Liam Payne Previewed New Music for AJ McLean Before His Death: ‘It Was a Great Body of Work'
'He was just an absolute sweetheart, witty, funny. He sent me an unreleased body of work to get my opinion on it — and I never put that out there,' McLean said. 'I thought that was really sweet that he would entrust someone that he's still learning about to give their opinion.' He added, 'I thought it was a great body of work. And I hope that the world and that the fans get to hear it somewhere down the road. It's beautiful, beautiful music.'
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Payne released the single 'Teardrops' in March 2024, which was meant to appear on his second studio album. Another boyband member, 'NSYNC's JC Chasez, served as a collaborator on the song. 'This album literally is that whole last year for me. How I was feeling on those days is each record. It was a snapshot of that day,' Payne said prior to the single release. 'So you can even help someone through a tough time, help somebody celebrate something. That's really what I want to get across in this record and that's the best part I guess about my job.'
'Teardrops' ultimately became Payne's final music release. The musician died on Oct. 16 at the age of 31 from injuries sustained after falling from the balcony of his hotel room. Less than two weeks after his death, the musician Sam Pounds announced and later postponed plans to release their collaboration 'Do No Wrong,' saying, 'It's not the time yet.'
Next week's premiere of Making the Band will mark Payne's first posthumous appearance. Netflix previously paused production on the series given his involvement as a judge. The show will be released in three parts this month. The first four episodes will be available on July 9, with three more dropping on July 16, and the final set on July 23.
'I had known him prior to the show, but not as close as we got,' McLean, who hosts the show, said. 'Obviously, we're with each other 12 to 14 hour days for about five weeks, you do learn a lot about someone.' Earlier this year, McLean told Rolling Stone he 'immediately connected' with Payne 'on not only a music level but a human level,' adding, 'We both were living a parallel life. There was a lot of funny boy-band jabs that we would take at each other. He really had a quick wit to him — that nice, dry, British humor.'
McLean described Payne as 'well spoken, very supportive, rigorously honest, in a compassionate way,' adding that he 'always spoke from the heart.'
Last week, Payne's sister Ruth Gibbins celebrated his performance in Building the Band after the series trailer was released. 'I didn't know whether to share this but it felt weird when I've raved about Liam's work and achievements for the last 15 years,' she wrote on Instagram. 'Im heartbroken he never got to see how great he is in this show. He knew he had done a good job, we all told him this when we were at filming, but watching it back, wow.'
She added: 'You're a star Liam, you always were and always will be. There are a range of emotions I felt watching this, but one of the main ones is immeasurable pride, always. Miss you more every day.'
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Black America Web
20 minutes ago
- Black America Web
‘Top Boy' Actor Michael Ward Accused Of Rape And Sexual Assault In UK
Source: SAMEER AL-DOUMY / Getty Michael Ward, the British actor known for his role in Netflix 's popular series Top Boy has been charged with rape and sexual assault connected to alleged events that took place in 2023. The 27-year-old Jamaican-born performer is slated to appear before the Thames Magistrates' Court on Thursday, Aug. 28 to answer to the charges, People reports. He is currently facing two counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault levied by an accuser who remains unnamed by UK police. 'Our specialist officers continue to support the woman who has come forward – we know investigations of this nature can have significant impact on those who make reports,' said Detective Superintendent Scott Ware, whose team is leading the investigation for Metropolitan Police. Ward has not been arrested in connection to the crime and will appear before the court under his own free will. The young actor has been making a name for himself over the last few years appearing in projects like The Book of Clarence, The Beautiful Game and The Old Guard. He also received rave reviews for his work in The A List prior to his breakout role as Jamie on the Drake-produced Top Boy . 'I deny the charges against me entirely. I have cooperated fully with the police throughout their investigation and will continue to cooperate,' Ward said in a statement amid the charges. 