
Handsome soap star signs up to celebrity dating app Raya and returns to UK to find love
LOOKING FOR LOVE Handsome soap star signs up to celebrity dating app Raya and returns to UK to find love
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RICKY WHITTLE has come back to London to look for love.
The ex-Hollyoaks actor, who moved to Los Angeles to work in Hollywood, has signed up to celebrity dating app Raya.
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One of Ricky's pictures shows him running down the street topless
Credit: Supplied
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Another picture shows him cuddling a quokka
Credit: Supplied
One of my pals spotted his profile on the app, with one picture showing him cuddling a quokka and another of him running shirtless through a street.
'It's like he's saying I'm cuddly, hot and very available,' my mate said.
'His profile popped up a couple of weeks ago. It says he's an actor who lives in LA but was visiting London.
'Given how good he looks, I bet he had loads of people swiping on his profile.'
READ MORE ON RICKY WHITTLE
WHITTLE IT DOWN Ricky Whittle is worlds away from Hollyoaks as he films with Luke Hemsworth
And judging by how well Raya is working for some in the capital, I'm not surprised Ricky is trying his luck back on home ground.
Last month I revealed Lily Allen and James Norton had started hooking up, and they're both big fans of the app.
Ricky is best known over here for playing Calvin Valentine on Hollyoaks.
After his character was killed off in 2010, Ricky moved abroad and has starred in shows including The 100 and American Gods.
He previously thanked Hollyoaks for giving him the best start in acting, saying: 'It's an education.
"My character went from being the good guy, to the bad guy to the club owner, to the policeman, to your sister's on drugs, to you'd killed someone and then he's back to life.'
I hope Ricky's experience on Raya is less of a rollercoaster than his on-screen Hollyoaks life.
Ricky Whittle looks unrecognisable xx years after starring in Hollyoaks
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Carmel (Gemma Merna) and Calvin (Ricky Whittle) get married on Hollyoaks
Credit: Handout
REUNION FOR JACKSON THREE
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Jackie and Marlon briefly introduced sister Janet Jackson to the stage at their Heritage Live Festivals show
Credit: Heritage Live Festivals
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The Jacksons are one of the most famous musical families of all time
Credit: Getty
THERE was an impromptu reunion for one of the most famous musical families of all time when Janet Jackson joined The Jacksons on stage on Saturday.
The group, now touring as brothers Jackie and Marlon, briefly introduced their chart-topping sister to the stage at their Heritage Live Festivals show at Englefield Estate near Reading.
All For You singer Janet, who lives in London, hasn't been on stage in the UK since her critically acclaimed tour here last autumn.
But with The Jacksons still going – they have another show in Audley End in Essex on July 31 – I'm hoping they can persuade her to entertain us again soon.
DO NOT BELIEVE ALL YOU SIA
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Sia was snapped hand in hand with fellow Aussie Harry Jowsey
Credit: Getty
SIA has seemingly wasted no time moving from her husband Daniel Bernad after filing for divorce in March.
The singer was snapped hand in hand with fellow Aussie Harry Jowsey, a reality star two decades her junior, who found fame on Netflix dating show Too Hot To Handle.
I use the word 'seemingly' because they are both notorious jokers, and this cosy snap of them heading out to dinner in LA looks like a hoax to me.
It certainly isn't a 'romance' I saw coming.
RACY J-LO SHOW IS A GIFT
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Jennifer Lopez pulls off racy moves on stage
Credit: EPA
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She was thrown about by hunky dancers during a particularly steamy routine
Credit: TNI Press
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Jennifer, who is currently on tour, played Tenerife at the weekend
Credit: TNI Press
JENNIFER LOPEZ turns 56 on Thursday but you wouldn't know it by the racy moves she has been pulling on stage.
Currently on a tour of some of the most random locations around Europe, she played Tenerife at the weekend, where it looked like she was recreating positions from The Joy Of Sex.
The Jenny From The Block singer got on all fours and was thrown about by hunky dancers during a particularly steamy routine.
I can only hope I'm still that flexible when I'm in my fifties – and I'm sure my fella does too.
As well as the tour, J-Lo is giving fans a gift for her own big day by announcing a single called Birthday.
Encouraging fans to pre-save it online, she wrote: 'It's my birthday and you're all invited. Party details on Thursday.'
Something tells me she won't be gorging on mountains of cake like the rest of us.
RICK: I'M GUNNA TEAM UP
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Rick Astley reveals whether work has begun on his tenth album
Credit: Getty
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He wants to work with Blossoms on original music
Credit: Alamy
RICK ASTLEY wants to work with Blossoms on original music after playing a handful of shows where they covered songs by The Smiths.
The gigs with the indie band went down a storm and now the Never Gonna Give You Up singer has admitted he doesn't want to, er, give them up.
In an exclusive chat with Bizarre, he said: 'Obviously Blossoms are amazing players, great musicians, and great writers. And I kind of think, yeah, it would be great to do something.
'We have talked occasionally about doing something, but I don't know what that would be.
'I'm always a bit nervous of it, because one of the weird things is, I want to keep my friends as friends, and I don't want to go through a recording process and fall out with them.'
