Denzel Washington is making his stance on cancel culture clear. The two-time Oscar winner, currently starring in Highest 2 Lowest, told Complex that he does not concern himself with public approval or the risk of being “canceled.”
When asked whether he worried about cancel culture, Washington responded, “What does that mean — to be canceled?” After the interviewer explained it meant losing public support, Washington replied, “who cares? What made public support so important to begin with?”
He continued, “I don’t care who’s following who. You can’t lead and follow at the same time, and you can’t follow and lead at the same time. I don’t follow anybody. I follow the heavenly spirit. I follow God, I don’t follow man. I have faith in God. I have hope in man, but look around, it ain’t working out so well.”
Washington added, “You can’t be canceled if you haven’t signed up. Don’t sign up. Don’t get me started. My chest started hurting. You know, chest is getting tight talking about it.”
This interview comes just days after Washington stated he is “not that interested in Oscars.” Speaking with Jake’s Takes, he said, “I don’t care about that kind of stuff. I’ve been at this a long time, and there’s time when I won and shouldn’t have won and then didn’t win and should’ve won. Man gives the award. God gives the reward.”
Highest 2 Lowest opened in theaters this week and begins streaming on Apple TV+ September 5.
Meghan Markle has been accused of copying her sister-in-law Kate Middleton after making a big announcement about her and Harry’s plans for their future
09:30, 17 Aug 2025Updated 11:13, 17 Aug 2025
Meghan’s show is already being compared to one of Kate’s most important projects
Meghan Markle is facing fresh accusations she’s “copying” her sister-in-law, the Princess of Wales, following their new TV deal with Netflix. The Duke of Sussex, 40, and the Duchess of Sussex, 44, announced a new “first-look” deal last week with the US streaming giant. As well as putting Meghan under fresh scrutiny, experts tell the Mirror that the details are clearly a “reality check” for the couple.
The deal includes a new festive edition of Meghan’s With Love show, where viewers can “join Meghan in Montecito for a magical holiday celebration”. It didn’t take long for some royal watchers to accuse Meghan of trying to steal the festive limelight from Kate, 43, who hosts her own annual Christmas event.
Kinsey Schofield, a podcaster and royal expert in the US, believes, however, that the Sussexes have shown a “pattern of choosing moments” that risk overshadowing other royal occasions – and Christmas might be no exception. “It’s become so noticeable it was reported recently that Harry had offered to share his schedule with the family as an ‘olive branch’ to avoid competing in the future,” she says. It comes as Royal couple secretly welcome second baby and reveal tot’s adorable name.
READ MORE: David Beckham speaks ‘as a father’ in ‘family’ announcement after latest Brooklyn snubREAD MORE: Holly Willoughby lets her hair down in white swimsuit on sun soaked holiday
The Christmas special will be part of the With Love series(Image: COURTESY OF NETFLIX)
Earlier this year, Harry was accused of “stealing the limelight” from his father and stepmother when he arrived at the Royal Courts of Justice in London just before King Charles and Queen Camilla began their state visit to Italy, which also coincided with their 20th wedding anniversary.
The release of the paperback edition of his explosive memoir Spare also hit the headlines worldwide – just as the King and Queen were touring Australia. Back in 2020, Meghan’s team came under fire after a stream of two-week-old photos were published on her Instagram account on the same day as Kate embarked on a UK tour.
And when Harry and Meghan dropped their so-called “Megxit” bombshell on the eve of Kate’s 38th birthday, they were accused of “overshadowing”. But when it comes to their festive plans, Kinsey suspects that Meghan is unlikely to successfully emulate Kate’s feel-good celebration.
The mum-of-three hosts an annual Christmas service at Westminster Abbey, an event which has become one of the biggest and most poignant in the family’s festive calendar.
Kate hosts an annual Together At Christmas carol service at Westminster Abbey(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Kinsey, who hosts the To Di For Daily podcast, doubts that Meghan’s show will hit the same notes, saying, “Catherine’s carol concert is about unity, love, and hope. Kinsey adds. “She arrives with her family, with a sense of togetherness and faith.
“In contrast, Meghan’s Christmas special feels more like a branding opportunity. She’s timed product launches from her lifestyle line, As Ever, to coincide with the release.
“Without the warmth of family or shared tradition, it plays less as a holiday celebration and more as a commercial venture. When placed side by side, Catherine’s feels authentic and meaningful, while Meghan’s risks seeming transactional.”
