee told her regretfully. A different employee warned me that I could not walk down the same staircase I had taken up to the Skypad because it was too crowded and that 'everyone's colliding with each other and trays and milkshakes'. I would have to go down another way: a bland flight of stairs without any hi-tech decoration. During a Tesla earnings call on Wednesday, as the company disclosed declining revenue and profits, Musk highlighted his new burger palace as a success: 'Diners don't typically get headline news around Earth,' he bragged. He also called the diner 'a shiny beacon of hope in an otherwise sort-of bleak urban landscape'. (It is located on Santa Monica Boulevard, in a neighborhood full of high-end art galleries.) I'd had plenty of time in the diner line to think about 'retro-futuristic' experiences, and how good a description that was, not so much for this very ordinary diner, but for the rightwing political project that Musk had joined. We were now moving into a future that offered tank-like electric cars and on-demand drone deliveries, and also a resurgence of measles outbreaks and women dying from preventable pregnancy-related complications. But continuing to function in the United States right now requires being very good at compartmentalization. I tucked away the cardboard Cybertruck lids to show my co-workers, threw away the Tesla waffles, and went on with my day. Nothing works properly here any more, but hey, it's an experience.
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
As Ashley Roberts speaks out on her struggles during her girl group years, where are the other Pussycat Dolls?
The Pussycat Dolls was the ultimate girl group, and it took the pop world by storm in the early 2000s but in 2010 the six members called it a day - and plans for a reunion tour in 2020 were ruined by the pandemic. One original member Ashley Roberts opened up about her struggles during her time in the group and explained how ill she got due to stress, and health professionals feared she had a brain aneurysm after a severe bout of sickness and headaches. Since quitting the band, Ashley's moved away from musical performances to become a successful showbiz correspondent - but what happened to Nicole Scherzinger, Kimberly Wyatt, Melody Thornton, Jessica Sutta, and Carmit Bachar? SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO Ashley Roberts Since leaving the band, Ashley appeared on several reality TV shows, including I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!, The Jump, and Strictly Come Dancing. In 2019, she became the showbiz correspondent for Heart's Breakfast radio show. Since 2022, she's been a presenter on Heart 00s, a spin-off from the radio network. Ashley's in a relationship with boyfriend George Rollinson, 25, and they've been dating since November 2023. Last year, the 43-year-old revealed she was in a 'happy place': 'It's really nice to be in a relationship that's kind and thoughtful and supportive and we have fun'. Despite being part of the iconic girl band, behind the scenes Ashely paid the price for trying to keep up with the high-energy performances and intense schedule. She revealed on Paul Brunson's podcast We Need To Talk details of the terrifying health scare she experienced during her time in the band, and her decades-long battle with insomnia. She said: 'When my body started shutting down, I thought, OK, it is time to take a pause.' Explaining just how ill she got, Ashley said: 'We were in London doing a gig and I was sick and I was like 'Ok I'm just ill, you know, probably caught something. 'I was vomiting and had extreme headaches and I'm thinking, "This it isn't getting any better and we I need to get on a flight to Germany." 'I ended up going to the hospital and they said, "We think you are having a brain aneurysm. So we need you to chill." 'I was like, "Well, I need to get on a plane." 'Then, as I am walking to the MRI, my knee locks up and it turns out I had viral arthritis, I didn't even know this was a thing. So I couldn't bend my knee. 'My body was just, like, stop. I was having some kind of reaction to a virus that I had caught - but I was, like, the show must go on.' When she left the group, Ashley's health took another knock, believed to have been caused by intense stress. She said: 'There was a literal physical manifestation of stored emotion in my body that has to come somewhere right? 'Unless you have got some sort of release the body is going to try and get it out and I feel like that's what my body was trying to do. 