Latest news with #MagicFM
Daily Mail
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Ellen Pompeo looks strained following Grey's Anatomy salary backlash and channeling 'dark places' revelation
Ellen Pompeo looked somewhat strained as she stepped out in Los Angeles on Monday. The actress, 55, who received enormous backlash from fans after negotiating a higher salary, showed off her slender form in a light brown sweater and matching pants. The Grey's Anatomy star pulled her long blonde hair back into a low ponytail and wore natural looking makeup. She wore gray sneakers, but added a pop of color with a navy blue Hermes Birkin bag as she stepped out of her black SUV in the Larchmont Village area. While running her errands, the People's Choice Award winner was seen carrying a brown pastry bag with a delicious treat inside. In a recent episode with Magic FM, the actress, who has starred as Dr. Meredith Grey's Anatomy since 2005, spoke about a groundbreaking and risky episode that took place in 2011. In the episode, instead of saying their lines, the cast sang them. 'It's so funny because I thought surely that was the end of us. We're doctors singing about car crashes? That's a wrap on us.' 'I'm so pleased it wasn't,' said the host. 'Shows you how much I know,' quipped Pompeo. The actress admitted that after two decades of playing the character, fans sometimes confuse her with her TV persona. 'I'm so grateful for the show. I'm so grateful for the fans and I love them, but to be honest, when people do call me Meredith, I do get a little annoyed,' she admitted. 'I love that you love the show, but please call me by my right name.' The veteran star, who received backlash when she complained that Patrick Dempsey was paid more than her when Grey's Anatomy first debuted, put an end to any claims she would be leaving the show in the near future and that she was in it for the long haul. 'That would make no sense, emotionally or financially,' she stated to El Pais. 'The show was streamed more than a billion times in 2024. More than a billion times. The companies that own the show and stream the show make a lot of money from our images and our voices and our faces.' 'If I were to walk away completely, everybody gets to make money from my hard work for 20 years and I wouldn't make any money,' she explained. 'To me, it doesn't make any sense that everybody [else] gets to profit off of my hard work. And emotionally, the show means a lot to people. I want to have an attitude of gratitude toward the show.' Pompeo has stepped back from being the main character to being a recurring character, which allowed her to tackle a different project in Hulu's new limited series, Good American Family. The fact-based drama focuses on a family who adopt a girl they believe has dwarfism, but as the years go by, they come to believe their daughter is not who she says she is, and may be older than they were lead to believe. 'So much of acting is not only just emotion, but it's physicality,' she told People. 'The show was streamed more than a billion times in 2024,' she said. 'If I were to walk away completely, everybody gets to make money from my hard work for 20 years and I wouldn't make any money,' she explained Pompeo has stepped back from being the main character on Grey's to being a recurring character, which allowed her to tackle a different project in Hulu's new limited series, Good American Family To accomplish her work on Good American Family and Grey's Anatomy, Pompeo told People that, 'It's hard, but you have to go to dark places in your mind and make yourself uncomfortable' 'You have to tie the two things together,' she explained. 'And you have to work yourself up, you have to get yourself in a state to be able to deliver certain lines and a truthful performance.' She continued: 'And you have to work yourself up, you have to get yourself in a state to be able to deliver certain lines and a truthful performance. It's hard, but you have to go to dark places in your mind and make yourself uncomfortable.' Pompeo was an executive producer on the drama, which debuted on March 19. The series finale is scheduled to stream on Hulu, Hulu on DisneyPlus domestically and on DisneyPlus internationally on April 30.
