Alan Cumming called the experience of reprising his role as mutant hero Nightcrawler in Avengers: Doomsday “really healing” after the “miserable” filming of X2: X-Men United.
Speaking to People in a new interview, The Traitors host detailed how he had “just finished” shooting the much-hyped Russo Brothers pic earlier this month. The two-time Emmy winner first originated the role in Bryan Singer’s X2 (2003), and will now once again portray the blue-skinned teleporting Kurt Wagner in the Dec. 18, 2026 Marvel Studios entry.
“I just came back. It was amazing. It was actually really— in a sort of ooey, gooey way, it was really healing and really nice to go back to something that it was a terrible experience when I did it the first time,” the actor said. “A great film, great film. I love the film.”
Cumming noted he was “miserable” amid filming X2, which he added was “awful for a variety of reasons that I have talked about at length.” Cumming has previously spoken about the “dangerous” and “abusive” set under Singer, an embattled director who has since been ousted from Hollywood following numerous allegations of sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior.
However, the producer noted that Doomsday has been an enjoyable experience: “It was actually really great to go back. And especially, I’m 60 years old. I did not think I would be doing stunts, playing a superhero in my 60s. So that was great. And everyone was really nice. And I got it done really quickly because I couldn’t go, because of The Traitors, when most of my scenes were being shot. So I squashed them all together, and got a green screen and various things and little scenes of people here and there.”
Cumming confirmed news of his casting in the who’s who MCU project back in late March. Though plot details are still sparse, it’s known that mainstay Robert Downey Jr. will return as supervillain Dr. Doom, and the cast will be rounded out by James Marsden (also reprising his X-Men role), Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Paul Rudd, Letitia Wright, Florence Pugh, Simu Liu, Tom Hiddleston, Wyatt Russell, David Harbour, Winston Duke, Danny Ramirez, Hannah John-Kamen, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Rebecca Romijn, Kelsey Grammer, Channing Tatum, Tenoch Huerta Mejía, Lewis Pullman and The Fantastic Four:First Steps actors Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach.
Russell Henley, Harris English and Bryson DeChambeau have qualified for the 2025 United States Ryder Cup Team. They join Scottie Scheffler, J.J. Spaun and Xander Schauffele as the six automatic qualifiers via the U.S. points system.
All U.S. players earned points beginning in 2024 and concluding with this weekend’s 2025 BMW Championship. Bradley will announce his six Captain’s Picks to complete the 12-member U.S. Team on Wednesday, August 27.
Scheffler, 29, is making his third-consecutive appearance on the U.S. Ryder Cup Team. The World No. 1 owns a 2-2-3 career Ryder Cup record after competing in 2021 at Whistling Straits and 2023 at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club. Scheffler shot 11-under 273 to claim a five-shot victory at the 2025 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club. He captured his fourth career Major and second of the season at The Open Championship held at Royal Portrush in July, finishing at 17-under 267 for a four-shot victory.
Spaun is making his first appearance on the U.S. Ryder Cup Team. He won the U.S. Open earlier this year, sinking a 64-foot putt on the final hole to clinch his first Major title. The 34-year-old Spaun has registered six top-10 finishes on the PGA TOUR this season, including runner-up at THE PLAYERS and Fedex St. Jude Championship.
Schauffele is set to compete in his third-consecutive Ryder Cup after playing in 2021 and 2023. He went 3-1-0 in his debut at Whistling Straits, and owns a 4-4-0 career record. Schauffele, a nine-time winner on the PGA TOUR, won a pair of Majors in 2024—the PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club and The Open Championship at Royal Troon.
Henley, 36, will be making his Ryder Cup debut at Bethpage Black. He claimed his fifth career PGA TOUR victory in March at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, closing with a final-round 70 en route to a one-stroke win. Henley posted a T-7 finish at the 2024 U.S. Open and took fifth at The Open Championship before registering T-10 results in both majors in 2025.
English, 36, will be competing in his second Ryder Cup after going 1-2-0 with the 2021 U.S. Team at Whistling Straits. He earned his fifth career PGA TOUR win at the 2025 Farmers Insurance Open. English shot a final-round 6-under 65 to record his best career finish, T-2 (6-under), at the 2025 PGA Championship. He added a runner-up finish at The Open Championship in July after posting 13-under 271.
