Latest news with #NightOut
Sky News AU
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sky News AU
James Packer's ex Jodhi Meares, 54, opens up about her $4.1 million tree change in the Byron Bay hinterland
Jodhi Meares has spent much of her life in the spotlight, but the 54-year-old glamour model and fashion designer says she has always preferred the quiet life. In a new interview with Stellar Magazine, the former model and founder of fashion labels Tigerlily and The Upside revealed she recently purchased a $4.1 million property in Brooklet, nestled inland from Byron Bay, where she lives alone with her dog Soda Pop and five beloved cows, affectionately named 'The Ramoones'. "Sydney is the most beautiful city, and I love it," Meares told the magazine on Sunday. Jodhi Meares poses during Vogue American Express Fashion's Night Out on September 1, 2016 in Sydney, Australia. Picture:"But for living, I don't find there's a lot for me to do there. "I've got five cows,' she added. "I love feeding my cows. I didn't know that I'd be in love with them as much as I am." The entrepreneur, who famously married billionaire James Packer in 1999 before their split in 2002, says her new life in the countryside has brought her a long-sought sense of peace. "I don't get bored or lonely," she said. "I suffer from other things but not that. Sometimes I have to ask, 'How many days has it been? I need to just go somewhere and speak to another human'." Meares left Sydney in 2010 to live in Hawaii, returning years later to be closer to friends and family. But after a brief stint back in the city, the former model and lead singer of 90's band Euphoria realised the hustle no longer suited her and made the move to regional New South Wales. Despite the slower pace, Meares still runs her activewear label The Upside, which she founded in 2014. Jodhi Meares and James Packer at the Telethon Lexus Ball in October 2015. Picture: NCA The brand quickly gained a global following for its stylish approach to athleisure, and Meares soon turned it into a family affair by bringing her younger sister Sophie and her brother-in-law into the business. "My vision for The Upside came to me when I was spending time between NYC, Hawaii and Sydney," she told The Upside's website. "While deepening my yoga practice, I was witnessing the powerful infancy of the athleisure movement, that was taking over studios in a global sweep." She admits the solo farm lifestyle can be challenging, but says it's helped her reset. Jodhi and her beloved cows, whom she affectionately named 'The Ramoones'. Picture: Instagram @jodhimeares "Obviously it's difficult at times. I don't have children, so it's easier for me. But I'd recommend having experiences, because you can change your mind," she said. "Peace is a very worthwhile pursuit. Happiness is fleeting. But with peace, you know it's there. You can keep it. It's somewhere to turn to. Resilience is also important. I think peace and resilience are very worthwhile things to cultivate." Following her high-profile marriage to Packer, Meares went on to marry photographer Nicolas Finn Tsindos in a secret ceremony in Hawaii in 2015. The pair split the following year. She was later linked to singer Jon Stevens, though has kept her personal life largely private in recent years. Despite the end of their marriage, Meares remains on good terms with Packer, whom she once described as "the smartest person I know". "I often talk to him about all sorts of things, including business," she said in a 2016 interview with the Sydney Morning Herald. "Without question, he is always the smartest person in the room."
South Wales Argus
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- South Wales Argus
New show in Newport explores the concept of being different
The interactive theatre piece, A Brief History of Difference, will be performed at The Place on September 12 and 13. The show, presented by performance collective Das Clarks, is aimed at anyone who considers themselves different and those curious about diverse experiences. The show delves into themes of identity, labelling, and belonging through conversation, questioning, and personal narratives. It is led by DAR, a 55-year-old queer, neurodivergent performer, who transitioned into the arts at 50 after a career in social work and research. A Brief History of Difference is a collaboration involving director and choreographer Jo Fong and illustrator and community artist Becky Davies. The show is a co-production between Das Clarks and The Riverfront, Newport, supported by the Arts Council of Wales/Wales Arts International through the Wales in Edinburgh Fund. Night Out is supporting the production on September 12. The Place, in Newport City Centre, has been transformed from the old post office beneath Ritzys Nightclub into a creative community space by Tin Shed Theatre Co, alongside various artists and organisations. The venue was developed following extensive community consultation. Tickets for A Brief History of Difference are available from The Place.
