Did you know that Hollywood blockbusters are more likely to have a man named Chris or a talking animal in the lead role than a woman over 60?

This rather depressing little titbit is thanks to a new study from the UK’s Centre for Ageing Better. Researchers analysed the highest-grossing films across 2023-2025 and found that actors named “Chris” (including Pratt and Hemsworth) starred in 6% of movies. Women over 60 had leading roles in just 5%.

67-year-old British actor/queen of the universe Emma Thompson called older women “compelling, relatable and overdue for centre stage,” while the centre’s CEO Carole Easton called the findings “absolutely ludicrous”.

Easton has urged the public to push back against ageism and sexism in media, and it’s a call to arms Susan Boyle must have heard over in Scotland, because the singer has teased a new era at age 65.

Boyle, who shot to fame in 2009 when she Dreamed a Dream on Britain’s Got Talent, has wiped her socials, teasing a career comeback (and an extremely fierce makeover) on Instagram.

I’ve got two words for you: Diva. Bob.

“It’s such an important time for people to invest in physical media… things are coming down all the time and it’s like ‘Oh, I love that movie, I want to see it.’ You just can’t, babe, it doesn’t exist… And so, we’re really hoping to make a Hacks DVD box set… Not because we make any money off of it. We just want to make sure the show stays in existence for as long as DVD players exist.”
Lucia Aniello, one of Hacks’ three co-creators, speaking to Deadline ahead of this week’s series finale. Joined by her colleagues Paul W. Downs and Jen Statsky, Aniello discussed their show’s legacy in an uncertain streaming landscape. After five glorious seasons, the last ever episode of Hacks will be available to stream on Stan from 12pm this Friday (AEST). I have a feeling I’ll be nursing a Madison Square Garden-sized hole in my heart this weekend.

100,000
The record-breaking attendance figure for this year’s Sydney Writers’ Festival (SWF). Organisers called it the most successful SWF in the event’s 29-year history. “More than 100,000 people attended the Festival’s 200+ events featuring over 250 writers and thinkers,” SWF said.

She can sing, she can act, she can dance and, apparently, manifest. Almost a year to the day since releasing her single “Walk of Fame,” Miley Cyrus has received her official star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Anya Taylor-Joy and Donatella Versace honoured the singer at the ceremony, which was also attended by Miley’s mum, sister, and fiancé. The 33-year-old said she hopes her music “continues to affect the hearts of generations to come”.

Each year, directors, producers, actors, buyers from film studios and, most importantly, critics and journalists (😘) descend on the French Riviera, for the Cannes Film Festival – two weeks of non-stop premieres and parties.

While critics and journos watch new movies and talk to the actors and directors involved, a jury of filmmakers are deciding which films are the best of the fest, including the one that gets the coveted Palme d’Or. (Nice work if you can get it? No, Nice is further up the coast! 🥁)

Now that the annual festival has wrapped up for another year, we can start speculating about which films will dominate the next awards season and light up movie-lovers’ group chats.

Let’s start with the film that won this year’s top gong: Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord.

The 2026 Cannes jury was headed by legendary director Park Chan-Wook (Oldboy, The Handmaiden), and included actors Demi Moore, Ruth Negga, and Stellan Skarsgård, and director Chloé Zhao (who is coincidentally speaking at Sydney’s State Theatre tonight as part of Vivid’s Creative Trailblazers series. Some last minute ticks still available here.)

Park said the jury’s opinions “generally aligned” on their favourites, and “getting to that final decision didn’t take that long”.

The jury gave the Palme d’Or to Fjord, Romanian director Cristian Mungiu’s first English-language film (he’s made several in Romanian). Starring Sebastian Stan (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) and Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value), the film centres on a Christian Romanian family who move to Norway.

Park said the jury was made up of diverse personalities, and that they had chosen a film that was about respecting the diversity of the world.

Is it actually good, though? We don’t know - no one outside of the Cannes film festival has seen it yet. That will change in a couple of weeks when it screens at the Sydney Film Festival, but bad luck if you don’t already have a ticket. Currently, all the screenings are sold out.

While some had predicted the Russian film Minotaur would take the Palme, there was one big indicator that it would go to Fjord, and that’s the film distributor which picked it up.

A quick note of context: One of the functions of the Cannes festival is to show films to companies that could buy the rights to release them, managing their publicity and signing deals with cinemas to show them.

Film distribution company NEON has bought the rights to the Palme winner for the last seven consecutive years, from Parasite in 2019 through to, you guessed it, Fjord in 2026. Parasite and Anora (the 2024 Palme d’Or winner) went on to win Best Picture at the Oscars too.

For every Pulp Fiction and Shrek (yes, seriously) to premiere at Cannes, there are dozens of wonderfully weird movies at the festival that will never make a splash at the box office.