DeChambeau returns for his third Ryder Cup following U.S. team appearances in 2018 and 2021. He owns a 2-3-1 career record, including 1-0-1 in four-ball. The 31-year-old collected T-6 and runner-up finishes in the 2024 Masters Tournament and PGA Championship, respectively. DeChambeau won his second U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2 in 2024, highlighted by a dramatic up-and-down par on the 72nd hole to win by one. His strong performances in Majors continued at the 2025 Masters (T-5), PGA Championship (T-2) and The Open Championship (T-10).
Bella Ramsey has an idea of what they’d like to do next with Pedro Pascal following the death of his character, Joel, on the second season of “The Last of Us.”
“I think maybe like a heist movie where we’re robbing a bank together,” Ramsey told me Sunday at the HBO Emmys nominees event in Hollywood.
Ramsey said they are — no surprise! — most frequently asked about Pascal. “It’s, ‘How is Pedro Pascal? Is he as nice as he seems?’” Ramsey said. “That’s mostly what people ask me, and the answer is, ‘Yes.’…He’s here and I have not seen him in so long. I’m looking around, trying to find him.”
They added, “Most of our texts consist of, ‘Where in the world are you? I’m here, are you there? Oh, we just missed each other.’”
Talk also turned to superheroes because of Pascal’s recent work in “The Fantastic Four: First Steps.”
“You didn’t call [Pascal] and say you wanted to be in the next MCU movie?” I asked.
“I don’t know about that,” Ramsey said, adding, “I could be Spider-Man. Tom Holland did a great job though. So maybe they do need to make a new [superhero] for me.”
Ramsey is actually a newbie to superhero movies. They’ve only watched one, an Andrew Garfield “Spider-Man” film: “It was the first time I watched a Marvel film, and that was two months, three months ago.”
What did they think? “Incredible,” Ramsey said. “I loved it.”
Ramsey is nominated for an Emmy for the second time in as many years for their work as Ellie on “The Last of Us.” The series goes into Emmys night on Sept. 14 with 17 nominations.
Ramsey said they have no scripts for nor do they know when filming begins for Season 3.
With the return of her Sex and the City heroine she originated nearly three decades ago, Sarah Jessica Parker might not have been prepared for the meme-ification of Carrie Bradshaw and friends.
As the 6x Golden Globe winner’s apparent final performance as Carrie comes to an end with last week’s And Just Like That… finale on HBO Max, she recently addressed the show’s “hate watchers,” who have been vocal on social media.
“I don’t think I have the constitution to have spent a lot of time thinking about that,” Parker to The New York Times. “We always worked incredibly hard to tell stories that were interesting or real. I guess I don’t really care. And the reason I don’t care is because it has been so enormously successful, and the connections it has made with audiences have been very meaningful.”
With Big’s (Chris Noth) death by Peloton, Sara Ramirez’s divisive nonbinary comedian character Che Diaz and the finale’s un-flushed turd, it’s not difficult to see where fans found fodder for a very pop culture-driven social media.
Previously, showrunner Michael Patrick King shared his perspective on the hate-watching phenomenon. “Beyond everything that people have printed, there are people who have been watching it for many years,” he told Deadline.
Cynthia Nixon, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis and Evan Handler in Max’s ‘And Just Like That…’
Max
“So there’s this great back and forth between all the noise of how they would do it differently or what they like or don’t like,” King continued. “And then there’s just appreciation for the fact that they’re seeing characters who went from 35 to 59. Trust me, you don’t write for nothing, for no reaction. I mean, if you did that, you’d be a poet. I want a reaction to the work we all do. It’s a double-edged sword. Yes, they’re watching. And guess what? Yes, they’re watching.”
Last month, King notified cast before announcing the two-part series finale of the three-season revival that launched in 2021.
“And just like that… the ongoing storytelling of the Sex and the City universe is coming to an end,” said King. “While I was writing the last episode of And Just Like That… Season 3, it became clear to me that this might be a wonderful place to stop.”
Parker, who has played the fashionable sex columnist since the original HBO show’s 1998-2004 run and two subsequent movies, offered “the most sentimental and profound gratitude and lifetime of debt” to fans as she bid farewell to the character.
Kseniya Alexandrova, a Russian model and TV personality who competed in the 2017 Miss Universe competition, has died. She was 30.
Alexandrova died on Aug. 12, her modeling agency, Modus Vivendis, confirmed in an emotional Instagram post on Aug. 13. A cause of death was not disclosed.
“Kseniya was bright, talented, and extraordinarily bright,” the agency said. “She knew how to inspire, support, and give warmth to everyone around her. For us, she will forever remain a symbol of beauty, kindness, and inner strength.”