But fans have a wait on their hands for a follow-up to 2023's Are We There Yet?.
Asked if he'd begun work on his tenth album, Rick said: 'No, we're having a quiet one this year, but I was in my studio this morning. I like tinkering. Who knows, we'll see.
'I don't think I'll ever stop making music, I just don't know whether anyone's going to listen to it.'
BILLIE EILISH has teased she is working on 'something very special' with Titanic director James Cameron.
During the first of her four Hit Me Hard And Soft tour dates at Manchester's Co-op Live on Saturday, the singer said the performance would form the basis of their new project, which fans have assumed will be a state-of-the-art live film.
She told the crowd: 'I can't say much about it but I'm working on something very, very special with James Cameron and it's going to be in 3D.
'These four shows here in Manchester, you and me are part of a thing that I am making with him. He's in this audience somewhere, just saying.'
YOU couldn't blame Liam Gallagher for wanting to put his feet up in front of the telly during rare nights off from the Oasis tour.
But the frontman, known for his wild nights out, has been enjoying high-brow evenings – at the theatre.
One of my mates spotted him in the audience at Sadler's Wells in London this week watching a ballet of Quadrophenia.
Somehow, I doubt Liam will be pulling on a tutu any time soon.
LEIGH-ANNE has hinted she almost packed in her solo career amid her split from Warner Records.
I told in May how the former Little Mix star had parted ways with the label and she's just released her new single Been A Minute as an independent artist.
She said in her newsletter: 'So much has changed this past year – new chapter, new energy, new team . . . There were moments I wasn't sure this would even happen . . . I had to back myself again.'
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Daily Mirror
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Before his death, rock legend Ozzy Osbourne opened up about his thoughts on the afterlife, as well as what he believed to be his unavoidable epitaph when the time came The late, great Ozzy Osbourne wasn't one to shy away from the darker topics in life - and this included the subject of death. As you might expect from a rockstar nicknamed The Prince of Darkness, Ozzy, who died at the age of 76, appeared to have an interest in what would happen after he died, and even predicted what would be written on his tombstone when the time came. Of course, the Birmingham-born rocker had more than a fair few brushes with the Grim Reaper over the years, most famously after a horror quad bike accident in 2003, after which his heart even stopped beating. In a previous interview with the Mirror, devoted wife Sharon Osbourne, 72, shared how her husband "stopped breathing for a minute and a half", before a security guard thankfully resuscitated him. The Black Sabbath frontman, who lived with Parkinson's Disease, also suffered an agonising fall at his LA home, as well as a series of botched surgeries which left him in agony. Ozzy himself even expressed surprise that he'd lived as long as he did, when so many of his friends had passed on. However, there was one thing he was sure of - how he'd be remembered. In a 2004 interview with Esquire, Ozzy remarked: "I know what's going to be on my tombstone, and there's no getting around it: 'Here lies Ozzy Osbourne, the ex-Black Sabbath singer who bit the head off a bat'." Ozzy was, of course, referring to a now notorious incident which unfolded back in the winter of 1982, back when he was promoting Diary of a Madman. While on tour, the former abattoir worker got into the grisly habit of chucking raw pieces of meat into the audience, and it wasn't long before they started to retaliate with their own grim offerings. On the night of January 20, a fan threw what Ozzy initially believed was a rubber toy bat onto the stage. It wasn't until he ripped the head off with his own teeth that he realised the toy was bloody and twitching. Recalling this historic moment in his 2010 autobiography, I Am Ozzy, the Brummie star wrote: "Immediately, though, something felt wrong. Very wrong. For a start, my mouth was instantly full of this warm, gloopy liquid. Then the head in my mouth twitched. "Somebody threw a bat. I just thought it was a rubber bat. And I picked it up and put it in my mouth. I bit into it." By the time Ozzy realised he'd been chomping into a "real live bat", it was far too late. Of course, with his myriad of professional and personal accomplishments, Ozzy will no doubt be remembered for far more than this gory incident. However, that infamous gig did help to solidify Ozzy's 'satanic' image in the eyes of music fans, who reacted with a mix of horror and morbid fascination. Ozzy also had a few thoughts on what was waiting on the other side of the grave. In a 2009 interview with The Telegraph's Celia Walden, Ozzy grumbled: 'Hell. Even if I do make it to Heaven, you can bet your life that the toilet will stink.' As he navigated serious health issues, Ozzy didn't appear to fear death. In 2023, during an interview with Rolling Stone, he admitted: "I said to Sharon that I'd smoked a joint recently and she said, 'What are you doing that for? It'll f*****g kill you'.' I said: 'How long do you want me to f*****g live for?!' At best, I've got 10 years left, and when you're older, time picks up speed!" Ozzy went on to clarify that while he didn't "fear dying," he didn't "want to have a long, painful and miserable existence." He also reflected on how many of his pals had already passed on, remarking: "Sometimes I look in the mirror and go, 'Why the f*** did you make it?!' I'm not boasting about any of it because I should have been dead a thousand times. I've had my stomach pumped God knows how many times."