Latest news with #BridgetJones'sDiary
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Renée Zellweger Living Solo Again As Ant Anstead's Life Spirals Into Legal And Financial Chaos
Renée Zellweger and Ant Anstead's once-blossoming romance appears to be entering turbulent waters. The couple, who have been together since 2021, are now reportedly living apart, while rumors of financial ruin and new associations cast shadows on their future. With Ant's car business crumbling and Zellweger focused on work in New York, insiders say the situation is far from stable. Zellweger and Anstead, who began dating four years ago, are reportedly no longer sharing a home. According to insiders, the couple hasn't lived under the same roof for over a year. Anstead had been renting a modest two-bedroom property in Laguna Beach for $4,250 a month, while Zellweger continued residing in a $30,000-a-month clifftop rental nearby. A spokesperson for Anstead confirmed to the Daily Mail that the small home 'was rented solely by Mr. Anstead,' and the landlord clarified that Zellweger was not on the lease. Meanwhile, Zellweger has been in New York filming the hit Hulu series "Only Murders in the Building." Despite the physical distance and ongoing speculation, a source close to the "Bridget Jones's Diary" star maintains that 'they are still dating.' As Anstead's personal life becomes more complicated, his living arrangements have sparked more questions. He's been repeatedly seen spending the night at the upscale home of Julia French, a glamorous 36-year-old divorcée in Laguna Beach who is currently in the process of divorcing her hedge fund founder husband, James Hanna III. Anstead and French reportedly share a connection through their children, as one of her kids attends the same school as Anstead's son, Hudson. A source revealed to the outlet, 'When Ant's working late or needs childcare, Hudson goes back with Jules' kids. Then in the evening, Ant picks Hudson up.' The source also hinted at a 'flirtatious friendship' between Anstead and French, adding, 'When he moved out of his rental, he moved into the apartment above the garage at Jules' place.' Even after four years of dating, Zellweger seems hesitant to take the next step with Anstead. When Anstead lost his rental, it was assumed that he would move in with Zellweger again. However, that didn't happen. A source close to the Oscar-winning actress said, 'Renée currently has a rental in Laguna. When Ant lost his rental, the obvious thing would have been for him to move into the rental with Renée. But she doesn't want them cohabiting, so he has to find his own place to stay.' The insider explained that Zellweger's reluctance may stem from wanting to keep some personal space amid Anstead's growing troubles. 'That's kind of how the relationship works,' the source added, suggesting Zellweger may be trying to maintain boundaries while still being supportive from a distance. Anstead is facing a wave of legal and financial issues that have significantly impacted his lifestyle. His company, Radford Motors, recently filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Delaware, a move that often leads to liquidation. Additionally, the British TV presenter is facing lawsuits from customers who allege fraud and breach of contract. One lawsuit claims that a customer paid a deposit for a $1 million custom Lotus race car, only for the car never to materialize and the money to remain unrecovered. Anstead or his company is being sued for over $3 million. Adding to the mess, the landlord of his Costa Mesa workshop reportedly filed for eviction. Although Anstead's spokesperson later claimed the filing was 'made in error' and withdrawn, sources say staff haven't been seen at the workshop in over a week. While Anstead deals with his personal and professional woes, Zellweger is staying focused on her acting career. She has been filming in New York and keeping a relatively low profile. Her publicist declined to comment on the current state of her relationship, but those close to her insist that she's still in a relationship with Anstead, though it is complicated by distance and logistics. Meanwhile, Anstead continues to maintain that his relationship is private. 'He continues to remain private about his cherished personal relationship,' his representative stated. Zellweger's silence on the matter is noteworthy and could be reflective of her preference to avoid drama and stay focused on work while things settle down.
