When Dame Judi Dench’s husband Michael Williams died of cancer in 2001, work became her rock. Her acting de ella was something she drowned herself in-a bid to keep her mind busy and to keep grief at bay.
For years, Dench said she never thought dating or romance would be on the cards after such a loss.
But in 2010, she met someone. A man called David Mills – a dairy farmer turned conservationist. And somehow, they clicked instantly, so much so, that they’ve been an item ever since.
But don’t ever call David Mills Judi Dench’s boyfriend or partner. Because she doesn’t like that.
A poll was once conducted in the UK that found the Queen had been overtaken by Dench as the “most popular and respected woman in Britain”. And it appears that sentiment has continued throughout the years.
Here’s everything we know about Judi Dench’s life.
Watch Judi Dench answer questions from famous fans. Post continues below.
Judith Olivia Dench was born in 1934, in North Yorkshire, England. She had an Irish mother and an English father.
From a young age, Dench knew the stage was where she wanted to be. After high school, she went on to study at the Central School Of Speech And Drama. By 23, she had hit the jackpot, cementing herself in the Shakespeare realm.
By the ’60s, Dench was starring in films. And so too was Michael Williams.
The pair had shared the screen on multiple occasions, as well as both being promising young stars in the Royal Shakespeare Company. But it wasn’t until a decade later that they fell in love and began a relationship.
When Judi left for a six-week tour of Australia, Michael followed and proposed. “Ask me on a rainy night in Battersea, and I’ll think about it,” she replied.
By 1971, they were married after his second go at proposing was successful. The next year, they welcomed their only child, daughter Tara Cressida Williams, known as Finty. When Finty was born, Dench figured she would slow down with her work de ella in order to focus on raising her child. But reflecting on that time, Dench said that Williams urged her not to give her career up.
The Hungarian Grand Prix weekend delivered excitement in spades, from Max Verstappen’s stunning victory to a hatful of midfield overtakes, Ferrari’s tire woes and Mercedes making it back-to-back double podiums. But with strategy dilemmas amid the ever-changing conditions, the airwaves were filled with questions from some rather confused drivers.
Charles Leclerc managed a deft manoeuvre in the wet to avoid a crash, but Sebastian Vettel wasn’t so lucky and had to apologize to his team after crashing in final practice, while Verstappen cut an extremely frustrated figure when power issues saw him qualify P10 for the race – not that hampered him much on Sunday.
READ MORE: ‘We made all the right calls’ says Verstappen, as he pulls off spin-and-win in Hungary to extend lead to 80 points
Daniel Ricciardo was relishing his afternoon’s work when he overtook both Alpines at the same time, but earned the ire of Lance Stroll when the two collided later on. Yuki Tsunoda was left confused by his spin on him, Fernando Alonso was frustrated with his team’s tire choice and Lewis Hamilton enjoyed his afternoon as he rose from P7 on the grid to second at the flag.
To listen to all of those radio clips and more, hit play on the video above.
Federal parliament will hammer out key details of what an Indigenous Voice to parliament will look like and when a national vote is held, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says, in a shift from his position that much of the detail would happen after a referendum.
He has indicated the model for the Voice outlined by Professors Marcia Langton and Tom Calma in a 2021 report to the former Morrison government will be central to the debate and design.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during a press conference at Parliament House in CanberraCredit:alex ellinghausen
Last Saturday, Albanese announced Australians would be asked whether they supported or opposed enshrining an Indigenous Voice in the constitution, and the three sentences that would be added to what he dubbed Australia’s “birth certificate”.
On Sunday, the prime minister said much of the detail about the structure of the Voice would not be known until after the referendum was held as he wanted to avoid a repeat of the failed republic referendum in 1999 when opponents were looking at the detail of the proposal “and saying, ‘well, if you disagree with these 50 clauses, if you disagree with one out of the 50 but 49 are okay, vote no. We’re not doing that.”
But on Wednesday Albanese said he wanted to give Australians space to “walk on this journey” and discuss the proposed referendum – which the government has indicated it would like to hold before the 2025 election – and confirmed more detail would be available about the proposed model before a vote.