'I recognise that proceedings are now ongoing, and I have full faith that they will lead to my name being cleared. Given those proceedings, I am unable to comment further.' Though the allegations against Ward are serious, the deputy chief crown prosecutor for CPS London South, Catherine Baccas, has asked that the public allow the actor his right to a fair trial before rushing to judgment. 'Having carefully reviewed a file of evidence, the Crown Prosecution Service has authorised the Metropolitan police to charge Micheal Ward, 27, with two counts of rape, two counts of assault by penetration, and one count of sexual assault against a woman in January 2023,' said Baccas in a statement. 'We remind all concerned that proceedings against the suspect are active and he has a right to a fair trial. It is vital that there should be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings.' The post 'Top Boy' Actor Michael Ward Accused Of Rape And Sexual Assault In UK appeared first on Bossip. SEE ALSO 'Top Boy' Actor Michael Ward Accused Of Rape And Sexual Assault In UK was originally published on


Elle
29 minutes ago
- Elle
I Tried to Make Sense of the Convoluted Ending to ‘Untamed'
Spoilers below. As Untamed makes clear, as often as it can, the wildlife are far from the most violent creatures in Yosemite National Park. Humans are always the most dangerous beasts. The new Netflix limited series shares this thesis with any number of contemporary dramas, post-apocalyptic, crime-focused, or otherwise. (Yellowstone and The Last of Us—which, like Untamed, also concern the consequences of grief—spring immediately to mind.) Thus, there's a level to which Untamed is predictable by default. Despite the show's gorgeous visuals, solid performances, and compelling opening, we know the kind of lesson we're in for. Still, Untamed is ultimately less successful than its Hollywood brethren, in part because the threads of its various crimes fail to coalesce in a satisfying manner. The big twists don't land as pulse-pounding revelations. Instead, they manage to be rote, frustrating, and convoluted all at once. By the time National Park Service Investigative Services Branch agent Kyle Turner (Eric Bana) leaves Yosemite behind in the final episode, we're left wondering what, exactly, we're supposed to have learned from his experience. Untamed primarily addresses three main mysteries within the national park, each involving a death or disappearance: the death of Jane Doe/Lucy Cooke, the death of Caleb Turner, and the disappearance of Sean Sanderson. Over the course of the series' six episodes, Kyle digs deeper into the Cooke case, but it isn't until the finale that all the secrets are laid out for the audience. These details are revealed in such a whirlwind (and yet anticlimactic) manner that it's easy to confuse them. If you're left squinting at your screen by the time the credits roll, let's retrace our steps. Here's what we learn by the end of Untamed. At the beginning of the series, a woman tumbles to her death off the edge of El Capitan, an infamous vertical rock formation in Yosemite. (The New York Times accurately referred to this inciting incident as 'a deceptively high-adrenaline start' to the series. What comes next is, generally, much less thrilling.) Slowly, Kyle begins to work with ranger Naya Vasquez (Lily Santiago) to uncover Jane Doe's identity: She is a half-Indigenous woman named Lucy Cooke, formerly known as Grace McCray, and she went missing for the first time many years ago. Back then, Kyle assumed that her father, an abusive man named Rory Cooke, killed her. But when her adult body shows up off El Capitan, Kyle is forced to reexamine the facts of her case. A DNA test soon reveals that Rory Cooke was not, in fact, Lucy's biological father. And when a random boy shows up at the park ranger headquarters with a photograph of 'Grace McCray' (a.k.a. Lucy) as a child, Kyle begins to understand a much more convoluted story is at play. Still, he's initially convinced that wildlife management officer Shane Maguire (Wilson Bethel) had a role in her death. Kyle has good reason to despise (and suspect) Shane, as we later learn, and his theories are all but confirmed when he discovers video footage of Shane on Lucy's phone. The two of them were indeed involved in an illegal drug operation from within Yosemite, but, as it turns out, Shane didn't kill Lucy. Her father did. In the finale, Kyle finally travels to Nevada to locate the abandoned church seen in the boy's photograph of young 'Grace.' Next to the church, he finds a crumbling home occupied by a senile woman named Mrs. Gibbs. Further inspection