List of All Articles with Tag 'tv'

An overview of the media in Spain, including links to broadcasters and newspapers.

From ‘The Bear’ to ‘What We Do In the Shadows,’ Hulu has become a thriving destination for great original programming, plus terrific series you might have missed elsewhere.

An overview of the media in the Czech Republic, including links to broadcasters and newspapers.

Netflix's much-anticipated Anna Nicole Smith documentary: Anna Nicole Smith: You Don't Know Me unpacked the life of the late model through interviews with people who knew the "real" her. Born Vickie Lynn Hogan, the star adopted the name "Nicky" during her time at the strip club, before becoming a household name as Anna Nicole Smith after landing a modelling gig with Guess. "I want audiences to understand that Anna Nicole was a complex woman," director Ursula Macfarlane (Untouchable) said. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter "She was someone who above all else wanted to be a good mother and a free-spirited exuberant woman who wanted to live life on her own terms. But her story is also a cautionary tale about how the desire for the American dream can swallow you up and spit you out, blurring your self-image and make you lose sight of your authentic self." Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me | Official Trailer | Netflix www.youtube.com Here's what we learnt from Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me: Her troubled childhood Smith's friend, Missy, said the model described her mother, Virgie Mae Hogan, as a "kind of a tyrant" with claims she would tie her to the bed and "beat her mercilessly." Her former assistant Nathan Collins went on to suggest Smith "didn't like to speak about her childhood," and instead would rather speak about how much she "hated" them. "She would always tell me, she hated her mother," designer Pol' Atteu added. "The only thing I knew that Anna ever wanted to do was never to be like Virgie." Despite claims, her younger brother Donald Hart suggested their mother was "a very sweet, loving person" and she and Smith "cared about each other" even if they didn't speak "behind the scenes." In unheard footage from Smith's mother, she alleged that her daughter thought a harrowing story would benefit her career. Smith hired a private investigator to track down her father, Donald Hogan. He was flown out to meet her aged 24 to celebrate becoming Playmate of the Year. "She told me that her father had tried to have sex with her," an emotional Missy claimed. "I was really sad to see that. She was so so disappointed." She got married at 17 and had a baby out of loneliness "I thought I was in love," Smith said about Billy Wayne Smith who she met at Jimmy's Fried Chicken before tying the knot. She went on to suggest "he was so, so jealous of me," and alleged she wasn't able to leave the house, which made her think: "If I have a baby, I'll never feel lonely again." The pair welcomed their son Daniel in January 1986, and Smith left six months later. Smith knew she was going to be a "famous model" Smith repeatedly told her friend Missy, who she met during her time at the strip club, that she was going to be a model. However, Smith believed her chest was holding her back. The then-dancer then went under the knife after making it her "mission to get a boob job", with Missy saying that's where "she started on her pain pills." "Valium, Xanax, Lortabs, Vicodin and Klonopin," Missy claimed. "From that time on, she was taking them. There was nothing she could do to stop it." Despite her struggles, Missy described Smith as "fun". "She had a big heart, and she was kind. She really was kind," she added. Her marriage with billionaire J Howard Marshall Smith met one of her billionaire clients J Howard Marshall while dancing. The then 86-year-old bought a 26-year-old Smith a house and a car, as she quit the strip club. She went on to land a gig with Playboy before adopting the name Anna Nicole Smith while modelling for Guess. They eventually did marry in 1994 and Marshall wanted to adopt her son to have an heir so "there would be nothing that his family could do to freeze them out." Smith's attorney Kelly Moore was "impressed" by the pair's love for one another and how "well-suited" they were. Moore said she does not want to give the impression it was a "gold digger" relationship. Moore described Smith as "such a young, voluptuous woman and he was a little old gnome of a man. But they were both kind of extraordinary people that other people were always trying to take pieces of." She said they were "protection for each other." Smith's final months Her son Daniel died in September 2006 from an accidental drug overdose, days after giving birth to daughter Dannielynn Birkhead. The news devastated Smith, with designer Pol' Atteu recalling: "She didn't want to live. Everything that she did was for Daniel. Every single conversation was what she did wrong, blamed herself the whole time. She said, 'I just want to die. I don't deserve to be here. It should've been me.'" Smith died aged 39 on 8 February 2007, with an autopsy revealing it was down to combined drug intoxication including the sleep aid chloral hydrate. The star was laid to rest in the Bahamas next to her son in the Bahamas. Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me is available to stream on Netflix now. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Don't even think of introducing Claes Bang at an awards show until you read this.

Eurovision is over and done with for another year, with Sweden’s Loreen becoming the first female entry to win the song contest twice (first in 2012 with 'Euphoria', and then this year with 'Tattoo'), but the drama surrounding the beloved night of entertainment continues. First came the conspiracy theory that a victory for Loreen was “rigged” so Sweden could host the contest in 2024 – 50 years after ABBA’s success with 'Waterloo' – and now, there’s speculation that France’s entry gave the audience in Liverpool and everyone watching at home the middle finger. Well, it would be a step up from Ukraine’s entry Tvorchi, whose track 'Heart of Steel' only included a middle finger in terms of the lyrics, when vocalist Jeffery Kenny sings: “Sometimes you just gotta know / When to stick your middle finger up in the air.” During Saturday’s grand final, France’s representative La Zarra – who took to the stage with the track 'Evidemment' – didn’t look too thrilled with her country’s final position of 16th on the leaderboard, getting only 50 extra points from the voting public on top of their 54 points from the national juries. After co-host Graham Norton shared the result, an unenthused La Zarra was captured reacting to the news by raising one hand, before splaying out the fingers on the other with her middle finger pointing down. She then turned it around to have the offending digit pointing upwards, which then looked like she was flipping the bird, as it were. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Viewers soon expressed their glee at the potentially offensive gesture when they saw it: However, in an interview with the French news channel BFM TV, La Zarra – who was born in Canada to Moroccan parents – insisted the gesture had been misinterpreted, saying she has a “double culture”. “It’s not a negative gesture. On the contrary, it’s just a gesture of disappointment that we use between friends. “Afterwards, I can understand that overseas it is considered another gesture.” It’s not the first time that Eurovision fans have accused an act of doing something naughty, as 2021 winners Måneskin – from Italy – were hit with false and disproven claims that their lead singer took drugs at their green room table. The group said at the time that they were “really offended” by the accusations and that what had actually happened was that the group’s guitarist had broken a glass. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The 13-year-old made the final of Germany's The Voice Kids, singing a song from The Greatest Showman.

