Latest news with #90s
The Sun
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
So why DID pin-up Mel Sykes vanish from the public eye? Pals reveal all about her reclusive life amid ‘tough' few years
She was the ultimate 90s pin-up, the glamour girl with looks, brains and personality who was once voted the eighth sexiest woman in the world. But fast forward three decades and Melanie Sykes - once a successful model and presenter with a string of high-profile boyfriends and legions of male fans - has practically vanished from the public eye. 18 18 18 Now, the former Big Breakfast star, 54, spends her days painting - even dabbling in nude self-portraits - writing about her various health struggles and shunning showbiz parties after quitting the bright lights of the big smoke for a quiet life in the Yorkshire countryside. And pals insist she 'feels like a completely different person' to the bombshell brunette who kickstarted her career in an ad for Boddington's beer. A source told The Sun: 'She has had a really tough few years dealing with various health issues, and has openly admitted she has PTSD from working in the TV industry." Quit London for Yorkshire Mel has also openly documented her struggles with autism since being diagnosed in 2021, and publicly stated she believes she has Tourette's Syndrome too. The source added: 'She feels like a totally changed woman from the one that was on our screens for all those years, and she is focusing on healing from her trauma, as well as focusing on her health. Her life isn't anywhere near as glamorous as it once was, but she is much happier. She has found a love of painting, which has been really therapeutic for her. She's even painted some nude self-portraits of herself which she has shared on her social media. She finds it very liberating - she wanted to practice drawing the female form, so she figured why not make herself the model?' Mel's journey from lairy ladette to practical obscurity stems from a tumultuous time in the TV industry, most notably her experience on Celebrity Masterchef in 2021, which became the catalyst for her to quit the business for good. 'I was done' The brave mother of two sensationally walked away from her successful career after Gregg Wallace, who last week was sacked from the show following an enquiry into alleged misconduct, made inappropriate comments to her on set. Gregg Wallace is why I ended my TV career, Melanie Sykes says - as she slams 'jaw-dropping' behaviour on MasterChef set Mel claims that Gregg asked her if models eat, something she found 'ignorant,' before telling her that being on Masterchef would help her career. 'I didn't know what to say,' she wrote later. 'So I smiled and said: 'Yes,' but I was really thinking: 'Yes, you have finally helped me decide to end my television career once and for all. I was done.' She called Gregg's behaviour towards her 'unprofessional' and 'jaw-dropping', said she didn't like him being around her and even made an informal complaint against the former greengrocer. Earlier this month, 45 out of 83 allegations made against him during his tenure on the show were substantiated. But despite the victory for Gregg's victims, and his insistence that he is 'deeply sorry' for his actions, it's not likely to instigate a return to the limelight for Mel. These days, Mel prefers to keep in touch with her fans via online mediums where she is in control. 'Industry creates monsters' She boasts almost 300k followers on Instagram and 6.45k subscribers to her YouTube channel, also writes a regular Substack blog, following the closure of her magazine, The Frank, last year. 18 18 18 Using her various outlets, she regularly updates fans on her mental health, often sharing her artwork with hashtags such as 'recovery', 'blessed', and 'healing' or sitting down to address viewers with videos that cover everything from menopause and her autism diagnosis to her TV experiences and health woes. She spoke recently about suffering from an irregular heartbeat, which she claimed doctors ignored and also talked at length about a recent battle with alopecia, both of which she said were triggered by the allegations made against former Let's Do Lunch co-host Gino D'ACampo, earlier this year. After learning Gino was accused of misconduct, Mel 'didn't sleep a wink', she has said. 'This industry creates monsters,' she said on her YouTube channel, Melanie Sykes Is. 18 'I feel like I was in a war zone in that industry – 24 years of battling through an industry that didn't feel right to me anyway.' Since walking away from her lucrative telly jobs, Mel doesn't appear to be making the same money she did in her heyday, when she fronted shows such as Today with Des and Mel, Shop Well For Less and was the voice of the Blind Date reboot. But our insider insists she is getting by. The source said: 'Obviously she doesn't have the income she once had from all her TV and modelling jobs, which has been challenging and stressful at times, but she has savings and she makes money from writing her Substack newsletter, still has some royalties from her biography and she gets paid to speak at various festivals and events. 