confirms Kyle's worse suspicions: Mr. and Mrs. Gibbs kept a group of foster children locked in their basement, barely fed, in order to secure continued government funding. When Kyle finds Native American etchings carved into one of the walls, he understands that Grace was one of these children. Kyle then meets with a casino employee named Faith Gibbs, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Gibbs, who confirms that Grace is Lucy Cooke, and that Lucy ran away at some point after realizing her 'dad,' a cop, was never coming back to get her. So, who's the cop? And did he kill Lucy? Next—though I'll admit it's not clear to me exactly how—Kyle draws the investigation directly back to his own park rangers. Paul Souter (Sam Neill) is Yosemite's chief park ranger, and as such, he's Kyle's boss and close friend. (He was also, once, godfather to Kyle's now-deceased son, Caleb.) After reexamining Lucy's DNA test results, Kyle realizes that Paul's daughter, Kate, was scrubbed from the list (despite being in the park's system thanks to her prior arrest). He thus surmises that Paul is the 'cop' Lucy once claimed would rescue her. Perhaps Kyle puts the pieces together thanks, in part, to Paul's own suspicious behavior. After Naya kills Shane in the penultimate episode (after Shane himself almost kills Kyle), Kyle wants to continue to pursue Lucy Cooke's case. Paul discourages him from doing so, claiming Kyle should move on with his life. In refusing to do just that, Kyle finally turns on wheedles the full story out of him. Paul was indeed the father of Lucy Cooke. After having an affair with Lucy's mother, an Indigenous woman named Maggie who later died of cancer, Paul refused to acknowledge Lucy's existence. (He was afraid it would destroy his marriage and ruin his reputation.) Maggie raised Lucy with her abusive husband, Rory, until she died. Her last wish was for Paul to 'get Lucy away from Rory.' Paul did so by giving Lucy the name 'Grace McCray' and placing her under the Gibbs' foster care in Nevada. ('I thought Lucy would be safe there,' Paul tells Kyle in the finale. I have a hard time buying this coming from a cop, but it doesn't seem Paul is the most thorough investigator on the planet.) Kyle tells Paul he'll need to run ballistics on Paul's hunting rifles, and Paul panics. He initially tries to pretend he's lent his rifles to friends, and so one of them might have killed Lucy. But he can't lie to Kyle, and he soon admits that he chased Lucy throughout Yosemite after Lucy started extorting him for money. When that extortion turned into kidnapping—Lucy kidnapped Sadie, Paul's granddaughter, as a bargaining chip—Paul became desperate. He managed to get Sadie back home after she was abandoned on a ridge inside Yosemite, but he continued to pursue Lucy, wanting to 'make her listen somehow.' After firing a warning shot in her direction, Paul accidentally hit Lucy in the leg with a bullet. Believing she was being hunted, Lucy fled—but was soon attacked by coyotes. Tired, injured, and ready to stop her running, she decided to let herself fall off El Capitan. Upon learning this, a horrified Kyle demands that Paul 'make this right' by owning up to his crime. But Paul claims he can't, and when he realizes Kyle will try and 'make it right' for him, he pulls his pistol on his old friend. Kyle calls his bluff and continues walking away. At last, Paul instead turns the gun on himself, pulling the trigger and falling, dead, into the river below. But wait! Lucy and Paul's aren't the only awful, preventable deaths to have taken place in Untamed's Yosemite National Park. Five years before the series' events, Kyle suffered his own loss: the death of Caleb, the young son he shared with his now ex-wife, Jill Bodwin (Rosemarie DeWitt). We learn midway through the show that Kyle discovered Caleb dead in the park after he went missing from camp. But it isn't until the finale that we learn who killed Caleb: a missing person named Sean Sanderson, whose case Kyle never solved. Jill killed him! Or, rather, she had him killed. Alas, here's where Shane finally factors into the story, beyond the red-herring drug operation he ran with Lucy: In one of the finale's more shocking revelations, Jill reveals to her husband, Scott (John Randall), that she hired Shane to kill Sean Sanderson. Who is Sean, exactly? Apparently just some random, horrible man who sought to prey on children. Some important backstory: After Caleb's death, Shane surveyed footage from motion-capture cameras he had placed throughout the park in order to track wildlife migration. It was from one of these cameras that he first spotted Sean stalking Caleb. Shane then brought this footage to Kyle and Jill, telling them they should 'let him kill' Sean in retaliation for his crime. Kyle refused this offer, in part because he wanted 100-percent confirmation that Sean had killed Caleb—and he could only be certain after he'd arrested Sean and brought him to trial. But Jill couldn't live with the unpredictability of a courtroom. So she hired Shane to blackmail and kill Sean behind Kyle's back. Kyle only discovered Jill's secret after Sanderson was reported missing, Jill tells Scott. 