Billie Lourd: Having a lockdown pregnancy was 'wonderful'

Billie Lourd says being in lockdown whilst pregnant made the process “so magical and wonderful”, because she was able to keep it a secret from the public until her son was born.

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  • Larry King: A totemic figure of the talk-show world whose work was defined by humanism

    As fans pay tribute to the legendary TV host, Louis Chilton reflects on the qualities that made Larry King such a revered interviewer

  • I Got A Curtain Fringe — & Yes, It’s Worth The Hype

    On the scale of a fringe (or “bangs”) from baby to curtain, the latter undoubtedly takes the cake for being the most versatile. The trend, which creates curtain-like layers in front of your face, has been in high demand in salons and popular on TikTok, with the #curtainbangs hashtag amassing over five million video views. It’s also the style of choice for Chiara Wolff, Hair Me Out’s latest star. “I really want curtain bangs because I think it’s the cutest hair trend ever,” Wolff says. “I want to add some volume and bounce and give my hair some sass and attitude.” For Wolff, sass and attitude haven’t always been part of her hair’s M.O. She’s worn her hair straight and simple for most of her life, so a fringe was the perfect way to switch up her look. Wolff went to Aaron Watkins, a professional stylist in Beverly Hills, to create her curtain bangs. Watkins, who specialises in transformative haircuts, started his client’s fringe by beginning in the middle and working towards the perimeter. “I cut the curtain bangs longer and start at the chin for shock value,” he explains. “Then we’ll progressively go shorter because you can’t put it back on after you’ve cut it short.” He created a wispy fringe for Wolff that sat right above her chin, then created layers to frame her face. According to Watkins, if you’re looking for a quick upgrade with lasting impact, curtain bangs may be a good option. “You can be out in 15 to 20 minutes if you have the right stylist,” he says. “It can be a drastic change for something that’s so quick.” For Wolff, her results were a full “sassy” fringe that cascaded along her face, which looked even more stunning when styled in tousled curls. Click play to see her complete transformation. Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?My Damaged Pink Hair Transformation RevealJessie J Gave Herself A Dramatic At-Home Haircut5 Breakout Haircut Trends To Watch In 2021

  • Where are the Sabrina the Teenage Witch cast now?

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  • These Are The Highest-Rated Netflix Episodes Ever

    Though Netflix now has a “Top 10” feature, the streaming giant doesn’t yet release comprehensive viewing figures. Because of this, trying to work out the most watched Netflix shows still requires a bit of guesswork. It’s clear from social media that Bridgerton and Bling Empire are capturing viewers’ imaginations at the moment, but this doesn’t necessarily mean they’re right at the top of the Netflix charts. In fact, new data compiled by tombola reveals that the highest-rated episode of a Netflix original during the last year is… the season finale of The Queen’s Gambit. Three months after the series premiered, the chess drama’s concluding chapter has a sky-high 9.4 rating on IMDb. In fact, five of the ten highest rated Netflix episodes on IMDb are chapters of The Queen’s Gambit. Three episodes of Mindy Kaling’s coming-of-age drama Never Have I Ever make the top ten, including its season finale, which is the second highest rated Netflix episode with an 8.9 score. Check out the top ten below: 1. The Queen’s Gambit (finale) – 9.42. Never Have I Ever (finale) – 8.93. The Queen’s Gambit (ep.2) – 8.84. Never Have I Ever (ep.6) – 8.65. The Queen’s Gambit (ep.4) – 8.66. Outer Banks (ep.8) – 8.57. Never Have I Ever (ep.9) – 8.58. Sweet Magnolias (finale) – 8.59. The Queen’s Gambit (ep.3) – 8.510. The Queen’s Gambit (ep.6) – 8.5 At the other end of the spectrum, the rather underwhelming “aftershow” episode of Tiger King is the lowest rated Netflix episode. It has a score of just 5.2 on IMDb. Right behind it are four episodes of dating series Love Is Blind. 1. Tiger King (aftershow) 5.22. Love Is Blind (Pilot) 63. Love Is Blind (ep.2) 6.14. Love Is Blind (ep.3) 6.25. Love Is Blind (ep.4) 6.2 Oh, and for what’s it worth, 36.4% of IMDb users gave Bridgerton a perfect score of 10, suggesting that if you love the warmhearted period drama series, you really love it. Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?You Have 6 New Netflix Treats To BingeBridgerton Is Getting A Second SeasonThe Best Documentaries On Netflix