'She's also been getting funding for some film projects, which she is working on behind the camera and hopes one day to be able to make a living from her paintings.' 18 Mel, who came third in I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! in 2014, was once a well-known face on the showbiz circuit. Her modelling career, followed by a successful stint as a reporter on MTV and The Big Breakfast, catapulted her to fame and lads' mags couldn't get enough of her. As a result Mel dated a string of famous faces, including Steve Coogan, Max Beesley and even Olly Murs. She was also in a long-term romance with Bros singer Matt Goss, which ended in 1997, when she discovered he was cheating on her. She went on to marry twice, once in 2001 to actor Daniel Caltagrione, father of her two sons, Roman, 23, and Valentino, 21 and later, in 2013, to roofer Jack Cockings, a union which lasted barely three years. She also famously enjoyed a romance with a 24 year old-gondolier, Riccardo Simionato, who she met on a canal in Venice in 2020. Now, however, those days of public romances are behind her. 'You won't catch Mel getting snapped with a lover again,' says a friend. 'She feels very scarred by how some of her romances played out in the media, and she feels like the way her love life was scrutinised impacted her relationships. These days, she is focused on putting herself first, not a man.' 18 18 18 As for her old TV pals, Mel still keeps in touch with a few people from the industry, including Alan Carr, but, according to our source, a lot of her 'showbiz friendships have fallen by the wayside'. 'Mel prefers to keep a small circle of close friends,' our insider said. 'Since being diagnosed as neurodivergent, she has learnt a lot about herself and realised she doesn't have the energy to cope with lots of casual, flighty friendships, she finds it really draining.' Looking to the future, feisty Mel has vowed to continue to use her voice to speak out about the wrongdoings in the TV industry with friends insisting she 'isn't afraid to call out the wrongdoings and BS she has experienced.' The source continued, 'It's really inspiring to see how far she has come. A lot of people who have been through what Mel has been through would have totally crumbled, but she is a survivor. "She's living proof that you can fall down in life and not only survive - but start all over again.' 18 18
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
People Are Sharing The Things From The '90s And '00s That No One Born After 2005 Will Understand
Recently, we asked the BuzzFeed Community, "What's something from the 90s/early 2000s that someone born after 2005 would never understand?" Here are 50 of their most nostalgic responses: Some responses are from this post as well. 1."The joy of going to the video rental store on Friday nights!" —ellie4me 2."The stressfulness, rage, and sheer insanity of being a parent to a Tamagotchi." —smartgoose16 3."Freaking out that you might get arrested for downloading Limewire and/or Frostwire." —smartgoose16 4."The Motorola RAZR was a huge deal stylistically and technologically. The fact that the pink ones were exclusive to one phone carrier — I had to buy one from overseas, where carrier-locked phones aren't a thing, and it was a different shade of pink than was available in the US. It was tiny, sleek, and internet-capable (but for the love of all things holy, don't go on the internet, think of the bill)." —tiktokism 5."The hype of the BlackBerry Curve phone." —jadewright 6."Having to watch the news to see if your school is canceled for a snow day." —myneishac 7."Phones with cords! Why, I ask, why?!" —penguinlover720 8."Calling collect and yelling your message to the person you're calling at the point you were supposed to say your name, then hanging up before anyone was charged." —slickninja 9."Netflix being a DVD-mailing service." —sleepingbubble74 10."Watching High School Musical, not on DVD. It was never really about the movie; it was all in the lead-up. The premiere of those movies was a social event and a cultural phenomenon for us growing up. I didn't have cable TV, so I had to arrange watching at my neighbor's house, but I wouldn't have missed it for the world. There was a bunch of buildup in the programming beforehand, and a countdown clock, and you'd be sitting with your eyes plastered to the TV sometimes days ahead of time so you wouldn't miss any of the exclusive trailers or bonus crossovers or promotional materials. Back then, there was still a lot of sprinting to use the bathroom between short commercial breaks. The hype didn't die down just because the movie had aired, oh no. There were High School