The family last spent Christmas together back in 2018(Image: Getty Images)
The Sussexes’ latest TV news comes five years after they signed a deal with Netflix said to be worth upwards of $100m (£74m), shortly after turning their backs on their life as senior working royals.
Their new arrangement – described as a “multi-year, first-look deal” – means Netflix will pay for the right to get first dibs on the couple’s work, but isn’t committed to taking it.
Dermot McNamara, a talent manager and PR crisis expert, believes the difference in terms sends out a strong message. “It’s not necessarily a humiliation, but it is a reality check for Meghan and Harry and also a reflection of the ever-changing entertainment world,” he tells us.
“Every network and streamers’ belts are tightening. Netflix wants to see sharper ideas and stronger delivery before committing to mega-budgets again. The upside is that this could help Meghan and Harry define what they actually stand for, creatively.”
Chrissy Teigen will feature in the second series of Meghan’s With Love show(Image: JAKE ROSENBERG/NETFLIX)
The pair’s productions so far, including Harry’s polo documentary and Meghan’s With Love series, weren’t exactly record-breaking successes, with the latter failing to crack Netflix’s list of the 300 most-streamed shows of the year so far.
Dermot also suggests that while Meghan won’t take kindly to the “copying” comments, she will have been fully aware that comparisons would inevitably be made.
“Every broadcaster, charity and celebrity under the sun produces holiday specials. It’s a warm, family-friendly format that audiences respond to. That said, Meghan knows the optics. Wanting to be seen in the same aspirational light as Kate isn’t the worst strategy, but Meghan’s challenge is to make it feel authentic to her own brand, not a re-skin of someone else’s.”
The world promotional tour for Netflix’s second season of Wednesday has seen Jenna Ortega and stylist Enrique Melendez delight in a suite of gothic, glamorous fashion: a sea witchy Vivienne Westwood corset dress, a ruffled, backless black Ann Demeulemeester slip dress, super sharp tailoring via Willy Chavarria, and a a reptilian skin-like Ashi Studio gown, to name a few. Heading all the way to Australia, there was still plenty to pull from: and the goth life stops for nothing and no one—case in point, Ortega’s paddle in the surf at Bondi Beach in a Matrix-esque leather trench, combat boots in hand.
Her latest look is less Wednesday Addams, more Beetlejuice (Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice!). Photographed at a fan event on Cockatoo Island in Sydney, Australia, Ortega wore a leather, pumpkin orange and black striped Fendi dress.
Photo: Getty Images
She wrapped herself up in a chocolate and black faux fur and leather coat, and wore khaki and blank gradient ankle boots with silver spiked heels and dinosaur-like spikes up the shoe spine. Her mixed silver and gold necklaces and rings were by Martha Calvo, Rainbow K, and Yvonne Léon.
All at Brentford are deeply saddened by the passing of former club chair Dan Tana.
Born in Čibutkovica, Yugoslavia (modern day Serbia), Tana grew up in Belgrade and later moved to London in 1973.
A striker with Red Star Belgrade, Anderlecht, Hannover and Montreal, he stated: “I felt I had more to give to the game and to do that I had to be in a soccer culture. Football was calling me home.”
Having attended regular football gatherings, Tana met then-Brentford manager Frank Bluntstone and was subsequently asked to join the club’s board, purchasing five shares at 50p each.
At that time, the Bees were at the bottom of the Fourth Division (now League Two).
Tana, one of the most important and influential figures in the Brentford’s post-war history, helped stabilise the club and later became chair.
Under his stewardship, Brentford earned promotion to the Third Division at the end of the 1977/78 season alongside manager Bill Dodgin Jr.
He remained involved with the club until 2002, when he resigned from the board.
Away from Brentford and his long-standing association with Red Star Belgrade, Tana was a highly-successful restaurateur, best known for being the proprietor of an eponymous restaurant, Dan Tana’s, in West Hollywood, California.
He was also an actor and film producer.
Everyone at Brentford would like to pass on their condolences to Dan’s family and friends at this very sad time.
“When choosing a tinted moisturizer, consider your skin type and how your makeup wears on your skin throughout the day,” Greenberg says. “For combination, acne-prone, and/or oily skin, there are many oil-free formulas to use. If you have dry skin, it’s recommended to choose a hydrating formula with ingredients like hyaluronic acid, vitamin E, and plant-based oils. You can also look for tinted moisturizers with specific benefits. For example, many on the market today are antiaging and anti-inflammatory.