'I had eczema all over my legs, I had a stomach ulcer, I had shingles on my chin. I think stress was at the root from a young age and I was lucky to have performing and dance as an outlet but I think my body had been used to holding stress in.' Nicole Scherzinger Since The Pussycat Dolls disbanded, Nicole's seemed to have had the most successful run, and she's engaged to rugby player Thom Evans. Nicole's proved herself as a global success, and won Dancing With The Stars in the U.S., then joined the judging panel on the UK's X Factor. Her singing career's continued to blossom, and she reached number one in the UK charts with her song Don't Hold Your Breath. More recently, Nicole revealed her eyes were set on a career in Hollywood, after she was awarded her first Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical for her performance as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard. After selling 55 million records worldwide with The Pussycat Dolls and her Broadway gong, Nicole's revealed her movie dreams. She told The Sun: 'I would like to do movies and movie musicals. I would like to build my own show, there are roles I would like to create. You never know where your unexpected dream opportunity is going to come from.' Kimberly Wyatt Kimberly said her world 'came crashing down' when the Pussycat Dolls reunion was axed - and it left her broke. She got married to Max Rogers, also 43, in February 2014, and they're parents to three children. The singer and dancer opened up about how her family life was impacted when the much-talked about tour fell through. She told the Mile Fly Club with Laura Hamilton podcast that at that time, she had cleared her schedule to make way for the concerts - but she went into 'panic mode' when it was axed. Kimberly said: 'Three young kids, paying school fees, and all these things - it changed our world. We had to rejig our entire life because of it. 'You end lots of your work to open all this space to go on the road, so when it all comes crashing down it was panic mode.' However, Kimberly's become a popular face on UK TV since her pop star days: she won the BBC's Celebrity MasterChef series in 2015, took part in The Jump, appeared on the E4's All Star Driving School, and competed on ITV's Dancing On Ice in 2022. Kimberly's gone on to become a presenter on Hits Radio, and deejayed at celebrity events across the UK. Melody Thornton When the band needed to bolster its vocal strength and opened auditions for new members in 2003, Melody jumped at the chance. Melody left the group in 2010, and said at the time: 'I got into the group to sing. That was made very clear to me but it became more and more apparent what was going on. 'Roles were being minimized and minimized and then, by the time it got on the show, it was very much like, "Y'all play your part and this is what it is."' Melody, 40, went bagged a cameo in Keri Hilson's video for the track Slow Dance, and she also released her first official single Sweet Vendetta in 2011. She's appeared on several TV shows, including reality series Bank Of Hollywood, and ITV in the UK's Dancing On Ice. Melody also competed on ITV's Popstar To Operastar and Celebrity Island. When the Dolls were set to reunite in 2019, Melody did not join them because the timing 'wasn't right' for her. In 2010, Jessica left the Pussycat Dolls to embark on a solo career. That same year, she released her first single I Wanna Be Bad, but it failed to chart anywhere except in Slovakia - where it peaked at number 65 in the charts. However, Jessica's second single Show Me gained a bit more success and got to number 1 in the U.S. Billboard charts' Hot Dance Club Songs. Jessica married Mikey Marquet in 2019, and they've got a four-year-old son together. She recently opened up about being unable to play with her son or return to the stage for over three years due to her battle with a life-changing vaccine-related injury, which caused her to have debilitating muscle spasms, tremors, and fatigue. Her symptoms came on within days of receiving her second dose of the Moderna Covid vaccine in December 2021. Jessica said: 'I woke up with a muscle spasm in my right rib that just would not get out. It felt like a knife inside was burning. It wrapped around my rib cage and up and down my spine, and it felt like I was on the brink of death.' The spasms, which she's continued to endure, then gave way to tremors in her legs and involuntary head jerks, which since subsided. However, she still felt as though her body's been 'completely hijacked'. To make matters worse, while her fellow Pussycat Dolls bandmates accepted her experience, she was dubbed an anti-vaxxer for speaking out. She said: 'I'm willing to risk my reputation so this doesn't happen to anyone else. 'There are many people in the industry way bigger than me with a bigger outreach with vaccine injuries but they won't speak out. And, for me, I just couldn't hold my tongue.' She added that she did not consider herself anti-vaccine: 'I do believe in the technology in hindsight, right? But I will not blindly trust the medical system ever again after what happened to me. I'm not "anti" anything. I'm just anti being sick.' Carmit Bachar Carmit, 50, was one of Pussycat Dolls' main vocalists, and she was famous before then having previously danced on stage with Beyonce and performed as the Livin' La Vida Loca girl on Ricky Martin's tour in 1999 and 2000. Since quitting the band in 2008, Carmit's focused on her music career. She formed the pop group LadyStation in 2011 and released the single Body In Motion, and ended 2018 with the release of the single It's Time, followed by the track How Far. Carmit also collaborated with Macy Gray in 2010 on her album The Sellout. She's mom to daughter Keala Rose, 13, and Carmit's also a campaigner for cleft-palate charities having suffered with the congenital condition herself as a child.
