Love Island Introduces Gemma’s Ex-Boyfriend Jacques O’Neill As Latest Bombshell

Posted on 12/06/2022 by Boris Clair

Love Island is about to get a whole lot more complicated for Gemma Owen as her ex-boyfriend arrives in the villa.

A preview at the end of Friday night’s episode teased the entrance of a new bombshell who previously dated Gemma, with ITV now confirming his identity.

As many had correctly speculated, he is rugby league player Jacques O’Neill.

Jacques O'Neill is set to join Love Island — Jacques O’Neill is set to join Love Island

The 23-year-old, who hails from Cumbria, has been released from his Castleford Tigers contract to appear on the ITV2 reality show.

He is reported to have dated Gemma, who is the daughter of football legend Michael Owen, for around a year, with their break-up coming in the last 12 months.

Get to know him a little better below:

On if he’s a catch…

“We all think we’re a catch, don’t we? I’m loyal, I’m respectful and I’ve got good manners. I’ll look after someone close to me to the full extent I can. I would have a baby in two or three years. I think I’d be good with babies too, they’d be good looking wouldn’t they?”

On being single…

“I split up with my ex and then I was seeing someone else. I was concentrating so much on my rugby and then I had that injury. I think it needs to be the right person, at the right time.”

On how he falls in love…

“Quick. I literally know if they’re going to be my girlfriend within a week. I fall pretty quick.”

On what gives him the ‘ick’…

“People singing Christmas songs! I was seeing this girl and it was just before Christmas and she started singing Christmas songs in the car and it went through me – it gave me the ick bad.”

Gemma is set for a surprise when her ex arrives in the villa

Gemma is currently paired with Luca Bish following Friday’s recoupling, which saw the fishmonger steal her from Davide Sanclimenti.

Her dad also recently defended the 19-year-old from comments on whether she is too young to appear on the show.

In an interview with MailOnline, he said: “She has had two years more than I had to get ready for life in the public eye.

“Also, she’s a mature 19. She’s a bit like me in that regard. I was playing for Liverpool when I was 17, and having to make friends with 23, 24, 25-year-olds.

“The bottom line is, she’s an adult and I have to trust her to make sensible decisions.”

Love Island continues on Sunday at 9pm on ITV2.

Guy Pearce Reveals His Secret Nod To Pal Kate Winslet In Neighbours’ Final Episodes

Posted on 11/06/2022 by Boris Clair

Guy Pearce has revealed he slotted in a secret nod to his friend Kate Winslet during his return to Neighbours.

The Hollywood star found fame on the Australian soap playing Mike Young between 1986 and 1989.

It was recently announced Guy had reprised his role for the forthcoming finale, after the soap was axed after 37 years on air in March.

When news reached his friend Kate, she begged to come and see him on set, and while that didn’t work out, Guy found a way to make sure she was included in his scenes.

Guy is back as Mike Young for Neighbours's finale — Guy is back as Mike Young for Neighbours’s finale

Speaking on Australian breakfast show Studio 10 this week, Guy said: “Kate Winslet is a big fan of [Neighbours]. She’s literally wetting herself that I’m back on the show. She was besotted with Mike back in the day.

“So when I told her I was coming back to do the show, she said: ‘Right, I have to be there, I’m coming.’

“And when I talked to the producer about it, he said: ‘Well maybe we could make the mother of your child, maybe she could be Kate?’

″That’s a little personal in my life, so let’s not call her Kate,” said Guy, who was married to Kate Mestitz between 1997 and 2015. “So she’s called Rose, which was Kate’s character on Titanic. So Winslet is kind of here in spirit.”

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He added: “[Kate] was like, ‘Darling, I need to see the scripts. What’s going on in the storyline?’

“If she was here, she’d be on this set now pushing her way into every scene she possibly could.”

Guy with Jason Donovan, who played Scott Robinson, back in the 1980s

Guy and Kate starred in the 2011 HBO series Mildred Pierce together, for which they both won Emmys, before appearing alongside each other once again in last year’s Mare Of Easttown.

In the interview, Guy also revealed more about Mike’s return to Neighbours, after the character was last seen in 1989 when he moved to Perth to become a teacher.

He said: “We learn through these new episodes that I have a child and I have now moved back, me and my daughter, to Melbourne, Erinsborough.”