'More than anything, more than losing Caleb, it was me betraying Kyle that ended us,' she says of their consequent divorce. Nevertheless, Kyle agreed to lie on Jill's why he never 'solved' Sanderson's missing-persons case. As he later tells the lawyer pursuing a wrongful death suit for the Sanderson family: 'Sometimes things happen that just don't make sense.' Finally, the series ends with Kyle escaping Yosemite National Park. After being placed on suspension thanks to his earlier fight with Shane, Kyle decides to give up his park ranger job together and leave Yosemite in the dust—at last moving on from the place of Caleb's death. In giving up his vigil, Kyle promises the apparition of his son that he'll always take a piece of Caleb wherever he goes. He turns over his horse (and, by extension, his trust) to Naya, who seems eager to take up Kyle's mantle. It's a touching moment, seeing Kyle take ownership of his grief and choose to move forward with his life. But it's unclear how exactly he plans to do so, nor how the destruction wrought within his inner circle—Caleb's death, Jill's betrayal, Paul's corruption, Shane's violence—has shaped him now. Has he decided that the best path forward is to leave it all behind? Or, like Lucy, will he realize that there's no escaping the past? Maybe he's simply driving out of the park to find a good therapist. That, dear reader, should be every viewer's earnest hope.


Geek Tyrant
31 minutes ago
- Geek Tyrant
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Unveils STRANGER THINGS Collab Board Game – Welcome to the Hellfire Club — GeekTyrant
If you've ever wanted to roll dice with the Hellfire Club, now's your chance. Dungeons & Dragons and Stranger Things are teaming up for an official crossover board game that blends the world's most famous TTRPG with the Netflix phenomenon that helped bring it back into the spotlight. Say hello to Stranger Things: Welcome to the Hellfire Club , an all-new adventure built on the D&D 5e ruleset, launching October 7th. This new collab is perfect for both veteran adventurers and newcomers to the tabletop scene. The game takes inspiration straight from Stranger Things , giving players the chance to dive into four of Eddie's lost adventures. Designed for 3–5 players, with characters at levels 1–3, it's an awesome way to kick off a short campaign or introduce your friends to the magic of D&D — all with a nostalgic Hawkins flavor. Think of it like the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons starter set, but with a pop-culture twist. It captures the spirit of D&D while adding that signature Stranger Things vibe we know and love. The physical edition of Welcome to the Hellfire Club comes packed with everything you need for an immersive tabletop experience. For $49.99, here's what you'll find inside: Dungeon Master's Screen Double-Sided Hellfire Club Poster 91 Cards for Spells, Magic Items, and Monsters 72 Player Character and Monster Tokens 2 Double-Sided Poster Maps 15 Character Sheets 4 In-World Handouts Combat Tracker Notepad 11 Dice Quick Start Guide 4 Adventure Booklets 1 Play Guide Booklet All of it is wrapped in retro 80s aesthetics to capture that classic Stranger Things look. If you prefer to play online, the Digital Adventure Pack has you covered. It includes quickplay maps, a Quick-Start Video, pre-made characters for D&D Beyond, and digital versions of the adventures for the DM to run. The digital-only version costs $19.99, but you'll need a Master Tier subscription on D&D Beyond to host games. For those who want the best of both worlds, the Ultimate Bundle combines physical and digital editions, plus an Upside Down Digital Dice Set and Upside Down Digital Map and Sticker Pack. Normally priced at $69.98, it's currently available for $59.99 if you pre-order. Stranger Things: Welcome to the Hellfire Club launches on October 7th, just in time for some spooky season adventures in the Upside Down. It uses the updated 2025 revision of D&D 5th edition, so it's also a great way to get a feel for the newest tweaks to the game. Whether you're a seasoned DM or new to rolling dice, this set looks like an epic way to join the Hellfire Club.