‘They Are Shameless’: Labour Ministers Accused Of ‘Betrayal’ For Refusing To Compensate Waspi Women

Posted on 17/12/2024 by Boris Clair

Labour ministers have been accused of “betrayal” after ruling out compensation for women who lost out when the rules over when they received their state pension were changed.

Keir Starmer was among those who gave their support to the Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) campaign when the party was in opposition.

Work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall told MPs on Tuesday that it would not be “a fair or proportionate use of taxpayers’ money” to pay up to £10.5 billion to those affected.

That was despite the parliamentary and health service ombudsman ruling that the women should be compensated due to mistakes made in the way the changes to their pension age were communicated to them.

Women’s state pension age was increased from 60 to 65 so it was equal with men’s between 2010 and 2018.

But the campaigners insisted they were not adequately informed about the change.

Speaking in 2022, Starmer said the Waspi women were the victims of “a real injustice”, adding: “We need to do something about it.”

Kendall herself was also pictured with a sign saying: “I will work with Waspi to identify and deliver a fair solution for all women affected.”

Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, re-posted the picture on X and said: “The Labour secretary of state is currently stating that her government will not provide any financial compensation to the Waspi women. They are shameless.”

This Labour Secretary of State is currently stating that her Government will not provide any financial compensation to the WASPI women.

They are shameless. pic.twitter.com/33MCGRCpSC

— Stephen Flynn MP (@StephenFlynnSNP) December 17, 2024

Waspi chairwoman Angela Madden said: “The government has today made an unprecedented political choice to ignore the clear recommendations of an independent watchdog which ordered ministers urgently to compensate Waspi women nine months ago.

“This is a bizarre and totally unjustified move which will leave everyone asking what the point of an ombudsman is if ministers can simply ignore their decisions.

“It feels like a decision that would make the likes of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump blush.”

Heritage Travel Might Be The Most Fulfilling Type Of Holiday You Can Take

Posted on 17/12/2024 by Boris Clair

These days, it seems like more people are traveling than ever. So it makes sense that many travellers are seeking unique experiences that don’t feel like the same standard vacation everyone else is taking (and posting about on social media).

Fortunately, there are plenty of fresh and fulfilling types of trips you can take ― from “destination dupes” to “mystery travel.” But a particularly meaningful option is “heritage travel.”

Below, travel experts break down this approach to travel and what you should know before you plan a heritage trip.

What is heritage travel?

“Heritage travel is when you explore destinations tied to your ancestry or cultural roots,” said Gabby Beckford, founder of the travel site Packs Light. “It’s about discovering more about yourself, your family stories, and your overall identity by traveling to places where you are, in some part, ‘from.’”

People interested in heritage travel ― which is also known as genealogy tourism, ancestral travel, roots tourism and DNA tourism ― can plan vacations around their family lineage and walk the path of their ancestors. This is all much easier to do in the age of services like 23andMe, AncestryDNA and MyHeritage.

“It’s been popular for years already, but I think it’s really grown since the advent of at-home DNA testing products,” said Laura Motta, the senior director of content at Lonely Planet. “They can give people a ton of insight into where their families are from.”

For many, these home kits have awakened a desire to connect with their history and experience aspects of their ancestors’ culture firsthand. Now, companies like Ancestry are offering special guided heritage travel opportunities to customers who want to gain a greater understanding of their family’s past. Options include ancestral home visits, genealogy cruises and personal guided tours.

Heritage travel is increasingly common in places that experienced mass emigration or forced removal at some point and therefore have a large diaspora community in other parts of the world. Examples include Ireland, Ghana and Italy (as seen in Season 2 of HBO’s “The White Lotus,” which featured a three-generation Sicilian American family returning to their ancestral roots in Testa dell’Acqua).

“Lots of countries and communities are working to enable and encourage heritage tourism, which makes complete sense. It’s big business,” Motta said. “Tour operators and tourism boards often have information to help you get started.”

Heritage travel can also refer more broadly to any type of tourism that involves visiting historic and cultural sites and immersing yourself in the destination’s past and present way of life. And this certainly applies to ancestry-focused tourism.

