Latest news with #ex-Beatle
Herald Sun
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Herald Sun
Bill Gates daughter Phoebe Gates reveals he has Asperger syndrome
Bill Gates' daughter has revealed that the Microsoft billionaire has Asperger syndrome in a podcast appearance. Phoebe Gates, 22, also spoke about how 'terrifying' it was for her boyfriends to meet her dad when she brought them home, as she appeared on this week's episode of the 'Call Her Daddy' podcast, The Post reported. 'For the guy, terrifying. For me, it's hilarious because my dad's pretty socially awkward,' she told host Alex Cooper. 'Like he's said before, he has Asperger's. So like to me, it's so funny.' Gates, 69, has never spoken publicly about having Asperger syndrome, a term previously applied to many autistic people. It has now been merged with other conditions and redefined as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). People with ASD can often experience difficulties with communication and social situations, as well as exhibit repetitive behaviours and obsessive interests. Gates said that if he was being raised today, he would probably be diagnosed with autism in his new book 'Source Code,' published in February. 'If I were growing up today, I probably would be diagnosed on the autism spectrum,' he wrote. 'During my childhood, the fact that some people's brains process information differently from others wasn't widely understood. 'My parents had no guideposts or textbooks to help them grasp why their son became so obsessed with certain projects, missed social cues, and could be rude and inappropriate without seeming to notice his effect on others,' he went on. Formal ASD testing wasn't introduced until the 1980s, while Bill also recalled how the term 'neurodivergent' — referring to those whose brains work differently from others — didn't appear until the 1990s. Gates, who has a net worth of over $107 billion according to Forbes, said it wasn't until he was in his 40s that someone first suggested to him he might have ASD. 'I remember the first time somebody said to me, 'Are you on the spectrum?' It was like 25 years ago, I remember thinking, 'What the hell? What the hell? I run a goddamn company,'' he told Axios in an interview in February. 'And then I realised, well, actually, it's probably true. I mean, the spectrum thing is confusing.' During her 'Call Her Daddy' appearance, Phoebe also spoke about her boyfriend, Arthur Donald, 26, the grandson of ex-Beatle Sir Paul McCartney. 'Oh man, it's so bad. Like, I'm so bad at music. I mean, my family like, we're so nerdy, so I knew nothing about music. I knew about tech stuff growing up, not music stuff,' she said. She recalled a time Donald tried to 'rizz' her by taking her to an Elton John concert. 'And Elton John comes out in like a bedazzled tracksuit. I'm like, 'Is Elton John gay?' His entire family starts dying laughing,' she went on. Phoebe added that even now, after dating Donald for 'almost two years,' his family still joke about the incident. This story was originally published in The New York Post
Washington Post
10-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Documenting a difficult year in the life of a Beatle and his wife
It takes nerve to make a documentary about the most unpopular period of a massively popular public figure's life. 'One to One: John & Yoko' demonstrates that it's worth the effort. Co-directors Kevin Macdonald ('The Last King of Scotland') and Sam Rice-Edwards have done an impressively deep archival dive to give us this portrait of John Lennon in 1972, the year the ex-Beatle arrived in New York City to stay and embarked on a period of radical politics and art. It was an era of upheaval in American society and a time when Lennon tried to leverage his celebrity to effect change, in ways that made him look simultaneously sincere, committed and naive.
The Guardian
04-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Did John and Yoko split because of Richard Nixon? The making of revelatory music film One to One
People are usually at their most interesting when they are in flux – uncertain of the way forward, of what life they ought to build. That was the case with John Lennon and Yoko Ono when they arrived in New York in 1971. They were both fleeing England – the recriminations around the Beatles breakup; the terrible misogyny and racism levelled at Ono – but also running towards the optimism and creative excitement of the New York art scene. This is the period I have tried to recreate in my film One to One: John & Yoko – using a plethora of previously unheard phone recordings, home movies and archive. It's an unconventional film in many ways, pitching the viewer headfirst into the life, politics and music of the time without the usual music documentary guardrails. At its heart is the One to One concert that the couple gave at Madison Square Garden in the summer of 1972 – a concert that turned out to be Lennon's only full-length concert after leaving the Beatles. During this time, Lennon became obsessed with a set of questions: what happened to flower power? Why hadn't it worked? Why were the youth so apathetic? As an ex-Beatle, how could he use his celebrity to make the world a better place? How could he ever reclaim a private life when most of the world still seemed to think of him as a Beatle? Out of these questions and his interactions with the counterculture figure Jerry Rubin, the Yippies (Youth International party), and a host of activists who were in New York at the time, Lennon and Ono became a regular fixture at marches and political gatherings. He began to see himself as a troubadour – reporting in song from the streets – and for the only time in his life, briefly embraced the idea of violent revolution as the sole response to the continued bombing of civilians in Vietnam. At times you feel that Lennon is unsure of himself. He is searching for answers, trying on different personas. He seems willing to talk to anybody and to find interest and inspiration everywhere he looks. There's an astonishing openness about him that sometimes borders on naivety and makes him deeply sympathetic as a character. When I was first