According to Russian media, Alexandrova died in a car accident while she and her husband were traveling on the M9 highway, Alexandrova’s spouse told RIA Novosti. The couple reportedly collided head-on with a moose that had entered the road, and Alexandrova sustained a blow to the head.
Alexandrova and her husband, whose name was not disclosed, were married in March, the model announced in an April 2 Instagram post.
Miss Universe 2024 crowns winner: Victoria Kjaer Theilvig becomes first Miss Denmark to win
USA TODAY has reached out to Modus Vivendis and the Miss Universe Organization for comment.
Born in Moscow, Alexandrova represented her hometown in the 2017 Miss Russia competition and won first runner-up. The previous year, the model graduated from Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, where she earned a finance degree.
Following her Miss Russia success, Alexandrova went on to compete in the 2017 Miss Universe competition after Miss Russia winner, Polina Popova, opted to compete in the Miss World competition.
“I want people all around the world to believe in themselves and to always have a dream,” said Alexandrova in an interview during the competition, translated from Russian. “We should be strong and believe in ourselves and never give up on our dreams. In this world, everything is possible.”
In an Aug. 14 statement shared to its official social media channels, the Miss Universe Organization paid tribute to the late beauty pageant alum, offering the “deepest and most heartfelt condolences to the family, friends, and everyone whose life was touched by the light of Miss Universe Russia 2017.”
In addition to her success in the modeling world, Alexandrova continued her studies after her Miss Universe stint. In a November 2022 Instagram post, Alexandrova shared that she was a practicing psychodrama therapist.
“Her grace, beauty, and spirit left an unforgettable mark on the Miss Universe family and beyond,” the Miss Universe Organization concluded. “May her memory continue to inspire kindness, strength, and love in all those who were fortunate enough to know her.”
Phillipe Coutinho scored a brace as Vasco Da Gama put six past Neymar’s Santos in the Brazilian Serie A on Sunday.
Neymar, who signed a new contract at Santos in June, and was on the receiving end of a 6-0 defeat, the worst of his career. He was overcome with emotion at full-time and consoled on the pitch by a member of the club’s backroom staff.
Former Liverpool and Barcelona forward Coutinho — who joined Vasco this summer — scored twice in the second-half after Lucas Piton put Vasco in front early in the first. Goals from David Correa De Fonseca, Rayan and Danilo Neves capped of the sensational scoreline.
The result takes Vasco out of the relegation zone and puts them just two points behind Santos in 15th.
“I’m ashamed. I’m totally disappointed with our performance. The fans have every right to protest, obviously without using violence … But if they want to curse and insult, they’re in their right,” Neymar said post match.
“It’s a feeling of extreme shame. I’ve never experienced this in my life. Unfortunately, it happened. The tears were from anger, from everything. Unfortunately, I can’t help in every way. Anyway, it was total s—, that’s the reality.”
Santos sacked head coach Cléber Xavier after the result and “wish him well in his future career,” they said in a statement.
Since Russia launched Sputnik 1 into low Earth orbit in 1957, thousands of satellites have begun congesting the skies over our planet – something anyone shooting night-sky timelapses will be keenly aware of.
Having spent much of the past five years doing just that, I started considering ways to create a timelapse composite that showcased these satellite trails.
Here I’ll run through the steps I took to make ‘Big Brother is Watching You’, my highly commended image in the People and Space category of 2024’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition.
My before image and, right, after processing. Credit: Matt Jackson
I captured the frames for this image in the early evening. Satellites are most visible a few hours before sunset and after sunrise, when the Sun is low enough to darken the skies, but at an angle that its light strikes the satellites.
This timelapse comprised one hour of six-second exposures at f/1.4 and ISO 5000.
Before creating the timelapse, I batch-edited the frames in Adobe Lightroom.
To do this, I headed to the Develop module and edited a single frame to my liking.
I chose to increase the prominence of each satellite by moving the Contrast, Whites and Dehaze sliders to the right, and then decreased Shadows, Blacks and Highlights.
To apply that to all of my frames, I then selected all remaining frames (Ctrl + A) and synced the settings (Ctrl + Shift + S > check all settings > Synchronize). I then saved the frames as ‘Satellite images’, ready for Photoshop.
In Lightroom, I also chose a background image for the composite and edited it as desired before saving it separately as ‘Background image’.
When editing this frame, I made sure the empty sky was lighter than the sky in the satellite images, to make compositing the satellites with the background image easier.
Next, I loaded the ‘Satellite images’ as a stack in Photoshop (click File > Scripts > Load files into stack > select files), with Layers set to ‘Lighten’ (see image below).
I then merged the layers into groups of five by selecting five layers at a time before right-clicking and selecting ‘Merge Layers’, which reduced the number of layers from 515 to 103.
Each satellite then appeared as a streak of five lines, making them easier to find (see image below).
In Photoshop, load your satellite images as a stack, with Layers set to ‘Lighten’. Select five layers at a time and choose ‘Merge Layers’ from the menu to merge them. Each satellite then appears as a streak of five lines, making them easier to find
Mask the layers
It was then time to select and separate out the satellites in each layer using masks, so that they could be combined with the background image.
To do this, I first ‘deactivated’ all layers except the bottom one, by unchecking the eye symbol next to the others.
To make it obvious which satellites I was masking, I used a pink-coloured layer (click Layers > New Fill Layer > Solid Color > select pink) before clicking the ‘mask’ icon (highlighted, image below).
The pink layer simplifies this masking process by clearly showing the masked satellites.
Using the Brush tool, I carefully masked out each satellite streak by clicking and dragging the brush over each individual streak (image below).
With the Brush, click and drag to carefully paint out each satellite streak. Next, invert the mask: this will mask out everything except the satellites in that layer
Once done, I inverted the mask by clicking the mask icon and pressing Ctrl + I simultaneously – this masks everything except the satellites in that layer.
Using this method is much easier than attempting to mask out everything other than the satellites using the Brush tool.
I repeated this for the rest of my layers by clicking and dragging the pink layer to the layer above, clicking its eye symbol to reactivate it, and then clicking the mask icon again (image below).
Once all the layers were masked, I deleted the pink fill layer and changed all layers to ‘Lighten’ again.
To complete the composite, I loaded the background image at the bottom of the stack by clicking File > Open > selecting File > Ctrl + C > Ctrl + V and click-dragging it to the bottom of the layer stack.
Repeat this for the rest of the layers: each time, click-drag the pink layer to the layer above, click its eye symbol to reactivate it, then click the mask icon again
The brighter sky of the background image helped conceal any masking artefacts around each satellite streak. To finish, I made final edits using the Camera Raw Filter (Filter > Camera Raw Filter).
While this process doesn’t account for variations in satellite visibility resulting from the time of year and atmospheric conditions, I find that it creates a beautifully arresting image.
3 quick tips
Use short exposures (2.5–6 seconds), a wide aperture (around f/1.4) and a high ISO (say, ISO 5000) to capture the timelapse.
Using a bright-coloured fill layer below the active layer will make masking easier.
For mask adjustments, use the square bracket keys to make your brush size larger or smaller.
Send your astrophotos to us by emailing contactus@skyatnightmagazine.com.
This guide appeared in the August 2025 issue of BBC Sky at Night Magazine
In the 1960s, astronomers theorized that the Universe was filled with a mysterious mass that did not interact normally with light, which they named “Dark Matter.” This theoretical matter is believed to constitute 80% of the Universe’s mass, largely in the form of “halos” surrounding galaxies and galaxy clusters. However, even after six decades of searching, scientists have still not found the particle that constitutes this mass. Many candidates have been proposed in that time, including Weakly-Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), primordial black holes, and ultralight particles known as “axions.”
Axions have emerged as a leading candidate in recent years, though scientists have yet to find evidence for their existence. However, physicists from the University of Copenhagen have devised a new method using distant galaxies that may lead to a breakthrough. Their proposed method involves using Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), which are caused by supermassive black holes (SMBH) at their centers, as particle accelerators. By observing electromagnetic radiation emitted by these bright galactic cores as it passes through the magnetic fields of galaxy clusters, scientists may discover how axions are produced.
The team was led by Oleg Ruchayskiy, an Associate Professor with the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen. He was joined by researchers from the NBI, the Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, and the Bogolyubov Institute for Theoretical Physics. The paper detailing their findings, “Constraints on axion-like particles from active galactic nuclei seen through galaxy clusters,” recently appeared in Nature Astronomy.
Lidiia Zadorozhna and Oleg Ruchayskiy from the Niels Bohr Institute search for the elusive dark matter particle, the axion, by using the Universe as a gigantic particle accelerator. Credit: Inar Timiryasov/NBI
Typically, scientists search for elementary particles using particle accelerators, like the European Organization for Nuclear Research’s (CERN) Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland. However, such facilities are incredibly expensive and take years to build. In the meantime, astronomers and physicists have proposed using cosmological phenomena as particle accelerators, ranging from neutron stars and black holes to colliding stellar remnants. In this latest proposal paper, Prof. Ruchayskiy and his colleagues propose using AGNs and galactic magnetic fields.