“Reconnection to the past is at the central core of heritage travel,” said Katy Nastro, a travel expert and spokesperson for the Going travel app. “A type of travel designed to better engage a traveler with the cultural heritage of a place, heritage travel is more about understanding a destination through genuine traditions and experiences rooted in history.

What are the benefits of heritage travel?

There are many reasons why heritage travel might appeal to tourists.

“It can be really fascinating and can help connect people to their ethnic and cultural roots,” Motta said. “Of course, heritage tourism can mean very different things to different people. You might be chasing a complicated paper trail of baptism certificates and immigration records in Ireland, or finding your family’s former home in California, or learning about rituals that your ancestors performed in Ghana.”

Beckford said she personally finds the heritage travel trend to be very exciting.

“As someone who is multiracial, I understand that in a world that likes to put people into neat categories, not fitting perfectly into one can feel alienating,” she noted. “I believe knowledge is power, and traveling back to where your ancestors came from to understand how you became the person you are today can be not only fascinating but healing for many people like me.”

Heritage travel can take many forms and include a wide range of experiences. People may have different goals and approaches to their ancestral journeys.

“I see many families, particularly second and third generations, taking heritage trips to reconnect with rituals, traditions, religions, holidays, or even to honour specific family members who have passed,” Beckford said.

By taking a heritage-focused trip, you have the opportunity to truly immerse yourself in the local culture and history as well.

“Travellers more and more are seeking an authentic travel experience, away from uber-popular tourist traps, traveling more purposefully,” Nastro said. “There is no better way to understand your current surroundings than by walking through its past.”

She added that you don’t necessarily need to design an entire vacation around heritage travel, but can instead incorporate it through specific activities or experiences in your trip.

Travel experts believe the rise of DNA testing services has led to increased interest in heritage trips.

Here’s what else you should know before trying this trip.

Although there are many benefits to these kinds of trips, heritage travel is not an inherently positive experience.

“History is messy. Families are complicated,” Motta said. “There are plenty of reasons why people become estranged from their families and heritage. Chasing your personal history can lead to discoveries that are uncomfortable, unpleasant and even contradictory. For most, the upsides far outweigh this, but it’s something to consider.”

Another downside is the potential for mismanaged expectations.

“Visiting your ancestral lands may or may not provide the healing someone might be seeking,” Beckford said. “These places and their people naturally change and evolve with time, and some travellers might put too much pressure on a destination to be what they need it to be, rather than accepting it for what it is.”

Lily Allen Claims She’s ‘Not In A Great Place’ And ‘Not Eating’ In Frank Mental Health Discussion

Posted on 17/12/2024 by Boris Clair

Lily Allen has disclosed that she’s been “not really in a great place mentally” for around three years.

The chart-topping singer opened up about her mental health struggles during the latest edition of her BBC Sounds podcast Miss Me?, which she co-hosts with her friend Miquita Oliver.

“I’ve been going through a tough time over the last few months and my eating has become an issue,” she explained.

“My therapist and I talk about it and she says ‘How long has this been going on?’. And I said, ‘Well, about three years, really’. And she’s like, ‘OK, why haven’t you mentioned it before?’. And it’s not because I’m lying about it. It’s just because it doesn’t seem to be at the top of the list of important things that I need to talk about. But obviously it is.”

Lily said that her ADHD, with which she was diagnosed fairly recently, means she isn’t always good at “talking about the bigger picture” or “linking things”.

“My body and my brain are two very separate things to me. I know a lot of people feel those two things are very connected to each other, but for me it’s very different,” she said, as reported by the Daily Mail.

“I spend a lot of time in my head, and not a lot of time thinking about my body.”

She added: “I’m really not in a great place mentally at the moment, and I’m not eating. I’m not hungry. I obviously am hungry, but my body and brain are so disconnected from each other [that] the messages of hunger are not going through my body to my brain.

“I’m not avoiding food, I’m just not thinking about it because I’m so in my head. My body’s, like, a few steps behind me.”

Last year, the Brit Award winner admitted to the Off Menu podcast that she often “forgets” to eat.