The Guardian
13-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The Brand New Heavies review – acid jazzers are as slick and funky as ever
In their 90s heyday, the Brand New Heavies were synonymous with the sound of London's dancefloors. The quartet's blend of funk grooves, soulful vocals and thunderous basslines were on regular rotation from Hoxton's Blue Note to Camden's Dingwalls courtesy of DJs such as Gilles Peterson and Eddie Piller. Today, their hits Dream on Dreamer and Midnight at the Oasis are more likely to be regular picks for Magic FM's drive-time slot, while their 11 albums have been released to lessening levels of fanfare, mostly leaving the group to be defined as pioneers of a bygone genre: acid jazz. So they seem to have a point to prove as they arrive at a sold out Royal Albert Hall, rounding out a tour that's marked 30 years since the release of their most commercially successful album, 1994's Brother Sister. Backed by the colossal London Concert Orchestra, original members guitarist Simon Bartholomew (adorned in a feather boa) and bassist Andrew Levy (sporting tight sequined trousers) and new vocalist Angela Ricci launch into a lively two-hour set. The rhythm section thumps for most of the show and keeps the audience on its feet, with Levy and drummer Luke Harris drowning out the string section on the disco-funk of Sister Sledge pastiche Back to Love and locking in tight for the mid-tempo groove of Stay This Way. While interest drops on slower numbers such as Brother Sister's title track and the woozy lovers rock track People Giving Love, the room bounces when the band go back to punchy tempos. Dream on Dreamer shows off the group's knack for uplifting, earworming melody and a sprightly, strings-led version of Never Stop highlights Ricci's indefatigable vocals. A special appearance from their acid jazz contemporaries – James Taylor on Hammond organ, and Incognito vocalist Tony Momrelle – highlights the genre's urban-sophisticate appeal, charging through Incognito and Jocelyn Brown's classy 1991 classic Always There. Closing out in similarly joyous fashion on the vamping melodies of Forever, the 2025 iteration of the Brand New Heavies demonstrates that there is plenty more party-starting life left in these three-decade-old songs.
Telegraph
04-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Kim Wilde: ‘I was trapped in a hotel corridor with just my knickers on'
Born in 1960, the daughter of Sixties singer-songwriter Marty, Kim Wilde found instant global superstardom in 1981 with her debut single Kids in America. Twenty-five top 50 UK singles, including You Keep Me Hangin' on and Cambodia, followed and she became the most charted female singer of the 1980s. After a hiatus to have children Harry, 26, and 24-year-old Rose, with her ex-husband Hal Fowler, she successfully turned her hand to horticulture, presenting several gardening TV shows and winning a Gold Award at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2005. She now performs on the pop heritage circuit. Best childhood memory? When I was about 10, my music teacher, Mr Webster, asked me to play the part of Mary in the school play. He was someone I absolutely adored – he inspired every kid to pick up an instrument, even if they felt they had no musical talent. He made everyone feel empowered to get involved, and I loved him for that. Plus, he was a very charismatic and handsome man, which I, of course, noticed as well. About five years ago, his son reached out to me for a big birthday celebration, so I recorded a grown-up version of the song and sent it to him. Unfortunately, he's no longer with us, but I'm glad I had the chance to tell him what a huge influence he had on me. Did I mention that I thought he was also incredibly attractive and charismatic? I might've kept that part to myself. Best day of your life? It doesn't get any better than giving birth. I was spectacularly unprepared in many ways. I hadn't gone to birthing lessons. I'd done very little reading. I just assumed that once I'd get to the hospital, everything would be fine. And then it wasn't it. I was an older mother at 38 and things got tricky, but my body managed to give birth and it was the most beautiful, wonderful experience to hold my babies in my arms. Best moment on stage? My 'Here Come the Aliens' Tour at Koko in Camden. My father, who hadn't been to one of my gigs for a while, came and I'd gone fully into costume mode and ended up looking a bit like a space-age Barbarella. I launched myself into the album and the greatest hits and the whole place went absolutely crazy. I was so proud that my dad was there to see that because quite a few of the songs that we were performing that night were written by him and my brother. It felt like a real proper homecoming. Best performance? My brother Rick and I had been to a Magic FM Christmas party to do an acoustic set, and we were on the train going home and everyone looked a bit glum, so I said to Rick: 'Come on, it's Christmas. I've got antlers. You've got a guitar? Why don't we just sing some songs and see what happens.' I remember Ricky looking at me and going, 'Are you sure?' and I'm like, 'Yeah, come on.' So that's what we did and unbeknown to us, there was this charming girl filming the whole thing. And then it went viral, which was just something else. I remember thinking, 'This is going to be an absolute disaster and it could literally bury my career overnight' – but it did exactly the opposite. It was so spontaneous, and fun-inspired, and I'm glad it happened. It went on to inspire a Christmas album and brought about a lot of really good things. Best horticultural moment? Gardening is my private passion now, but it became a public passion for several years. I stepped out of the music industry to have a family and that's how it began. I thought, 'I've got to learn about plants, because I want to make a garden for the kids.' So, I enroled at a local horticultural college to do a summer course. And that ended up with me doing a two-year City and Guilds course, where I learnt a hell of a lot. I then got asked to do TV programmes, and I just thought, 'Well, why the hell not? I'm an unemployed pop star, let's give TV gardening a go.' Then I ended up at Chelsea Flower Show, with my good friend Richard Lucas and we walked away with a gold medal for our courtyard garden. Best personality trait? My daughter said I'm very open minded and I would agree with her. When you have an open mind there's so much more of the world to absorb and to enjoy and to experience. Best decision you ever made? Stopping drinking alcohol nine years ago has had a profound impact on my mental and physical health and it's one of the best decisions I've ever made. I gave it a good old session from when I was 15 or 16. I'd spent virtually half my life with it being a part of my life and I certainly did have lots of fabulous times with alcohol, but I'm in much better shape since I stopped. Worst childhood memory? When I was three, I had meningitis. I remember a pounding headache and a high fever, and then being rushed to the hospital. My parents were driving back from Liverpool, so we had someone looking after us, and they got me to the hospital. I vaguely remember having a lumbar puncture, and that's the last thing I recall, but I survived it. Worst moment of your life? The brief moment when you lose sight of your child – it's happened to me a few times as a parent, and I think every parent has been there. You suddenly look, and they're not where you thought they were. It's a terrifying, shocking feeling. It's happened to me a couple of times, when I had no idea where they were. Without a doubt, the worst moments in life as a parent always involve your children. Worst moment on stage? My band and I were in Portugal, performing a few covers, one of which was Forever Young by Alphaville. We were a bit rusty, and chaos soon followed. I started the song in tune with the guitarist, but, for some reason – one we've never quite figured out – every other musician came in on a different key. It was absolutely terrifying, but I decided to just power through. There are photos floating around of the band with their backs to the audience, and just me up front, trying to salvage the situation. 'Kim Wilde singing Forever Young' is somewhere on YouTube, but it's now known as Forever Wrong. It's painful to listen to. Worst celebrity encounter? I remember doing Top of the Pops when Jimmy Savile was hosting. My mum came with me to it and we both had a very uncomfortable feeling being around him and we kept our distance. Mum has mentioned it since, saying, 'I knew he was a wrong 'un.' She kept close by me during that show and looking back after everything that happened, I now realise she did me a big favour. Worst drunken mistake? In my drinking days I'd had one too many with a promoter who'd been buying rounds for me and the band all night. After a wild evening, I stumbled back to my hotel room. In the middle of the night, I woke up needing the bathroom, opened the door, and – somehow – ended up locked out in the corridor, completely naked. There I was, stranded in a brightly lit hotel hallway with very little on, desperately trying to figure out how to make it back to my room. I think I had a pair of knickers on and that was it. I had to run down to the lift and then edge my way out of it to see if I could see anyone at reception. The guy was absolutely horrified, gave me a key card and I slunk back to my room. Worst personality trait? Before I got my hearing aid, I used to talk much louder – years of being on stage with musicians cranking up their amps had left my ears a bit shot. I'd often misinterpret what people said and end up saying the wrong thing, which was usually funny but, over time, really irritated those around me. My family begged me to get hearing aids, which I found pretty humiliating at the time. But, honestly, they've been one of the best decisions I've ever made. I can hear things now – even the insects I once missed – and subtle sounds that I now really appreciate. Worst advice you've ever received? I've been fortunate in that regard and haven't received much bad advice. I do remember when everyone was talking about Bitcoin, and someone suggested, 'Do you fancy taking some Bitcoin instead of getting paid for the gig?' I just said, 'No, I don't.' I can't recall who made the suggestion, but I definitely remember my firm, resounding 'no'.
