Latest news with #RowanAtkinson
Scotsman
30-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
QMU delivers an encore of Fringe support with second year of Festival Village and awards sponsorship
Queen Margaret University (QMU), Edinburgh is once again stepping up to support the creative community during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, offering affordable accommodation to festival participants and co-sponsoring the Scotsman's prestigious Fringe First awards. Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Building on the success of last year's initiative, QMU will provide low-cost accommodation and rehearsal space to hundreds of performers, writers, directors and producers throughout August 2025. The University's Festival Village offers a welcoming, community-driven base for artists from around the world, helping to ease the financial pressures of participating in the world's largest arts festival. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad With capacity to host over 250 performers at its Musselburgh campus, which is in close proximity to Edinburgh city centre, the QMU Festival Village includes comfortable rooms, rehearsal facilities, social spaces, and access to catering and amenities - at well below market rates. This year, demand has once again been high, demonstrating the ongoing need for affordable, supportive infrastructure for the performing arts sector. Performers at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Rachel Athey, Head of Commercial Services at QMU, said: 'The Edinburgh Fringe is such a vibrant and important part of Scotland's cultural identity, and we want to support emerging talent by offering affordable, flexible accommodation during August. In line with the Fringe Society's focus on helping artists maintain their mental health during the Fringe, QMU's beautiful campus offers a haven of tranquillity - away from the hustle and bustle of the city centre, but only six-minutes away from Edinburgh by train. "After the success of last year, it's clear there's a real need for this kind of initiative - and we're proud to play our part in making the Fringe more accessible, inclusive, and sustainable for artists. We're looking forward to once again welcome performers from around the world to our Festival Village.' This year, QMU will also return as a co-sponsor of the Scotsman Fringe First awards alongside Stagecoach. First launched in 1973, the awards celebrate outstanding new writing premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The awards have long been a launchpad for new talent, with previous winners including Rowan Atkinson and Stephen Fry. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad As part of the renewed partnership with the Scotsman, four QMU students will also gain hands-on experience in arts journalism and digital media production through internships with the newspaper during the festival. The students will support the Scotsman's arts coverage - from producing red-carpet-style interviews with Fringe First award winners to assisting arts correspondent, Jane Bradley, with her daily Fringe video diary. The students include Quinn Lorimer and Vanida Ashell Fernandes - BA (Hons) Film and Media students - and Arran Donnelly and Simra Aslam - BA (Hons) Theatre and Film students - all of whom are bringing fresh energy and perspectives to one of the world's most exciting cultural events. QMU's continued involvement in the Fringe aligns with its broader mission to support Scotland's creative economy and nurture emerging talent. The University offers courses in performance, drama, film, media, and arts management - producing graduates who regularly participate in and contribute to the festival - and is home to a vibrant community of practitioners and academics in the performing arts and cultural sector.
Edinburgh Reporter
30-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Edinburgh Reporter
Queen Margaret University opens Festival Village for second year
QMU has a rehearsal space for performers, writers directors and producers which is open during the whole month of August. The university set this space up last year and are now building on the success to offer a welcoming community driven base for artists. The university has space in its Festival Village for 250 artists at the Musselburgh campus which has good transport links to the city centre. There are comfortable rooms all at a reduced market rate. This year demand has again been high. Rachel Athey, Head of Commercial Services at QMU, said: 'The Edinburgh Fringe is such a vibrant and important part of Scotland's cultural identity, and we want to support emerging talent by offering affordable, flexible accommodation during August. In line with the Fringe Society's focus on helping artists maintain their mental health during the Fringe, QMU's beautiful campus offers a haven of tranquillity – away from the hustle and bustle of the city centre, but only six-minutes away from Edinburgh by train. After the success of last year, it's clear there's a real need for this kind of initiative – and we're proud to play our part in making the Fringe more accessible, inclusive, and sustainable for artists. We're looking forward to once again welcome performers from around the world to our Festival Village.' This year, QMU will