Edinburgh Live
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Edinburgh Live
Celebrity Traitors' Celia Imrie suffered ‘horrific' treatment in doctor's ‘sleep room'
Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info Former patients of psychiatrist William Sargant have revealed the horrifying treatment they received at a renowned London hospital. Author Jon Stock has collected stories from several of Sargant's victims, including well-known actress and star of 'Celebrity Traitors', Celia Imrie. Speaking to the Mirror, Jon said that a majority of the people subjected to Sargant's cruel "Sleep Room" therapies were women and young girls. The troubling revelations include Sargant's preference for lobotomising unhappily-married women, rather than allowing them to go through with divorce. Sargant justified his disturbing stance by saying: "A depressed woman, for instance, may owe her illness to a psychopathic husband who cannot change and will not accept treatment. Separation might be the answer, but... we have seen patients enabled by a [lobotomy] to return to the difficult environment and cope with it in a way which had hitherto been impossible." (Image: Hilary Stock) The unethical doctor went as far as humiliating his female patients by having them parade nearly-nude before audiences of medical students. Amongst those mistreated by Sargant is acclaimed actress Celia Imrie, whose credits include hits like 'Bridget Jones's Diary' and 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel'. She is set to appear again on television screens in the BBC's 'Celebrity Traitors'. Imrie confided to Jon about developing an eating disorder during her youth after being labelled "too big" to realise her ambition of becoming a ballet dancer. (Image: GL Weekend) She detailed her extreme efforts to lose weight, stating: "I worked out every means possible to dispose of food, determined to get 'small' enough to be a dancer, and I was soon little more than a carcass with skin." Her experience under the care of Sargant was disturbing, as she recounted: "The side effects were startling. My hands shook uncontrollably for most of the day, and I'd wake up to find clumps of my hair on the pillow." Celia described the harrowing ordeal: "But the worst consequence was that everything I saw was in double vision. When Sargant came into the room, there were two of him. It was horrific and terrifying." She further explained the treatment's impact: "Even simple tasks such as picking up a glass of water became impossible. I was injected with insulin every day too. Sargant was a big believer in fattening up his patients to get them well and you soon put on weight with insulin. "I think I had what was called 'sub-coma shock treatment'– you weren't given enough insulin to induce a hypoglycaemic coma, but it was enough to make you drowsy, weak, sweaty and hungry." She added: "I will never know for sure if I was given electric shocks during my stay," due to missing medical records, a situation Celia blames on Sargant: "Some years back, I tried to find my hospital records, to see the details of my treatment. Unfortunately, Sargant seems to have taken away a lot of his patients' records, including mine, when he retired from the NHS in 1972." (Image: Alamy Stock Photo) She concluded with lingering doubts, expressing: "Either that, or they were destroyed. I can't remember ECT happening to me, but I can remember it happening to others." Sargant's methods were brutal and included electroshock therapy. "I vividly recall every sight, sound and smell," Celia remembered. "The huge rubber plug jammed between her teeth; the strange almost silent cry, like a sigh of pain, she made as her tormented body shuddered and jerked; the scent of burning hair and flesh. It was a terrible thing for a fourteen-year-old to witness." (Image: Universal Images Group via Getty Images) Women were placed in Sargant's care for the most trivial of reasons. Jon told the Mirror that patient Mary Thornton was admitted to The Sleep Room after her parents suspected she was having a romance with an "inappropriate" boy. She told Jon that she also only has patchy memories of her treatment: "One is of the electrodes being attached to the side of my head. I remember the complete, utter terror because I didn't even know who I was." Jon says this was a common reason for young women's hospitalisation: "In the mid 1960s, for example, a wealthy businessman contacted Sargant, explaining that his daughter had fallen in love with an "unsuitable" local man in Europe and wanted to marry him." Sargant was tasked with curing the young girl's love-struck "madness." He explains: "A photo later emerged of Sargant, the father and a heavily sedated daughter standing at the door of the aeroplane that had returned her to the UK." A former student at the hospital told Jon: "Basically, Sargant brought this attractive young woman back at the end of a needle." Rumours link Sargant to the CIA's infamous MK Ultra "mind control" programme, with speculation that the US spy agency may have funded some of his work. Jon states: " The minutes of St Thomas' Research Advisory Committee meeting reveal that in September 1963, Sargant announced that an anonymous donor would fund the salary of a research registrar (£80,000 a year in today's money) for two years. Sargant refused to reveal the donor's identity." (Image: Chris Floyd) Jon confirms that Sargant did have ties to the intelligence community, stating: "Sargant did regular work for MI5 – in 1967, for example, he was called in to assess the mental health of Vladimir Tkachenko, a suspected Russian defector." However, Jon admits that proving Sargant's association with the CIA is one of the most challenging aspects of the story. One former serviceman, Eric Gow, who participated in drug trials under the impression he was helping to cure the common cold, reported being given massive doses of LSD. Jon says that Gow claims to recall seeing Sargant overseeing some of these experiments at the MOD's chemical and biological research facility at Porton Down. The Sleep Room: A Very British Medical Scandal by Jon Stock is published by the Bridge Street Press (£25).
