Rick Jones dead: Presenter of BBC children's TV show Fingerbobs dies aged 84

Anna Tingley If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission.Festivals across the country have slowly begun to announce their star-studded lineups for the year, signaling that it’s almost time for music lovers to begin switching out their winter coats for rave gear.Harry Styles, Billie Eilish and Kanye West will take the stage this year at Coachella, which finally returns after a two year-long hiatus amidst the pandemic. The festival will take place at its usual stomping grounds at the Empire Polo Ground in Indio, Calif., which will host Stagecoach the following weekend with Thomas Rhett, Carrie Underwood and Luke Combs headlining.The Goldenvoice events made headlines  after announcing their lift of Covid-19 vaccine and mask mandates — health and safety requirements that are still in place for many other music festivals slated for this year, such as New York City’s Governors Ball.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentTarak Ben Ammar has finalized his acquisition of the Studios of Paris, the vast studio facility located on the outskirts of Paris where Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler are currently filming Netflix’s “Murder Mystery 2.” The deal is estimated in the $35-million range.Ben Ammar, who co-founded the Studios with “Valerian” director Luc Besson a decade ago and owned a 25-percent stake in it, completed the acquisition via Eagle Pictures France, a subsidiary of the Italian production and distribution powerhouse.The businessman has taken full ownership of the Studios from its shareholders, including Besson, who owned a 9.9% stake in the complex through his holding company Frontline. The other shareholders who are set to exit the studios are EuropaCorp, Besson’s former production banner which is now mainly owned by Vine Alternative and has a 40% stake in the property, as well as Euromedia, a broadcast facilities provider who has a 25% stake.

Amber Dowling The Season 1 finale of HBO Max’s “Peacemaker” blew away the TV competition to earn the top spot on Variety’s Trending TV chart for the week of Feb. 14 to 20.

Super Pumped: A Battle for Uber, an adaption of tech reporter and author Mike Issac's book based on the rise and fall of Uber CEO and co-founder Travis Kalanick. Starring as the infamous tech-bro, the impressive cast and crew also features award-winning talent in the likes of , Hank Azaria, Elizabeth Shue, and Quentin Tarantino in a narrator role.This is part of Showtime's new anthology series, Super Pumped, with a season two already in the works that will be focused on the working relationship between Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg.Read on for all the details on the new series that captures the messy story of the well-known ride-sharing app.What can be best described as a “ripped from the headlines” moment, the series' eight episodes will focus on the true story of the founder, with an emphasis on the powerful business folk who worked alongside the popular ride-sharing app.

Angelique Jackson MGM’s “Creed III” has partnered with the Georgia Film Academy (GFA) to hire eight student interns to work on the boxing drama, which marks star Michael B. Jordan’s directorial debut.“On behalf of Michael and the filmmaking team for ‘Creed III,’ we are thrilled to welcome Georgia Film Academy students into our ‘Creed’ family,” said Elizabeth Raposo, president of Jordan’s Outlier Society.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterAziz Ansari has been appointed to direct an untitled comedic-drama for Searchlight Pictures. He will co-star in the movie with Bill Murrary.Ansari, who created the Netflix series “Master of None,” is making his feature directorial debut.

The brand new trailer for “The Man Who Fell to Earth” has been released, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Naomie Harris.

The Joogsquad set the “AGT: Extreme” stage ablaze.

Meet Us in the Metaverse? As celebrities continue to explore this new age of technology, one power player in Hollywood is standing out by creating an NFT (non-fungible token) with a feel-good factor.

Oops! Rosie O’Donnell publicly apologized to Priyanka Chopra Jonas after she “mistakenly thought” that she was the daughter of author Deepak Chopra.

Aziz Ansari (Master of None, Parks and Recreation) is making his feature directorial debut with an untitled dramedy for Searchlight, based on the 2014 non-fiction book Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by surgeon Atul Gawande, in which he’ll star alongside Oscar nominee Bill Murray (The French Dispatch, Lost in Translation), Deadline has confirmed.

Jane “Nightbirde” Marczewski’s family posted one of the last videos that the America’s Got Talent star had taken before her death on Instagram on Tuesday February 22. The video featured Nightbirde laying in bed and talking about how important it is to embrace feelings of sadness and loss shortly before her tragic passing at age 31 on February 20, following a battle with breast cancer. 