Guy is one of a number of much-loved Neighbours stars returning to the show for its final episodes.

Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan have reprised their roles as Charlene and Scott Robinson, while the likes of Ian Smith (Harold Bishop), Peter O’Brien (Shane Ramsay), Mark Little (Joe Mangel), Daniel MacPherson (Joel Samuels) and Natalie Bassingthwaighte (Izzy Hoyland) are also back.

Neighbours finished filming on Friday, with executive producer Jason Herbison revealing “tears were shed” as the cameras stopped rolling for the last time.

Neighbours will come to an end with a special double bill of episodes on Monday 1 August in Australia and the UK.

Nicola Coughlan Reveals Why She’s Yet To Watch Derry Girls Finale

Posted on 10/06/2022 by Boris Clair

Nicola Coughlan has revealed she is putting off watching the finale of Derry Girls.

The hit Channel 4 sitcom ended its three-season run last month, with Nicola – who plays Clare Devlin in the show – admitting she is unsure when she would take the plunge and watch the last episode.

Speaking to the PA news agency, she said: “You know what, I haven’t watched the finale yet, because I was in LA when it came out.

“That day I just cried and cried because it felt like such an ending of an era, it’s been five years of my life.

“It was such a huge job for me to get and people connected with it so much, so I’m holding on to watch it.

“I don’t know when I’m going to because I know I’m going to cry a lot, so I’m just waiting, but the response to it was insane and amazing.”

Nicola (right) with her Derry Girls co-stars

Derry Girls’ last ever episode was a stand-alone special set around the time of the Good Friday Agreement vote, which happened to coincide with Orla’s 18th birthday.

It aired the day after the final episode of series three, which saw Clare discover hat her father had been taken to hospital after suffering an aneurysm.

The final moments showed his coffin being carried into a church, with the cast all gathering at Clare’s the side.

Nicola added that it was important that writer Lisa McGee had “tackled” the subject of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement in the show as there was still “a great deal of misunderstanding” in the UK about its meaning.

“There are a lot of MPs in government that admit to never having read it, and peace in Northern Ireland is very fragile and precious,” she said.

“Derry Girls is a comedy, it’s not a comedy drama… but the fact that Lisa McGee can infuse it with that message shows how important it is because it’s real people’s lives in a real day to day so I think it’s brave and brilliant and necessary.”

All episodes of Derry Girls are available to stream now on All4.

Ryan O’Connell: ‘It’s A Scary Time, But More People Are With Us Than Against Us’

Posted on 02/06/2022 by Boris Clair

To say the past couple of years have been busy for Ryan O’Connell. Last year saw the second season of his sitcom Special – the sitcom he co-created and starred in – debuting on Netflix to huge acclaim, after which it was revealed he’d joined the cast of the much-awaited Queer As Folk remake.

On top of that, he’s also about to release his first novel, Just By Looking At Him, which he’s already working to have adapted for the big screen.

It’s been an exciting time for Ryan, he tells HuffPost UK, but not one he’s in a particular rush to repeat.

“I can’t have a couple of years like that ever again,” he admits. “I was working so much that I truly felt like I was hanging on by a thread.

“I’m really glad that [projects I’ve worked on] are coming out, but a lot of this stuff that we’re talking about now was born from the pandemic, and trying to stave off existential dread and channel that into work. And now I’m kind of like… oh, I want to have fun. See my friends, and live laugh love.”

It's fair to say these past two years have been especially busy for Ryan — It’s fair to say these past two years have been especially busy for Ryan

And while Ryan has enjoyed being “a lady of leisure”, he’s already looking to the future, and says directing is the next challenge he hopes to pursue.

“I’d never really taken that time for myself where I really, truly did nothing. But being a lady of leisure only works if you know that it’s finite,” he says.

“It was really fun, but because I’m a Virgo, I was then like, ‘OK, back to work’. It was also nice to do that knowing I was about to go into the press cycle for the novel and Queer As Folk.”

To launch our new Pride interview series, we spoke to Ryan about the queer TV that made him feel seen when he was growing up, befriending his ultimate queer icon and being the “Kris Jenner of Gen Z”…

Who was the first queer person you can remember looking up to?