“I respect people having different views on this. I want a national conversation… what I did on Saturday was provide a framework for the conversation to enable it to move forward,” he said.
“We will need a referendum, legislation has to occur for that to advance, there will be a debate in the parliament as well. Inevitably, as part of that debate, there will be discussion about the extensive work of Marcia Langton and Tom Calma, extensive debate, about what a Voice to parliament might look like in terms of regional structures.”
“A particular model [has] been put forward by them that envisages a national model, but also with equal representation of male and female representatives. Particular quarantining of representation to ensure remote communities are represented and a regional structure as well… that will be advanced during the legislative debate. It will determine, when it is clearer, what an appropriate date for a referendum should be.”
For months, Republicans have been telling anybody who would listen that this is the year they will end their power outage in Albany. They cite violent crime and inflation, an apparent lack of enthusiasm for Gov. Hochul and a national fury over the failures of the Biden administration.
Despite those advantages, there’s been little evidence so far that the GOP could free New York from the Dem stranglehold. A Tuesday poll begins to change that.
Hochul leads Republican Lee Zeldin by just 14 points, 53-39, in the Siena College survey. While 14 points is hardly a cliffhanger, it compares very favorably to 2014. At this stage of that race, incumbent Andrew Cuomo led GOP nominee Rob Astorino by 32 points in a race Cuomo won by 14.
Moreover, Zeldin, who has represented a Long Island district in Congress since 2015, effectively begins with the 40% high-water mark of any GOP gubernatorial candidate in the last four elections. (George Pataki was the last Republican governor, winning his third term in 2002).
Republican candidate for Governor Lee Zeldin smiles with his family at home in Shirley, New York. Tamara Beckwith
So closing a 14-point gap with more than three months until Election Day is certainly doable, especially given the political environment and Hochul’s uneven performance.
Zeldin, in a phone interview, sees many greenshoots in the new survey and says his internal poll has him even closer.
“This is important for our team,” he says. “The next poll should show us gaining even more momentum.”
A new poll shows Zeldin’s race is much closer with Gov. Kathy Hochul than other recent GOP gubernatorial candidates have been.Lev Radin/Pacific Press/Shutterstock
The Siena survey is the most important since the primaries ended and is based on likely voters, as opposed to registered. It shows both candidates having a firm grasp on their party, with Zeldin holding a narrow lead among independents.
A missing piece is that, other than gun control and abortion, the poll does not ask about specific issues. Nor does it ask voters to rank the issues most important to them.
Zeldin has no doubts about what the answers would be to a ranking question.
“When we ask, a large majority answer either crime or the economy as the top issue,” he says. “And we believe that the election will be dominated by voters most concerned about those two things.”
His campaign has zeroed in on those targets and his pledge to fire Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Day One has become a signature promise. He accuses Hochul of “giving cover” to Bragg and other soft-on-crime prosecutors.
“She tries way too hard to avoid talking about the key issues,” he insists. He cites Mayor Adams’ request for a special legislative session to deal with crime and the bail-law mess that has seen repeat offenders let go before cops finish the paperwork.
Zeldin pledged to come for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg if he were elected. Steve Hirsch
Hochul, while voicing support for fellow-Dem Adams, has done almost nothing to help him stem the bloodshed and mayhem in Gotham.
Zeldin was attacked during a recent speech by a troubled former veteran, an incident that probably helped him gain some name recognition and even sympathy.
He knows his pro-life stance puts him at a disadvantage with many voters after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. But he notes that a law offering even more abortion protections than Roe already exists in New York and believes that social issues as a whole will take a back seat to the crime wave engulfing much of the state, along with the soaring cost of living. He is also pushing for tax cuts and more school choice.
In addition to his own efforts, the redistricting process that ended up in the courts and led to nonpartisan maps gives GOP candidates a chance to improve upon the seven congressional seats they now hold, which should help increase turnout for the ticket.
Meanwhile, Hochul’s tenure has been mystifying in a fundamental way. Even though she was Cuomo’s running mate and lieutenant governor Lieut. Gov. for eight years, she was able to escape any blame in the sexual-harassment scandal that led to Cuomo’s resignation by claiming she wasn’t close to him.