Peppa Pig may be made of pork, but she’s got beef with a lot of people. The British animated piglet of the long-running children’s series has fought with Adele, Kanye West, and more famous stars over the years. The reasons for the drama vary, but in each instance, Peppa Pig didn’t hold back against her celebrity opponent. Peppa is also a musician extraordinaire, so her feuds tend to be with notable figures in the music industry. Below, HollywoodLife has rounded up every celebrity that’s fought with Peppa Pig and how the drama got resolved — if ever.

The Kooks have been announced as headliners for Thursday and will join previously announced headliners, Courteeners, Blossoms and Stereophonics.Speaking about their headline slot, The Kooks frontman Luke Pritchard said: ​​“We’re really excited to be headlining Y Not Festival this year on the Thursday night.“This is our first time playing Y Not, so we can’t wait to see you all and celebrate its return after two years away. We’re gonna start the weekend early with the biggest party ever!”Joining them in the new wave of acts announced will be Jake Bugg, KELIS, Amy McDonald, The Hunna, Lucy Spraggan and more.

The Tinder Swindler could reportedly soon be turned into a feature film courtesy of Netflix.According to Variety, the streaming giant is in early talks with producers about turning the hit documentary into a dramatisation about Israeli conman Shimon Hayut who swindled a number of women out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.Netflix declined to comment on the development of the film at the time of writing, the tone of which remains unclear.Hayut gave a new interview yesterday (February 21), in which he claimed the women in the Netflix documentary “weren’t conned”.“I’m not this monster,” Hayut said of the claims of The Tinder Swindler. “I was just a single guy that wanted to meet some girls on Tinder.”Victims Cecilie Fjellhøy, Ayleen Koeleman and Pernilla Sjoholm recently set up a GoFundMe page to raise money to repay their debts after being conned.“You’re probably here because you’ve heard about our story, and we appreciate you taking the time to search and find this page,” they wrote.

It’s official: Wendy Williams will be leaving The Wendy Williams Show in the fall, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The iconic daytime TV show ran for 14 seasons on Fox Networks during the 10 a.m. slot. Williams has been periodically absent from the show dealing with health problems and focusing on her recovery. The question is, who will replace her?

Florence + The Machine have shared a clip of new music over on TikTok – you can listen to it below.It comes after the band updated their website and confirmed their forthcoming return earlier today (February 22).Their website shows fifteen cards, one of which is the ‘King’ card, which was sent out to fans. The remaining fourteen are currently face-down.

Dragons' Den star Steven Bartlett has rekindled his romance with a French wellness entrepreneur following a very romantic gesture. The Diary of a CEO podcast host, 29, who previously revealed in the trailer for the BBC One show that he was a 'single 28 year old guy trying to find a girlfriend', confirmed at The London Palladium on Monday that he was in a relationship with the stunning Melanie Vaz Lopes.

After watching documentary Finding Derek on ITV, an American doctor offered to help.Kate was hesitant to reveal more information as she didn’t want to give “false hope” to people in a similar boat.But she added that she was desperate to give a “happy ending” to the story."For Derek mainly, but also for everybody who asks me every day how he’s getting on,” she said.Derek’s treatment was first shown in the ITV show Finding Derek which aired in 2021.The latest update on Derek’s health will be showcased in the form of a new ITV documentary.The show is called Caring For Derek and serves as a follow-up to the award-winning 2021 documentary.Caring For Derek airs tonight at 9pm on ITV.

Coronation Street fans think they have worked out a new twist on the ITV soap after Max Turner confessed to Daniel Osbourne that he accidentally spiked Amy Barlow's drink. Only recently, Amy collapsed at a night club after attending the school's Valentine's Dance with her new boyfriend Jacob Hay wrongly blamed for her drink being spiked.

Having your drink spiked is not a new phenomenon, though it's certainly sinister and yet another thing for us all to fear while enjoying a night out with friends.  For many years women have feared being drugged by someone – usually for predatory sexual purposes – by having a liquid or pill slipped into their drink. But, in the past few months, it’s become apparent that spiking has also been happening to victims via injections – often in public places such as bars.  Shockingly there have been almost 1,400 incidents of needle spiking reported in the UK in just five months, and police warned last month there was a dangerous “new phenomenon” of needle spiking.