approached about making this film – by the producers Peter Worsley and Alice Webb – I felt unsure whether I should do it. How do you say anything new and interesting about the Beatles? But something changed when I read a quote where Lennon talked about his first impression of America; how he spent most of his time watching TV, and that his image of the country was formed through this medium. I wanted to try to reproduce this impression for an audience using contemporary TV clips. That then fed into a desire to make a formally different film, and I was reminded of one of my favourite films, a documentary about Marlene Dietrich by Maximilian Schell, in which he reconstructed her apartment in a film studio. I thought doing something like that was an interesting way to approach it. Necessity really can be the mother of invention. I think we have ended up making something that is truly sui generis and makes you view Lennon and the Beatles' legacy differently. We had to seek the approval of the Lennon estate – in the form of Sean Ono Lennon. I explained what I wanted to do, how this would be an experiential film, not something literal and educational, and he really responded to that. I think as a musician he understands the creative process in the way a lot of estate gatekeepers don't. He just said: 'That sounds like a film my mum would love.' Perhaps the most interesting thing to emerge from the film is Ono, appearing as a much more human, vulnerable character than we usually see. She talks movingly about missing her daughter, Kyoko, who she didn't see between the ages of eight and 31. The sense of loss permeates the film. It's not surprising that when Lennon and Ono saw the shocking news report by Geraldo Rivera about the Willowbrook school on Staten Island for disabled children that they were deeply affected by the sight of these youngsters living in barbaric, almost medieval conditions. The One to One concert was put on for the benefit of these children. Lennon and Ono moved from trying (and largely failing) to change the world through big-P politics and instead effected real, local change in the lives of these forgotten children. Sean's blessing opened the Lennon/Ono archives for us. What a feast they were. Amazing home movies shot on Portapak – the original home video camera – plus Super 8 family footage and art films they had commissioned. Halfway through the edit, the film-maker Simon Hilton, who works intimately with the estate, told me they had found a box of phone recordings from the period I was interested in. I listened to those for hours, transfixed by the intimacy of the conversations; by how different (and yet somehow the same) these two icons were in private from their interviews. You're listening to them talking to someone at an art gallery or Lennon's manager Allen Klein, or to their neighbour – just their everyday life at that moment. It's not seen from a film-maker or music journalist's point of view. I think even the most hardened and knowledgeable Beatles fan will be bowled over. In the period covered by the film, you don't sense any trouble in Lennon and Ono's relationship. They seem totally devoted, even co-dependent. But we know from books and interviews that trouble was brewing. Their separation in summer 1973 came about indirectly because of Nixon's re-election the previous November (the pair reconciled in 1975). This was a devastating moment for progressives in the US. Everything Lennon, Ono and their friends had done to try to sway public opinion had totally failed. Nixon achieved a landslide, winning 49 of 50 states, and Lennon was left bereft. What had it all been for? In the end, it seems it was this post-election depression that led to him splitting from Ono. The political had become personal. One to One: John and Yoko is in Imax cinemas on 9 and 10 April and is in UK cinemas from 11 April.
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Paul McCartney lobbies for the inclusion of "a great man and a fine singer" in the RnR Hall of Fame
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Joe Cocker should be in the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame. Who says so? None other than Paul McCartney, the man who co-wrote his biggest UK hit. In fact, McCartney has written a letter to the organisation urging his inclusion. 'Joe was a great man and a fine singer whose unique style made for some fantastic performances,' he says. 'He sang one of our songs With A Little Help From My Friends, a version produced by Denny Cordell which was very imaginative. All the people on the panel will be aware of the great contribution Joe made to the history of Rock and Roll. 'And whilst he may not have ever lobbied to be in the Hall of Fame, I know he would be extremely happy and grateful to find himself where he deserves to be amongst such illustrious company. Thank you and all the best,' the ex-Beatle concluded. It is indeed somewhat ridiculous that Cocker isn't already in there. Quite apart from his incredible cover of With A Little Help, he played Woodstock and the Isle Of Wight festivals, sold over 30 million albums, won a Grammy for Up Where We Belong, his duet with Jennifer Warnes and, in 1970, released Mad Dogs And Englishmen, regarded as one of the best live albums of all time . He more than paid his dues. Sadly, in one sense it's already too late. Cocker died in December 2014 at the age of 70. He had been suffering from lung cancer. The nominees for the Hall of Fame have already been released. Aside from Cocker, they include Oasis, Joy Division/New Order, Billy Idol, The White Stripes, Bad Company, the Black Crowes, Soundgarden, Chubby Checker, Outkast and Mariah Carey. Much of that list, you'd assume, would be shoo-ins. But only about half of the nominees get inducted in any given year, meaning that some figures - like Cocker - tend to get overlooked year after year. The winners are chosen by a panel of over 1,200 musicians, industry professionals and music historians. It remains to be seen whether Macca's special pleading does the trick for Cocker. A list of the finalists for inclusion will be announced in April, with the actual ceremony taking place later this year.