“I love food. I love eating, but I’m just not very good at remembering to do things,” she claimed. “I get up in the morning and I’m looking after kids and I just forget.”

Throughout her time in the spotlight, Lily has spoken candidly her mental health and issues with her body image, claiming in 2010 that she had body dysmorphic disorder.

Listen to the latest episode of Lily Allen’s podcast Miss Me? here.

Help and support:

‘A Reverse Robin Hood’: Kemi Badenoch Accused Of Supporting ‘Massive Tax Cuts For The Rich’

Posted on 17/12/2024 by Boris Clair

Kemi Badenoch has been criticised after saying a flat rate of income tax for everyone in the country is an “attractive idea”.

Labour accused the Tory leader of being “a reverse Robin Hood” because the policy would mean “massive” tax cuts for the rich.

They also compared her to former Tory prime minister Liz Truss, who was forced from office after her plans for huge unfunded tax cuts caused economic chaos.

Under the current tax system, workers pay higher rates of income tax as their salaries increase.

Appearing at an event on Monday, Badenoch was asked is she supported replacing that with a flat tax rate, with everyone paying the same regardless of their income.

She replied: “It’s very attractive but if we’re going to get to that sort of scenario there’s a lot of work we will need to do first.

“We cannot afford flat taxes where we are now. We need to make sure we rewire our economy so that we can lighten the burden of tax and of regulation on individuals, and on those businesses that are just starting out in particular.”

A Labour spokesperson said: “Kemi’s reverse Robin Hood would mean massive tax cuts for the rich, paid for by everyone else.

“While Labour protects working people with no tax rises on their payslips, the Tories are bringing out the ghost of Christmas past with these Truss-style tax cuts for millionaires.

“They haven’t listened and they haven’t learnt.”

At the same event on Monday, Badenoch also suggested that the UK’s regulatory standards were too high – but that she supported them.

She said: “Where we continue regulating ourselves at very high standards – which we should do – but in a way that other countries don’t follow, which puts us at a disadvantage, which means that there’s no level of playing field if you’re a farmer, for example, and many others. And we need to start thinking differently.”

A senior Labour source told HuffPost UK: “I don’t get how anyone could follow each clause of that sentence and have a clue what she is suggesting.”

‘That’s A Sickness’: Donald Trump Criticizes Fans Of Shooting Suspect Luigi Mangione

Posted on 17/12/2024 by Boris Clair

President-elect Donald Trump called the glorification of shooting suspect Luigi Mangione a “sickness,” criticising people who have celebrated the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York earlier this month.

“I think it’s really terrible that some people seem to admire him, like him. And I was happy to see that it wasn’t specific to this gentleman that was killed. It’s just an overall sickness as opposed to a specific sickness,” Trump said on Monday during a wide-ranging press conference in Florida.

“It was cold-blooded, just a cold-blooded, horrible killing,” he went on. “And how people can like this guy is — that’s a sickness, actually. That’s really very bad. The way it was done. It was so bad. Right in the back. Very bad.”

Trump also suggested that some of the gleeful online posts about Thompson’s death could be fake, adding that “it’s hard to believe that that could even be thought of, but it seems there’s a certain appetite for him. I don’t get it.”

Mangione, 26, has been charged with murder in Thompson’s killing. He was arrested in Pennsylvania last week and remains in custody there. Police said his fingerprints match prints that investigators found on a water bottle and a granola bar wrapper near the scene of the shooting in Manhattan.

Mangione described his anger toward corporate America in a “manifesto” published last week. Words etched on shell casings at the scene ― “deny,” “defend,” “depose” ― also echoed a phrase commonly used to describe insurer tactics to avoid paying claims.

Some people online have expressed support for Mangione and glee over the death of a top health industry CEO. Others condemned the killing but said the industry deserves the scorn and criticism, due to insurance practices that prioritise profits over people’s lives and well-being.

