Latest news with #AliceInWonderland
Daily Mail
28-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Taking on Kmart: Aussies flood The Reject Shop to snap up stunning new homewares range that quietly dropped
The Reject Shop has done it again with a playful new homewares range that has thousands of Aussies excited. Officially in stores on May 28, the new fairytale-inspired range draws upon common phrases and themes from Alice in Wonderland and is perfect for those who love a pop of colour at home. Very Mad Hatter-esque, the 'frabjous' collection features mushroom bowls and cake plates ($5), teacups and saucers ($8), glass magnet sets ($5) and an adorable striped toilet brush ($12.50) guaranteed to brighten up any dreary bathroom. Other highlights include scalloped plates reminiscent of those sold by No.22 and In The Roundhouse. Each one is stamped with a kooky phrase like 'We're All Mad Here', 'Eat Me' and 'Oh My Ears And Whiskers How Late It's Getting'. The soap dispensers, mushroom-themed lazy Susan, and 'Hatter' tumblers are also expected to be sell-out hits. Even though the range officially dropped on Wednesday, shoppers have been spotting the pieces on shelves for the past week and eagerly shared snaps of their finds on TikTok. 'Every week I'm absolutely stunned by what I'm discovering at the Reject Shop,' shopper Clare Jane raved. 'They understood the assignment this week. Get the girls together for a high tea mad hatters edition this Sunday.' And hundreds of others agreed. 'Yes I love The Reject Shop I got [stuff] there for my pink and white kitchen theme... I'm going to need the pink mushroom,' one shopper replied. It's the latest in a string of hits for the store, which is increasingly taking on the likes of Kmart and Target with its affordable designer-inspired collections that are designed to mix and match. Aussie bargain hunters were thrilled earlier this month with news of The Reject shop's latest multi-million-dollar takeover deal, which has promised an expansion of 700 new stores nationwide. Canadian retail giant Dollarama acquired the store for an eyewatering $259million - a deal that marked a milestone moment for the brand. Speaking exclusively to FEMAIL, a Reject Shop spokesperson teased that they couldn't give away too much when it came to their future plans, but did hint they may explore more luxury-inspired offerings. 'We have some very exciting homewares collections coming up throughout the year and cannot wait to share them with our customers,' they said. 'We love home decor that gives a colourful personality to spaces, giving our customers the chance to make exciting choices with their interior design while remaining on a budget.' The Reject Shop CEO Clinton Cahn announced that he was 'excited about the opportunities that this transaction presents', as many Australia consumers are in such a cost-of-living crunch. This deal will also see a huge rise in availability for Aussies to get their hands on products even quicker, with more physical stores to cater to the rising demand. However, not all fans are convinced this is a good thing, worrying that the prices, quality and luxury 'dupes' might diminish now that Dollarama has taken over. 'Gosh... they better keep there low prices or I will never shop there again,' one said on TikTok. 'If they change the type of products that the reject shop sells I'm going to be so mad because the strawberry collection of plates and bowls are everything to me,' commented another. Even though the range officially dropped on Wednesday, shoppers have been spotting the pieces on shelves for the past week and eagerly shared snaps of their finds on TikTok According to UNSW consumer behaviour researcher Professor Nitika Garg 'The Reject Shop's buy-out signals a strong vote of confidence in the Australian retail sector'. Speaking to FEMAIL, Professor Garg said 'healthy competition between budget retailers is ultimately a win for Aussie shoppers'. 'It pushes companies to improve quality, keep prices low, and deliver better value,' she said. A deal like this will also be a huge boost to the local economy. 'This influx of capital could drive innovation, expand local operations, and create more jobs - all of which are positives for the broader Australian economy,' Professor Garg said.
Los Angeles Times
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Newport Harbor grad who had Broadway wish granted, continues moving forward
Gabriella Earnhart attacks life with vibrancy. She describes herself well in a single sentence: 'I'm constantly creating something in whatever capacity I can.' Her home in Costa Mesa is close to her alma mater, Newport Harbor High School, where Earnhart works as a brand and community coordinator for the performing arts program she participated in before graduating in 2023. Earnhart faces a threat that's not always outwardly apparent, Marfan syndrome, a genetic disorder that affects the connective tissue all over her body. The 6-foot-1 Earnhart has an enlarged aorta, and the syndrome leaves her at increased risk for emergencies such as her lungs collapsing or retinas detaching. She sometimes needs to use a wheelchair to get around. 'I'd say that probably the most pervasive aspect of the illness is just chronic pain and chronic fatigue,' said Earnhart, 20, who had spinal surgery in 2018 for scoliosis that is often associated with Marfan syndrome patients. 'Something always hurts all the time.' Still, Earnhart tends to look on the positive side of life. She has met some of her best friends through nonprofit the Marfan Foundation. Her family moved from Chicago to Orange County when her father, David, got a new job while Gabriella was in high school. Settling into her new surroundings, Earnhart started seeing David Liang, a Hoag Hospital doctor who specializes in treating Marfan syndrome. Liang recommended her for Make-A-Wish Orange County and the Inland Empire. Her wish itself wasn't very specific. 'I wanted something where I could travel to a cool place, and I wanted something that is theater related,' Earnhart said. 'Something that I can dress up and enjoy the fun things.' The theater kid's wish was granted by Make-A-Wish in June 2024. Earnhart and her mother, Heather, were treated to a trip to Broadway. The reveal was special to her, as it happened in front of the bell tower on campus as she was preparing to direct junior actors in a production of 'Alice In Wonderland.' Her mom, coworkers, high school students and theater camp kids were all present. 'That was the first time in my life that I've ever actually been surprised by something,' she said. 'I was not expecting it all. It was a beautiful moment. Sometimes the kids will run into me at the grocery store and they're like, 'Miss Gabriella! I remember when we had cupcakes for your wish!' It's fun to have those memories in that place.' She saw two musicals on the New York trip, 'Merrily We Roll Along' and 'The Great Gatsby.' Earnhart also got to attend a theater awards show, plus the after-party. 'We just had the best time going to the Met, trying new restaurants [and] shopping for jewelry for the awards show at midnight in Times Square,' she said. She remains involved with Make-A-Wish. Earnhart spoke at the foundation's 'It's In The Bag' fashion show and luncheon, held April 27 at the Waterfront Resort in Huntington Beach. 'It really is inspiring to see how our wish kids take so many challenges and turn them into positives, and to see how the wishes that we grant really have an impact on the trajectory of where their future takes them,' said Anne Grey, Make-A-Wish Orange County and the Inland Empire's president and chief executive. 'It gives them the feeling that anything is possible. It's so wonderful, and Gabby really embodies that, which I think is amazing.' Though Make-A-Wish is often associated with children with terminal illnesses, Grey said about 70% of the organization's kids live on to adulthood. 'What can be so deceiving is that they can look healthy on the outside by all appearances, but the highs and lows of dealing with a critical illness throughout your life do have those valleys where it's really a struggle,' she said. 'Having the ability to look forward to a wish or look back on your wish, how that was a great time, getting through the hard times and staying strong is something that a wish makes possible.' Earnhart, who has taken two gap years since graduating from high school, has focused on working both at Newport Harbor and the Sunflower Design Co., a hand-lettering and painting business. She is now taking the next step, leaving Newport Harbor and enrolling at Pepperdine University, where she'll start studying musical theater and marketing in the fall. She knows that her Marfan syndrome will likely affect her life in the performing space, but she's still making that choice to pursue the arts. Experiencing her Broadway wish come true no doubt gave her inspiration. 'It was just really lovely to be able to combine the arts and this wish,' Earnhart said. 'It felt like a very culminating moment for me.'
The Advertiser
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Advertiser
What's on this weekend: Wallaroos, ice hockey and Mother's Day
Alice In Wonderland JR Saturday 3.30pm and 8.30pm, Young People's Theatre Newcastle, 26 Lindsay Street, Hamilton.
Daily Mail
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Cocaine trap earl takes a second shot at marriage
His might sound like a gilded, enviable life, not least because he inherited his grandfather's earldom before his fourth birthday and spent his infancy running barefoot around the Caribbean island of Mustique. But that would gloss over the death of Joe Hardwicke's father Philip 'Pips', Viscount Royston, from heart failure aged 34 – and his mother Virginia 's battle with the bottle, which she lost at 47. Those blows were made no easier to bear by society's hostility towards Virginia's choice of lover after Pips's death, Mustique bar-owner Basil Charles. So it's heartening that, aged 54, Joe, the 10th Earl of Hardwicke, has a shot at lasting happiness. He has, I can disclose, become engaged to PR and media consultant Nicola Osmond-Evans, 51. 'We're delighted to confirm our engagement,' he tells me. It's the second shot at marital bliss for Joe, a recruitment consultant, who was previously married to South African-born Siobhan Loftus, ten years his senior. They wed in 2008 and she gave birth to a son, whom they named Philip after Joe's father, the following year. A decade earlier, Joe had suffered the worst crisis of his adult life. By then, he'd become the youngest hereditary member of the House of Lords – he first took his seat aged 22 – and was also the co-owner of a business selling motor scooters. In 1998, a Middle-Eastern caller placed an order for 50 off-road scooters, worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. It was actually the first part of a 'sting' by an undercover reporter, which eventually led to Joe being given a two-year suspended sentence for supplying cocaine. But the jury made a point of recording the 'extreme provocation' of the methods used by the News of the World to entrap him. He and his sister, Lady Jemima, regarded Basil as a surrogate father and his children, Reynold and Liz, as siblings. A family friend recalls how the young Joe loathed leaving Mustique for prep school – and later for Marlborough College. 'He was aged about ten and came back, I think, with his aunt, [Lady] Amabel Lindsay,' the family friend tells me. 'They hadn't even got to Barbados when Joe said, 'I'm missing Basil already'.' Basil attended Prince William and Kate's 2011 wedding. Let's hope he can make it to Joe's. What an undignified end for The Lady, Britain's oldest – and stateliest – magazine for women. I recently disclosed that the journal, which was founded two years before Queen Victoria's 1887 Golden Jubilee and included Alice In Wonderland author Lewis Carroll among its contributors, had gone into liquidation. Yesterday, its Statement of Affairs was published, reporting that it owes creditors £700,000 as part of a £1.9million deficiency. Actor cut from Musk doc Homeland star David Harewood has revealed he was axed from narrating a documentary about billionaire Elon Musk because his voice was 'too warm'. The actor, 59, says he was hired to do a voiceover for a programme about the Tesla and SpaceX boss, but the experience quickly soured. 'I was constantly being asked to re-record passages and told to make my voice colder, flatter, less warm – all the things that my voice isn't,' he says. The next day he received a call from his agent to say he was being dropped from the job – but would be paid in full. 'Without skipping a beat I said, 'I see NO downside to this. Happy to move on',' says David. Class? Check! Rosie poses for Burberry After former EastEnders actress and chronic cocaine user Danniella Westbrook was splashed across the papers dressed head-to-toe in Burberry's check in 2002, the classic British label decided to take drastic action to shed its downmarket image. It appointed US high-flyer Angela Ahrendts as chief executive and designer Christopher Bailey to make the brand fashionable again. And model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley is doing her best to keep Burberry classy. Rosie, 38, who has two children with A-list actor Jason Statham, poses in a bikini for the brand's latest campaign, left. She first worked with Burberry in 2008. Sir Ian McKellen will appear in a film directed by an Eton pupil after being contacted by the school. Jacob Franklin, 14, says he 'wasn't really expecting a reply' from the actor, but Sir Ian, 85, said he was 'really inspired by this'. In the film, Dragged Through Time, he plays a character inspired by gay people from the 1970s and 80s. 'I often look back to myself at [Jacob's] age and [have] regret,' says Sir Ian, who didn't publicly reveal he was gay until 1988. Eugenie raises £1m Some charities end up receiving little from fancy fundraising galas once costs are deducted. So hats off to Princess Eugenie, whose organisation The Anti-Slavery Collective received £1.1million from its inaugural Force for Freedom Gala after £280,000 was spent on the London event. The figures are reported in newly published accounts for the charity, which Eugenie co-founded in 2017. Superstar Ed Sheeran, Formula One reporter Natalie Pinkham and You're Beautiful singer James Blunt attended the fundraiser.
Daily Mail
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews Penelope: Eat berries, hug trees and take your iPhone... The Gen Z guide to survival
Penelope (Sky Atlantic) Let's save you some trouble. If you can't imagine yourself being profoundly moved by a teenage girl weepily hugging a giant redwood tree in a forest, you're not going to like Penelope much. Just say to yourself, 'That doesn't sound my kind of thing,' and turn the page to read the Garfield cartoon. I won't hold it against you. Truth is, Penelope isn't my kind of thing either. I had hopes for it during the first few minutes, when it promised to be an Alice In Wonderland for the digital age. That was rather too optimistic. Set in the backwoods of America's Pacific coast, this is a largely wordless fantasy about a girl, more child than adolescent, who glimpses a timber wolf, during a back-to-nature break with family and friends. Inspired to explore the wilderness, she follows a rabbit and runs away. When she stumbles on a railway track, she leaps aboard a goods train and rides until nightfall in an empty carriage. Next day, she finds herself in a town with a cafe where she skims through a book on how to survive by sleeping on moss and eating berries. A mumbly folk singer befriends her, letting her spend the night in his camper van while he snores chastely beside her. And then she's off into the great unspoilt expanses, where there are more towering redwoods than anyone can hug in a lifetime. You might be unsurprised to learn that each episode in this eight-part series ends with an earnest avowal of thanks to the Duwamish and Stillaguamish tribes, who 'have inhabited these lands and waters since time immemorial'. Penelope is resourceful, easily able to give adults the slip. She's also improbably athletic, able to jump onto a moving train and scoop up all her camping equipment without dislocating her arms (or, like the Welsh poet W.H. Davies, who travelled America this way, slipping and losing a foot). Whether it's a good idea to encourage Generation Z to ride the railways for free is open to debate. Most of them barely leave their bedrooms, so I don't suppose much harm can come of it. Apple products featured so heavily that I began to suspect the production was sponsored, though there was no hint of that in the credits. Numerous close-ups showed Penelope (Megan Stott) typing her thoughts into the messaging app and then deleting them ('Mom . . . was I a happy kid?'). We saw her swiping into the settings menu to switch off 'location sharing' so that her parents couldn't track her. Then she went shopping for outdoor gear at a camping superstore and, when the slow-witted youth on the till refused to accept payment by Apple Pay, she used her phone to instantly purchase and download a $500 giftcard — triumphantly telling the whole shop how she'd done it. What a handy survival tip . . . although it might be more useful if only her phone had a built-in pepper spray in case of bear attacks.