She was right about that, and her distance led to hopes she would bring ethics and new openness to Albany, where everything important happens in back rooms.
Those hopes were quickly dashed as Hochul inexplicably copied some of Cuomo’s worst habits. No sooner had she taken the oath than she began speed-dialing her donors for big-bucks contributions.
An attacker grabs Zeldin as he delivered a speech in Perinton, New York on July 21. WHEC-TV/AP
And her penchant for secrecy in negotiating big government deals with donors is so Cuomo-like that it seems as if he’s still calling the shots.
Perhaps most shocking, her first pick to replace her, state Sen. Brian Benjamin, was already taught in a federal corruption probe. Much of Albany apparently knew something was up—but not Hochul. Benjamin has since been indicted and resigned.
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In some ways, statewide elections in New York are a jigsaw puzzle of competing dominance. Republicans win most of the 62 counties and do especially well upstate, but Dems run up the score by capturing the cities and the most populated suburbs.
Zeldin has a plan for that. He sees getting 29% as the bare necessity in the five boroughs and believes he will top that margin easily, in part by attracting large numbers of Asian and Latino voters concerned about crime.
“If a Republican gets less than 29% in the city, it’s hard to win,” he tells me. “But if you get to 35% or 36%, it’s hard to lose.”
He also says he needs 60% of Suffolk County, his base, 55% of Nassau County and just 43% of Westchester. In fact, he has a target for each county and, in his mind, is assembling a campaign that will put him over the top across the board.
Zeldin speaks to delegates and assembled party officials at the 2022 NYGOP on March 1. John Minchillo/AP
As usual, there is another hurdle for the underdog—money. Zeldin raised $13 million for the contested primary and spent nearly all of it. He has a full schedule of fundraisers, but he does not pretend to believe he’ll have Hochul’s big bucks.
Incumbency has its advantages.
Party’s For’word’ folly
Reader Joe Alloy asks “What’s in a name” and answers his own question. He writes: “Andrew Yang and Christine Todd Whitman have started a 3rd party called The Forward Party.
“Has anyone told them that ‘Forward’ was a Marxist slogan which reflected the march of history beyond capitalism and into socialism and communism? Or are they just showing us who they really are?”
AP Headline: Biden Covid sequel: back on balcony, dog for company
Alternative headline: Biden finally has a friend!
It’s ‘bench’ press time
Reader Christian Browne has a question and an idea, writing: “Mayor Adams has a Criminal Justice Coordinator. Where is this person? This office should have the stats on the judges, on the bail/no-bail releases and on these ridiculous diversion programs.
“Adams could use the facts to highlight the rate of recidivist offenders. I bet he would find these programs — the ‘alternatives to incarceration’ — are largely to blame for the revolving door.”
A portrait of Australian actor and cancer charity campaigner Samuel Johnson by Jeremy Eden has won the 2022 Archibald prize people’s choice award.
Eden, a Sydney-based artist, first met Johnson over video in 2021 while the actor was recovering from a near-fatal car accident. Eden then flew to Melbourne for a live sitting with Johnson, before returning to Sydney where he painted for up to six hours a day for 10 weeks to complete the portrait.
The men bonded over their shared experience of losing close family members to cancer. Johnson, who founded the cancer research charity Love Your Sister with his late sister Connie before she passed away in 2017, encouraged Eden to include his own story of him in the painting; the portrait shows Johnson holding a photograph of Eden’s mother Annette, who passed away from cancer in 2008.
Eden, who wins a $5,000 prize, said it was “an honour”.
“This painting has been one I have been thinking about and wanting to make for 10 years,” he said. “Sam is a storyteller at heart, and it was really important to find a way to share my own narrative while still capturing Sam’s character and emotion from him in the portrait.
Jeremy Eden’s Samuel Johnson OAM, oil on canvas. Photograph: Felicity Jenkins/AGNSW, Jenni Carter
“It is inspiring to see what Sam and the team at Love Your Sister have accomplished, having raised so much money for cancer research. I’ve followed Sam’s journey from him with the charity for many years and it’s a privilege to be able to contribute in my own way. It is amazing to be a finalist in the Archibald prize but knowing the painting has resonated with so many people makes the experience even more meaningful.”
Love Your Sister has raised more than $15m in support of cancer research. In 2016, Johnson was awarded the Order of Australia Medal, for his service to cancer research and performing arts.
Johnson called Eden “exceptionally talented.”
“He is an extraordinary storyteller, he has a huge heart and deserves this acknowledgment so fully. To win the Archibald prize you have to satisfy a select group of people who really know their stuff. To win the people’s choice takes in the votes of everyone who sees the exhibition. The people have spoken and they loved Jeremy the most,” he said.
“Wow and phwoar. I’m stupidly happy for Jeremy. Such a well-deserved triumph.”
Maud Page, the Art Gallery of New South Wales’s deputy director and director of collections, said the portrait was a clear crowd favorite among visitors to the annual Archibald exhibition.
“We congratulate Jeremy Eden on capturing the hearts of our visitors with his powerful portrait of Samuel Johnson,” Page said.
Born in Sydney in 1988, Eden completed a bachelor of fine art at Queensland College of Art in 2015. He was also nominated for the Archibald prize in 2021, for his portrait of another actor, Firass Dirani.
First awarded in 1988, the people’s choice category this year was voted on by more than 35,000 people, the highest ever number of votes cast in the history of the category.
In May, the acclaimed Dhungatti artist Blak Douglas won the $100,000 Archibald prize for his portrait of Wiradjuri artist Karla Dickens, titled Moby Dickens, making him the second Indigenous Australian winner in 101 years, after Vincent Namatjira in 2020.
And Claus Stangl’s portrait of film-maker Taika Waititi won the packing room prize, which is judged by gallery staff who hang the entries each year.
National record holder Peter Bol has ignored a pre-race injury scare to cruise into the men’s 800 meter final at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
Key points:
Bol is the fastest qualifier for the final with a time of 1:47.01
He says he was not troubled by a rolled ankle in the lead-up to his heat
Bol was seventh at the recent world championships
Bol rolled his ankle when stepping on the curb at the training track on Tuesday.
But the threat of injury did not hamper the Australian in his 800m heat on Wednesday night AEST.
Bol went to the lead with 250 meters to run and enjoyed the luxury of easing right down in the final straight before crossing the line first in one minute and 47.01 seconds.
After clocking the fastest qualifying time, Bol now has a full four days to reset ahead of the final, where he will be among the gold-medal favourites.
“I rolled my ankle yesterday and I was limping on the way back and today I’m perfectly fine, so it’s a massive thanks to the medical team at Athletics Australia,” said Bol, who was fourth at the Tokyo Olympics.
“I wasn’t playing basketball, I promise.
“I just rolled it on the curb at the track. That’s the first time ever.”
After finishing a disappointing seventh in the final at the recent world championships in Eugene, Bol was thrilled to get the tactics just right in his Birmingham heat.
“I always say it’s a strange race, the 800, because it’s so unpredictable,” he said.
“You can have a game plan but it’s out the window by the time you start the race.
“You’ve almost just got to get the automatic [qualifier]cover the moves and just run, just like you do at training.”
Getting the chance to ease up well before the finish line was also a major bonus.
“To be honest that did feel easy and I enjoyed that a lot,” Bol said.
“It’s awesome to come back from worlds where it was a disappointing final, come back here, be in amazing shape and be able to switch off like that.”
Fellow Australian and 2021 NCAA 800m champion Charlie Hunter was eliminated after finishing fifth in the opening heat in 1:49.94.
She said that “the government’s integrity record is arguably worse than Guy’s” and that “many will be confused about where to place their vote”.
The government continued its attack on Guy on Wednesday, while the Coalition accused Labor of hypocrisy and attempting to deflect from its own integrity problems. Deputy Premier Jacinta Allan said Guy needed to “come clean … about his role in this extraordinary secret arrangement that would have sought to subvert the strict donation laws in our state.”
Jonathan Munz pictured at Inglis Easter yearling sale in 2008.Credit:Martin King
Several Liberal sources said Frost, an ally of former federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg, was the frontrunner to replace Catlin as Guy’s chief of staff.
Frost, who last year unsuccessfully contested a position in the Senate, previously ran the Victorian state division of the Liberal Party. Jackson Whiteley, a former staff member at federal Liberal MP Michael Sukkar’s office, was also in contention, but may join the office in another role.
Victorian Liberal president Robert Clark and state director Simon Frost (right) in 2019.Credit:Chris Hopkins
Catlin unsuccessfully sought payments from Munz in addition to his publicly funded salary, according to a leaked email to Guy’s private Hotmail account and a proposed contract obtained by TheAge.
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“Hey MG. Attached is the proposed agreement between [the donor] and Catchy Media Marketing and Management,” Catlin wrote. “It’s as per the original email agreement between you and me. Can I leave you to forward onto him?”
Guy on Wednesday refused to provide further details about the proposal because it was being assessed by authorities including Victoria Police, the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC), the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) and the Victorian Ombudsman.
When questioned on Wednesday about the chain of events, Guy said he was unaware of key details.
In the email reported by The Age, Catlin asked Guy to “forward” the contract to Munz. Guy said he did not do this and was unaware about how the contract was put to Munz. The businessman’s camp said Catlin forwarded the email “unsolicited”.
“I hadn’t responded to or forwarded any emails. That’s what it comes down to,” Guy said.
The Coalition leader said he could not explain why Munz rejected the arrangement because he did not have any conversations with the donor about the proposal. “I haven’t spoken to either of the two about that and I don’t intend to because nothing was signed,” he said.
On Tuesday, Guy admitted he had discussed with Catlin how to secure more money to employ him, but decided against doing so. He did not answer a question on Wednesday about whether the proposal would have breached donation laws. He has also not explained what was meant by Catlin when he wrote to Guy saying the contract was “as per the original email agreement between you and me”.
The MP claimed every employee in his office was “entirely” paid out of the regular fund with “not a single amount topped up”. Catlin’s salary increased from the initial level of $140,000 after some staff left the opposition leader’s office and were not replaced, or were replaced by lesser-paid staff, a senior Liberal source told The Age.
Guy said on Wednesday that he knew Munz, a plumbing supplies baron and horse racing figure. “I’ve met him a couple of times… but I certainly haven’t had this conversation with him,” he said.
In a written statement, Munz said on Tuesday: “I do not know how many people received this unsolicited and unwanted email, but when I got it, I rejected it out of hand.” Munz declined to comment further on Wednesday.
Jacinta Allan with Daniel Andrews.Credit:Paul Jeffers
A spokeswoman for the VEC, who on Tuesday announced it was inquiring into whether the proposal was designed to circumvent donation laws, said she would “welcome anyone who wishes to come forward and provide us with information that they have regarding the matters raised.”
“It is difficult to provide a timeframe at this early stage of any investigation, as there are multiple lines of inquiry,” she said.
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The 80-year-old California liquor store owner caught on video opening fire at a would-be robber with a shotgun is now speaking out, saying “I did a lot of hunting when I was a little kid.”
The incident early Sunday at Norco Market & Liquor in Norco, just east of Los Angeles, prompted the armed suspect to run out of his business screaming “he shot my arm off!”
“I would always protect my employees, my customers, myself. This instance, fortunately, I was here by myself, so I only had to worry about that. I took care of it and that was that,” the store’s owner, identified by CBS LA as Craig Cope, told the station.
“I did a lot of hunting when I was a little kid,” he added. “I’d put food on the table. So, I still remember things from a long time ago.”
ELDERLY CALIFORNIA STORE OWNER FIRES AT ARMED ROBBERY SUSPECT WHO SHOUTS, ‘HE SHOT MY ARM OFF!’
Two of the armed suspects police say they have taken into custody following the attempted robbery at a liquor store in Norco, Calif., on Sunday, July 31. (Riverside County Sheriff’s Office)
Cope also told CBS LA that he thinks “more people should vote and vote the right way, and I think the politicians… this isn’t going to get me on the right side of a lot of people, but there’s a whole lotta people out there, they got no clue what it’s like to try to run a small business.
EMERGING CRIME CAPITALS OF AMERICA: THESE CITIES HAVE THE HIGHEST MURDERS PER CAPITA
“And when they’re letting people out… and we’ve got bad people, let’s face it. There’s bad people, bad people we don’t need. We need to get them locked up because this is a scary situation when that happens,” he also said. “Everybody works hard. They got bills to pay. These guys are going to come in and take it away from you. Not here.”
The liquor store in Southern California where the attempted robbery unfolded (Google Maps)
The 23-year-old gunman seen in surveillance footage wielding a rifle – who has not been publicly identified – was later tracked down at a local hospital “suffering from a gunshot wound consistent with a shotgun blast,” according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office .
He remains in critical but stable condition and will be booked into jail upon his release.
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Three other police men say were inside a getaway vehicle at the time of the attempted robbery are in custody and are facing charges of robbery and conspiracy.
Cope, meanwhile, returned to work Tuesday after suffering a heart attack following the shooting, according to media reports.
Today, Pinterest has released a new app on iOS called Shuffles — a collage-style social app where users can create a digital mood board and collaborate with others on the platform, TechCrunch reports. As of today, Shuffles is available via invite, but you can request to be on the app’s wait list.
In the standard Pinterest experience, users have the option to save their content, create photo libraries of their pins, and also browse. The app has a number of built-in photo editing features like Cut Out to isolate single objects in a particular photo, Collage to overlap photos and mesh your ideas together, and Animate to put visual effects on objects.
According to TechCrunch, the app hails from Pinterest’s TwoTwenty incubator, which was also behind the Pinterest TV live shopping effort last fall. Shuffles seems like a natural creative spinoff for the app to help users have more control over their ideas outside of just creating “idea pins.” Pinterest isn’t the only one working on the concept lately. In October 2021, Adobe announced its Canvas platform for people to share and collaborate on a mood board in its Creative Cloud suite — with the ability to make changes to each other’s work.
After 37 years on air, Aussie soap Neighbors ended last week – and many tuned in to see some of the early stars of the show make their reappearance.
Fans especially couldn’t wait to see Scott and Charlene – aka Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue – return to Ramsay Street.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE:Neighbors star explains his changed appearance
For more TV related news and videos check out TV >>
But they appeared only briefly, parking their red Mini on Ramsay Street before getting out and admiring their old home, then appearing later at Toadie’s wedding.
The pair was given next to no dialogue – in fact, Minogue spoke only five words all episode, three of which were “home sweet home.”
The other two? “Jane” and “Harold”.
Memes and jokes began flying: was Minogue being paid by the word and charging an exorbitant rate for each?
Having lived in the UK for so long, was her accent now too posh for mechanic Charlene?
Was she actually a DeepFake?
Were she and Donovan having trouble remembering their lines?
Now and then: Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan in Neighbors. Credit: AAP/Twitter
The answer to all these questions is no, according to the show’s executive producer, Jason Herbison.
Herbison told TV Tonight that Minogue and Donovan didn’t want to overshadow some of the more recent cast members in the finale.
And the timing of their “secret shoot” meant it had to stand apart from any of the finale’s various story threads.
“Our discussions with Jason (Donovan) and Kylie were always about making a small appearance,” he said.
“They didn’t want to overshadow the current cast or make the finale about them.
“We also filmed their scenes before I’d written the episode, so whatever we filmed had to fit in with that.”
That meant they couldn’t be part of any bigger plot line in the finale.
“I hate to see Kylie coping with any criticism – she was nothing short of amazing on the day,” Herbison said.
The producer also quashed rumors that sets at the Nunawading film site in Melbourne were being demolished.
“We haven’t made any decisions about the sets and nothing has been demolished,” Herbison said.
“We are in the fortunate position of having the Nunawading studios for several more months and we will be using the site for other productions.
“This gives us plenty of time to make provisions.”
It begs the question: Could a Neighbors museum be in the works?
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Passengers crawl into baggage carousel hatch to grab suitcases after delays
Passengers crawl into baggage carousel hatch to grab suitcases after delays