Megan Mullally and Sean Hayes in Will & Grace

There was a show on The WB called Popular, it was actually Ryan Murphy’s first show. And Mary Cherry and Nicole Julian, while not gay men, essentially were gay men. They were these really bitchy high schoolers that were, like, hellbent on destruction and being Machiavellian, and they were the most glamorous, insane characters I’d ever seen on TV.

I was maybe 12 years old when the show came out, and I had no idea about what a “queer sensibility” was until I saw that show. and it was like, “oh, I’m laughing because I’m gay”. And then it was like, “oh, I’m gay”.

And then of course, Will & Grace. Karen Walker and Jack McFarland were my first real peeks into queerness, like a little lifeline. So, Mary Cherry, Nicole Julian, Karen Walker and Jack McFarland. Notice that there’s only one actual gay man on that list.

What was the first LGBTQ+ TV show or film that you remember resonating with you?

Wilson Cruz and Devon Gummersall in My So-Called Life

I was eight years when My So-Called Life came out – I should not have been watching it, but my family was obsessed, so we’d watch it every week. And in that show, there was a character called Ricky, who was queer. It wasn’t even really discussed that much, which I think was kind of transgressive in its own way. There wasn’t, like, a “very special gay episode”, he just was gay.

And I remember being eight years old and feeling like, “hmmm I really seem to connect with this character for reasons that I’m not quite sure about and also scared of and also intrigued, dot dot dot”. So definitely My So-Called Life, Popular and, of course, Will & Grace.

What’s a song you associate with your own coming out?

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I came out when I was 17 on the last day of my junior year in high school. And I did it because I had a crush on this boy, and I knew that in order to date him I would have to come out of the clos’ and live my truth. And that summer was this magical coming-of-age, queer Criterion collection vibe.

There was this movie I was watching at the time called Cherish, this small indie film that nobody had seen – and no one has still seen it – and the theme song of that movie was Cherish by The Association. Remember that song? It’s like an old-school 1960s kind of haunted song. And that was me and my boyfriend’s song. Or at least it was in my head.

What was the most recent LGBTQ+ show or film that made an impact on you?

I watched Stranger By The Lake in quarantine, and I loved it. It’s this horny French queer thriller. There are cumshots, there are uncut dicks, it’s sort of spooky spaghetti, I love it. And of course I love The Other Two. Iconic.

But I don’t watch a lot of scripted shows, to be honest. Because I work on scripted, sometimes it feels like I’m doing my homework, so basically I only watch Below Deck.

Who is your ultimate queer icon?

That’s a really, really good question. I’m just going to go with the first person that comes to mind, and that’s the director Gregg Araki, who did films like The Doom Generation, Nowhere, Mysterious Skin and The Living End.

I feel corny saying that, because I’ve actually become friends with Gregg – not to bra-aag. But whenever I’m with him, I’m always like, “you have no idea how obsessed I am with you”. Basically, in the early 90s, he created this new wave of queer cinema, that was so amazing, and he always included a lot of Shoegaze which is my favourite genre of music.

And then next to Gregg, I would say Parker Posey.

When I was growing up, Party Girl, Clockwatchers, House Of Yes, all those indie films were so major to me. Those are two icons to me. She’s amazing, she’s so specific and so herself.

One scripted thing I am watching right now is The Staircase which ordinarily I would not do because it’s like, “honey we’ve already seen the documentary, must we revisit again?”. But honey, if Parker is there, I have to RSVP.

Who is a queer person in the public eye right now that makes you excited about the future?

I am biased, but Fin Argus. They’re in Queer As Folk, they play a character called Mingus. They’re 23 years old, and when I first met them I was like, “OK, they’re 23, I’m 35, we probably won’t have anything in common, they’re only a child”. But we actually got extremely close and I think they’re so brilliant. They also do music and their music is incredible.

I’m obsessed Gen Z. I’ll go on the record as saying I feel like a spiritual grandfather to Gen Z, I’m a big fan. I am very the Kris Jenner of Gen Z, that’s a moniker that I will take proudly.

What’s your message for the next generation of LGBTQ+ people?

We live in a really mind-fuck-y time, in the sense that the world as we know it is becoming more and more progressive, but because of that, there is a fight to retain the old thought. And that fight is actually winning. So it’s this really very weird, emotional, whiplash-y time where the minority is coming into power, but their views don’t reflect the culture that we live in today.