“All of that pain that people have experienced is being concentrated on this event,” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told reporters last week. “It’s really important that we take a step back, this is not to comment and this is not to say that an act of violence is justified, but I think for anyone who is confused or shocked or appalled, they need to understand that people interpret and feel and experience denied claims as an act of violence against them.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene Slammed For Saying Vaccines Cause Autism

Posted on 17/12/2024 by Boris Clair

The congresswoman declared on social media that she believes in the debunked idea that vaccines cause autism, a claim that has been researched again and again and found to be baseless.

“I fully believe vaccines cause Autism,” Greene wrote on X, formerly Twitter. ”It’s another example of crimes against humanity. And innocent babies, children, and their families are the victims.”

Greene’s post quickly received a community note pointing out that “the scientific literature on this is so extensive, that claiming otherwise can only be explained through sheer ignorance, or some sort of nefarious political purpose.”

The note included links to many, many sources explaining the issue in more detail.

Greene’s post got quite a bit of attention, and a great deal of mockery.

Zelenskyy Calls On World To Be ‘United’ Against Putin As UK Says Russia Is Making ‘Further Gains’ In Ukraine

Posted on 15/12/2024 by Boris Clair

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on the world to be “united and stronger than ever” against Vladimir Putin as the UK said Russia is making “further gains” in Ukraine.

According to the latest intelligence update from the Ministry of Defence, Moscow’s troops are advancing on the “key logistical hub” of Pokrovsk in Donetsk after gaining control of the nearby village of Shevchenko.

In a post on X, the MoD said: “Russia will likely continue to make gains towards Pokrovsk whilst continuing to advance westwards to the south of the town.”

Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, revealed that in the last week alone, Russia has used nearly 630 guided aerial bombs, around 550 strike drones, and over 100 missiles against his country.

He said: “I am grateful to the warriors defending Ukraine and to our partners who understand our need to bolster Ukraine’s air defences to save the lives of our people.

“Now, the world must be united and stronger than ever. Only through strength can we together force Russia and its allies to give up terror and achieve a just peace.”

This week alone, Russia has used nearly 630 guided aerial bombs, around 550 strike drones, and over 100 missiles of various types against Ukraine.

I am grateful to the warriors defending Ukraine and to our partners who understand our need to bolster Ukraine’s air defenses to… pic.twitter.com/9U58GWjyg8

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) December 15, 2024

Meanwhile, Zelenskyy has also announced that Ukraine will support humanitarian efforts in Syria following the fall of its former president, Bashar al-Assad.

He said: “For Ukraine, this is important: the calmer the situation in such regions, the more actively the world can help us achieve peace.

“It is precisely for this reason that Moscow tries so hard to ignite more conflicts and wars in various parts of the world, fuelling instability and adding to global challenges.”

The president said a “grain from Ukraine” programme would allow his country to provide Syria with food.

“We call on everyone worldwide to join stabilisation efforts to ensure that the war—ignited over a decade ago in Syria with the involvement of Iran and Russia—can finally come to an end,” he said in a post on X.

Susanna Reid Brutally Slams Chris Philp Over The Tories’ Record As She Defends Migrants

Posted on 15/12/2024 by Boris Clair

Susanna Reid has criticised Chris Philp over the Tories’ record in office as she mounted a passionate defence of migrants.

Philp had used his own appearance on the programme to criticise Labour over the high numbers of asylum seekers who are still crossing the English Channel on small boats.

Asked for her views on the subject, Reid said: “I think that successive governments have failed to tell a positive story on immigration. We rely on immigration to run our public services, to grow our economy.

“But there is huge concern about how we support the immigrants who come, and with all due respect to Chris Philp, how he can lecture the current government on immigration when it was under the previous government that legal net migration by almost a million is remarkable.

“Anybody is going to be worried that if you have that scale of legal migrants coming in how are you going to support them with the NHS and housing.

“What governments need to do is say ’we need migrants, they are positive and valuable contributors to our society, but this is the number roughly we need.”

Reid also attacked Labour’s pledge to lower immigration, saying: “That makes it sound like immigration is a bad thing – we’re going to lower it because immigrants are bad.

“But they’re not bad, and then you hand over the political argument to Reform and a sort of Faragist proposal on one in, one out.”