This represents a challenge, given that any axions produced in the process would appear as tiny, random fluctuations drowned out by cosmic background noise. To overcome this, the team observed 32 SMBHs in distant galaxies, which were visible thanks to the gravitational lenses created by galaxy clusters in the foreground. They then combined the data from their observations, which produced a pattern that resembled the signature of axion-like particles (ALPs). As Professor Ruchayskiy said in a University of Copenhagen press release:
Normally, the signal from such particles is unpredictable and appears as random noise. But we realized that by combining data from many different sources, we had transformed all that noise into a clear, recognizable pattern. It shows up like a unique step-like pattern that shows what this conversion could look like. We only see it as a hint of a signal in our data, but it is still very tantalizing and exciting. You could call it a cosmic whisper, now loud enough to hear.
Specifically, the combined data indicated the presence of gamma rays, which would (in theory) be released by the production of axions. While this is not definitive proof of the existence of axions, this latest research is helping narrow the search for the elusive Dark Matter particle. In addition, their experiment also presents opportunities for further research focused on other forms of radiation, such as X-rays. Said Postdoc Lidiia Zadorozhna, a Marie Curie fellow at the Niels Bohr Institute and a leading author on the paper:
This method has greatly increased what we know about axions. It essentially enabled us to map a large area that we know does not contain the axion, which narrows down the space where it can be found. We are so excited, because it is not a one-time advancement. This method allows us to go beyond previous experimental limits and has opened a new path to studying these elusive particles. The technique can be repeated by us, by other groups, across a broad range of masses and energies. That way, we can add more pieces to the puzzle of explaining dark matter.
“Black Swan” returns to theaters on Aug. 21 and 24, playing in Imax for the first time to celebrate fifteen years since the psychological thriller first hit cinemas. Director Darren Aronofsky recently reunited with stars Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis to reflect on the film’s milestone anniversary for Vogue, and their discussion revealed that the director had tried and failed to stoke rivalry between the two stars to reflect their on-screen feud.
“My take is that I was trying to be a sneaky director and make them argue,” admitted Aronofsky, “Mila and Natalie both realized very quickly what I was doing and made fun of me, so it quickly became a joke that we all understood. They’re both very clever and were instantly privy to whatever trick I was playing.”
Aronofsky’s method was meant to help the actors get into character, as both play ballerinas in the film, competing for top billing in a prestigious production of “Swan Lake.” The on-screen contention between the two devolves into a fever dream of violence, deception and abuse— both mental and physical.
Behind the scenes, however, Portman and Kunis were too professional and supportive of one another to give in to Aronofsky’s tactics. “I remember being separated from Mila and that we weren’t in the same space a lot when we weren’t shooting,” Portman recalled, but when the director would try bating her with comments about Kunis’ talent and commitment, she responded, “She’s so fucking talented and I love her so much and I’m happy she’s doing a great job!”
Kunis faced similar situations. She said, “Darren would tell me, ‘Nat is working really, really hard. She’s not even taking Saturdays and Sundays off.’ Then I would text Nat and she’d be like, ‘…No, I’m not?’ I think that’s how we figured out what Darren was up to, but it was all in good fun.”
Nevertheless, both actors reflected fondly on their experience working with Aronofsky. “‘Black Swan’ was the first time I felt like I had a mind meld with a director, where each of us always knew exactly what to say. Every time we talked it felt like he gave me a little key that unlocked a scene for me,” said Portman. Kunis added that when journalists would ask her about Aronofsky’s intensity on set, she’d respond, “‘He’s actually a really kind, lovely guy who took us to see ‘Twilight’ one time because we had the day off.’ And journalists were always so disappointed that he wasn’t some tortured soul who treated us like garbage.”
Their collaboration paid off, as “Black Swan” earned $329.4 million at the worldwide box office. Portman took home her first Academy Award for her performance and the film garnered four additional nominations— including best picture and best director for Aronofsky.
Portman summed it up well when reflecting on her first time watching the film, calling it “shocking and exhilarating in a really wonderful way.” Audiences will be able to relive that shock and wonder in Imax next weekend, and Aronofsky’s next film, “Caught Stealing,” will hit theaters Aug. 29.