The Star
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
What's your sign to keep swiping?
The daters are down. The dating apps feel universally terrible. (Or, as one person noted, the apps are where 'I keep meeting the devil incarnate.') But out of an unlikely font of romantic inspiration – the New York mayor's race – came a sign of hope. 'Zohran shows that if you're pure of heart, Hinge is fine, good even,' one dater posted. 'Maybe I should give it a try again,' another posted. They were responding to the revelation that Zohran Mamdani, 33, the Democratic mayoral nominee, had met his wife, Rama Duwaji, 27, an animator and illustrator, on the dating app Hinge. If they could do it, maybe all was not lost. App dating seems to need a boost these days. Artificial intelligence-powered matchmaking and tightened security are just some of the ways that the dating app companies have tried to shore up engagement, but some users continue to express fatigue over online dating, and Match Group and Bumble have lost billions in market value since 2021. A 2024 Forbes Health Survey reported that 78% of daters said they were feeling mentally and physically exhausted by the services. A 2023 Axios/Generation Lab survey of college and graduate students across the country found that 79% of respondents did not use dating apps. In my conversations with dozens of match seekers in writing about dating for the past 2 1/2 years, people have said that using dating apps can feel like another job, that it's difficult to truly gauge compatibility through a screen and that they prefer meeting people in real life. Still, three in 10 adults are still using the apps, according to a 2023 Pew Research Center study. And people feel like they can't fully give up. So New Yorkers, and politics watchers, and romance fans in general seized on Mamdani's Hinge success as a small, unexpected moment of reassurance that it is possible to actually meet someone, that it's not all endless swiping and disappointment. 'It definitely gives me hope that they found each other on Hinge – I think in general, I feel a little bit disillusioned by the apps,' said Jenny Gorelick, a comedian and writer living in New York City who also volunteered for Mamdani's campaign. In her Substack blog, 'Night Out', she writes about her experience exploring New York's nightlife as a single woman. 'I've only ever, in almost a decade of dating on Hinge, had one boyfriend that came from the app,' she added. 'Out of 220 matches on Hinge, one boyfriend is not amazing odds.' Mamdani seems to know that his story may feel like an outlier, but he encouraged singles not to give up. In an interview with the podcast 'The Bulwark' in June, the subject of dating came up. Cameron Kasky, one of the show's hosts, expressed his dismay over New York City's social scene and his love life. 'In terms of dating, it has been a disaster for me lately – my heart has been broken, I have broken hearts,' he said. He explained how difficult he had found it to make connections in real life, something he pointed as deeply affecting members of Gen Z. How, he asked Mamdani, would he as mayor revitalise the New York social scene? 'I met my wife on Hinge, so there is still hope in those dating apps,' he replied. Jeniea Howard, a 32-year-old content creator who often recaps her app dates online, even the failed ones, agreed that there was hope out there. Her move to Washington, D.C., from New York City two months ago did not stop her from using Hinge, the only dating app she's currently on. It has, in fact, become one of her main reasons to stay on: to meet new people in a new environment. 'I met my ex on Hinge, and we dated for close to three years, and we really only broke up because we weren't as compatible as we originally thought,' she said. 'If I found him and he was great, I'm sure I can find somebody else,' she added. She also worked from home and said that because all of her hobbies weren't the type of things that would attract straight men – pole dancing, boutique fitness classes, drag shows – she realised that she probably wouldn't meet her man in any of those spaces. 'I'm not going to change up my entire life and the things that I love doing, so let me go back on this app and maybe I'll have more luck, because the chances of me running into someone were a little bit slimmer,' she said. Like Howard, Akiera Charles hasn't abandoned the apps. She re-downloaded Hinge on July 1, just two days after she had broken up with a man she had dated for about a month. After venting about her breakup on Instagram, she said, part of getting back on the app was because she wanted to take her mind off her ex. The other reason, though, was that she still had hope for the app after dating someone she had met on Hinge for about a year. 'Since that point of me meeting that person on Hinge and it being successful initially, I still hold out that type of hope, like maybe I am going to find my person on Hinge,' she said. She also has friends who have had success stories on the app, including one woman who is married to, and recently had a baby with, a man she met on Hinge. 'If all of these people around me are meeting their person on Hinge,' she said, 'there has to be something in this app.' – ©2025 The New York Times Company This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Irish Independent
