Celebrities – Winnipeg Free Press

What music and television to stream: A New Year’s Eve tradition

The Associated Press 2 minute read Yesterday at 11:06 PM CST

It's the end of the year and there are fewer new streaming options headed to a device near you.

But it's a great time to catch up on some of best movies, television, music and video games of 2025. The Associated Press has comprehensive guides on the best releases of the year on its Year in Review page.

One of the new offerings this week doubles as a music and television option, just in time for New Year's Eve.

New Year's Eve entertainment streaming Dec. 31

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‘Avatar’ and ‘Marty Supreme’ propel strong ticket sales to wrap a turbulent 2025 for Hollywood

Jake Coyle, The Associated Press 5 minute read Yesterday at 12:26 PM CST

NEW YORK (AP) — Hollywood wrapped up a turbulent year with big ticket sales for “Avatar: Fire and Ash” and a box-office hit for Timothée Chalamet with “Marty Supreme” over a busy holiday weekend in movie theaters.

As expected, James Cameron’s latest trip to Pandora dominated ticket sales, collecting $88 million over the four-day Christmas-to-Sunday period and $64 million on the weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. Though “Fire and Ash” initially opened notably softer domestically than its 2022 predecessor, “Avatar: The Way of Water,” it held better in its second weekend. It dipped just 28%, whereas “Way of Water” fell 53%.

In two weeks, “Fire and Ash” has quickly amassed $217.7 million in North America for The Walt Disney Company. But the $400 million-budgeted film has been a massive draw internationally, grossing $542.7 million thus far overseas. To reach the box-office heights of the previous films, both of which rank among the biggest blockbusters ever, “Fire and Ash” will need to sustain business through New Year’s and early January. If it does, “Avatar” could become the first franchise with three $2 billion movies.

But much of the heat in theaters over Christmas and on the weekend belonged to “Marty Supreme,” A24’s biggest budget release, Josh Safdie’s 1950s-set table tennis drama collected $27.1 million over the four-day weekend, a smash success for the indie studio.

A muse for musicians: 11 songs inspired by Brigitte Bardot

Maria Sherman, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

A muse for musicians: 11 songs inspired by Brigitte Bardot

Maria Sherman, The Associated Press 5 minute read Yesterday at 10:20 AM CST

NEW YORK (AP) — In addition to being a 1960s French sex symbol, actor, singer and animal welfare activist, Brigitte Bardot was a muse to many — in particular, musicians.

Her name, with its alliterative cadence, became synonymous with a kind of classic beauty. In songs, Bardot is often not Bardot the woman, but a symbol for desire — shorthand for a bombshell. Decades removed from the peak of her screen fame, contemporary performers continue to sing her name despite her many controversies, including being convicted five times in French courts of inciting racial hatred and provocative comments about the #MeToo movement.

It may not be her main legacy, but Bardot, who died Sunday in southern France, will live in on the songs that mention her. Across genre and language, here is a sampling.

“I Shall Be Free,” Bob Dylan (1963)

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Yesterday at 10:20 AM CST

FILE - French actress Brigitte Bardot poses for photographers on a lawn in the garden of the Excelsior Hotel on the Lido of Venice, Italy, Sept. 2, 1958. (AP Photo/Walter Attenni, File)

Takeaways from AP’s report on banned Uyghur songs

Simina Mistreanu, The Associated Press 4 minute read Preview

Takeaways from AP’s report on banned Uyghur songs

Simina Mistreanu, The Associated Press 4 minute read 3:56 AM CST

Authorities in China’s Xinjiang region are threatening detention over downloading, sharing or listening to a wide range of Uyghur-language songs, the AP has found. The policy was revealed in a leaked recording of a public meeting last October in the city of Kashgar in Xinjiang, home to 11 million Uyghurs and other mostly Turkic ethnic minorities.

The leaked recording, shared exclusively with AP by Norway-based nonprofit Uyghur Hjelp, suggests that forms of repression continue in the region. A United Nations report in 2022 said China may have committed crimes against humanity in Xinjiang through its campaign of internment and political indoctrination that unfolded primarily between 2017 and 2019.

Here are the main takeaways from AP’s report:

Xinjiang authorities are warning about ‘problematic’ Uyghur songs

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3:56 AM CST

Rahima Mahmut, Uyghur human rights activist, performs with the London Uyghur Ensemble during an interview with The Associated Press in London, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Joanna Chan)

AP Exclusive: China threatens detention in Xinjiang over banned Uyghur songs

Simina Mistreanu, The Associated Press 8 minute read Preview

AP Exclusive: China threatens detention in Xinjiang over banned Uyghur songs

Simina Mistreanu, The Associated Press 8 minute read 3:56 AM CST

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — It is a soulful folk song, filled with feeling and history: A love-stricken young man tells God about his hopes and dreams of happiness. Generations of Uyghurs, the Turkic ethnic minority in China’s Xinjiang region, have played it at parties and weddings.

But today, if they download it, play it or share it online, they risk ending up in prison.

“Besh pede,” a popular Uyghur folk ballad, is among dozens of Uyghur-language songs that have been deemed “problematic” by Xinjiang authorities, according to a recording of a meeting held by police and other local officials in the historic city of Kashgar last October. The recording was shared exclusively with The Associated Press by the Norway-based nonprofit Uyghur Hjelp.

During the meeting, authorities warned residents that those who listened to banned songs, stored them on devices or shared them on social media could face prison. Attendees were also instructed to avoid phrases like “As-salamu alaykum,” the greeting common among Muslims, and to replace the popular farewell phrase “Allahqa amanet,” which means “May God keep you safe,” with “May the Communist Party protect you.”

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3:56 AM CST

Members of the London Uyghur Ensemble perform during an interview with The Associated Press in London, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Joanna Chan)

Celebrity birthdays for the week of Jan. 4-10 includes Coco Jones and Bradley Cooper

The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

Celebrity birthdays for the week of Jan. 4-10 includes Coco Jones and Bradley Cooper

The Associated Press 5 minute read 8:56 AM CST

Celebrity birthdays for the week of Jan. 4-10:

Jan. 4: Actor Dyan Cannon is 87. Country singer Kathy Forester of the Forester Sisters is 71. Actor Ann Magnuson (“Anything But Love”) is 70. Guitarist Bernard Sumner of New Order (and Joy Division) is 70. Country singer Patty Loveless is 69. Singer Michael Stipe of R.E.M. is 66. Actor Dave Foley (“NewsRadio,” ″Kids in the Hall”) is 63. Actor Dot Jones (“Glee”) is 62. Actor Rick Hearst (“The Bold and the Beautiful”) is 61. Former Pogues singer Cait O’Riordan is 61. Actor Julia Ormond is 61. Country singer Deana Carter is 60. Harmonica player Benjamin Darvill of Crash Test Dummies is 59. Actor Josh Stamberg (“The Affair,” “Drop Dead Diva”) is 56. Actor Jeremy Licht (“Valerie”) is 55. Actor Damon Gupton (“Empire”) is 53. Actor Jill Marie Jones (“Girlfriends”) is 51. Actor D’Arcy Carden (“The Good Place”) is 46. Singer Spencer Chamberlain of Underoath is 43. Comedian-actor Charlyne Yi (“House,” “Steven Universe”) is 40. Singer-actor Coco Jones is 28.

Jan. 5: Actor Robert Duvall is 95. Singer-bassist Athol Guy of The Seekers is 86. Former talk show host Charlie Rose is 84. Actor Ted Lange (“The Love Boat”) is 78. Guitarist Chris Stein of Blondie is 76. Actor Pamela Sue Martin (“The Poseidon Adventure,” ″Dynasty”) is 73. Actor Clancy Brown (“Highlander,” ″SpongeBob SquarePants”) is 67. Actor Suzy Amis (“Titanic”) is 64. Actor Ricky Paull Goldin (“All My Children,” “Guiding Light”) is 61. Actor Vinnie Jones (TV’s “Deception,” film’s “X-Men: The Last Stand”) is 61. Drummer Kate Schellenbach (Luscious Jackson) is 60. Actor Joe Flanigan (“Stargate Atlantis,” ″Sisters”) is 59. Dancer and talk show host Carrie Ann Inaba (“The Talk,” “Dancing with the Stars”) is 58. Guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen of Queens of the Stone Age is 58. Singer Marilyn Manson is 57. Actor Shea Whigham (“Fast and Furious 6,” ″Boardwalk Empire”) is 57. Actor Derek Cecil (“House of Cards,” ″Treme”) is 53. Actor-comedian Jessica Chaffin (“Man with a Plan”) is 52. Actor Bradley Cooper is 51. Actor January Jones (“Mad Men”) is 48. Actor Brooklyn Sudano (“My Wife and Kids”) is 45. Actor Franz Drameh (“DC’s Legends of Tomorrow”) is 33.

Jan. 6: Accordionist Joey Miskulin is 77. Singer Kim Wilson of the Fabulous Thunderbirds is 75. Country singer Jett Williams is 73. Actor-comedian Rowan Atkinson (“Mr. Bean”) is 71. Singer Kathy Sledge of Sister Sledge is 67. Chef Nigella Lawson is 66. Singer Eric Williams of BLACKstreet is 66. Actor Norman Reedus (“The Walking Dead”) is 57. TV personality Julie Chen is 56. Actor Danny Pintauro (“Who’s the Boss”) is 50. Actor Rinko Kikuchi (“Babel”) is 45. Actor Eddie Redmayne (“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” ″The Theory of Everything”) is 44. Comedian Kate McKinnon (“Saturday Night Live”) is 42. Actor Diona Reasonover (“NCIS”) is 42. Singer Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys is 40.

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8:56 AM CST

FILE - Singer-songwriter Coco Jones attends the 19th annual DKMS Gala, to benefit the fight against blood cancer and blood disorders, at Cipriani Wall St. on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025, in New York. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP, File)

Tyler Perry’s accuser sent messages of gratitude and friendship years after alleged assault

Jonathan Landrum Jr., The Associated Press 2 minute read Preview

Tyler Perry’s accuser sent messages of gratitude and friendship years after alleged assault

Jonathan Landrum Jr., The Associated Press 2 minute read 8:33 AM CST

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Text messages show that Tyler Perry and “Boo! A Madea Halloween” actor Mario Rodriguez, who recently filed a lawsuit accusing the filmmaker of sexual assault, remained in contact years after Rodriguez alleges their interactions ended.

Rodriguez alleged in the lawsuit filed last week in California that Perry assaulted him during encounters that occurred between 2014 and 2019. The lawsuit says Rodriguez cut off contact with Perry in 2019, though Perry would periodically reach out afterward. But screenshots of text messages obtained by The Associated Press on Sunday night show Rodriguez initiating contact with Perry as recently as Thanksgiving 2024 and again on Aug. 31, 2025, expressing gratitude, friendship and financial distress.

In one message sent on Thanksgiving, Rodriguez thanked Perry for helping him through difficult periods in his life and wrote that he appreciated him “to the moon,” according to the screenshots. In another series of messages dated Aug. 31, Rodriguez described ongoing health problems, said he lacked health insurance and told Perry he was scared and struggling financially.

The messages were provided to the AP by a source close to the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

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8:33 AM CST

FILE - Tyler Perry arrives at the BET Awards, June 9, 2025, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

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Debate over surfing in German park gets gnarly after city removes wave-creating device

David Mchugh, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Debate over surfing in German park gets gnarly after city removes wave-creating device

David Mchugh, The Associated Press 3 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 11:45 AM CST

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — A debate over how to bring back surfing in Germany's landmark English Garden escalated on Sunday after city workers removed a beam surreptitiously deployed over Christmas to restore a surfable wave in the river that runs through the park.

For years, the site had been a hot spot for surfers and spectators because of the meter-high (three foot-high) wave created by the strong current of the Eisbach river. But the wave disappeared in October after city workers cleared away accumulated sediment, gravel and debris from the riverbed. That set off discussions between the city and the surfers on how to restore the wave.

The authorities were apparently not moving fast enough to suit at least some of the the surfers, who enjoyed several days of holiday surfing in wetsuits after unknown individuals deployed the beam across the river bed on Christmas Day. A banner on the adjacent bridge declared in English, “Just Watch. Merry Christmas!”

The surfers may have been stoked, but the city was not. The fire department moved in early Sunday morning, and the improvised structure and the wave were gone, the dpa news agency reported.

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Updated: Yesterday at 11:45 AM CST

A man tries out the temporary Eisbach wave in the English Garden in Munich, Germany, Friday Dec. 26, 2025. (Peter Kneffel/dpa via AP)

Hounded by photographers for years, Bardot identified with the animals she later set out to save

Angela Charlton And Elaine Ganley., The Associated Press 7 minute read Preview

Hounded by photographers for years, Bardot identified with the animals she later set out to save

Angela Charlton And Elaine Ganley., The Associated Press 7 minute read Yesterday at 6:10 AM CST

PARIS (AP) — Brigitte Bardot felt each pop of the flashbulb like the impact of a high-powered rifle bullet. And so it was, she said, that years of implacable hounding by the world’s paparazzi turned a woman idolized as a sultry sex kitten into a militant animal rights crusader.

Bardot, who died Sunday at age 91, was just 22 when she rocketed to international fame with the 1956 film sensation “And God Created Woman,” a cinematic ode to her hourglass figure, sultry pout and tousled blond mane.

Bardot would spend another decade and a half in the limelight — and among the paparazzi’s preferred prey, including just days before she gave birth — before she retired from the cinema to devote her life to protecting animals.