  • Cardi B just wore a totally see through dress to go shopping

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  • ‘Hotel quarantine’: What travellers to the UK could soon face

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  • Kelly Rowland posts video of herself twerking and exercising at 9 months pregnant

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  • Hottest front-room seats: the best theatre and dance to watch online

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  • 8 relationship goals that guarantee a happy future

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  • Mary Trump: 'I want people to understand who Uncle Donald really is'

    When Donald Trump was a bratty seven-year-old, his older brother Freddy dumped a bowl of mashed potato on his head during a particularly fractious dinner. The story became a family legend, retold at many a Trump gathering – not so much to tease the man who to many had gone on to become an even bigger brat in adulthood, as to remember and honour Freddy Trump, who died of a heart attack brought on by alcoholism at 42. The night of April 4th 2017 was no different, writes Freddy’s daughter Mary in her bestselling book, Too Much And Never Enough: How My Family Created The World’s Most Dangerous Man. Except that this family supper was the first to take place at the White House, and that boy was now President of the United States. Nevertheless when Mary’s aunt Maryanne brought up the story again, Donald was as furious as ever, listening “with his arms tightly crossed and a scowl on his face.” Even though he had made the highest office in the land, it still “upset him, as if he were that seven-year-old boy,” she says. “It was extraordinary to see what happened to him when that story was told. He clearly still felt the sting.” Ask Mary Trump what her uncle will have felt on Biden’s inauguration day, and the 55-year-old psychologist and author is in no doubt. “As though America was dumping a great pile of mashed potato on his head,” she tells me this on a Zoom call from her New York apartment. As “the only Trump who is willing to tell the world about the kind of man he is” Wednesday, she says, was “a day for me to break out the champagne.” It’s hard to believe they share the same DNA. Engaging and eloquent, Mary Trump is a fantastic interview and an accomplished writer, with an ability to see humour in the darkest of hours. Yet all levity disappears when she tells me how “the damage Donald has done to this country is incalculable. We’re just waiting to find out how much is irreparable.” And having described the horror she felt at sharing a name with the man responsible for that damage in the book, Mary Trump has come to a decision: “I am prepared to change my name if need be”, so worried she is about the connotations it may have in the future.

  • TV’s 10 most controversial moments, from Punchgate to the Tom Cruise sofa jump

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  • Prince Harry on whether he and Meghan Markle will "revisit" social media

    They signed off from their Sussex Royal Instagram account in March 2020

  • James Argent

  • Priyanka Chopra opens up about meeting Nick Jonas

    “I was shocked by his audaciousness”

  • Smell training: how to recover your sense of smell

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  • Rent Is Still Dropping In These London Areas Due To Covid

    Rents in London have fallen “significantly” for a third consecutive quarter, according to the latest report from SpareRoom. The average room rent in the capital in the final quarter of 2020 was £715 – an 8% drop from £781 a year earlier. Eight out of the ten postcodes where rents fell most sharply are in Zone 1. This reflects the fact that Covid-19 has dented the appeal of central London most severely of all. In fact, rents in EC3 (Aldgate) and SW1 (Westminster, Belgravia and Pimlico) dropped by around 25% in just 12 months. In EC2 (Bishopsgate and Cheapside) and W8 (Holland Park), they fell by around 20%. Overall, SpareRoom found that 13% of renters are planning to leave the capital after the pandemic. As Covid-19 has transformed our work and home lives, the pull of coastal towns and peaceful villages has never been greater. Rents in two other major cities, Birmingham and Manchester, fell by 6% and 5% respectively in the final quarter of 2020. The cheapest areas to rent a room in London in the final quarter were SE2 (Abbey Wood), E6 (East Ham) and N18 (Upper Edmonton). Average room rents in these areas are around the £550 mark. Check out the most and least expensive London areas to rent below. “London rents continue to fall and, as has been the case throughout the past year, it’s the expensive areas where they fall the fastest,” said SpareRoom’s director, Matt Hutchinson. “We’re now seeing the biggest drop in London room rents since spring, and there’s no immediate sign of a recovery.” Noting that “the first national lockdown made people think twice about living in cities, especially London,” Hutchinson predicted: “With another lockdown now underway it’s hard to see that changing any time soon.” He added: “In the short term it means cheaper rents for those who stay in the capital, but longer term it’s going to be more about how quickly industries like entertainment, hospitality and tourism, which London relies so heavily on, recover from the pandemic.” Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?The Most Popular Towns For London LeaversHow To Decorate Your Rented HomeRent Is Due. What If You Can't Pay?