Musical-themed birthday parties, posters, t-shirts, etc.. It was everywhere, and everyone loved it. I still do!" —tacobaco 11."I was talking to my dad today about this. I'm pretty sure kids today have probably never seen snowy/bad reception on a TV or static from the radio." —kevinhicks77 12."The Tinkerbell Pixie Hollow computer game." —Anonymous 13."Junk food vending machines at school." —almanmark720 14."We were watching regular TV the other day, and my kid asked us to pause the show. I had to explain that it doesn't work that way when you're not streaming." —francesjoys 15."Hit Clips… I miss Hit Clips." —morgandemkey 16."There was a great show on the WB network called Grosse Pointe that was a satire of Beverly Hills, 90210 and Dawson's Creek. It was only something like 12 episodes before it was cancelled. Supposedly, it hit Aaron Spelling too close to home." —janes4c411b247 17."The 2002 limited edition wild berry Spider-Man Pop-Tarts. To this day, I have not found a Pop-Tart that even comes close to how yummy (and exciting, because Spider-Man had just come out) those Pop-Tarts were. SMH, good things never last." —haleeraeevans 18."The scene era." —smartgoose16 19."Not having a computer in the home, and if you did have one, not having the internet. I didn't have a computer until I was in college, and in the summers when I was home, I was without internet unless I wanted to pay by the minute for it. We also didn't use computers much in school unless it was a business class, like typing or programming. We would write research papers by hand, and then we'd have a few days before they were due when the whole English class would go to the computer lab to type them up for submission. Even those computers didn't have internet, so much of our research was done at the library." —matchwolf 20."Having to wait until Saturday mornings to watch cartoons all morning, and you didn't have a way to custom choose the schedule for which cartoons to watch. You watched what was available on broadcast TV or cable." —jealouskitten151 21."If you lived in a small town, you had to go to the restaurant to get your food. There was no food delivery service, not even from Chinese restaurants, just the occasional pizza joint." —jealouskitten151 22."I recently found out TV Guide is still a thing when I got an actual mailer for it a couple of weeks ago." —jgcromwell 23."Walt Disney World used to send out VHS tapes with little features on the parks as a way to encourage people to visit. My sister and I used to watch them over and over again because we lived in PA, and we weren't a vacation-style family. Eventually, though, my parents did feel guilty and took us to Disney World. I do feel bad because one of my only memories of that trip is me being such a small child that when I sat on the toilet, I folded in half and fell in." —monikap6 24."Don't even get me started on having to memorize your friends' phone numbers because there were no smartphones to store them. Simpler times!" —trendycake45 25."Disney Channel used to play movies every night at 8 p.m. I still sometimes hear, 'Let's watch a Disney Channel movie.' It's not like streaming was around, so you had to be ready with a VHS tape if you wanted to ever rewatch it. The Thirteenth Year was a favorite at our household." —monikap6 26."Burning a CD. I asked my daughter what she thought it meant, and she guessed I was destroying something. Quite the opposite. Those custom CDs were romantic gifts, the soundtrack to rolling through town/backroads, and even a way to celebrate without a DJ. Now, the idea of a playlist capped at 16 songs sounds foreign." —acidictooth778 27."Trying to burn the perfect mix CD from LimeWire without crashing your computer or downloading a virus… now that was a skill." —trendycake45 28."Salsa Fries from Andy Capp." —Anonymous, 36, MN 29."Senior from 1994 here. Someone born after 2005 would never understand why, in the '90s, if you were in a hurry or had a set time to be somewhere, you did not drive the main street of your town on a Friday or Saturday night. You drove on the outskirts of town to get through faster. (Because all the teens were driving in circles or drag racing.)" —abourque 30."Waiting until after 8 pm to call long distance. Or, getting your first cellphone and having only 60 minutes of 'talk time' per month. If you went over, you had to pay per minute. Same with texting when it became more common." —laurachytka 31."Being told to come home when the street lights turn on." —slickninja 32."'Playing' the demo version of arcade games in the laundromat." —smartgoose16 33."Writing a text using only numbers. I was trying to explain this to my daughter the other day — to write out 'hey,' you had to press 4 twice, 3 twice, and 9 three times." —hovingkaitlin 34."Having to buy film for your camera. Having to be selective over what photos you take because you only get 24-36 frames. Forgetting to get the film developed for months or years." —lesliepl0310 35."Plug-in CD players. You would put a tape into the 'tape player' and the plug into the cigarette lighter, and you would be able to listen to CDs." —jgcromwell 36."On Nickelodeon, that chimp with three eyes that used to say, 'Hi, I'm Paul!' during commercial breaks and wave!" —Anonymous, 30, Niagara Falls, NY 37."Waiting for the radio station to play your new favorite pop song by Britney or *NSYNC so you can record it with a cassette tape!" —dazzlingmagician324 38."Making plans with friends to meet at the mall with no guarantee that they would show up and no way to contact them to see if they were on the way." —myneishac 39."Having a large cellular phone that came in a black leather-like bag for only your car. One of the early cell phones was hooked to your vehicle's battery." —marvelousfan911 40."Having to stop a random person to ask what time it is." —slickninja 41."Riding your bike to a friend's house and knocking on their door to see if they could come out. Or calling someone's house phone and having to interact with their family member before getting them on the phone." —slickninja 42."Being on the Internet, probably playing a flash game, and your mom telling you to get off the internet because she has to make a phone call, and then waiting around for her to finish." —hobbitgirl96 43."Buying disposable cameras for big events, and then the anticipation of getting them all developed." —bravechinchilla277 44."Pagers and payphones being the only means of communication. In fact, in high school, you were considered cool if you had a pager." —angelamastin82 45."There was a show on Disney Channel called Naturally, Sadie about a girl who loved nature. I remembered its existence, but I swear I thought it lasted a season, maybe, because I can only somewhat recall one episode (she notices that there are no baby pictures of her older brother but tons of her, and at the end, her mom reveals that they had a housefire before she was born or something), but according to Wikipedia, there were three seasons!?!" —rachelo4ef37e40d 46."Phone companies charging PER text message." —amandav4218e9747 47."Kissing Fruit lip gloss." —Anonymous, 18, Houston, TX 48."Buying a 'phone card' so you could make long-distance calls home from camp on a landline or payphone and have the cost covered in advance. There was always a stupidly long string of numbers to punch in, and you had to do it at the right time in the right order, or you would have to hang up and start all over. You bought the cards in increments of time (20 min, 45 min, 1 hr, etc). I remember having thoughts like, 'There's a dance on Friday, and I know I'll want to talk about it for a long time, so I should probably keep Monday's convo under five minutes!' Different times, man." —melc40e454224 49."The electronic pocket dictionary things. They were about the size of a calculator, and they can't have been expensive because I think I had one." —gettysburgdressmaker finally: "'You have died of dysentery.'" —kimmiethiel What's something you miss from the '90s or early '00s? Tell us all about it in the comments or in the anonymous comments box below! Note: Some responses have been edited for length/clarity.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Woman Spent 3 Years Creating a 'Nostalgia Room' Full of '90s-Inspired Pieces to Deal with Her Childhood 'Trauma' (Exclusive)
Filled with everything she didn't have as a kid, Destinee Ristau's nostalgia room has been her project for the past three yearsNEED TO KNOW Destinee Ristau has spent the last three years making a "nostalgia room" Her first few items were an inflatable couch, a lava lamp, and a VHS tape of The Princess Diaries From there, she's grown her room and her social media following, sharing her '90s and 2000s treasures with the worldWhen you walk into Destinee Ristau's room, it's like you're walking through a portal to the '90s and early 2000s. Deemed her "nostalgia room," Ristau has collected everything from Britney Spears posters to Disney-branded bedding and Furbies. While the room now brings Ristau joy and comfort, the idea grew from a place of longing. "The room would not exist without the trauma. I was growing up in a rough situation from the ages of 1 to 7, and I dealt with complete chaos," she exclusively tells PEOPLE. "My parents separated. It was not an amicable separation." The 35-year-old says her mom worked at a strip club and was often out all night and asleep during the day. This left Ristau alone to care for herself from a very young age. Once her dad realized the gravity of the situation, he did everything he could to help. "The trauma cooled by the time I was 6. I was living with my dad and my stepmom, and things calmed down," she explains. "Still, it swung from those first critical developmental years of my life being complete chaos and uncertainty to getting bullied in elementary