When it comes to ingredients, Dr. Liu also recommends looking for hyaluronic acid for hydration, as well as antioxidants—such as vitamin C—for brightening and niacinamide for reducing inflammation. The texture should be chosen according to skin type, she advises, recommending a lighter lotion with a matte finish for oily skin and creamier textures for dry skin.
There’s also sun protection to consider. “Choose a moisturizer with at least SPF 30 to ensure adequate protection against UV rays, crucial for preventing premature aging and maintaining skin health,” she says.
Prince William, Harry’s best friend lands in big trouble
Prince William and Harry’s best friend has apparently landed in big trouble as he is facing tricky godfather decision.
Hugh Grosvenor, who welcomed a daughter recently, is godfather to both William’s elder son Prince George and Harry’s son Prince Archie.
According to a report by TheTimes, per the Independent, the Duke of Westminster, who is a close friend of both Prince William and Harry, has landed in trouble as the estrangement between the formerly close brothers continues.
Another friend of William and Harry tells The Times: “It’s incredibly sad it has come to this. Hugh is one of very few close friends of William and Harry’s who has maintained strong bonds and a line of communication with both. He wishes they could put their heads together and patch things up, but realises it’s unlikely to happen before the wedding.
“He wanted to avoid anything overshadowing the day, especially for Olivia, and doesn’t want any awkwardness.”
By naming both William and Harry as godfather, it could be seen as an attempt to improve their relationship, which has been estranged since the California-based royal couple left the Royal Family in 2020.
Hugh Grosvenor’s friends have said he has not made a final decision on whether to include Harry, it is understood Prince William has been made a godfather.
Sydney Sweeney is experiencing a career setback as her latest film Americana opens weakly at the US box office.
The crime drama, directed by Tony Tost, earned just $850,000 across 1,100 theatres during its debut weekend, placing 16th overall despite early festival attention.
The film, which premiered at South by Southwest in 2023, stars Sweeney alongside Paul Walter Hauser and Halsey.
It tells the story of a group of outsiders whose lives collide after a rare Lakota Ghost Shirt surfaces on the black market in South Dakota. Reviews have been mixed, and the film currently holds a 68 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
In the lead-up to the release, Sweeney promoted the project on social media, introducing her character Penny Jo, a would-be country singer.
However, her efforts were overshadowed by fallout from her American Eagle campaign, which used the tagline “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans/Genes.” Critics described the play on words as resembling Nazi propaganda, sparking heated online debate.
Sweeney has also faced scrutiny over her political affiliation after registering as a Republican in Florida prior to the 2024 Presidential election. Some critics accused her of aligning with controversial figures, while fans defended her as someone unafraid to challenge cultural expectations.
Despite Americana’s slow start, Sweeney has two high-profile projects on the horizon. Christy, a biopic about boxer Christy Martin, will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, while The Housemaid, a psychological thriller, is slated for a Christmas Day release.
Drake Bell is officially proceeding with his divorce from Janet Von Schmeling, two years after the couple first separated.
Court records confirm that the Drake & Josh actor filed documents in Seminole County, Florida, on Thursday to move the process forward.
Von Schmeling originally filed for divorce in Los Angeles in April 2023, citing irreconcilable differences. At the time, she revealed that she and Bell had separated in September 2022 and requested legal and physical custody of their child, along with spousal support. Her filing came one week after Bell was briefly reported missing and later located.
Bell’s representative, Juan José Rovirosa, issued a statement explaining the development: “At this stage, both of them are simply concluding that legal process. Their priority remains the safety and wellbeing of their son, and they are doing so from a place of love and respect.”
Bell married Von Schmeling in 2018 but did not publicly confirm the marriage until 2021, when he also revealed that they share a son together. Earlier this year, Bell shared in an interview that he has a new girlfriend but admitted balancing a relationship is challenging while touring.
The actor has remained in the spotlight through personal and professional revelations, including his participation on The Masked Singer as the Ice King and his role in the docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, where he identified himself as a survivor of abuse at Nickelodeon.
In the summer of 1992, I was a 16-year-old who was watching his mother drink herself to death. I had a desperate need to find work and somewhere to stay, and so remaining in education didn’t seem like a possibility. I had two teachers who saw how I was struggling. They dreamed a future for me that I could never have imagined for myself. One evening they took me up to the degree show at the Glasgow School of Art, and there I came face to face with the paintings of Jenny Saville.
The power of that encounter has never left me. Those images were fierce and confrontational. A few months after the degree show, I lost my mother to her addiction. With the support of my teachers, I eventually finished school and went on to art school and built a career in design. Meanwhile, the GSA degree show formed a body of work that would lead to Jenny’s ascension into the Young British Artist movement – with her works appearing on the covers of Manic Street Preachers’ albums The Holy Bible and Journal for Plague Lovers – and help cement her reputation as one of the greatest British painters of any generation.
I have often returned to Jenny’s paintings as inspiration for my writing, especially when thinking about the body, the clarity of a child’s gaze, a mother’s vulnerability. Writing is my way of painting. I try to conjure pictures in the minds of my readers and surround them with a world that feels as vivid as any visual work. Jenny’s paintings contain many narratives; that of the image, loaded with emotion, tenderness, brutality, movement. But they also contain the narrative of their own making. You can read the journey a painter takes, following her decisions through every brushstroke. It is not unlike the sketching and building and drafting of a novel.
On the occasion of Jenny’s crowning retrospective at the National Portrait Gallery in London, I wanted to revisit what her paintings have meant to me. So, 33 years after that fateful summer in Glasgow, we spent the afternoon together in her studio in Oxford and finally had the chance to talk.
Douglas Stuart Looking back now, what do you think your 22-year-old self would think about this show at the National Portrait Gallery?
Jenny Saville Well, it’s exciting. My 20s were an incredible time. Before that, I had waitressing jobs alongside being at art school. But during the summer between my third and fourth year, I worked to put enough money in the bank so that I wouldn’t have to. And I learned a lesson about time: that it was the most precious aspect of life. It was wonderful to be able to paint every day: everything came together, and my degree show had my first mature pictures.
DS Did you always know that you wanted to work in paint?
JS I always painted or made things from a young age. The permission for creativity was strong in my upbringing. My parents were teachers and would encourage creativity.
DS In a lot of ways, you were the one who gave me my first creative awakening. Growing up in Glasgow, I’d never been to a museum or a gallery. A couple of art teachers at school could see I was struggling. One night after school, they said: “Look, just come with us,” and took me up to the Glasgow School of Art to the 1992 degree show. A lot of it was lost on me, because I was only a kid. But then I turned the corner and there was Propped, and although I didn’t understand all the layers of it, I was blown away. In that one moment, your work changed the course of my entire life.
JS Was that the first time you went to the building?
DS First time. I grew up less than a mile away from it and hardly knew it existed. Even if I had, I would have been intimidated; working-class kids don’t always feel that they’re invited into those circles.
When I was writing [Douglas’s 2020 debut novel] Shuggie Bain, I looked at Trace (1993–94) a lot. It was an image that I had of Shuggie when he takes off his mother’s bra to care for her because she can’t care for herself, and he’s looking at her back, at the lines left in the flesh, and rubbing them and hoping they would lift. As if he could erase them, he could take away some of her pain.
JS Hilary Robinson, my theory tutor for my dissertation, had written an essay where she said: “A body is not a neutral ground of meaning but a copper plate to be etched.”
DS Those paintings were helpful in slowing me down. They ask us to observe closely. They challenged me to write about bodies in a similar way, and it’s essential because the body is a very political thing. It’s often the only thing that my characters have: their bodies are shaped by what they do, and their lives are shaped by how they use their bodies to survive.
JS There’s a lot of attention concentrated on our bodies. You see that shift in the high street, the way the shops change over the years: you used to have a post office, a stationer’s, a butcher; now many have transitioned to nail bars, tanning salons, tattoo parlours.
The art of us … Jenny Saville and Douglas Stuart. Photograph: Courtesy of Gagosian
DS I was at a university a couple of weeks ago to do a reading of Shuggie Bain. It’s only five years old but I can’t yet look back on him with fondness. All I wanted to do was rewrite the book. I wished I had a red pen. Do you look back with kindness? With fondness?
JS Fondness sometimes, or I find my fearless naivety a bit amusing. Often I hear the music that was playing at the time, look at passages of paint and remember making that mark, the size of brush I used, the feeling inside. When I see my paintings I often think: “Oh, that part worked, but maybe I should have put another bridging tone there.” People say: “Oh, that’s a great painting,” and you think: “It’s not as good as it was in my head.”
DS It’s similar with writing: your audience encounters the finished artefact and they don’t see the journey and the loneliness.
JS I wouldn’t call it loneliness. I enjoy making paintings.
DS I find writing very lonely because I worked for 20 years in fashion. Now, writing in contrast to fashion feels incredibly lonely because I sit around and talk to imaginary people all day.
JS Do you have a routine?
DS I find that imaginary people are chattiest in the mornings, so I try to get up at six o’clock and I work till two or three in the afternoon. How about you?
JS I’ve had different working rhythms and routines in my life. Recently I’ve been getting up about 6.30 in the morning and then I’ll paint until I feel that lull, which tends to be around four, and then I might do another session. I like painting eyes first thing in the morning.
JS Because my concentration’s at its highest, so I tend to paint details like teeth and eyes first thing in the morning, when I’m sharp.
DS One of the things that speaks to me the most about your work is your journey with colour. It has evolved so much. In the early work I can actually feel Glasgow in the paintings.
JS Glasgow can have beautiful light. My first home there was on Hill Street, and you’d look over toward the flats and mountains and see this silvery light. I’ve never seen it anywhere else quite the same way. Over the last few years I’ve thought much more about nature and light. I’d travel, look at other approaches to painting. I went to Paris and New York and saw how [Willem] de Kooning painted flesh and thought: “What great colours and fluidity.” Then after 11 September and the Iraq war, we were flooded with images that had a lot of intense colour and emotion and I responded to the atmosphere of that time. My work evolved and I started using ranges of red and blue pigments, for example, like in my Stare heads. If you’re curious you experiment, and on that journey you discover possibilities.
DS The same in writing. You’ve got to write through it, to free yourself of it, and then get to the thing that you’ve got no idea that you were heading toward. You’re feeling a character and you’re not quite sure what they’re going to do, so you build this world for them and then you see how they react.
JS It’s been said before, but it’s probably impossible to make the perfect work. I often think: “That’s almost what I meant, that’s got something.” And this moves you forward to the next painting.
DS Truth is essential in writing. And there’s power in writing truths that people would rather leave unsaid – maybe like depicting a body that some might rather not see? I must admit, I was horrified looking back at the journalism around some of your earlier work, and the fact that reviewers would use the word “grotesque” to describe it. Obviously those works haven’t changed, but the world around us keeps shifting, so hopefully reactions have changed as well. Has that journey been interesting to you, or do you not pay attention to it?
JS I just get on with my work. You can’t predict how work will be perceived. And you evolve as well. In the early 90s there were fewer spaces to show, and only a small minority of artists got major platforms. Now art is exhibited from all over the world and different voices are being heard. And then once you’ve been accepted, it’s like, you’ve won the Booker prize, you can’t stay annoyed about that.
DS I felt really overwhelmed by the feeling of being on the outside and nobody knowing me. And then suddenly everybody looked at me like: “Where the hell did you just come from?” There was 15 years of work behind my novels so I hadn’t just arrived, I’d just been quietly over there where no one was paying attention to me. I miss that.
JS It’s important to have time to develop, be playful, use your imagination. I’m often judged on those early degree show works and I’ve developed my painting a lot since then. You have to make the work the way it should be. You can’t make work to appease people who have written a bad review. And if you’re mature about it, the bad review of a new body of work is OK.
DS That’s very big of you. I’m not sure I’m quite there yet. That’s why the world is so nostalgic for the 90s: a time before the internet, for that sense of being by ourselves inside our own lives, without constant commentary and feedback.
I’m fascinated by what Cy Twombly told you once about working: about trying to be ignored for as long as you can in your career, which is so smart.
JS By the time he’d told me that, everybody wanted to know Cy, to show his work and talk to him. And your impulse is to look at that with admiration, but I could see there was a kind of suffering in his words, because you need to concentrate, you need time to play, and that’s probably why he worked in isolated places, so he could focus. You can’t have judgment when you play. You want to be like that child sitting on the floor making a painting when nobody cares: that’s the most precious thing because it’s a space without judgment, and you need to feel that.
DS You’ve got to retreat from the world. But was your early success overwhelming at 22, or did it just feel like permission?
JS Many opportunities happened in a short space of time. I was fortunate to sell my degree show, which was the first time I had enough money to work for a prolonged period. I had this run of wonderful things happen. And as I moved forward I just said to myself: “Get this work right, make this work the best you can.” I stayed quiet and concentrated. And that’s the lesson I learned: that the prize is the journey. Working and enjoying life’s opportunities with family and friends is the prize.
Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting is at the National Portrait Gallery, London, to 7 September, then tours the Modern Art Museum Fort Worth Texas, from 12 October – 18 January 2026. Douglas Stuart’s next novel, John of John, will be published by Picador on 26 May 2026.