Ryan O'Connell pictured in 2021 — Ryan O’Connell pictured in 2021

That’s a very hard place to be in, and it’s a confusing place to be in. But my one piece of advice is to know the culture is going with you, rather than against you. And what you’re seeing is, there’s a lot of fear and people wanting to maintain the status quo. But that’s going to change with or without them.

You can’t change the fact the culture is becoming more progressive. So, even though it’s a very scary time for a lot of minorities, more people are with them rather than against them.

The reality is that if it wasn’t real, if the change wasn’t happening, if the world wasn’t becoming more progressive, there wouldn’t be these death rattles of the old guard. These last power grabs. So it makes sense, even though it’s terrible.

Ryan O’Connell’s new book Just By Looking At Him is out on Tuesday 7 June.

Star Wars Defends Moses Ingram Against Racist Attacks From Obi-Wan Kenobi Viewers

Posted on 01/06/2022 by Boris Clair

After Obi-Wan Kenobi actor Moses Ingram revealed on social media the onslaught of racist harassment she’s received since the Disney+ series premiered last week, the Star Wars franchise stepped up Monday to show support for Ingram.

Moses plays Reva Sevander, also known as the Third Sister, who is hunting Obi-Wan Kenobi for Darth Vader in the new series.

The Emmy-nominated actor shared on her Instagram the hateful messages fired at her from fans of the series, including atrocious messages using the N-word and claims that she’s part of the show only as a “diversity hire.”

“There’s nothing anybody can do about this. There’s nothing anybody can do to stop this hate,” Ingram said in a video posted to her Instagram story. “I question my purposes in even being here in front of you saying that this is happening. I don’t really know.”

She spoke on the pain of being targeted by racist harassment and thanked supporters who have stuck by her: “The thing that bothers me is this feeling inside of myself, that no one has told me, but this feeling that I have to shut up and take it, that I have to grin and bear it. And I’m not built like that. So, I wanted to come on and say thank you to the people who show up for me in the comments and the places that I’m not going to put myself. And to the rest of y’all, y’all weird.”

The official social media accounts for Star Wars issued a statement late on Monday backing Moses against the abominable online attacks.

We are proud to welcome Moses Ingram to the Star Wars family and excited for Reva’s story to unfold. If anyone intends to make her feel in any way unwelcome, we have only one thing to say: we resist. pic.twitter.com/lZW0yvseBk

— Star Wars (@starwars) May 31, 2022

“We are proud to welcome Moses Ingram to the Star Wars family and excited for Reva’s story to unfold. If anyone intends to make her feel in any way unwelcome, we have only one thing to say: we resist,” the statement said.

“There are more than 20 million sentient species in the Star Wars galaxy, don’t choose to be a racist,” the message concluded.

There are more than 20 million sentient species in the Star Wars galaxy, don’t choose to be a racist.

— Star Wars (@starwars) May 31, 2022

Other actors of colour in the franchise, including Kelly Marie Train and John Boyega, also experienced toxic and racist backlash from fans when they joined the cast.

Before Obi-Wan aired on Disney+, the Baltimore actor told The Independent that executives on the show cautioned her that racist “Star Wars” trolls could be on the horizon.

“It was something that Lucasfilm actually got in front of and said, ‘This is a thing that, unfortunately, likely will happen. But we are here to help you; you can let us know when it happens,’” Moses said at the time.

She added: “‘Obi-Wan’ is going to bring the most diversity I think we’ve ever seen in the galaxy before. To me, it’s long overdue. If you’ve got talking droids and aliens but no people of color, it doesn’t make any sense. It’s 2022, you know. So we’re just at the beginning of that change. But I think to start that change is better than never having started it.”

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds actor Anson Mount also headed to social media on Tuesday to share his support for Ingram.

“This is Moses Ingram. She is a singular talent and a recent addition to the @starwars universe. She has also been targeted by racists pretending to be fans because her mere existence threatens a skewed, dystopian fantasy that selectively omits the likes of @therealbillydee and others. We, the Trek Family, have her back,” he wrote.

New episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi stream on Wednesdays on Disney+.

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Tag Archives: uktv

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