and middle school." For Ristau, she never addressed her childhood trauma until she was an adult. "I couldn't be a kid when I was a kid for a while," Ristau says. Then, when she was in her 20s, her dad was diagnosed with cancer and died. "That was the trigger in 2017 when I thought, 'There's too much going on. I have way too many underdressed issues.' I started going to therapy," she says. "I returned to college and completed my degree in psychology. I learned a lot in my therapy sessions and dealt with mourning my dad." "It turned into a constant loop of grief, because my dad passed, my mom passed, my grandparents passed, a sister passed, and I was in a continuous cycle of grief. I'm trying to heal myself, and everyone around me that I love is dying. How can you heal when all these things keep happening to you?" It was then that the idea for a "nostalgia room" came to her. "I started leaning into 'What is little Destinee trying to tell me right now? What does she need?'" she recalls. "I feel her coming back out, and she's saying, 'Let me help you in ways that maybe nothing else can.' I was 30 and I started leaning into nostalgia." The first few items she bought were an inflatable couch, a lava lamp, and a VHS tape of The Princess Diaries. "I thought, let me rewind and go back to something happy, or maybe a picture of that childhood that I didn't get early on," she explains. "I needed something to bring me out of everything so dark and so scary and traumatizing, and it went from there." Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Everything from her childhood had been thrown away, so when Ristau began creating her nostalgia room, she had to source everything from thrift stores, eBay, and other online marketplaces. Looking to expand into a different room, she then took over the office. Thankfully, her husband was "all for it." One of her favorite purchases is the daybed, which is placed right in the middle of the room. It reminds Ristau of when her dad brought her home and bought her a daybed with Pocahontas bedding. That bed, paired with her Disney Princess TV, gets the most use. In addition to these items, Ristau also has an extensive collection of VHS tapes and CDs, throwback posters, stuffed animals from various movies and TV shows, and a collection of catalogs from the 1990s and early 2000s. She now shares her room with the world through her TikTok and Instagram accounts, bringing that same sense of joy and nostalgia to thousands of people. "That's the most humbling and cool part about it, hearing people tell me that my videos make their day, or every time they see my room, they feel a sense of calm, and they sit and take deep breaths as they watch the video, because it's like their therapy session," she shares. "If you need therapy, definitely go to therapy, but I'm happy to help you, like I've helped myself with this community." Ristau says that she's "so grateful" for the nostalgia community that she's found. "The people who get it get it, and the people who don't, don't. That's fine, but people should be open to it. Most people love nostalgia, and some people may think it's cringy, but to be cringy is to be free. It makes me happy. It makes so many people happy." Despite living in a digital world, Ristau encourages people to start curating a collection of their own physical media. "Now is the time to invest in physical media, and you do not want to lose this stuff," she says. "You want to have a copy of your favorite movie. You want to have physical media. If you watch Gilmore Girls every year, buy the DVD set. You'll be so much happier." For Ristau and others, "nostalgia is so healing," and can lead to community and connection. "People need to be open to listening to their inner child. Hear them out, see what they're trying to tell you," she adds. "I'm happy to share this room with others. It's fun and it's a good way for a very traumatized generation to heal in an unorthodox way." On her TikTok page, Ristau also shares that she is working on a "grandma kitchen" and a celestial room. While some people in her comments say she's stuck in the past, Ristau would tell you that's precisely where she wants to be. Read the original article on People Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Freddie Prinze Jr. teases his 'She's All That' reunion with Rachael Leigh Cook in 'The Christmas Affair'
ʼ90s heads, prepare to swoon. Freddie Prinze Jr. is gushing about his She's All That costar Rachael Leigh Cook ahead of their big reunion on the upcoming holiday film The Christmas Affair. "I'm really excited to film with her again," he told Deadline Hollywood during Monday's red carpet premiere of I Know What You Did Last Summer. "I love her to death, she's like a sister to me. I know her kids, she knows my kids. We've been close ever since that first movie, and I don't know why it's taken us this long to work together again but it did." She's All That premiered in 1999, since earning its place among the best entries in the ʼ90s rom-com canon. In it, Prinze Jr. plays Zack Siler, an affable jock who makes a bet with his bros that he can make over any undesirable young woman into a beauty queen in time for prom. He chooses the awkward, artistically-inclined loner Laney Boggs (Cook), and after some halted misconnections and the expected third act betrayal, the pair form an enduring bond. The film also starred Matthew Lillard as Brock, the reality star himbo Zack's girlfriend Taylor (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe) cheats on him with, prompting the duckling-to-swan quest. Lillard and Cook established the She's All That cinematic universe in 2021 with a return to their characters in He's All That, a gender-swapped remake starring nascent alt-pop queen Addison Rae and Cobra Kai star Tanner Buchanan. But Prinze Jr. declined to join that cast. Ahead of the release of He's All That, Cook revealed that while Prinze Jr. wouldn't appear in the remake, the script originally featured a part for him. "We both discussed if he was going to do this one or not," she explained. "It ended up not being a good fit for him, but he and the creative team behind it are totally cool. He said, 'It's not going to work out for me, but I totally obviously support you doing whatever you want with this. Go run with it. I'll support this movie all the way and everyone involved.'"The Christmas Affair reunites not only Prinze Jr. and Cook, but the two actors with She's All That producer Jennifer Gibgot, who's shepherding the holiday film for Fox Entertainment Studios. That film, announced in May, follows Prinze Jr. and Cook's Gabe and Natalie, sports broadcasters who "form an unlikely alliance after their spouses are caught cheating weeks before Christmas." Celebrating the announcement of the film on Instagram that month, Cook wrote, "I ❤️ Freddie, my 🦊 FOX Family, New York and Christmas🎄 so I could not be more excited to announce this !!!" Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
BBC News
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Expert explains why 90s vinyl has become so lucrative
As Oasis return to sell-out stadium gigs and slip dresses with platform shoes are everywhere, it is clear to see resurgence of auctioneer Martin Hughes, a music specialist at Wessex Auction Rooms in Wiltshire, said this has made vinyl from that decade also rise in Hughes said albums from the 90s are "the mot popular with buyers right now", driven by a surge in nostalgia for the decade, he said."The likelihood of finding a Beatles record worth more than £10 is pretty slim these days. You're better off looking for anything released from 1993 onward, even Gloria Estefan, or The Beautiful South - their Greatest Hits album is worth £150," he added. During his career, Mr Hughes has sold an extremely rare Sex Pistols single for more than £20,000 last year and auctioned a record sleeve signed by all three members of Nirvana for thousands of pounds. Speaking to BBC Radio Bristol's John Darvall, Mr Hughes said as well as 90s albums, he has also found gems in unusual places."I was searching through a pile of records sent in, and found an album by an obscure Bristol band called Folkal Point."You would definitely walk past it but it's a £1,200 album because it sold no copies at the time."If you're a folk collector, you start to go after these records that nobody else has got because you like to show them off to your friends," he said. Vinyl has seen a resurgence of interest in recent years, with almost £200m spent on vinyl albums in 2024, an increase of more than 10%."Ten years ago when I started this auction business, we had 13 general auctions a year, now I have 12 alone just dedicated to vinyl," Mr Hughes said. What should you look for? Age doesn't necessarily equal value, or even having things signed."I get unbelievable amounts of emails from people who have signed Beatles albums but so many of them were signed by managers so there aren't that many that are genuine," Mr Hughes said."The better the condition the more valuable it will be, but never write off something that isn't great condition. "In some genres like reggae and punk, which are very collectable genres, it's so rare you'll find them in lovely condition. "I sold two warped demo discs by The Who, they were unplayable and they made £80 each, just because someone wanted to own them."The hottest thing right now is the 90s. I'm 43 so it's my generation, it's the nostalgia buying that drives so many areas of collectables."Oasis as an obvious example, forgetting that they got back together. "They sold tons of records, but nobody was buying the vinyl back then, so unless you were a mega fan you'd get the CDs. "The original pressings of their 90s material for example, their first two albums in decent condition are going to be north of £100 each."