Yvette Cooper Repeatedly Refuses To Say When Small Boat Crossings Will Fall

Posted on 15/12/2024 by Boris Clair

Home secretary Yvette Cooper has repeatedly failed to say when the number of asylum seekers crossing the English Channel in small boats will come down.

Keir Starmer pledged to “smash the gangs” controlling the people smuggling operation before the election, but thousands more have made the dangerous journey since then.

On Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg on BBC 1 this morning, Cooper said the number of crossings was “deeply damaging” and “puts lives at risk”.

Kuenssberg asked her: “The question that our viewers watching and listening to you have is when will they see a difference?

“People see the numbers continuing to go up. People see more hotels being used to house people without permission in their towns.

“So when can people expect to see a difference? When can you expect to see the numbers of small boats coming down if you’re approach is the right one?”

After the home secretary appeared to dodge the question, Kuenssberg said: “I do think the question that people want to know is when will we see a difference?

“This government now seems to be fond of giving us timelines and targets and milestones. So when can people expect to see a difference, to see the number of boat crossings coming down, to see the number of asylum hotels coming down too?”

Cooper said the government was cutting the existing backlog of asylum claims.

Trying a third time to get an answer, the presenter said: “I will ask you again. When can our viewers expect to see the numbers making small boat crossings – putting their lives at risk trying to get to the UK – when can they expect that to come down?

Cooper said: “Of course we want to see the boat crossings come down as rapidly as possible. What we’re not going to do is deal with this by slogans.”

Kuenssberg then told her: “But home secretary, this is not about slogans. When it comes to something like waiting lists and the NHS, the government is very happy to put targets on that and say ‘measure us by whether we hit those’.

“When it comes to kids’ education, the government’s been very happy to put a target on that and say ‘judge us by this measure’.

“When it comes to this issue, you won’t give us a yardstick by when people can expect a significant difference. Why not, because it makes it feel like it’s not a priority to the government in the way that some other issues are.”

But Cooper said: “We’ve made clear that border security is one of the foundational issues, before you get to any of the missions. We’ve been clear that we need to reduce both legal migration and illegal migration.

“There is a history of home secretaries and prime ministers making grand promises, but never actually having a proper plan. The approach we’re taking to this is step by step.

“We are putting in place the things that we need – the agreements with other countries, the stronger returns arrangements, much stronger law enforcement, the operations with Germany to go after the smuggler supply chains, the operations with Italy to go after the illicit finance.”

She added: “I think we’re being really clear and straight with people about the complexity of this because the gimmicks did not work.”

The Holiday: 21 Behind-The-Scenes Facts You Never Knew About The Festive Rom-Com

Posted on 14/12/2024 by Boris Clair

The Holiday may have received mixed reviews upon its release in 2006, but over the subsequent years it has firmly cemented itself as a modern Christmas classic.

A mainstay on late-night ITV2 and one of Netflix’s big hitters during the festive season, it’s hard to avoid the Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Jack Black-led Christmas rom-com each year – not that we’d want to, of course.

Sure, it’s packed with clichés and schmaltz, but there’s something about it that is always guaranteed to give us a festive glow (and no, it’s absolutely got nothing to do with Jude Law’s eyes, ok?).

No matter how many times you’ve seen The Holiday though, we’ll bet you didn’t know all these behind-the-scenes facts…

1. Rose Cottage is not real

It might have looked like it had stood there for a hundred years, but in fact Iris’ Surrey cottage was purpose built for the film (but that seemingly hasn’t stopped people looking for it all the same…).

According to The Telegraph, the production team scoured the Surrey countryside to find the perfect cottage, but ended up building their own on a hill overlooking the town of Shere.

2. It only took four days to build the house

However, set dressers spent two weeks making it look old and authentic.

Director Nancy Meyers told ComingSoon: “It was really an amazing process to build a cottage because the people that lived there couldn’t believe that people from Hollywood were coming and building this cottage, but they did a magnificent job. We built the road, the wall around it, put in the trees.”

3. The Rose Cottage interior scenes were shot on a soundstage in LA

The inside of the cottage was built on a sound stage

According to IMDB, the scenes inside the specially-built cottage were actually filmed thousands of miles away in Los Angeles, where sets were built on a soundstage.

