2025-05-02 02:49:04

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Welcome to ICYMI, where we recap the pop culture and entertainment news you might have missed over the past week. Sarah Snook and The Picture of Dorian Gray score 6 Tony nominations Australian actor Sarah Snook has earned a Tony Award nomination for best actress in a play. Best known for her role as Shiv Roy in Succession, she's nominated for playing all 26 characters in The Picture of Dorian Gray on Broadway. The rest of the Australian team behind the production — director Kip Williams, designer Marg Howell, video designer David Bergman, lighting designer Nick Schlieper, and composer Clemence Williams — all also received nods in their categories, taking the show to six nominations. The one-woman "cine-theatre" adaptation of the 19th-century Oscar Wilde novel The Picture of Dorian Gray combines live performance with live and pre-recorded video. It first opened at Sydney Theatre Company in 2020 — starring Eryn Jean Norvill — to rave reviews, before touring Australia and to London's West End. It opened on Broadway in March this year. Last year, at the UK's Olivier Awards, Snook won best actress, and Howell won best costume design, for The Picture of Dorian Gray on the West End. In her Tony's category, Snook is up against such heavyweights as Mia Farrow (for The Roommate) and Sadie Sink (for John Proctor Is the Villain). Other Tony Award nominees include George Clooney (for starring in the theatre adaptation of his movie Good Night and Good Luck) and the Pussycat Dolls' Nicole Scherzinger (for starring in Sunset Boulevard). Kneecap investigated by UK counterterrorism police British counterterrorism detectives have confirmed an investigation into alleged historical comments made by Irish hip-hop trio Kneecap. The Irish-language rappers from Northern Ireland were reported to police over footage from a 2024 concert in which a band member appeared to say: "The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP." Footage from another concert, in 2023, appears to show a member of the trio shouting, "Up Hamas, up Hezbollah" — both banned organisations in the UK. London's Metropolitan Police force concluded that the evidence in the videos were grounds for further investigations for "potential offences". Kneecap has exploded in popularity and notoriety since the release of Rich Peppiatt's 2024 quasi-biopic about the band's origins, where the members played slightly fictionalised versions of themselves. The trio have been praised for invigorating the Irish-language cultural scene in Northern Ireland, while also attracting ire for their outspoken political displays. The band was the subject of a heated debate in Britain's House of Commons this week, where government and opposition MPs criticised its comments and noted that two members of UK parliament had been murdered since 2016. The band released a statement on Monday apologising to the families of former Labour MP Jo Cox, who was killed by a far-right attacker in 2016, and Conservative legislator David Amess, murdered in 2021 by an Islamic State supporter. Band members Liam Og Ó Hannaidh, Naoise Ó Cairealláin and JJ Ó Dochartaigh denied supporting Hamas or Hezbollah and condemned all attacks on civilians, while accusing their detractors of an organised "smear campaign". "An extract of footage, deliberately taken out of all context, is now being exploited and weaponised, as if it were a call to action," the statement said. "Kneecap's message has always been — and remains — one of love, inclusion, and hope." The band implied in the statement that the action taken in the UK is related to their performance at last month's Coachella Music and Arts Festival in California, where they displayed pro-Palestine messaging towards the end of their set. Several Kneecap gigs have been cancelled following the controversy, and British politicians have also asked UK festival Glastonbury to remove Kneecap from its 2025 line-up. Dozens of artists, including British group Primal Scream and Irish band Fontaines D.C., have signed an open letter criticising a "clear, concerted attempt to censor and ultimately deplatform" Kneecap, and opposing "political repression of artistic freedom". Robert De Niro expresses 'love and support' for daughter's gender transition Airyn De Niro, the child of two-time Oscar winner Robert De Niro and actress and model Toukie Smith, has come out as transgender. In an interview with Them, Airyn pointed to trailblazers like Laverne Cox as part of the inspiration behind her transition. "Trans women being honest and open, especially [in] public spaces like social media and getting to see them in their success … I'm like, 'You know what? Maybe it's not too late for me.'" Her father told Deadline he "loved and supported Aaron as my son, and now I love and support Airyn as my daughter". "I don't know what the big deal is … I love all my children." Meanwhile in the UK, more than 1,200 actors and industry professionals have signed an open letter of "solidarity" with trans, non-binary and intersex communities. Last month, the UK Supreme Court ruled a woman is someone born biologically female, and the decision is understood to mean trans women can be barred from places like women-only change rooms and homeless shelters. The letter's signatories include Emma Watson, Eddie Redmayne, Ncuti Gatwa and Bella Ramsey, who say the ruling "threatens the safety of trans, non-binary, and intersex people living in the UK", and call for urgent protections "from discrimination and harassment in all areas of the industry". "This is our opportunity to be on the right side of history." Kendrick Lamar is going to… Ballarat? Your eyes don't deceive you — Kendrick Lamar will be performing in Ballarat later this year. He's headlining the return of Spilt Milk festival, and is joined on the line-up by big names like Doechii, Dominic Fike, Schoolboy Q, Sara Landry and more. Australian acts will be sharing the stage with these big names across the festival run, with The Dreggs, South Summit, Don West, Ennaria, Lyric, Club Angel, Mia Wray and more representing the local music scene. The festival will then head to Perth and Canberra, before finishing up on the Gold Coast in December. It's an exciting return for regional Australians, after Spilt Milk took a break in 2024 and long-held Groovin the Moo festival confirmed it wouldn't be returning in 2025 after also cancelling its 2024 edition. But it's the concept that Pulitzer-Prize-winning, Grammy-Awards-sweeping, undisputed king of rap beef Kendrick Lamar will get to experience the regions that has truly tickled. Will he go to Kryal Castle? Roll down the grassy hills of Parliament House? Witness the beauty of the Gold Coast a mere week after Schoolies? Only time will tell. Check out triple j's full coverage for all the details of Spilt Milk. Talkin' 'Bout Your Gen is back on Ten 16 years since its original premiere, Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation is coming back. First hosted by Shaun Micallef on Channel Ten, the beloved game show ran from 2009 to 2012, seeing warring generations go head to head in trivia and silly games, with guest stars that included everyone from Sophie Monk to Joe Hockey. The popular family series featured Amanda Keller representing Baby Boomers, Charlie Pickering for Gen X, and Josh Thomas as the token millennial/Gen Y. The nationally broadcast series considerably raised the profiles of Pickering and Thomas, who became mainstays in both Australian and international media. Over-the-top costume episodes were common (see: Micallef as Dorothy), and notable challenges included Josh's elderly grandmother being "lashed to a chair" while being turned into a "human nacho". The format was briefly adopted by Channel Nine in 2018, with Shaun Micallef back as host and Andy Lee carrying the flag for Gen Y, but was axed in 2019. Now, the show is returning to its home network, with comedian Anne Edmonds to take over hosting duties. While team captains for each generation are yet to be announced, it seems boomers have been axed, with only Gen X, Y and Z set to battle it out. Trailer of the week: Weapons Zach Cregger's mysterious horror Weapons has a lot of lore to live up to. Not only is it the follow-up to his beloved (and highly profitable) 2022 movie Barbarian, but the script also sparked a bidding war that ended in a $38 million sale and Jordan Peele allegedly firing his managers after his production studio was outbid by New Line. But if the creepy first trailer is anything to go by, Cregger might just pull off the best horror of 2025 (watch out, Sinners).