“I understand wild animals, under the fire of machine guns or hunters’ rifles, so well,” Bardot said in a 1982 interview. The paparazzi “didn’t shoot to kill, but they certainly killed something inside me by photographing me like that with their zoom lenses. They were like the arms of war, like bazookas.”

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Yesterday at 6:10 AM CST

FILE - French film actress Brigitte Bardot and her husband Gunter Sachs pose just before boarding a chartered airplane on their honeymoon in Las Vegas on July 14, 1966. (AP Photo/David F. Smith, File)

Brigitte Bardot, 1960s French sex symbol turned militant animal rights activist, dies at 91

Thomas Adamson And Elaine Ganley, The Associated Press 8 minute read Preview

Brigitte Bardot, 1960s French sex symbol turned militant animal rights activist, dies at 91

Thomas Adamson And Elaine Ganley, The Associated Press 8 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 12:31 PM CST

PARIS (AP) — Brigitte Bardot, the French 1960s sex symbol who became one of the greatest screen sirens of the 20th century and later a militant animal rights activist and far-right supporter, has died. She was 91.

Bardot died Sunday at her home in southern France, according to Bruno Jacquelin, of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the protection of animals. Speaking to The Associated Press, he gave no cause of death, and said that no arrangements had been made for funeral or memorial services. She had been hospitalized last month.

Bardot became an international celebrity as a sexualized teen bride in the 1956 movie “And God Created Woman.” Directed by then husband Roger Vadim, it triggered a scandal with scenes of the long-legged beauty dancing on tables naked.

At the height of a cinema career that spanned more than two dozen films and three marriages, Bardot came to symbolize a nation bursting out of bourgeois respectability. Her tousled, blond hair, voluptuous figure and pouty irreverence made her one of France’s best-known stars, even as she struggled with depression.

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Updated: Yesterday at 12:31 PM CST

FILE - French actress Brigitte Bardot poses with a huge sombrero she brought back from Mexico, as she arrives at Orly Airport in Paris, France, on May 27, 1965. (AP Photo/File)

How TV shows like ‘Mo’ and ‘Muslim Matchmaker’ allow Arab and Muslim Americans to tell their stories

Patrick Aftoora-orsagos, The Associated Press 6 minute read Preview

How TV shows like ‘Mo’ and ‘Muslim Matchmaker’ allow Arab and Muslim Americans to tell their stories

Patrick Aftoora-orsagos, The Associated Press 6 minute read Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Whether it’s stand-up comedy specials or a dramedy series, when Muslim American Mo Amer sets out to create, he writes what he knows.

The comedian, writer and actor of Palestinian descent has received critical acclaim for it, too. The second season of Amer's “Mo” documents Mo Najjar and his family’s tumultuous journey reaching asylum in the United States as Palestinian refugees.

Amer's show is part of an ongoing wave of television from Arab American and Muslim American creators who are telling nuanced, complicated stories about identity without falling into stereotypes that Western media has historically portrayed.

“Whenever you want to make a grounded show that feels very real and authentic to the story and their cultural background, you write to that,” Amer told The Associated Press. “And once you do that, it just feels very natural, and when you accomplish that, other people can see themselves very easily.”

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Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025

FILE - Hoda Abrahim, founder and CEO of,

Sure, the newspaper informed. But as it fades, those who used it for other things must adjust, too

Michael Weissenstein, The Associated Press 7 minute read Preview

Sure, the newspaper informed. But as it fades, those who used it for other things must adjust, too

Michael Weissenstein, The Associated Press 7 minute read Friday, Dec. 26, 2025

The sun would rise over the Rockies, and Robin Gammons would run to the front porch to grab the morning paper before school.

She wanted the comics and her dad wanted sports, but the Montana Standard meant more than their daily race to grab “Calvin and Hobbes” or baseball scores. When one of the three kids made honor roll, won a basketball game or dressed a freshly slain bison for the History Club, appearing in the Standard's pages made the achievement feel more real. Robin became an artist with a one-woman show at a downtown gallery and the front-page article went on the fridge, too. Five years later, the yellowing article is still there.

The Montana Standard slashed print circulation to three days a week two years ago, cutting back the expense of printing like 1,200 U.S. newspapers over the past two decades. About 3,500 papers closed over the same time. An average of two a week have shut this year.

That slow fade, it turns out, means more than changing news habits. It speaks directly to the newspaper's presence in our lives — not just in terms of the information printed upon it, but in its identity as a physical object with many other uses.