4. Exterior scenes were shot in Godalming and Shere in Surrey

According to Surrey Live, Jude Law and Cameron Diaz filmed scenes on Church Street in Godalming, which was dressed with Christmas decorations and fake shops for the movie.

The pub in which Graham and Amanda meet again is also a real pub called The White Horse.

5. There was real snow in Surrey during the week of filming

Cameron Diaz said the snow was fully degradable

It reportedly snowed three times in Surrey during filming, but the crew had already hired a snow machine because they hadn’t counted on any of the white stuff falling.

According to Cameron Diaz in an interview with Vulture, the fake snow that was used was all “totally biodegradable”.

6. Amanda’s LA mansion is also real

Amanda's LA home from The Holiday — Amanda’s LA home from The Holiday

Well, the exterior is anyway.

The property, located in the wealthy city of San Marino, California, was built in 1928 by architect Wallace Neff.

Like with Rose Cottage though, the interiors were all sets built on a soundstage, and according to IMBD, they cost approximately $1million to build.

7. The scene where Amanda runs through the snow took a week to film

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In an interview with Vulture, Cameron Diaz revealed the scene snowballed (no pun intended) during filming, having not even been in the original script.

“That whole scene took a week to shoot. That wasn’t even in the script,” she said, telling of how it had been just “four lines of description” in her script.

“They only used two shots, but we shot like ten shots of me running across ten different fields. And I’m wearing that Valentino cashmere, wool trench coat, a turtleneck cashmere sweater.

“Literally, I was so fit by the end of that week. I ran probably seven miles a day in those heels. Through mud and hills. It was so hilarious.”

8. The director’s attention to detail was something that was famed on set

According to IMDB, Nancy would make the actors do many, many takes of certain scenes, including the one set at the newspaper’s Christmas party.

Kate Winslet reportedly got a laugh from those on set when she dropped to her knees to jokingly pray it was the last time she would have to do it, after a long series of takes.

9. Cameron Diaz also recalled Nancy’s desire for repeated takes

She told Vulture: “She already knows exactly how she wants to see it, but she needs to see it first to make sure that it’s what she’s seeing. And once she sees it, it’s almost like she has to see it, I’d say, seven times consecutively. If she saw it exactly the same seven times, then she felt that she had it. And then when she had it, she had it. And then she’d want to see it differently. And then if you do it differently, you’d have to do it another seven times exactly the same.”

Sounds exhausting to us.

10. There’s an Easter egg hidden in Amanda’s film collection

In a cheeky nod to Kate Winslet’s film career, when Iris arrives at Amanda’s and notices her film collection, one of the movies is Enigma – a picture that Kate actually starred in five years prior to The Holiday.

11. The film was written with Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet in mind to play Amanda and Iris

Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet played Amanda and Iris

Nancy admitted she knew she wanted Kate and Cameron “during the writing process”.

Speaking to ComingSoon, she said: “You know, I think a screenwriter would lie to you if they said, “I don’t think about anybody when I am writing.” I can’t imagine it, you know somebody has got to say it and do it. It’s natural to start fantasizing about who is going to be in it and I think Cameron is a great comedienne and I thought about this before I cast her and once I cast her she continued to thrill me in that area.

“Cameron’s really a girl’s girl and boys adore her obviously. She seemed absolutely the right choice for a California girl.”

She added of Kate: “Then, if you’re writing a 30-year-old woman in England you obviously think of Kate Winslet, she’s just one of the great actresses.”

12. The character of Graham evolved the most during the writing process

Nancy revealed to ComingSoon: “I sort of put him through some twists and turns that you don’t expect. Then, when I was done, of course you think of Jude Law. He’s so handsome and he’s really such a terrific actor, but I wasn’t immediately sure that he was going to fit into the genre and do this kind of work.

“So I met with him and we went through the script together and he just got it. You know, he just hasn’t had a chance to do it before.”

13. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law never really interacted with Kate Winset and Jack Black

While both sets of interior scenes were shot in LA, that didn’t mean there were many times where the two couples crossed paths while filming.

