Is it bye-bye American pie for Meghan and Gwynnie?
Disgraced rapper Kanye West has been dumped by almost his entire team, and is in exile in Japan – while his marriage hangs by a thread.
West moved back to a Tokyo H๏τel this week after causing global outrage with a string of statements on X (formerly Twitter) in support of fascism.
Wife Bianca Censori is not thought to be with him.
Strains in the couple’s marriage were apparent last month after her ‘naked’ appearance – choreographed by her husband – on the red carpet at the Grammy awards.
The pair later reconciled, although reports suggest that, over the past month, they have been living largely separately in two different Los Angeles H๏τels.
One source suggests Australian Censori, 30, wants to get away from West (who once claimed to have ‘dominion’ over her), but they remain ‘obsessed’ with each other.
Plenty of others are getting away, though. I’m told that ‘almost all’ of his team has left, including his long-time manager John Monopoly.
‘Everyone has gone,’ says a source. ‘Either he’s fired them, or they have quit because of his behaviour.’
Disgraced rapper Kanye West has been dumped by almost his entire team, and is in exile in Japan
West moved back to a Tokyo H๏τel this week after causing global outrage with a string of statements on X (formerly Twitter ) in support of fascism. Pictured: Kanye West and wife Bianca Censori at Marni RTW Fall 2024 as part of Milan Ready to Wear Fashion Week held on February 23, 2024 in Milan, Italy
Monopoly returned to work with West late last year, having played a role in discovering him and propelling him to fame in the early 1990s. He introduced West to Jay-Z, once a key friend and collaborator.
Others who have cut ties include talent agent Daniel McCartney of 33 & West, who wrote in a statement in February that his working relationship with West was over ‘effective immediately… due to his harmful and hateful remarks’. The bad news does not end there.
It can be revealed the rapper is now blacklisted by China, meaning he will not be able to travel there for a performance in front of the famous Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in Lijiang next month – which could have netted him $7 million.
Perhaps West won’t care. In February he posted on X: ‘I tour for the money. I’d rather be playing (video games) Last Of Us part one and two, which was made by Jewish people, Good Job. Thank you.’
It was part of an anti-Semitic spree on social media, after Elon Musk let him back on the platform.
In dozens of tweets to his 32 million followers, West praised Hitler, called himself a Nazi and described anti-Semitism as ‘just some bulls**t Jewish people made up’.
Following the controversy, Shopify suspended his online shop for brand Yeezy, which was selling T-shirts sporting a swastika.
Is it bye-bye American pie for Meghan and Gwynnie?
Influencer Queen Gwyneth Paltrow has done her utmost to convince all that she and her Montecito neighbour Meghan, Duchess of SusSєx, have no beef in real life.
After posting a video which was widely seen as casting shade on the Duchess, Paltrow invited Meghan round to her home for the first time earlier this week, so that the Duchess could pretend to eat pie for an in-joke in an Instagram video.
But will Meghan get another invite?
Perhaps not, as despite the ‘make up’ neither woman follows the other (or their respective brands) on Instagram.
After posting a video which was widely seen as casting shade on the Duchess, Paltrow invited Meghan round to her home for the first time earlier this week, so that the Duchess could pretend to eat pie for an in-joke in an Instagram video
Disney’s dwarfs missing in action
Disney appears to have been both Dopey and Bashful about Snow White merchandise.
There is very little in their shops and theme parks for the new live action film, with just two $149 limited edition dolls, based on stars Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot.
You can buy ‘seven dwarfs’ toys from the 1937 animation but not their 2025 CGI counterparts. Heigh-ho!
Big budget films can make a hefty profit from merchandising – think Wicked – which makes Disney’s reluctance to do the same with Snow and co a bit odd.
Still from 2025 live action Snow White film, showing the seven dwarfs
Impossible gig…after meeting Tom in the loo
Tom Cruise is famously generous to his friends – and his Christmas coconut cake, gifted to pals, is the stuff of legend in Hollywood.
But for Ving Rhames, his sidekick in eight Mission: Impossible films, mere coconut cake was not enough. Cruise gave his pal a triple layer cake. Oh, and an electric bike.
Rhames, who plays agent Luther Stickell, reflects: ‘He’s a very good executive producer, because he cares about people and he takes care of his crew and actors. On my birthday, he sent me an electric bike. He sent me a three-storey cake with pictures of Mission: Impossible on it.’
Rhames, who was given the nickname Ving (for Irving) by pal Stanley Tucci at acting school, joined the Mission: Impossible family for the first film back in 1996.
‘Actually, I met Tom at the premiere of Pulp Fiction in Central Park,’ he says. ‘I was in the men’s room, he walks in, and then there’s just him and I in the men’s room. We start talking.
Tom Cruise and Ving Rhames pictured at the 5th Annual Tribeca Film Festival in New York, May 2006
‘He asked me: how’s the film? And then afterwards, he gave me a big hug, and the paparazzi thought I knew him. But I didn’t really know him. So then a week later, he gave me a script for Mission: Impossible.