Metro
04-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
Bridget Jones author claims she was repeatedly groped while working at BBC
The woman behind Bridget Jones has claimed she was groped repeatedly while working for the BBC. Helen Fielding, who penned the legendary 1996 novel Bridget Jones's Diary and spawned a multimedia franchise, joined the BBC as a researcher in 1979. After leaving the broadcaster, she worked as a journalist, where the idea for the Bridget Jones character began as an unattributed column in The Independent. From there, she became a novelist and penned several books, including three Bridget Jones novels—Bridget Jones's Diary in 1996, The Edge of Reason in 1999, and Mad About the Boy in 2013. The books became a major film franchise, with Renée Zellweger in the titular role of Bridget, starring opposite love interests Hugh Grant and Colin Firth. As a result, Helen, 67, is one of the biggest names in British publishing, but her latest story comes from when she was making her first steps in the industry. She joined the BBC at the age of 21, when, as she told the Soho Summit, workplace sexual harassment went unpunished across several industries and trades. 'I worked at the BBC when I was in my 20s, and you just got used to the fact that people would actually put their hand on your boob while they were talking to you about work,' she said, via MailOnline. Helen did not directly name any of her BBC colleagues in relation to her claims, nor did she directly accuse any other members of staff at the organisaiton. Describing groping as an everyday occurrence, Helen added that women her age were expected to 'put up with' harassment from older male colleagues. When contacted for comment, a BBC spokesperson told Metro in response to Helen's claims: 'We're sorry to hear of these experiences. Attitudes and behaviours have changed significantly in the last 40 years and the BBC—like the rest of society—is very different place now to what it was then.' Elsewhere, Helen also reflected on the industry as a whole and the era of Bridget Jones: 'I first wrote Bridget pre-#MeToo—and when I look at that film now, I can't believe that that stuff was going on,' she said of the male characters in the novel who harass Bridget on a daily basis. One such character, who makes it into the 2001 film adaptation, is Bridget's leering boss, Mr. Fitzherbert, whom Bridget refers to as 'Mr. T**spervert'. Speaking about the movie industry today, Helen argued that, while they might be better disguised, the same attitudes remain from the 1970s and 1980s. More Trending 'You still have to fight much harder as a woman, even a successful woman, and you get treated in ways that men would not be treated. And there's no denying that it is still going on and it needs to change.' Helen's first novel was a 1994 satirical story titled Cause Celeb, which was based on the relationship between celebrities and refugees in a fictional East African country. Aside from the Bridget Jones novels, she also penned the 2003 comic spy book Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination, which tells the story of a woman following a man she believes to be a terrorist. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: Xzibit reveals $1,000,000 reason he rejected Pimp My Ride return MORE: Disgraced BBC star Huw Edwards 'refuses requests to return £200,000 he was paid after arrest' MORE: 'I wrote huge songs with popstars at their lowest points but turned down millions'
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Jane Austen Wrecked My Life' Review: A Delectable Modern Rom-Com Reassesses the Appeal of Past Love Stories
A diet of romantic literature is a recipe for disappointment in real life, argues French director Laura Piani with 'Jane Austen Wrecked My Life,' about an aspiring writer who's convinced she was born in the wrong century, if only because she still believes in things like soulmates and courtship. Part homage, part referendum on all those love stories that make it look easy, Piani's just-jaded-enough alternative fills the regrettable gap left by movies such as 'Four Weddings and a Funeral' and the Austen-inspired 'Bridget Jones's Diary.' Sony Pictures Classics plans a limited release for May 23, going wide a week later. At a time when practically the entire rom-com genre has gravitated to streaming, this bilingual theatrical offering from Sony Pictures Classics feels like the best kind of throwback. Presented as a light-hearted farce, complete with characters stepping (naked) through the wrong doors and a tense cross-country ride, in which Agathe complains in French (not realizing her companion speaks the language), the film is at once old-fashioned and refreshingly, realistically up to date in its take on modern courtship. More from Variety Oprah Winfrey Praises Colman Domingo's Raw and Vulnerable Performance in 'Sing Sing': 'I Was Looking at Part of His Own Soul Up There' (EXCLUSIVE) TIFF Content Market Starts to Take Shape, Unveils Committee Including CAA's Roeg Sutherland Selena Gomez Says 'Some of the Magic Has Disappeared' Amid 'Emilia Pérez' Controversy, but She Has 'No Regrets': 'I Would Do This Movie Over and Over Again' Blocked in both love and literature, Agathe (Camille Rutherford) is an exasperated French woman working at Shakespeare and Company, the adorably cluttered English-language bookstore situated just a few meters from Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. According to Austen's standards, Agathe — who identifies most closely with Anne Elliot in 'Persuasion' — might seem at genuine risk of spinsterhood, having made it to her mid-30s without a prospect. It's been years since she's had so much as a kiss, and the hopeless singleton finds herself pouring all of her idealism and frustration into futile creative writing exercises until … inspiration strikes during a solitary dinner, as she stares deep into a novelty sake cup. Behind Agathe's back, her encouraging (if frequently inappropriate) best friend Félix (Pablo Pauly) sends off the first few chapters of this new project to a writer's residency at Austen's former abode, hoping to give Agathe the 'kick in the arse' she needs. Friendship, as Austen herself wrote, is 'the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.' The next thing she knows, Agathe is crossing the Channel to visit the author's estate in Chawton. There, she spars with (but also falls for) one of the author's distant relatives: Austen's priggish great-great-great-grandnephew Oliver (Charlie Anson). Piani shot practically the entire film in France, but it truly feels as if it has a foot in both cultures. Anson could be a young Rupert Everett's bookish brother, and has clearly studied every wince and eye flutter in Hugh Grant's arsenal, combining such tools into a 21st-century version of the Mr. Darcy archetype. From the frosty first encounter between Agathe and Oliver, in which she steps off the ferry and promptly retches on his loafers, audiences should find themselves rooting for these two to recognize how well-matched they are. But Agathe is wrestling with more than just her insecurities, as kissing Félix just before she took the ferry has stirred up newfound feelings for her old friend. Félix is a serial womanizer and a classic cad with whom she's always felt a certain unexplored sexual tension, despite their many years of platonic companionship, and even in his absence, this development stands to complicate whatever she feels for Oliver. (Lest one doubt where viewers' allegiances should lie, composer Peter von Poehl's score practically quotes 'Yumeji's Theme' from 'In the Mood for Love,' a romantic melody that's all but impossible to resist.) A few decades ago, a film like this might have had little chance of success competing with Hollywood-made rom-coms, but that steady stream has moved to … well, streaming, leaving a space wide open for audiences still looking to laugh and swoon at their local art house. As its almost defeatist title implies, 'Jane Austen Wrecked My Life' has an intriguing relation to such escapism, recognizing that fiction in all its forms (whether literary or cinematic) has spoiled so many people's expectations of what love can be. Piani casts a slender, slightly gangly-looking actor to play Agathe. Rutherford is far from the dime-a-dozen ingénues so often seen in French movies, with their voluptuous figures and vacant expressions, looking simultaneously innocent and sexually enticing — and so much the better, as it sets an unrealistic standard for young women to aspire to, while casting them opposite gargoyle-like men. Instead, she excels at being awkward, weaving physical comedy (including pratfalls) into a role that doesn't turn the head of every man she meets. Although she's still quite lovely in a less conventional way, Piani allows Agathe's intellect and personality to be the character's most attractive traits. All of Austen's novels end with their characters headed toward the altar, but not this film, which doesn't pretend that a seemingly well-matched marriage can lead only to happily ever after (George Eliot untangled that misapprehension in 'Middlemarch'). Instead, it remains focused on the fate of Agathe's writing career, ending with a near-perfect epilogue in which American documentary legend — and longtime Paris resident — Frederick Wiseman makes a cameo appearance. The movie may be intended to prick the illusions cast by frivolous love stories, but it whisks us away in a cloud of fantasy all the same, first to Paris, then to England, before returning us to something resembling the real world. Maybe Austen wasn't such a bad influence, for it was she who wrote, 'Know your own happiness. You want nothing but patience — or give it a more fascinating name, call it hope.' Best of Variety The Best Albums of the Decade
The Guardian
05-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Streaming: Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy and the best older women age-gap movies
At this admittedly early stage of 2025, with all the noisy blockbusters of summer still ahead of us, the UK's box-office report tells a nostalgic story. The year's highest-grossing new release, raking in more than double its nearest rival, Captain America, is Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy – a sequel in which its American distributors had so little confidence that they booted it straight to streaming. Brits who missed it in cinemas can finally access it on VOD this week. The film itself is something of a pleasant surprise too: a tender-hearted, flannel-cosy romcom – easily the best in the series since the first, 2001's Bridget Jones's Diary – now suffused with the gentle melancholy of middle age. Age, of course, is a critical concern of this instalment, which offers Renée Zellweger's ever-plucky