also return as a co-sponsor of the Scotsman Fringe First awards alongside Stagecoach. First launched in 1973, the awards celebrate outstanding new writing premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The awards have long been a launchpad for new talent, with previous winners including Rowan Atkinson and Stephen Fry. As part of the renewed partnership with the Scotsman, four QMU students will also gain hands-on experience in arts journalism and digital media production through internships with the newspaper during the festival. The students will support the Scotsman's arts coverage – from producing red-carpet-style interviews with Fringe First award winners to assisting arts correspondent, Jane Bradley, with her daily Fringe video diary. The students include Quinn Lorimer and Vanida Ashell Fernandes – BA (Hons) Film and Media students – and Arran Donnelly and Simra Aslam – BA (Hons) Theatre and Film students – all of whom are bringing fresh energy and perspectives to one of the world's most exciting cultural events. QMU's continued involvement in the Fringe aligns with its broader mission to support Scotland's creative economy and nurture emerging talent. The University offers courses in performance, drama, film, media, and arts management – producing graduates who regularly participate in and contribute to the festival – and is home to a vibrant community of practitioners and academics in the performing arts and cultural sector. Sir Paul Grice, Principal of QMU, said: 'As a university, we are committed to supporting the future of performance, storytelling, creativity, accessibility, and opportunity – values that lie at the heart of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Through initiatives like our Festival Village and our continued sponsorship of the Fringe First awards, we are proud to help nurture the next generation of creative talent. These projects reflect QMU's wider mission to champion the arts, contribute to Scotland's cultural economy, and ensure that the magic of the Fringe is open to all.' Like this: Like Related
Yahoo
19-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Photographer's eerie lookalike inspired a search for world's best dopplegängers
Over the last 25 years, French-Canadian photographer François Brunelle has traveled the world photographing around 250 pairs of doppelgängers. Doppelgängers, which translates from German to 'double walker,' originally meant ghostly counterparts of a living person. In folklore and literature, encountering someone who could be your twin has traditionally been viewed as a bad omen. But in modern usage, the term often describes two unrelated people who closely resemble each other. This concept is the focus of Brunelle's photography series, 'I'm Not a Lookalike!' The inspiration for the project came from his own lookalike: Mr. Bean, who is played by British actor and comedian Rowan Atkinson. After being told for years that he looked like the character, Brunelle watched an episode that included a scene he called 'awkward' to see his doppelgänger in. 'I said, 'Oh my God, it looks like me, and he's taking a bath!'' said Brunelle, who felt like he was watching himself on TV. Upon realizing he couldn't be the only lookalike, Brunelle started photographing doppelgängers together. Some of the pairs he captured didn't see the resemblance, 'which can be quite surprising (and entertaining) at times,' Brunelle admitted via email to USA TODAY. He started his project in Montréal with lookalikes he knew in Canada. As media coverage grew and word spread on social media, he received thousands of messages from people worldwide. Many of the doppelgängers he photographed know each other in real life and were made aware of their resemblance to each other after being told by others, like Ester Scholten and Agnes Loonstra. In 2013, Loonstra was approached by a man on a train in the Netherlands. He mistakenly thought she was one of his university students, Scholten, and encouraged Loonstra to reach out to her. Meanwhile, Scholten learned about this encounter from her professor. Out of curiosity, Loonstra decided to find Scholten on Facebook. Scholten shared a translation of the first message she ever received from Loonstra with USA TODAY. 'Hi Ester, probably a bit of an unexpected message, but recently I was approached on the train by a man, and he thought I was you! After some confusion, he said he was a teacher of yours and asked me if I was a girl from Arnhem. Very funny, apparently, he was so amazed by the resemblance (in his eyes) that he insisted I should google you because we seemed so alike. Haha! So here we are... Do you see the same resemblance? 🙂 maybe the ginger hair, bangs and almond-shaped eyes? 🙂' Scholten felt like she was seeing herself when she saw photos of Loonstra on Facebook. 'Even our mouths look somewhat similar. So strange!' Scholten wrote back in her messages to Loonstra. They both found their resemblance surprising because they felt their features were so distinctive that they thought they were unique. The two decided it would be fun to meet, and when they did, they realized it wasn't only their looks that were similar. 