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Friday, Dec. 26, 2025

This photo provided by Colleen Elliott shows a completed Montana Standard crossword sitting on a chair in Elliott's home, Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025, in Butte, Mont. (Colleen Elliott via AP)

Last surviving Dionne quintuplet, Annette Dionne, has died: Dionne Quints Home Museum

The Canadian Press 4 minute read Preview

Last surviving Dionne quintuplet, Annette Dionne, has died: Dionne Quints Home Museum

The Canadian Press 4 minute read Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025

NORTH BAY - Annette Dionne, the last of the remaining world-famous Dionne quintuplets, has died at the age of 91.

A family spokesman confirmed her death Friday. The Dionne Quints Home Museum in North Bay, Ont., says in a social media post that Annette died Christmas Eve, but did not provide further details.

"She believed it was important to maintain the Dionne Quints Museum and the history it provides for the future of all children," the museum said in the post Friday.

"Annette was the only surviving Quints and was the last surviving sibling amongst the 14 children of the Dionne family ... Rest in Peace, Annette."

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Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025

Annette Dionne, one of the Dionne quintuplets, visits the original cabin she was born in, which was relocated to downtown North Bay, Ont., next to the North Bay Museum, Sunday, Aug. 5, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Thornhill

Man accused of 1996 Tupac Shakur killing seeks to suppress evidence

Jessica Hill, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Man accused of 1996 Tupac Shakur killing seeks to suppress evidence

Jessica Hill, The Associated Press 3 minute read Friday, Dec. 26, 2025

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The attorneys for the man accused of killing rap icon Tupac Shakur in 1996 are pushing to suppress evidence obtained in what they claim was an “unlawful nighttime search.”

Las Vegas criminal defense attorneys Robert Draskovich and William Brown filed a motion this week on behalf of their client, Duane “Keffe D” Davis, who was charged in the drive-by shooting of the iconic rapper off the Las Vegas Strip.

Davis' attorneys argue a judge relied on a “misleading portrait” of Davis as a dangerous drug dealer to grant the execution of a search warrant at night, which should only be done in exceptional circumstances, such as if there’s a risk that evidence will disappear if officers wait until morning.

In reality, Davis, an ex- gang leader from Southern California, had left the narcotics trade in 2008 and began doing inspection work for oil refineries, his attorneys say. He was a 60-year-old retired cancer survivor with adult children and grandchildren and had been living with his wife in Henderson, a city outside of Las Vegas, for nine years at the time the warrant was executed.

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Friday, Dec. 26, 2025

FILE - Duane Davis, left, looks back during a hearing on claims of juror misconduct in his jailhouse battery case at the Regional Justice Center, July 2, 2025, in Las Vegas. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, Pool, File)

Tyler Perry sued for sexual assault by ‘Boo! A Madea Halloween’ actor seeking $77 million

Jonathan Landrum Jr., The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Tyler Perry sued for sexual assault by ‘Boo! A Madea Halloween’ actor seeking $77 million

Jonathan Landrum Jr., The Associated Press 3 minute read Friday, Dec. 26, 2025

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tyler Perry was sued for sexual assault by an actor who appeared in “Boo! A Madea Halloween,” marking the second lawsuit in recent months accusing the filmmaker and studio mogul of leveraging his power in Hollywood to make sexual advances.

Mario Rodriguez filed the lawsuit Thursday in California, alleging Perry subjected him to repeated unwanted sexual advances over several years, including sexual battery and assault at Perry’s Los Angeles home. Rodriguez is seeking at least $77 million in damages and also has sued Lionsgate, which distributed the 2016 film, accusing the studio of turning a blind eye to Perry’s alleged misconduct.

Lionsgate did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

In a statement, Perry's lawyer denied the allegations.

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Friday, Dec. 26, 2025

Kennedy Center criticizes musician who canceled performance after Trump name added to building

Steven Sloan, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Kennedy Center criticizes musician who canceled performance after Trump name added to building

Steven Sloan, The Associated Press 3 minute read Friday, Dec. 26, 2025

WASHINGTON (AP) — The president of the Kennedy Center on Friday fiercely criticized a musician's sudden decision to cancel a Christmas Eve performance at the venue days after the White House announced that President Donald Trump's name would be added to the facility.

“Your decision to withdraw at the last moment — explicitly in response to the Center's recent renaming, which honors President Trump's extraordinary efforts to save this national treasure — is classic intolerance and very costly to a non-profit Arts institution,” the venue's president, Richard Grenell, wrote in a letter to musician Chuck Redd that was shared with The Associated Press.

In the letter, Grenell said he would seek $1 million in damages “for this political stunt.”

Redd did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Friday, Dec. 26, 2025

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