If you want to expand your film knowledge with a Cannes classic but aren’t ready to watch something too off the beaten path, here are four films you can watch this weekend that all won the festival’s top prize:

Brief Encounter (1945) - SBS On Demand, free with ads

The Conversation (1974) - Foxtel Now; pay to rent or buy on Prime, Apple TV

Anatomy of a Fall (2023) - SBS On Demand, free with ads; Mubi subscription

It Was Just An Accident (2025) - pay to rent or buy on Prime, Apple TV, YouTube

Cannes-tribution by Lucy Tassell.

Your new skincare era starts here

No7's Good Intent range is the glass skin shortcut your routine's been missing. The UK's #1 skincare brand has built a 12-piece collection around the textures and results your feed keeps serving you: think bouncy jelly masks, whipped creams and the kind of dewy, lit-from-within finish that actually sticks around.

Hydration-first formulas, fast visible results, and every single product under $30. Whether you're streamlining a multi-step routine or just starting one, Good Intent makes great skin feel easy.

“I’m a Celebrity Get Me Off the Air!” is a terrible joke I made in our weekly culture pitch meeting this week, after Network 10 cancelled its reality staple after 12 seasons.

The axing of the competition series, which sees a bunch of Aussie ‘celebrities’ (a word I use very loosely in this context) competing to survive in the jungle, comes off the back of a tough couple of years for the network.

From cancelled shows to a takeover from a foreign conglomerate, 10 is in even more turmoil, with its broadcast licenses set to be dropped in parts of the country.

For a long time, media commentators have predicted the network’s collapse, but is the end finally nigh?

A pretty good place to find the answer to this question is in the numbers, which, to be frank, are not great. In the past three years alone, Network 10 has lost over half a billion dollars: $322 million in 2023, followed by $162 million in 2024 and a (slightly smaller) $84 million loss in 2025.

The cuts have been felt across the company. Following multiple rounds of redundancies, one insider told TV Blackbox, “there are no more jobs left to cut; only dedicated staff working tirelessly to keep the network running and the lights on.”

The network's ownership history has also been a hot topic. Back in 2017, Channel 10 went into administration after billionaire shareholders Lachlan Murdoch, James Packer and Bruce Gordon stopped guaranteeing the network’s loans.

American media giant Paramount eventually took control, and for a while, that seemed to steady things. But then Paramount started running into its own issues. The company accumulated more than $20 billion in debt globally before merging with Skydance Media in 2025.

Almost immediately, speculation started about which underperforming international assets Skydance might try to offload – and Network 10 quickly became one of the names people pointed to.

Last year, Channel 10 managed to slow its losses by axing The Project and reducing staff headcount from 850 to 736. A better performance, yes, but still a far cry from the channel’s heyday.

When 10 first launched in 1964, it was the third commercial network, designed to shake up a market dominated by Seven and Nine.

Some of my earliest memories are of Channel 10 being the “cool” channel. While my parents were more interested in other programming, 10 had that…*je ne sais quoi*.

Think Big Brother, The O.C., Australian Idol and The Project. All culture juggernauts of the 2000s and all housed on the sleekly presented Channel 10.

Cut to the 2020s and the story is a little different.

Gone are recent hits like The Masked Singer and The Bachelor franchise. Neighbours aired its final episode in 2025 after more than 40 years, ending the network's last significant scripted drama.

What's left is a schedule built almost entirely around a handful of reality franchises: MasterChef, Survivor, The Traitors, Big Brother, and Taskmaster. When those franchises have a bad run, the numbers show it.

Australian Survivor: Redemption launched this year with a new host after the network dumped the beloved Jonathan LaPaglia, and the premiere drew just 907,000 viewers, ranking 16th most-watched that day.

And of course, this week’s news: Channel 10 is taking I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! off the air following a solid 12-year run, as part of those ongoing budget cuts.

It’s worth noting that Channel 10's struggles don't exist in a vacuum. 

Free-to-air advertising revenue across the sector fell 12% in the year to April 2026 as brands shifted more money toward digital platforms and audiences migrated to streaming services.

Ironically, that changing media landscape may actually be one of the few bright spots for 10. 

The network recorded its biggest streaming year on record in 2025, with viewing up 31% on their digital platform. 

However, the regional story is a little more stark. From 1 July, Channel 10 will disappear from TV screens in South Australia's Limestone Coast and Riverland, as well as Griffith in NSW's Riverina, after regional distributor WIN Television confirmed it won't be renewing its broadcast agreement with the network.

For viewers in those areas, it’s the end of an era. But will Channel 10 ever fully die? Probably not.

Here’s hoping it hangs in long enough for me to get cast on a season of The Traitors. 

Reporting by Elliot Lawry.