Cameron told Vulture: “I did a lot of acting on my own, and just with Jude. Because we only had one scene with Jack and Kate. Our characters never crossed over. Basically Kate and Jack did their movie; Jude and I did ours. We only had the one scene at the end, where we all came together.”

She added: “Jude and I had a lot of fun shooting our bits.”

Kate Winslet said that the moments she and Cameron did get to film together were “really, really fun”.

“She’s extremely hard working and she’s a great team member,” she told Collider. “But our paths would cross, you know, sometimes we’d be shooting, for example, the scene with Jack and I in the video store. Cameron sort of happened to be around in the area and she came by, and she was there for sort of, half of the shooting day. And she was just giving support and making us all feel that we were a part of the same thing together, you know, she was very aware of that. And she’s a truly fantastic person.”

14. The ending was actually one of the first scenes the cast filmed

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Cameron told Vulture that the New Year’s party where Iris and Miles join Amanda and Graham at his cottage in the final moments of the film were actually shot “kind of at the beginning of the shoot”.

15. Dustin Hoffman’s cameo happened by pure chance

Dustin Hoffman made a cameo in The Holiday

The acting legend features in the scene where Iris and Miles are in the video store, but he was actually never supposed to be in the film.

According to the film’s DVD commentary, Dustin was having lunch nearby and noticed all the cameras outside where Kate Winslet and Jack Black were filming and popped in to see what was happening.

Having already known director Nancy Meyers, they facilitated a cameo, which made the final cut.

16. Lindsay Lohan’s cameo also came about because of the director

Lindsay Lohan and James Franco also popped up in a film trailer Amanda was working on

Lindsay popped up in The Holiday in the film trailer Amanda was editing at the start of the movie.

Her cameo came about as Nancy had previously directed Lindsay some eight years earlier in her breakthrough role in The Parent Trap.

Nancy told ComingSoon: “I told her she owes me everything so I made her do it. I called her and said, ‘You have to do this for me,’ but she was sweet about it, she was totally there.”

17. Kate Winslet already had a personal connection to Rufus Sewell

Rufus Sewell and Kate Winslet pictured together at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997

Iris spends a lot of time in the film trying to get over her love-rat colleague Jasper, who is played by Rufus Sewell.

Kate and Rufus had some history of their own, having previously been in a relationship back in the 90s.

18. There’s a factual error in the film

Arthur and Iris discuss the fact Cary Grant is from Surrey, but actually, they’re wrong as the acting legend is originally from Bristol.

19. The director had to keep reminding Eli Wallach to act older

In an interview with Collider, Kate recalled how the acting legend, who portrayed Arthur, was much more sprightly than the character who he was playing, despite being 90 when the film was made.

As a result, the director would have to remind him to play “older” than he felt.

Kate said: “He has this incredible energy and Nancy [Meyers] would say to him all the time, she’d say, ‘Could you act a little more seventy?’ He’s just he’s like a sixty year-old. He moves around much, kind of, freer than you would expect a person at the age of 90 to, he was just incredible… incredible.”

Sadly, Eli passed away in 2014 at the age of 98.

20. Eli had just as many anecdotes as Arthur too

Kate told Collider: “He would sit me down between takes and he say, ‘I’m gonna tell you another story.’ And he would sit me down and he’d say, ‘Now the thing about Marilyn [Monroe]…’ And I’d be like, oh [expressing excitement] and he’d just come out with these glorious anecdotes. Just fantastic stories of experiences that he has had that were directly useful in playing Iris, because she had that level of fascination with Arthur, and I just had it, I just had it. It was there everyday with Eli.”

21. The director added in the ‘boob graze’ moment after something similar happened on set

Remember the bit in the Sushi bar where Miles accidentally grazes Iris’ breast? Well, Nancy Meyers added that in the film after a similar thing happened with her and Jack Black on set.

She told ComingSoon: “One day on the set he bumped into me and said, ‘Oh, sorry about the boob graze,’ and I just laughed so hard because men bump into women all the time like that and act like they didn’t do it, but he immediately said sorry about the boob graze so I wrote it into the next scene he did.”