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
‘The Sweeney' at 50: How a brash, brutal police drama transformed British television
The Sweeney first hit screens (and also gave a good walloping to every wayward villain in west London) in January 1975. Its second series, of a total of four broadcast on ITV, followed in September of the same year. Alongside Thaw, who died in 2002, Dennis Waterman co-starred as the affable, capable DS George Carter. Waterman died in 2022, leaving few members of the fictionalised Flying Squad (the series derived its name from cockney rhyming slang: 'Sweeney Todd') still with us, let alone still working. But Nick Brimble, who played DC Gerry Burtonshaw, never stopped. Today a mainstay of the detective drama Grantchester, the 80-year-old recalls his Sweeney debut in the programme's sixth episode, 'Night Out'. 'It might have been my first day,' says Brimble, 'and we were doing a fight [scene] in a pub. I was there with Dennis, and we were running late. They said: 'OK, Dennis, Nick, make sure you don't get hurt. And go!' Suddenly, the whole place – which I thought was full of extras, turns out it was the entire stunt register – started smashing chairs over each other's heads and throwing bottles. I just stood there looking surprised!' But that's how it was, says the actor, who appeared in three series and the first of two Sweeney films (which made so much money they enabled production company EMI Films to make The Deer Hunter). During the pub fight, Brimble recalls Scottish actor Brian Coburn being knocked unconscious by a bottle that was meant to be made from toffee glass. These days, he says, projects don't come close to this level of realism – or violence. 'And obviously, you want to be safe,' adds Brimble, 'but sometimes you feel that things are a bit restricted. The Sweeney was flying by the seat of your pants – fights, action, the whole thing.' Cast members frequently arrived on set before seeing a script, and the wardrobe department would often call actors the night before filming to ask if they had a spare leather jacket for the shoot tomorrow. 'I had suede. 'That'll do!' they said,' Brimble recalls. 'Even now, the show has a great energy,' he adds. 'And people still respond to it, watching reruns all these years later. It doesn't feel like some dusty old show. It feels, in a way, more lively than many things on TV now.' There's a reason for that. The Sweeney began life as 'Regan', a 1974 episode of anthology series Armchair Cinema. And, for all its envelope-pushing and convention-smashing, the show started off as something of a composite, borrowing elements from other crime dramas. Producers picked Thaw after seeing him play a military policeman in the drama series Redcap, while Waterman was chosen after he guest-starred in ITV's crime saga Special Branch. Writer Ted Childs was inspired by Gene Hackman thriller The French Connection. Series creator Ian Kennedy Martin looked to films including the Michael Caine vehicle Get Carter, Sitting Target with Oliver Reed, and the gangster movie Villain, starring Richard Burton, to inform the show's style. As such, when The Sweeney first aired – multiple influences under its belt, and a pilot in its pocket – it arrived fully formed. And there wasn't any laborious world-building to do, because this wasn't a far-fetched, fantastical London. This was the real thing – violence, hardship and all. 'The Seventies was a tough time. A gritty time,' says Tony Jordan, a seasoned writer and the creator of programmes including Hustle and Beyond Paradise. 'It can feel like it was quite shiny, polished and pop-arty. But it wasn't really like that. Everything was in economic decline, crime was rising – particularly in cities – and it was all a bit fractious. Television didn't truly represent that. Our crimefighters were things like The Avengers, all a bit nonsensical. There were exceptions, of course, but general mainstream television felt like a fantasy world. Heroes were heroes, and that's the way it worked.' Then came Jack Regan. 