'There were a few moments during that first encounter that were almost terrifying, such as the moment we both pulled up a chair to put our feet on and the moment we laughed at the exact same time and discovered the way we laugh is so similar,' Scholten said. Loonstra was 25 and Scholten was 30 when they met on May 4, 2013. At the time, Loonstra was part of an a Capella group that had rehearsals in Scholten's hometown. People waved at her thinking she was Scholten. 'People I knew told me I had been rude for not saying anything when I passed them,' Scholten said. So Loonstra began waving back at the strangers followed by a text to Scholten to let her know. From their very first meeting, a friendship was born as they discovered they shared love for the same music, literature and what Scholten calls their "intense' love of cats. 'About half of all our WhatsApp conversations are about cats,' she said. 'We are proud crazy cat ladies.' From that love came the inspiration for a book they published together titled 'Crazy Cat Lady,' combining Loonstra's skills as an illustrator and Scholten's knack for writing. It was picked up by Workman Publishing in New York and has been released worldwide in English and translated to Spanish, German, Finnish, and even Loonstra and Scholten's native language, Dutch. Agnes also played a special role in Ester's wedding as her maid of honor. 'I see Agnes like the little sister I never had,' Scholten said. Although they don't live in the same part of the Netherlands, they try to see each other at least once a month. Loonstra reached out to Brunelle after hearing about his project from several people who sent it to her. Loonstra and Scholten were later included in a study by the Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute in Barcelona, Spain with other doppelgängers photographed by Brunelle that confirmed they and the other lookalikes were not related. Of the 32 pairs studied, researchers found that the lookalikes share similar DNA variations, particularly concerning genes involved in forming facial features. There were also similarities in height and weight. The study's lead researcher Manel Esteller, called it 'coincidences of genetics that happen purely by chance,' and does not mean the pairs are related. Despite the study's findings, Loonstra and Scholten are still frequently asked by strangers if they are biologically related, and sometimes, to keep things simple, they just say yes. Brunelle's website features a callout for lookalikes, and he also created pages on Instagram and Facebook for the project. Brunelle plans to release a book this year featuring about 100 photos of the pairs he's photographed, along with a short story from either the subject or his perspective. He shared a few of those stories with USA TODAY. Roniel Tessler and Garrett Levenbrook | New York City, U.S., 2013 "I was born in New York, and Roniel in Washington, D.C. Roniel's friends met me at the University of Michigan four years ago and mistook me for him. They then put us in touch, and we discovered we lived near each other. We have remained good friends ever since." - Garrett Beatriz Nogueira and Bruna Soares Da Costa | Lisbon, Portugal "I work in human resources, and Beatriz is a student. We were both born in Portugal and have been friends since childhood. We first realized we were look-alikes when people started mixing us up. My own father saw a photo of Beatriz and was convinced it was me! I think we look more alike in profile than face-on. We are similar not just physically, but in personality too. And here is a fun detail, I recently discovered we're both left-handed!" - Bruna Karen Chu and Ashlee Wong | Culver City, California, U.S. , 2013 "I am a nursing student while Ashlee is a registered nurse. Most non-Asian people think all Chinese look alike, but that is far from the truth. I consider myself lucky to have met Ashlee, my 'sister' at a traditional Chinese dance performance. Although many people think we look very similar, Ashlee is definitely shorter." - Karen This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: These unrelated dopplegängers will have you doing a double take Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Photographer's eerie lookalike inspired a search for world's best dopplegängers
Over the last 25 years, French-Canadian photographer François Brunelle has traveled the world photographing around 250 pairs of doppelgängers. Doppelgängers, which translates from German to 'double walker,' originally meant ghostly counterparts of a living person. In folklore and literature, encountering someone who could be your twin has traditionally been viewed as a bad omen. But in modern usage, the term often describes two unrelated people who closely resemble each other. This concept is the focus of Brunelle's photography series, 'I'm Not a Lookalike!' The inspiration for the project came from his own lookalike: Mr. Bean, who is played by British actor and comedian Rowan Atkinson. After being told for years that he looked like the character, Brunelle watched an episode that included a scene he called 'awkward' to see his doppelgänger in. 'I said, 'Oh my God, it looks like me, and he's taking a bath!'' said Brunelle, who felt like he was watching himself on TV. Upon realizing he couldn't be the only lookalike, Brunelle started photographing doppelgängers together. Some of the pairs he captured didn't see the resemblance, 'which can be quite surprising (and entertaining) at times,' Brunelle admitted via email to USA TODAY. He started his project in Montréal with lookalikes he knew in Canada. As media coverage grew and word spread on social media, he received thousands of messages from people worldwide. Many of the doppelgängers he photographed know each other in real life and were made aware of their resemblance to each other after being told by others, like Ester Scholten and Agnes Loonstra. In 2013, Loonstra was approached by a man on a train in the Netherlands. He mistakenly thought she was one of his university students, Scholten, and encouraged Loonstra to reach out to her. Meanwhile, Scholten learned about this encounter from her professor. Out of curiosity, Loonstra decided to find Scholten on Facebook. Scholten shared a translation of the first message she ever received from Loonstra with USA TODAY. 'Hi Ester, probably a bit of an unexpected message, but recently I was approached on the train by a man, and he thought I was you! After some confusion, he said he was a teacher of yours and asked me if I was a girl from Arnhem. Very funny, apparently, he was so amazed by the resemblance (in his eyes) that he insisted I should google you because we seemed so alike. Haha! So here we are... Do you see the same resemblance? 🙂 maybe the ginger hair, bangs and almond-shaped eyes? 🙂' Scholten felt like she was seeing herself when she saw photos of Loonstra on Facebook. 'Even our mouths look somewhat similar. So strange!' Scholten wrote back in her messages to Loonstra. They both found their resemblance surprising because they felt their features were so distinctive that they thought they were unique. The two decided it would be fun to meet, and when they did, they realized it wasn't only their looks that were similar. 'There were a few moments during that first encounter that were almost terrifying, such as the moment we both pulled up a chair to put our feet on and the moment we laughed at the exact same time and discovered the way we laugh is so similar,' Scholten said. Loonstra was 25 and Scholten was 30 when they met on May 4, 2013. At the time, Loonstra was part of an a Capella group that had rehearsals in Scholten's hometown. People waved at her thinking she was Scholten. 'People I knew told me I had been rude for not saying anything when I passed them,' Scholten said. So Loonstra began waving back at the strangers followed by a text to Scholten to let her know. From their very first meeting, a friendship was born as they discovered they shared love for the same music, literature and what Scholten calls their "intense' love of cats. 'About half of all our WhatsApp conversations are about cats,' she said. 'We are proud crazy cat ladies.' From that love came the inspiration for a book they published together titled 'Crazy Cat Lady,' combining Loonstra's skills as an illustrator and Scholten's knack for writing. It was picked up by Workman Publishing in New York and has been released worldwide in English and translated to Spanish, German, Finnish, and even Loonstra and Scholten's native language, Dutch. Agnes also played a special role in Ester's wedding as her maid of honor. 'I see Agnes like the little sister I never had,' Scholten said. Although they don't live in the same part of the Netherlands, they try to see each other at least once a month. Loonstra reached out to Brunelle after hearing about his project from several people who sent it to her. Loonstra and Scholten were later included in a study by the Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute in Barcelona, Spain with other doppelgängers photographed by Brunelle that confirmed they and the other lookalikes were not related. Of the 32 pairs studied, researchers found that the lookalikes share similar DNA variations, particularly concerning genes involved in forming facial features. There were also similarities in height and weight. The study's lead researcher Manel Esteller, called it 'coincidences of genetics that happen purely by chance,' and does not mean the pairs are related. Despite the study's findings, Loonstra and Scholten are still frequently asked by strangers if they are biologically related, and sometimes, to keep things simple, they just say yes. Brunelle's website features a callout for lookalikes, and he also created pages on Instagram and Facebook for the project. Brunelle plans to release a book this year featuring about 100 photos of the pairs he's photographed, along with a short story from either the subject or his perspective. He shared a few of those stories with USA TODAY. Roniel Tessler and Garrett Levenbrook | New York City, U.S., 2013 "I was born in New York, and Roniel in Washington, D.C. Roniel's friends met me at the University of Michigan four years ago and mistook me for him. They then put us in touch, and we discovered we lived near each other. We have remained good friends ever since." - Garrett Beatriz Nogueira and Bruna Soares Da Costa | Lisbon, Portugal "I work in human resources, and Beatriz is a student. We were both born in Portugal and have been friends since childhood. We first realized we were look-alikes when people started mixing us up. My own father saw a photo of Beatriz and was convinced it was me! I think we look more alike in profile than face-on. We are similar not just physically, but in personality too. And here is a fun detail, I recently discovered we're both left-handed!" - Bruna Karen Chu and Ashlee Wong | Culver City, California, U.S. , 2013 "I am a nursing student while Ashlee is a registered nurse. Most non-Asian people think all Chinese look alike, but that is far from the truth. I consider myself lucky to have met Ashlee, my 'sister' at a traditional Chinese dance performance. Although many people think we look very similar, Ashlee is definitely shorter." - Karen This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: These unrelated dopplegängers will have you doing a double take
Metro
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
The free streaming service with 25,000,000 users that's 'like DIY Netflix'
'Free' and 'streaming' are two words rarely seen together these days, and many of us spend upwards of £30 each month on the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney Plus. If you're trying to cut costs, you might have considered one of the lesser-known free streaming services. Tubi, which boasts 97 million users, is one of these, as well as Pluto TV. But even more under the radar is Plex. It's what's known as a FAST (free ad-supported streaming television) service, meaning it collects shows into a playlist with ad breaks, giving the feel of watching a TV channel. You can watch on-demand content and stream live TV on Plex too, but it started off as a free media-server software, allowing users to stream content they already own on their computer onto a TV. According to its website, Plex now boasts 25,000,000 users. Plex launched in the late 2000s as a place where users could house their own music or video files. It still does this, and is popular for the way it organises the content in the same way services such as Netflix and Disney Plus do. In 2019, the app introduced an ad-supported on-demand streaming service and free-to-stream live TV channels. This means, just like with Tubi and Pluto TV, there are automated ad breaks while streaming on Plex. It's completely free, thanks to the revenue generated by the adverts, but there is a paid version of Plex too. The 'Plex Pass' costs £4.99 per month (or £49.99 per year and £189.99 for a lifetime pass) and allows users to record content, download content for offline streaming and skip intro credits. Meanwhile, it costs £1.99 per month or £19.99 per year to be able to stream from anywhere or on any device outside your own home. Last February Plex added a rental service, meaning users can pay to stream new releases in the app, rather than paying a regular subscription to watch them on Netflix, Apple TV Plus, Prime and the like. Plex can be accessed through a web browser, or you can download the app via your mobile device's app store, Amazon Fire TV, Android and Apple TV. When it comes to putting together your own library of downloaded content, you'll need to set up a Plex Media Server. It sounds complicated, but Plex guides you through the process. All you really need to do is provide the files and it automatically organises your library for you. If that's not for you, or you don't have any of your own downloaded content, you can go ahead and stream the content already provided by Plex straight away. As for what you can watch, Plex boasts thousands of free, on-demand movies and TV shows and over 600 channels of free, live TV. The most notable offerings include every episode of Rowan Atkinson's Mr Bean, US zombie horror series Z Nation, 11 seasons of paranormal reality show Ghost Hunters, five seasons of Charlie Sheen's sitcom Anger Management and popular sci-fi series Sanctuary. There's also episodes of Baywatch and Kim's Convenience, while movies that are free to stream include 2004 romcom The Girl Next Door, 90s James Bond parody Austin Powers and 1992 drama Damage, which inspired hit Netflix show Obsession. Meanwhile, live channels include GB News, Homes Under the Hammer, Tennis+ and a wide variety of crime offerings. Plex also has a feature called Discover Credits, which allows you to find out more about the cast of the films and TV shows on the service, including their filmography and where you can watch their other roles. The service has proved popular with users and even has an entire subreddit dedicated to it, where users share advice on how to use Plex. One Reddit user described it as 'like Netflix, but for movies/shows you own', while another echoed 'I call it DIY Netflix'. More Trending On Amazon, reviewer Fiorina said: 'From the moment I downloaded Plex onto my Firestick, I was hooked,' adding 'the streaming quality is top-notch'. Chas E wrote: 'Fantastic app. This works with no problems at all,' and ItsGherks called it 'jaw-droppingly good'. However, some were disappointed with the frequency of the adverts, with Outsiderny complaining of 'too many adverts that increase once you're hooked'. View More » Dillonsauntie pointed out that it's 'worth the very annoying and very frequent ads to see things that are difficult or expensive to access elsewhere.' 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: Owen Wilson responds to series being compared to 'one of TV's biggest shows ever' MORE: Jonathan Joss' husband says he 'held his face together' in his final moments MORE: I binge-watch TV for a living – here are my recommendations for June