Let’s be honest: none of us saw a song about being possessed by the ghost of writer Edgar Allan Poe coming at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, but we’re all here for it. In Austria’s entry for the competition – taking place in Liverpool on behalf of last year’s winners, Ukraine – singers Teya and Salena ask “Who the Hell is Edgar?”, and that’s a blooming good question. The answer? Edgar Allan Poe… poe, poe, poe, poe, poe… Yes, that is the chorus, and yes, it is that catchy. So aside from being supposedly possessed by Poe, what prompted the duo to write about the American writer, who died all the way back in 1849? According to the lyrics, the singer is “happy” to be taken over by Poe because the song is “feeling special” and will “make me rich”. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter However, arguably the more interesting lines come later in the track, when Teya and Salena reference the figure “0.003” – the amount of money music streaming giant Spotify pays artists after a single stream of a song. The lyrics continue: “Give me two years, and your dinner will be free / Gas station champagne is on me / Edgar cannot pay rent for me. “Zero, dot, zero, zero, three / At least it pays to be funny / Ugh.” So yes, “Who the Hell is Edgar” does appear to actually be about the poor treatment of artists in the music industry. We love to see it – and so do other Eurovision fans: However, Austria’s chances of winning the contest may be scuppered now, after it was revealed on Friday that they would be first up to perform in Saturday’s Grand Final. According to an online article from the Eurovision Song Contest itself back in 2019, at the time, only three songs in the competition’s history won after performing first. Out of 67 winners, just over 34 per cent came from the first half of the show, so it doesn’t look that good for them. Elsewhere, though, there is some good news for Luxembourg, as it’s been announced the country will return to compete in the show from next year – ending a 30-year hiatus after they were relegated in 1993. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Eurovision, that famously camp song contest which has a strong pro-LGBTQ+ stance and has this year acknowledged Putin’s war in Ukraine as the reason for it being held in Liverpool on the country’s behalf, has blocked President Volodymyr Zelensky from making a video address - because it would breach the event’s “non-political nature”. Organisers behind the show, who on Thursday saw no issue with drag queens absolutely slaying on the M&S Bank Arena stage and preaching messages of love and acceptance, rejected the request ahead of the grand final on Saturday. In a statement, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) – whose previous decisions to ban Russia and Belarus from participating definitely weren’t political, obviously – said the request from Mr Zelensky to address the Eurovision audience “while made with laudable intentions, regrettably cannot be granted by the European Broadcasting Union management as it would be against the rules of the event”. Belarus was disqualified from the contest in 2021 over political messaging in their planned entry (their second attempt before the deadline), while Russia was kicked out of Eurovision a year later for its illegal invasion of Ukraine. And the rules state “all participating broadcasters” must ensure that “the ESC [Eurovision Song Contest] shall in no case be politicised and/or instrumentalized and/or otherwise brought into disrepute in any way”. That’s ‘instrumentalise’ in the sense of using Eurovision as a platform to spread a political message, before anyone makes a musical pun (we know you want to)… Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The EBU’s decision has since been criticised by Boris Johnson, the former prime minister who became a meme over how many times he’d meet with the Ukrainian president whenever he was experiencing a turbulent moment in his premiership. “It would have been right to hear from President Zelensky at tomorrow night’s Eurovision. There is only one reason the contest is not in Ukraine and that is because of Putin’s illegal war,” he tweeted. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesman told reporters: “The prime minister believes it would be fitting for President Zelensky to address the event and we’re disappointed by the decision from the European Broadcasting Union. “The values and freedoms that President Zelensky and the people of Ukraine are fighting for are not political; they’re fundamental, and Eurovision themselves recognised that last year when they rightly suspended Russia’s participation from the competition.” No 10 added, however, that they are not planning to call on the EBU to change its mind. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

When it comes to Eurovision, you kind of have to accept and embrace the weirdness. So, when the second semi-final of this year’s contest – taking place in Liverpool, of course, on behalf of Ukraine – decided to bring out Peppa Pig to do the conga, many British viewers weren’t that surprised at all. The popular children’s character made an appearance shortly after voting opened during Thursday’s show, which eventually saw fan favourites Belgium and Austria go through to Saturday’s grand final, amongst others. She was also joined by the pop group Scooch, who represented the UK in Finland with “Flying the Flag (For You)” back in 2007. While Peppa danced away, UK commentators Scott Mills and Rylan Clark revealed the latter’s dressing room had also been taken over by the pig. “My dressing room was removed today,” said Clark. “It used to say ‘Rylan’, now it says ‘Peppa the Pig’,” added Mills. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Incredible. Following Peppa Pig’s appearance, many just accepted the scenes as peak British weirdness, and some noticed Ukrainian host Julia Sanina looked rather bemused by it all: As the camera cuts back to the presenters, co-presenter Alesha Dixon can be seen telling Sanina that she will “explain it to you later”. We don’t think it requires any explanation, Alesha… Others, meanwhile, expressed glee at the show’s credits making clear that Peppa Pig was, in fact, Peppa Pig: Peppa has since taken to Twitter to confirm she had an “oinktastic time”, which is nice to hear. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The Lakers-Warriors series continues to garner huge ratings.

MTV's 'The Real World,' which premiered in 1992, set the template for several successful reality TV franchises that followed, from 'Survivor' to 'The Bachelor.'