'He lived in the world we all lived in. He had moral ambiguity; he worried. He was a flawed hero, but he was on our side. He did terrible things – like kidnapping people – but he'd never take a bribe for himself. There wasn't a holier-than-thou reverence to it. He clearly had his demons, but still he did the right thing.' And Regan, says Jordan, more closely resembled the police he knew as a rebellious teenager. In fact, many of the show's catchphrases – 'We're the Sweeney, son, and we haven't had any dinner'; 'Get your trousers on, you're nicked!' – were borrowed from real-life, off-duty Flying Squad members whom producers spoke to in pubs around Scotland Yard. Regan and co may have been fictional, but they were real: human, fallible, and capable of making mistakes. 'It was aware of other TV,' Jordan explains. 'At one point, Regan has a lollipop and George says, 'Who loves ya, baby?', referencing Kojak. He'd say stuff like 'Life isn't like Z-Cars' or whistle the theme tune to Dixon of Dock Green. So audacious! How could you not love the audacity of that?' The Sweeney resonated across culture. Both Squeeze and Kate Bush namedropped the series in their lyrics. 'It wasn't about dissecting your lines or finding your character's motivation, says Brimble. 'It was about turning up and doing stuff. I think half of the show's realism comes from the fact it was done very fast. Energy is the word that comes to mind – lots of testosterone flying about. If there was a fight in a pub, you went and had a fight in a pub.' Brimble later played Little John in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. On set, that film's star, Kevin Costner, would constantly ask Brimble about London gangsters and his work on shows like The Sweeney. 'I had to say, 'I'm not one, Kevin – I'm just pretending, love.'' But The Sweeney attracted A-listers itself. Among the guest stars were John Hurt, Brian Blessed, Richard Griffiths – even Morecambe and Wise. Ray Winstone made his acting debut in series three, and went on to star in a flimsy cinematic reboot that bore little resemblance to the original show. That film, released in 2012, spawned a French remake in 2015 starring Jean Reno, which has itself produced a sequel. In the Nineties, Nissan spoofed the show in an ad campaign, and Matt Berry recently described his short-lived sitcom Year of the Rabbit as 'The Sweeney, but set in Victorian times'. The Sweeney lives on, then – not least in every hard-edged, hard-drinking copper on television today. 'Well, they'd like to be The Sweeney,' says Brimble. 'But that realism and action and energy is hard to reproduce these days. It was the first one that felt real – that's why people still aspire to it. But drama today is often too complicated. The Sweeney worked because it wasn't complicated. It was an adrenaline-fuelled rush.' (© The Independent)
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Michael Avenatti Resentenced to Reduced Prison Term
Former Stormy Daniels attorney Michael Avenatti had his federal prison sentence from a June 2022 financial fraud conviction reduced from an initial 14 years during a resentencing on Thursday in California. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Justice on Friday confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that U.S. District Judge James V. Selna on Thursday cut Avenatti's prison sentence to 135 months, or 11 years and 3 months, for a 2022 conviction for ripping off his California clients and others for millions of dollars. More from The Hollywood Reporter Appeals Court Temporarily Blocks Judge's Ruling to Return Control of National Guard to California Trump and Melania Are Booed, Cheered During MAGA's Night Out at Kennedy Center Premiere When Is a Torched Waymo More Than a Torched Waymo? An incarcerated Avenatti, who made a name for himself representing porn actor Daniels against U.S. President Donald Trump during his first term in the White House, will spend just under eight more years in prison to complete his federal prison sentence, after factoring in time served. This week's resentencing of Avenatti is not the end of his legal troubles. In February 2022, Avenatti was also convicted for stealing nearly $300,000 in book proceeds from Daniels and defrauding several other clients while attempting a shakedown of sports clothing giant Nike. Daniels initially hired Avenatti as part of an attempt to escape the terms of a $130,000 hush payment deal that kept the porn star from speaking publicly about an alleged sexual encounter that Trump claimed never happened. Avenatti parlayed his representation of Daniels into a string of cable news appearances in which he gained national attention for mocking and baiting Trump. On the financial fraud conviction, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2024 vacated the original 14 years sentence, setting up the resentencing by an erring Judge Selna in a Santa Ana, courthouse on Thursday. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Studio': 30 Famous Faces Who Play (a Version of) Themselves in the Hollywood-Based Series 22 of the Most Shocking Character Deaths in Television History A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise
