Diana ross

LIVE: ARIANA GRANDE (O2 Arena London) Verdict: Hits the sweet spot  Rating: Ariana Grande’s return to British arenas was always going to be poignant, but the petite American did not disappoint as she opened the UK leg of her Sweetener World Tour before an audience dominated by young women, singing along to virtually every word. This wasn’t a typical pop pageant. Grande’s career will for ever be framed by the Manchester Arena bombing which killed 22 of her fans and injured hundreds of others in 2017, and her empathetic response has carried over into her music, which embraces sensitivity and resilience where it was once shamelessly showy. There were no direct references to the atrocity — or last year’s death of her former boyfriend Mac Miller. Ariana Grande performs on stage during her 'Sweetener World Tour' at The O2 Arena In fact, the singer from Florida said very little onstage, pausing only before the penultimate song No Tears Left To Cry … [Read more...] about IT’S FRIDAY MUSIC: Stellar Ariana Grande shows she’s a star to cherish, writes ADRIAN THRILLS

Choosing a romantic partner is a tricky business as no clear criteria exist for making such a choice. One common criterion is to aim high: Do not settle for less than the best. This is a questionable tenet that often mistakenly leads to confusing the best person with the most suitable partner. A good person and a suitable partner “If you look for perfection, you'll never be content.” Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina Paying attention to a person's individual qualities is necessary and valuable in a romantic search, but it is not sufficient for finding an optimal partner. There are many cases of people who consider someone to possess all the qualities they admire, but with whom they are not in love. Likewise, we would not usually criticize someone who loves her partner profoundly just because we think she could find a person with better qualities. When we focus merely on the other’s individual qualities, we risk overlooking the aspect as to whether this person is suitable for … [Read more...] about Why Was Kennedy’s Love-Making Always Very Brief?

On June 22, a Twitter thread did almost as much as Naomi Campbell’s cellphone attack and Kim Kardashian West’s career arc to highlight the absurd difficulty of working as a celebrity’s personal assistant. The viral post, “Being Beyoncé’s assistant for the day: DON’T GET FIRED THREAD,” is a series of choose-your-own-adventure–style questions that invites users to imagine what it might be like to work for the pop star. Equal parts Seventeen quiz and Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, the game has the felicity of the first and the latter’s escalating stakes: For breakfast, would Beyoncé prefer strawberries and granola, or a five-star buffet? Should she hide out at a hotel to avoid the paparazzi or risk being spotted at a super-secret event at which she’s set to appear?Creator Landon Rivera told BuzzFeed News that the game was “pretty much divided off common logic and some Beyoncé trivia.” Getting fired in the … [Read more...] about Beyoncé Is A Mystery We Can’t Stop Trying To Solve

On Everything Is Love, Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s new album released this past Saturday, a bunch of elements unexpectedly commingle: a line about Napoleon blowing off the Sphinx’s nose, the Migos’ signature adlibs, Malcolm X, joking references to the almost-demise of a marriage, trap acoustics, broom-jumping ceremonies, winky references to the streaming wars.These are all strange bedfellows, but so, once, were Bey and Jay as a romantic pair. They’ve since gone from an unlikely May-December duo to one of American pop culture’s most rock-solid power couples, married with three small children and several business partnerships. The latest product of their union is a nine-song project, a laboratory that tests out just how well they work together, as artists, and as lovers now primed to reveal more of their mystique to the world after spending the majority of their romance collectively retreating from the public eye.On the bridge of album standout … [Read more...] about Beyoncé & Jay-Z’s New Album Is The Coolest Marriage Has Looked In A While

Viola Davis has played those roles. They’re the characters—“And I’ve played them,” she reiterates—that come on screen for two scenes. They’re typically women, typically women of color. They might be a cop, or the lawyer. You see them and you start thinking, “Oh, who is this actress playing her?” And then, maybe, “OK, so who is this character? Who does she love? Does she have children?” By the time you’ve gone through those questions, she’s gone. She’s not there anymore, and she doesn’t come back. “I’m trying to change that,” Davis tells me. “I’m trying to change the black woman coming in at the ninth hour to give a sassy line and walk out, to be the best friend and just be the sounding board giving information. I want to know her. I want to sit with her, and I want to sit with her pathology.” She takes a breath: “And that’s what you get with … [Read more...] about How Viola Davis Found the Courage to Be Herself: ‘I’ve Always Had to Take the Road Less Chosen’

Hundreds of MPs have had their energy bills paid by the taxpayer. The £200,000 yearly bill for heating their second homes has caused outrage, with critics condemning the expenses claims by 341 MPs as "morally" wrong and "hypocritical". The 309 other MPs in Westminster did not claim. One Tory, Nadhim Zahawi, clawed back nearly £6,000. But how much did your MP claim? Find out with our interactive map below - or explore the full lists of who claimed what underneath... Read the full Sunday Mirror story here - and don't forget to let us (and MPs) know what you think by leaving a comment Energy expenses claims Nadhim Zahawi, Stratford-on-Avon, Conservative, £5,822.27, Electricity Other fuel Andrew Robathan, Leicestershire South, Conservative, £4,586.80, Electricity Other Fuel Peter Hain, Neath, Labour, £4,571.74, Electricity Other fuel Alan Duncan, Rutland & Melton, Conservative, £3,998.06, Electricity Other Fuel Dame Margaret Beckett, Derby South, Labour, … [Read more...] about Does your MP claim energy bills on expenses? Full list and interactive map