‘I said: ‘Tom, why is it the black man always dies in the first ten pages?’ He said: ‘Yeah. Why is that?’ And I just recently finished number eight. So very grateful, very appreciative.’
He added: ‘Tom is really the only person I know who doesn’t see colour.’
Rhames is the only actor aside from Cruise to be in all eight films. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning will be in cinemas from May 23.
Like mother, like daughter, as Mia sets a course for Cannes
Mia Threapleton seems to be following in her mother Kate Winslet’s footsteps in many ways – not least because she is planning an early career visit to the Cannes Film Festival this May.
Mia, 24, who is Winslet’s daughter by first husband Jim Threapleton, has already appeared in the Channel 4 drama I Am Ruth, alongside her mother.
But she has had her biggest break so far in the forthcoming Wes Anderson film The Phoenician Scheme, which looks to be heading to the festival this year.
It features Benicio del Toro as Zsa-zsa Korda, one of the richest men in Europe. Mia plays his daughter, a nun.
Mia Threapleton attends the 2025 Newport Beach Film Festival UK and Ireland Honours at Raffles London at The OWO on February 13, 2025 in London
Mia Threapleton and mother Kate Winslet arriving at the BAFTA Television Awards with P&O Cruises, the Royal Festival Hall, London
The picture, whose starry ensemble cast also includes Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Rupert Friend, Bryan Cranston and Benedict Cumberbatch, opens in the US on May 30.
Anderson released his last feature-length film, Asteroid City, in Cannes two years ago.
Winslet came to the Croisette aged only 19, to promote the film Jude, based on Thomas Hardy’s Jude The Obscure, in which she starred alongside Christopher Ecclestone.
That came out the year before тιтanic propelled her to international stardom.
Mia is also in The Buccanneers, an adaptation of the Edith Wharton novel. The second series starts in June on Apple TV+.
Oasis’ first drummer Tony McCarroll has revealed a softer side to the band’s frontman Liam Gallagher, who extended a hand of friendship to him by asking him to come and see him play last year.
McCarroll performed on Definitely Maybe but was sacked by Liam’s brother Noel and replaced with Alan White. He sued the band and won an out of court settlement.
He said last week: ‘Liam invited me recently to attend his Definitely Maybe tour. I do think he may well have realised that this would be my celebration [going to Liam’s tour]. That is my ‘Put a cap on it, I am done after this’ moment.’
Oasis’ first drummer Tony McCarroll has revealed a softer side to the band’s frontman Liam Gallagher
Liam Gallagher performing ahead of the IBF World Heavy weight bout at Wembley Stadium, London. Picture date: Saturday September 21, 2024
Prue Leith is unable to forget her calamitous attempt to make a cup of tea for the late Queen.
‘I asked her how she liked her tea and she said ‘black’. So I poured a bit of tea into the cup and put some lemon in it.
‘She said: ‘No Lemon!’
‘So I had to get a cocktail stick and fish the lemon out, as I had no other cup.
‘Then I put the lemon on the tray and the stain of tea went all down the cloth.
‘I then filled up her cup with water and she said: ‘I like it strong.’ So she got a lemony weak tea and what she liked was a strong black tea with no lemon.’
Prue Leith on ‘Good Morning Britain’ TV show, London, UK – 14 Mar 2025
How Hollywood came to Cornwall to see the Doc
The feelgood show Doc Martin tempted a number of Hollywood star fans to come down to Cornwall for an appointment with the grumpy GP, played by Martin Clunes – including Sigourney Weaver, Art Malik and Danny Huston.
And it can now be revealed that the show’s makers ITV came within a whisker of getting Sir Anthony Hopkins to do a cameo.
The multiple Oscar winner (another fan) was up for it, but fate was unkind.
Clunes said: ‘He made it known that he would like a small part in Doc Martin, and we actually wrote one for him.
‘Sadly, things didn’t align – he’s always been incredibly busy and just couldn’t make the dates work – but it was ready and waiting for him, had he found the time.’
Martin Clunes as Doc Martin and Caroline Catz as Louisa Glᴀsson. ‘Doc Martin’ TV Series
Sigourney Weaver (pictured with Clunes) was persuaded to guest star thanks to her longstanding friendship with actress Selina Cadell, who played pharmacist Mrs Tishell.
Martin makes the revelations in next week’s final episode of Neil And Martin’s Bon Voyage, on comedy channel U & Gold, in which he and his old Men Behaving Badly buddy Neil Morrissey visit France.
Doc Martin came to an end in 2022, after ten seasons of Dr Martin Ellingham and his adventures in ‘Portwenn’ (filmed in Port Isaac).
It was actually a spin-off from the 2000 film Saving Grace, starring Brenda Blethyn as a weed-growing widow. Writer Dominic Minghella took the doctor character from the film, played by Clunes, and built a whole show around him. It first aired in 2002.
Clunes, incidentally, is the guest host of Have I Got News For You, airing on April 11.