Bridget, now a widowed mother of two, a pair of romantic choices: Chiwetel Ejiofor's nice, matchingly middle-aged schoolteacher, and Leo Woodall's flashier gen-Z Lothario. You can probably guess who prevails, though the film seems pleasingly amenable to either option: the possibility of dating across a generation or two isn't played for shaming comedy. In that respect, this otherwise familiar bit of comfort viewing is relatively fresh. Films to address the subject as a non-controversial matter remain a rarity, at least when it's a woman who's the older partner. From As Good As It Gets to assorted Bond adventures, Hollywood is littered with romantic pairings where a man being decades older than his female love interest passes without comment. Recently, Todd Haynes's wicked, icy dark comedy May December examined the long-term fallout of a tabloid-fodder relationship between a woman and the 13-year-old classmate of one of her children: hardly a rationalisation or romanticisation of such attraction, but an unnerving investigation into the human condition of a so-called monster. Richard Eyre's brittle, brilliantly acted Notes on a Scandal treated such a relationship as a mere sideshow to a game of older female desire and retribution. Anne Fontaine's compellingly ludicrous Adore, in which best friends Naomi Watts and Robin Wright seduce each other's teenage sons, stresses lurid sensation over psychology, though both stars try to make it credible – you'd scarcely recognise it from the Doris Lessing novella it's based on. Even a less drastic gap can be seismic when the participants are young enough. Paul Thomas Anderson's vibrant, breezy, coming-of-age comedy Licorice Pizza set off a storm of commentary with its unbothered romance between a drifting 25-year-old woman and a precocious 15-year-old boy. It was left for the viewer to determine how appropriate or otherwise this match-up was, and what its future might be. In Alfonso Cuarón's wonderful Y Tu Mamá También (Netflix), a similarly crucial decade separates two gangly, oversexed teenage pals from the married woman they rope into an impromptu road trip – though here, the older woman's presence largely serves to bring the boys' undefined relationship into focus. Matters don't get much simpler once we get into the realm of consenting adults – though in The Graduate, Dustin Hoffman's Benjamin Braddock, tauntingly wooed by a friend of his parents, is so gawkily boyish that he barely counts. The absurd comedy of that relationship is a long way from the rich, sadomasochistic ambiguities of the recent, superb Babygirl, in which power seesaws between Harris Dickinson's cocky, newly graduated office intern and Nicole Kidman's uncharacteristically flustered CEO. It's a far more substantial exploration of the generational taboos at play than Kidman's pairing with Zac Efron in last year's disposable Netflix outing A Family Affair, which played a bit like the Diane Keaton-Keanu Reeves dalliance in Nancy Meyers's Something's Gotta Give, with more emphasis on wish-fulfilment than actual emotional conflict. Today, the rather modest age difference between Jane Wyman's well-to-do widow and Rock Hudson's strapping gardener in Douglas Sirk's exquisite All That Heaven Allows (Internet Archive) might not raise as many eyebrows as it did 70 years ago, but the film shows sharply how a class gap can aggravate an age gap. Rainer Werner Fassbinder's excellent 1974 remake, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, did the same with added racial friction. Pairing Anne Reid's pensioner with Daniel Craig's handyman, Roger Michell and Hanif Kureishi's The Mother (BBC iPlayer) paid homage while pushing up the ages of both parties. Marketed as a love story 'between a younger man and a bolder woman', the 90s erotic drama White Palace is bracingly unusual in its sidelining of social tensions to focus on the pure animal attraction between James Spader's wet-behind-the-ears ad exec and Susan Sarandon's world-weary diner waitress. They're hot and into each other – why complicate things? The mother of all age-gap romances, meanwhile, Hal Ashby's Harold and Maude, may be a little less explicit in demonstrating the bond between Ruth Gordon's zesty octogenarian and Bud Cort's twentysomething misfit, but pushes the same message to follow your bliss. All titles available to rent on multiple platforms unless specified. Day of the Fight Actor Jack Huston's directorial debut is an underdog boxing drama that hits practically every familiar beat of the genre to a near-parodic degree. But Michael Pitt's moving, beaten-down performance as a onetime contender gives it soul and integrity, and it's gorgeously shot in inky black and white. On Falling (Conic) Produced by Ken Loach's Sixteen Films and offering a new-generation update of Loach's own compassionate social realism, Laura Carreira's heartbreaking workplace drama is one of the standout British debuts of recent years – a portrait of an immigrant warehouse picker rich in everyday detail and emotional intelligence. Saturday Night A cultural institution in the US, Saturday Night Live has never generated much mainstream interest on these shores, which rather limits the audience for this frenetic, sporadically amusing backstage account of the manic circumstances behind the show's first ever broadcast in 1975. It's most interesting as a showcase of a new wave of 21st-century comic acting talent.