  • 'Most Republicans shun masks' – a postcard from South Dakota, America's lockdown-free outlier

    There aren’t a lot of people in South Dakota, so it seems like there are connections between every small town and every family. It’s the US’ seventeenth largest state at 77,121 square miles, with a population around 900,000. That’s similar to the urban population of Liverpool spread across a massive area; not many residents for a large expanse, but in some ways, we’re like one community. Everyone seems to know someone who knows you. With so few people in the state, the number of Covid-19 cases has caused pain in most households. We’ve had more than 94,000 people diagnosed with the virus, meaning more than 10 per cent of the state has had it. We all know someone who died and someone who lost their job. The death toll continues to mount. As of mid-week, it was at 1,667, according to the South Dakota Department of Health. On December 21, Dr. Michael Elliot of Avera Health, along with Sanford Health, one of the two healthcare giants that dominate medical treatment in the state, said the pandemic was still rampaging across South Dakota, with 12.4 deaths per 100,000 people. “In the last seven days, South Dakota has had the highest daily reported death rates per 100,000 population of the United States,” Dr. Elliot said. Healthcare experts have been imploring people to wear masks, wash their hands and practice social distancing. South Dakota is, incidentally, one of very few states without a mask mandate; along with North Dakota, Nebraska, Mississippi, Missouri, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Idaho, Oklahoma, Florida, Arizona and Alaska. The role mask-wearing plays in controlling the spread of coronavirus remains up for debate. As 23,000 more Americans died from the coronavirus last week, setting a record for the third straight week, rates rose in eight states, compared to 40 the previous week, according to Reuters. The top five (Wyoming, Virginia, Maine, Washington and Connecticut) all have mask mandates. The three states with the most new cases (California with 277,058, Texas with 153,843 and New York with more than 106,980 new cases) also require masks in public.

  • This is why stately home staff had to watch the Bridgerton sex scenes

    They were on duty to make sure nothing got damaged

  • Prince Harry says social media is a serious threat to democracy

    “Time is running out”

  • Cheaper, easier and more romantic –why we eloped to Africa

    Love may be blind but it still has optics. Having reached an age more suited to mother-of-the-bride than bride-herself, a meringue-gown wedding and Peter Jones registry was out of the question. So I grabbed my groom and eloped to Africa. Our wedding for two at the edge of Victoria Falls slid in just under the Covid wire last year. News of the escalating crisis penetrated our safari tent flaps, alongside the butler-delivered Champagne and private pool-side lunches. Yet even before social distancing started a trend for the tiniest possible weddings, the idea of swerving the stress and expense of traditional celebrations was already gaining traction. The UK wedding industry is valued at over £10 billion a year and an average special day rings in at just over £30,000. An elopement not only damps down the chatter (handy for grooms such as mine who are already two weddings to the bad), it also cuts the costs. We cross the churling Zambezi River in a small tin boat, alighting on the sandy bank of Livingstone Island. With the bride in hot pink pleats and the groom in a natty Ted Baker suit, we were travelling in the footsteps of the intrepid. Scottish missionary David Livingstone made the same journey in 1855, viewing the precipice of the “Smoke that Thunders”. I take the hand of purple-robed Presbyterian Pastor Chris and aim for the billowing mist that rises before us like an atomic cloud. A stone’s throw from the 100m abyss, seven young men in T-shirts sway to their sonorous acapella songs in the local Tonga language. A small marquis tent is beautifully laid for lunch and an arch is adorned with ribbons and white roses. Champagne lies in icy wait while a photographer discreetly nymphs about capturing the angles. All this, and much more, comes to both of us as a grand and glorious surprise. It’s this Livingstone thunderbolt moment that underlies the joys of eloping. Giving over to the unknown, taking a leap of faith… isn’t that what getting married is? We’d asked for “the bare minimum” and – magically curated behind the scenes by the brilliant African specialists at Micato Safaris – received the full monty.